Life after Death

Chapter Twenty-Three

Third-Person POV

Land of the Living (two months after Hezekiah's execution)...

Jeffrey and Adelle Chamblee knew that the planned nuptials for their daughter Mariah and Andrew needed to go without a hitch, making sure that the event would somehow make up for the scandals regarding Alex's steroid usages and bullying as well as Leigh-Anne's failed modeling career and drug/alcohol abuse. Even as the rumor mills were rolling around that there was indeed deception and dark secrets regarding the Chamblee family as well as questions about Hezekiah's alleged suicide, the couple knew that they needed to salvage any favors that they had to ensure that the planned nuptials were not going to be delayed by anything that might bring them to their knees.

So after ensuring that Cameron was at his summer camp (him checking in as soon as he got settled in as he promised), Jeffrey and Adelle had met up with the engaged pair to talk about an expedited late-summer wedding that would include their random social circles. "After the stunts that Alex and Leigh-Anne pulled, we need to make sure that you two pull things off as a truly happy couple with no signs of an open relationship," the patriarch explained. "Of course, this also means pausing your planned orgies and multiple late-night specials for the time being."

"Andy and I talked about that," Mariah commented, taking a sip of her cup of tea. "We're not too proud of what we did, but we're not too sold on cancelling our sex nights with our lovers. Still, we gotta do what's best for the Chamblee diamond standards."

Her fiance nodded, gripping her hand as he stared into the couple's eyes. "If we gotta slow it down, we gotta slow it down for our sakes and yours," he said. "I mean, we got lucky with getting away with the underage parties and shit. Who can say what might happen if something else goes wrong?"

"Exactly," Adelle commented. "Which is why we need to get this wedding planned down to a science as my husband and I keep the presses off our backs and yours."

Thus began a summer-long campaign of the wedding arrangements with a private engagement party that was the start of weeks of fittings, tastings, tours, and all things made for an upper-crust wedding that would take place at St. Angus Cathedral with a reception at Telfar Cove Country Club. The wedding guests were to include Mariah's modeling friends and agents, Andrew's schoolmates and clients from his investment firm, Adelle's social clubs, and Jeffrey's golfing and baking clientele. As for who was going to be in the wedding party, it would only consist of the immediate family, the dutiful maids and servants who kept the house in order, and Cameron (the young man would be given an early release from camp to attend the wedding and reception before beginning his high school year at boarding school in London). Leigh-Anne and Alex, on the other hand, were not invited as the latter was soon to be enrolled in military school to straighten him out completely.

And as June gave way to July and then August was soon to follow afterward, the final rehearsal for the wedding had come and gone without a hitch as Jeffrey and Adelle were soon retiring to their bedroom for the night. "Close to the finish line, my dear," the man huffed as he got into his bed. "By tomorrow, Andrew Coleman will be inducted into our family as we're going to finally make sure that what happened in May never gets out to the public while we finally recover from the summertime scandals. Tomorrow will be the day when everything clicks into place."

"I'll be relieved when Andy and Mariah head to their honeymoon and bring in their firstborn," Adelle commented as she sipped on her cup of tea. "Nonetheless, the moment that the wedding is finished is when we'll be focusing on attention on Cameron from now on and make sure that he too is made into the diamond standard of this family. Hezekiah did everything right, but is a reminder of the man who tainted my body that night."

"Let's not talk about it, my dear."

Adelle sighed deeply, the years of her life enriched on her bones despite her outer appearance enhanced by cosmetic surgery. "I know, my love," she replied. "Thank God that we killed that boy so nothing can ever give me nightmares again."

*****************

Meanwhile, at the Boston Metro Police Department...

Police Chief Darren Seymour, during his tenure at the police force, thought that he had heard everything regarding the hidden sins of the upper-crust society.

But after listening to the statements made by two men who were former bodyguards for Jeffrey and Adelle Chamblee regarding the planned murder of one Hezekiah Chamblee, he knew that his old classmate and his wife (who were his high-school bullies back in their youths while they attended Stonemore Academy) were indeed cold-hearted snakes. And thanks to the evidence gained from one unnamed witness, the victim's journal that was given to him by Senator Coleman, and the statements from the former maids and servants led by Minnie Jean Simmons (Darren's great-aunt and the senator's former school mother); he had enough to indict the dark duo for conspiracy of murder while the bodyguards were swiftly arrested for premeditated first-degree murder. 

It was the perfect way for him to enact his justice after being tormented for being from the poor side of Boston as a Black male.

And he had no compunction with putting the couple away completely and making sure that the late Hezekiah Chamblee would rest in peace.

No compunction at all.

Cumulative word-count so far: 27271 words.

Don't even think about getting comfortable just yet, folks! You're cordially invited to a gag-worthy wedding that will indeed shock the richest families of the greater Boston area to its core with surprises and game-changers...before someone else meets a tragic end. And folks, you're not going to believe who it is and who will be the one to do the lethal deed!

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