Chapter 1

A tall attractive blond watched as a shiny black coffin was lowered down into a large hole. The content of the coffin was the dead body of Stephen Marr. His death was unexpected and even the cause of death brought questions. Stephen Marr had died of what was determined as a heart attack without a cause. He was found on the kitchen floor, eyes wide open and face as pale as snow. The final autopsy report said that the Mr. Stephen Marr had been scared to death.

“Lea come on we have to go. People will be getting to the house soon and I haven’t finished putting out the food.” Lea turned.

“Ok mom. I just wanted to say good bye to grandpa. I’ll drive over in a minute.”

“Alright but be home in like ten minutes.” Lea’s mother Helen walked away and soon Lea saw the dust her car left behind as it sped off. Lea just stood there and stared at the fresh grave. Right next to her grandfather was her grandmother. A single solitary tear descended her cheek. Her grandmother had died in a car crash. The car seemed to just go off the road into the river. Tire tracks showed nothing made the car swerve, and just went off the road. The thing that bothered Lea is that when they found the car, the expression was identical. The look if sheer terror was on her face. All of these things bothered Lea however there was nothing she could do. Lea slowly turned and walked to her car.

“Goodbye Grandpa. I love you.” As soon as Lea reached home her mother put her to work cooking. About an hour later, people began arriving with hugs and sympathetic smiles. Lea was patient and let them comfort her, even though the only person who could make her feel better was her boyfriend Nick Spader. The couple had been going steady for two years now and they showed no signs of stopping. Lea had been looking out the window. Snow had begun falling. Winter was her favorite season. Nick had seen her blank expression and made his way over to her.

“Don’t look so happy. People will think you’re happy that he died.” Nick said as he slid up behind her. Lea smiled slightly. Nick always knew how to make her feel better.

“I was enjoying the snow. How peaceful it looks.” Nick wrapped his arms around her and she rested her head on his chest.

“I can’t believe he’s gone. Nick, he was the only person in the family who knows me better than you do. I’m going to miss him so much. Lea glanced over her shoulder and noticed that people were leaving.

“I should go and see people off. You can hang around if you like. My mom hid an apple pie for the family after all the guests leave. Nick immediately started grinning.

“You know I don’t pass up a chance at apple pie. I’ll wait for you in the kitchen.” Lea went and said goodbye to all the visitors and eventually the only people left to split the pie were Lea, her parents, her brother Jake, her sister Lily, and of course Nick.

“Well I guess now the only thing to sort out is the rest of grandpa’s estate. We already did half of it when grandma died two months ago,” Lea said turning to her father.

“Their house is pretty much the only thing left, and they left the house to me and your mom so I think it would be great if we moved in it. It’s a lot bigger and we wanted to move anyway.” Lea’s dad put his arm around his wife and surveyed everyone’s faces. Around twenty minutes later, Lea and Nick were at the door.

“Thanks for being here today. You don’t know how much it helped to have you here.” Nick picked her up into a giant bear hug.

“You know that I would always be there for you. I promised you that when you were in the hospital last year. Who knew that somebody getting an appendectomy would make me say such a thing?” Nick smiled, kissed her, and walked to his car.

“See you tomorrow. I love you.”

“I love you too. Good night.” Lea walked back inside as Nick’s car sped off in the distance. Even though she was grief stricken, she was glad that she had such a loving family. Lea shut the door as she prepared herself for the biggest roller coaster ride of her life.