Chapter 10
Trouble found me after all.
Both Liam and Clara were dead.
The news came abruptly, not from starvation or the cold, but from a crime of passion.
On the third day after the sun’s return, the police confirmed their deaths.
Though countless lives had been lost during the endless night, their demise stood out for its brutality: each body riddled with countless stab wounds, every strike fatal.
Once the world regained a semblance of normalcy, the investigation began.
As it turned out, Clara hadn’t just been stringing Liam along; she had also been involved with another man: Zack Whitman, a married father of
two.
When Clara brought Liam into her home, their supplies quickly ran dry. In her desperation, she reached out to Zack.
Zack, seemingly bewitched, chose Clara over his own starving family. Ignoring his children, who were fainting from hunger, he smuggled what little food and water they had left to her, braving the subzera temperatures to make the delivery.
They had planned to meet in the stairwell, but Zack, ever considerate, decided to deliver the supplies directly to Clara’s apartment, worried she might catch a cold.
“What he didn’t expect was for his wife to follow him. Frenzied by hunger and betrayal, she brought a knife and, without hesitation, attacked Clara.
Initially, Zack tried to stop her. But when he stumbled upon Liam in Clara’s home, the truth hit him like a freight train. He’d been played. Enraged by the realization that Clara had been cheating on him, Zack snapped.
The endless night had stripped away reason and magnified the darkness in their hearts.
The couple turned on Clara first, with Zack’s wife delivering the fatal blow. But Zack’s fury wasn’t satisfied; he killed Liam, too.
By the time daylight broke, the grim reality was laid bare. The couple was arrested and, due to the severity of their crime, sentenced to life imprisonment.
I was the one who took Liam’s body for cremation. His emaciated frame and hollow cheeks told the story of his last days, filled with suffering and deprivation.
I doubted he’d ever understood, even in his final moments, why the kindhearted, devoted Clara would betray him so thoroughly.
The crematorium, overwhelmed by the weather–induced backlog, rushed through the process. I was handed a box of ashes, which I buried
beneath a tree.
Clara’s body was claimed by her family. In their staunchly patriarchal household, she was given a posthumous marriage.
Even in death, they sought to extract whatever value she had left.
As for Mia, having witnessed her mother’s murder, her mental state deteriorated rapidly. She began wandering with a knife in hand, pointing it at anyone who crossed her path.
When authorities recommended institutionalizing her for treatment, Clara’s family, eager to rid themselves of the burden, agreed without
hesitation.
Note of this, however, concerned me anymore.
In just one month, I had experienced a lifetime’s worth of upheaval. The love, hate, and grudges I once held felt distant and irrelevant.
All that remained in my mind was a singular resolution: no matter what the future held, I would fight to live.
It was ironic. Liam and Clara didn’t succumb to the merciless weather. Instead, they were undone by human nature.
Natural disasters might be cruel, but the treachery of the human heart was far more dangerous.
Everyone should learn to live true to themselves while protecting those they love.
