Chapter 7: Chapter 6

Elena asked Belinda to follow her to the morgue, and she gladly did so.

‘’Women supporting women,’’ Belinda had replied.

With a deep breath, Elena followed the mortician to where they had Malik’s body.

She broke down again after seeing the supposed body of her husband laying on the cold iron table.

His face was beaten in, something Harrison never told her, so she couldn’t recognize him so easily.

Elena asked the morgue assistant to turn over the body so she could see his back.

The young man gladly did so, as if happy to show her the dead body. A little blood spilled on his hand, but it seemed as if it was nothing to him as he wiped it off in his lab coat.

Elena wondered how people did this job.

‘’There you go ma’am,’’ he told her.

Elena nodded after seeing the tattoo she knew all too well; the tattoo of their wedding vows running down the center of his spine, then she looked at his birth mark just below that.

“It’s him, it’s my husband, that’s Malik.” Elena said softly.

The morgue assistance then turned him back over, wrote something in a folder and placed a tag on his big toe.

‘’Is everything ok?’’ Belinda asked when Elena got back to where she was waiting.

‘’He’s dead,’’ was all Elena said before crying for what seemed like the millionth time since Malik was officially declared missing.

Elena left the morgue right after signing the death papers.

‘’I think I should drive,’’ Belinda took the keys out of Elena’s hand.

Elena didn’t know how she was going to tell his parents this, especially his mother.

After getting home, Elena told Belinda that she needed a moment to herself.

‘’Ok, I’ll stop by later with some food.’’

Elena said nothing, but as soon as the door closed. She cried even harder than before, when she couldn’t cry anymore she kicked and screamed cursing God for taking her husband.

She just didn’t understand who would ever want to kill Malik and why.

He was a loving husband to her, and a great friend or a helping hand to those he worked with and overall, to those in need.

‘Maybe he was trying to help someone out and got robbed in the process,’ Elena thought.

The next week, they finally put Malik’s body to rest in a small family plot in the middle of the cemetery.

He was an only child and Elena knew that his parents must be suffering much worse than she was. It was like losing her parents all over again, and she swore she felt her heart stop beating at one point.

Most of Malik’s assets went to his parents but Elena didn’t care about that, all she cared for was the fact that he was dead and how empty she felt without him.

But all in all, Elena couldn’t help but think that something was wrong, she felt like there was just something much more to Malik’s death.

Her reporter instinct was telling her that things weren’t as it seemed.

‘’Why do I feel like this?’’ Elena asked herself as she tried to enjoy a cup of coffee and get back into her normal routine, but all mind did was drift back to Malik, her beloved husband.

She thought that maybe doing some work could talk her mind off thing, so she went to put away a few things from the funeral, but as soon as she started, the doorbell rang.

When Elena opened the door, thinking it was Belinda, she was shocked to see a pretty young brunette standing there, popping gum.

‘’Is Jason home?’’ she asked in the most obnoxious way.

‘’Who?’’

Then her eyes widened. ‘’Sorry, I have the wrong house.’’

‘’Hmm, ok then?’’

‘’I should go.’’

‘’Wait, what if I know Jason?’’

The girl raised a brow.

‘’So, you can point me in the direction of his bachelor party then, I’m a stripper and got my work to do.’’

‘’Wh-‘’ Elena was lost for words.

‘’Why am I a stripper? Well, ran into a little misfortune and I have a child to take care of.’’

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have-‘’

‘’No, it’s fine. I actually want to get this off my chest, you are that reporter chick and maybe you can help me out. I don’t know.’’

Elena gave a little nod.

‘’So, my dad left me a little inheritance and I was approached by this lawyer, said he could help me invest this money. And I foolishly believed him, turns out he was never a lawyer, and he made off with all my money. Turns out he did it to a few other people too.’’

Elena blinked then shook her head.

‘’I’m well, I can give you the information of a real lawyer and even put the story out to see if we can get some information on this man.’’

She smiled. ‘’Thanks, maybe I knocked on the wrong door for a reason.’’

The girl went away after that and Elena watched after her, thinking that it was strange.

Elena went to a homeless shelter with all of Malik’s clothing, thinking that it was no use holding on to them.

‘’Thank you, I’m sure that whoever comes along will be happy with these,’’ the woman smiled at Elena.

‘’You’re welcome.’’

Elena got home, thinking that she might as well clean out the rest of his things and maybe find some sort of clue that might lead her in the direction of what happened to Malik.

Upon entering the small room Malik used as a home office, Elena stubbed her toe on something hard, it had made a metallic sound and she bent down, feeling around until her hand found a box.

She made her way over to his desk and switch on the lamp there, she found it odd that it was the only light source in the entire room.

Elena dug around the drawers until she found a key she hoped would open it, and to her excitement, it fit.

She opened the box and her eyes widened.

She quickly closed the box and went to the kitchen for a drink.

She ended up drinking the entire bottle of wine, going over the content in the box.

‘’I must be dreaming,’’ Elena said to herself with a hand on her chest.

She then rubbed her temple.

‘’What the fuck Malik?’’ She then said, having more questions than answers.

After a while, Elena went back to the office and avoided the box as much as she could.

Now understanding why Malik never wanted her into his study and would always lock the door whenever he was away.

But this time he must have forgotten to do so or knew he wouldn’t have come back home and left it open for Elena to find what she could only say was his secret.

When she couldn’t take it anymore, Elena took a seat at the desk and opened the box.

At first, all she did was stared at what was inside, then she took out the things one by one and just stared at them.

‘’What is all this, Malik?’’ She asked, as if expecting him to answer.

She was half expecting to see cash, porn magazines or even love letters for some crazy obsessed chick, but not this.

‘’This is just fucked up!’’ Elena said and felt like crying but held it in.