The grand chapel in Beverly Hills was draped in silence, broken only by the faint sound of sobbing. White lilies surrounded a polished oak coffin that bore a brass plate: “In Loving Memory of Emily Hartman.”
Jonathan Hartman, one of Los Angeles’s most powerful real estate billionaires, sat in the front row. His suit was immaculate, his posture unyielding, but his eyes were lifeless. Two weeks ago, his only daughter, Emily, had been declared dead in a car crash on a remote highway in Nevada. The police said the body was burned beyond recognition — identified only by her belongings. He had accepted it. He hadn’t even insisted on seeing the remains. Grief had turned him numb.
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