“Don’t bury her—that’s not her in the coffin!” a little girl cries out at a Chicago funeral, stopping everything as a shocking truth inside the coffin is revealed

as though consequences were something that happened only to other people.

“Gabe,” she whispered. “You can’t choose them over me. I’m your blood.”

Gabriel walked toward her and stopped close enough that she had to look up at him.

“You are alive because you are my blood,” he said. “That is the last gift you will ever receive from me.”

Vivian began to cry.continue reading …