Upside Down

Thirty Nine

It has been three days since the would-be-wedding. The autopsy and subsequent criminal investigation of Hillary's body have both been completed. However, the whole process is far from over.

Today is the funeral.

Today, we bury her.

Today, we say goodbye.

Today also marks the beginning of her murder investigation. Due to the overwhelming evidence found on Hillary's body, the police have officially ruled her untimely death as a homicide.

Cause of death? Strangulation.

So the jumping out of a window, never actually happened. Police think was pushed out to make it seem like she jumped. Someone, whoever did this, would have probably gotten away with it if it weren't for all of the bruising on her neck and the obvious evidence of a violent struggle in her dressing room.

The news shocked us all. The officers came into our house and told us the news. They told us we are all suspects now, in the nicest way possible of course.

But this new information is in the back of all of our minds today. At the forefront, the funeral.

So much has happened over the last three days. The amount of planning that goes into a funeral is crazy. I forgot how hard it was to plan my mom's funeral. That seems like it was so long ago now.

And now I am sitting beside my dad at yet another funeral.

Beside us, the rest of the grieving family.

Tyler is here too. He sits on the pew with Tilly asleep in his lap.

The funeral itself is quick and painless. In total, it lasted just under an hour and a half. The only problem with that is that it will never really end for any of us.

At the end of this, we can't just turn around and see Hillary standing there. These kids will never get to see their mom again. This is it for them. Once they lower the casket into the frozen ground, that's the last they will ever see of her.

Watching everyone stand around the large hole the cemetery workers will eventually lower Hillary into reminds me of my own mother's funeral.

I know exactly what each and every one of these kids are going through. I went through the same thing with my mom not too long ago.

I miss her. More today than I have in a while.

No child wants to lose their parent. And even more so at such a young age. Being older doesn't make it easier to lose a parent or make you more prepared. It just means you get to spend more time with them before they go.

These kids no longer have a mother. Neither do I. I feel their pain. I really do.

Thinking about Hillary's death crushes me. Not because I've lost a parental figure in my life and not because of the kids who will now grow up motherless. But because of the way I treated her the entire time I knew her.

I was terrible to her. All she wanted to do was make me feel welcome in her house and I caused a scene every time she spoke to me.

And now she is dead.

It's too late to apologize now.

Towards the end, she really grew on me. I know she would never, could never, replace my mom but I was willing to let her into my walls and allow her to pick away at my reservations.

I feel like overtime, if we had time, Hillary and I could have become civil and maybe even friends in the end.

But now, I will never know.

And I will never get the chance to change things.

All I can do now is honor her memory as best as I can and help raise the children she left behind.

Authors note: Rest In Peace to one of the most controversial characters in this story, Hillary Greene. She left behind a grieving fiancé, William Kash, six children, and one step-child. She joins her beloved ex-husband in the afterlife.