Seal My Heart

"Joaquin, I bought tickets! Didn't Serena keep asking you to take her to the beach? Since it's the Independence Day holiday, let's all go together. Oh yeah! We should take Uncle Wayne and Aunt Bethany too. That way, they'll get to relax for a bit," Giselle chirped.Joaquin's expression soured instantly. "Why take that troublemaker? Hasn't she caused enough problems? Just seeing her annoys me. I wish she was dead.""But I already bought the tickets… Joaquin, you know how rare it is for us to get a break in this line of work." Giselle's voice took on a tearful tone."I'll go with you," Joaquin replied.Giselle cheered immediately over the phone. She excitedly listed off all the seafood she wanted to try. Joaquin listened with a smile and said indulgently, "Alright, alright, we'll try everything."A month ago, I said the same thing to him. My birthday was approaching, so I begged him to take me—someone who grew up inland—to see the ocean and to taste the seafood I only ever saw in

"That's impossible! What kind of joke is this? Serena is at the beach right now, enjoying the sea breeze and eating seafood!" Joaquin roared in denial."We understand how you must feel right now, but Ms. Watkins was Mr. Dodson's assistant. The data of her iris was in the earliest records from the tests their company ran."Furthermore, both Ms. Dodson and your colleague confirmed that the female corpse resembles your wife. If you feel it's necessary, we can arrange for the medical examiner to conduct a more in-depth autopsy."Suddenly, Joaquin retched and vomited all over the floor. I guessed he remembered the corpse on the autopsy table, with its exposed bone and bloody flesh. He recalled how the skin was peeled back and how the wax mixed with blood dripped everywhere."Well, sorry for making you sick even in my death," I thought sarcastically.After hanging up, Joaquin rushed to the autopsy room but was stopped at the entrance."We're sorry, Mr. Landon. Because of your involveme

Joaquin was questioned about the details surrounding my disappearance. He couldn't give any answers. During the time I was missing, he was too busy creating a wax figure for his beloved cousin, Giselle. He had it in his mind that I was just throwing a tantrum and purposely went missing to make him worry. Needless to say, Joaquin never once considered the possibility that I might already be dead.When he came out of the interrogation room, he seemed to be pensive. I knew he must have thought of someone—his former neighbor, Yannis Orwell.Back in the day, Joaquin's family, Giselle's family, and Yannis all lived together in a public housing complex. Yannis was a wax sculptor who was quiet and lived a life of solitude. He lived in a small unit at the back of the complex. Though all the kids were curious, none dared to venture into Yannis' yard alone because it was filled with eerie wax figures.Giselle was the only one who dared to go in.She discovered that her bravery earned he

In the senior apartment, Joaquin prostrated himself before Bethany and banged his head hard against the floor several times as an apology. Bethany wiped away her tears. Then, she suddenly stood up and grabbed him by the collar. With all the strength she could muster, she slapped him hard across the face."You're just like Wayne—you can't tell right from wrong. When things get tough, all you do is hide, showing not an ounce of responsibility. You believe the lies of the wicked easily, yet your heart is hardened toward those who truly care about you, and you treat them like trash."I wish the one who's dead was you and not Serena! Don't come see me again. I have no son from this day onward!"As Joaquin stumbled out of the senior apartment, his phone rang. Wayne's attending physician asked him urgently about his whereabouts. Only then did he remember that Wayne was still lying in the hospital, waiting for his liver transplant."Take my liver and give it all to my father. Someone lik