Dark Paradise

chapter fourteen

C H A P T E R F O U R T E E N

THE NEXT DAY WAS EXCRUCIATING. Celia did not want to leave the bed at all, but Gustavo had to do a lot of convincing to get her to. It took a while for her to get ready, but Celia eventually got dressed and did her hair for the funeral.

Adriana was religious so Angel had arranged the priest at the church they attended every Sundays to give a service in honor of her. When Celia and Gustavo arrived, they weaved their way through the crowd of people to the front.

Celia stopped in her tracks when she saw the casket placed a few feet from the first row of pews. Tears began to blur her eyesight and she could make out Gustavo's figure coming up to her to take her sit down. The whole service Celia spent crying quietly to herself despite the priest reassuring them that she was peacefully resting in heaven with God. His words seemed to not provide comfort to her at all despite her having grown up religious.

More tears began to stream down her cheeks when Angel had gotten up and read a letter Adriana had left to address each member of her family including Celia. One by one her half-siblings began to cry harder and when it was Celia's turn, her shoulders shook at how hard she cried. The part of the letter Angel had read that was specifically for her Adriana wrote how much she regretted not being in Celia's life for so long. In the same paragraph, she expressed how much she loved her and how she had always and forever carried her in her heart whether Celia got to know her or not.

Celia then believed she never had to doubt Adriana again. She loved her and her words that she had written were ones she was going to remember forever.

The priest read a few of Adriana's favorite scriptures she lived by before concluding the mass and announcing for everyone to meet at the burial. The ride to the cemetery with Angel and her half-siblings was silent besides the occasional sniffles from someone. No one felt like saying a word at all and it was understandable because they had to bury someone that had taken a piece of their heart when they died.

At the cemetery, the priest had continued to share some of Adriana's favorite scriptures as they lowered her casket into the ground. Once her casket was settled down, everyone took the opportunity to say their last goodbyes while throwing a handful of dirty down onto the casket. Celia reached into her purse and pulled out a letter she had written to Adriana the night before she arrived. Tears prickled her eyes again and tumbled down her rosy cheeks. Gustavo wrapped an arm around her waist and she stood looking down at her mother's casket. She shakily brought the letter to her lips and gave it a gentle kiss before crouching down to lay it on top of the casket.

"I love you mom." Celia whispered with a broken voice as she tossed her own handful of dirt down on the casket with Gustavo.

After letting everyone attending say their last goodbyes, everyone then headed back to Angel's house to celebrate the life Adriana lived. Her favorite food was laid out while in the background they softly played some of her favorite songs.