The cold wind sliced through the air like thin blades of ice, tugging at the corners of Verena's coat and chilling her fingers despite the gloves.
Dry leaves crunched under the wheels of her chair as Louis pushed her along the gravel path, silent as ever.
The cemetery stretched out in hushed grayness, gravestones jutting like broken teeth from the frostbitten ground.
Verena clutched the edge of her coat tighter. Her heart beat furiously in her chest, breath coming out in quick puffs of fog.
Please… please don't let them have touched her.
She kept praying in her head, over and over, as they moved deeper into the cemetery.
Louis noticed her anxiety but he didn't gave her words of comfort instead he silently walked behind her. Silently supporting her.
Then came the voices—heated, loud, clashing.
"You can't just claim a grave someone already bought!" a man was saying.
"And yet here we are," another voice snapped. "We paid, fair and square. Do you see any name on this spot? It's open!"
"There was a grave here!"
Louis slowed the chair. Verena's eyes narrowed as she spotted a short, balding man—Mr. Tomas—caught in the middle of a dispute.
He looked flustered, glancing back and forth between a well-dressed family and the patch of disturbed ground.
Verena's eyes locked on the bare spot where her mother's grave marker once stood. Her stomach turned.
"Mr. Tomas!" she called out, her voice cutting through the argument like a whip.
All heads turned.
Tomas froze, stunned to see her—especially the delicate figure in the wheelchair and the tall, striking man behind her. There was pity in his eyes, then guilt.
"Ms. Verena," he stammered, approaching quickly. "This is the family I told you about. They're insisting on using this plot. The payment for your mother's site stopped two weeks ago—"
"I just got out of the hospital!" Verena snapped. "You could've waited before trying to dig up someone's mother!"
"Don't be dramatic," a middle-aged woman in pearls said with a scoff. "There wasn't even a name marker here. My brother needs to be buried today. Our whole family is here. Your negligence isn't our problem."
"I paid in installments!" Verena said, voice rising. "You don't rip someone out of the ground over two late payments!"
"Did you even look?" another woman interjected. "There's no grave here anymore. We assumed it was empty. The caretaker said nothing!"
Verena's eyes shot to Tomas. "Is that true? Did they—" her voice broke, "Did they already…"
"No! No," Tomas said quickly, waving his hands. "No one has been removed. The site's just been flagged, not disturbed."
Verena let out a shaky breath, leaning forward, her hands trembling. "This is my mother's final resting place. She has no one else. You want to throw her bones aside like garbage?"
The man in the opposing family stepped forward, trying to rein in the moment. "Look, we didn't know. It was just an unmarked spot. The office said it wasn't paid for—"
"Would you want your mother tossed aside because of a billing error?" Verena snapped.
There was a beat of silence.
Louis stepped forward then, finally speaking—his voice low, but firm. "This plot is not available."
The family turned to him, sensing the steel in his tone.
"I don't care what you paid," Louis continued coldly. "Call your undertaker. Find another site. This one is occupied."
"And who are you to decide that?" the pearl-clad woman asked, frowning.
He pulled a card from his coat and handed it to Tomas. "My lawyer will cover the full cost of the plot in advance. Triple it, if needed."
Tomas blinked, stunned. "O-of course, sir…"
The opposing family began muttering, frustrated but slowly backing down.
Verena stared at the empty soil, biting the inside of her cheek.
"I'll bring the marker back," she whispered to herself. "I'll put flowers, candles, something warm… so no one forgets her again."
Louis said nothing. He only stepped behind her and gently turned the chair around.
As they moved away, Verena heard one of the women mutter, "She should be thankful. Not many people have someone like him fighting for them."
She didn't respond—but for the first time in a long while, she didn't feel completely alone in the cold.
Joshua watched his master patiently pushing her wheelchair. He could never have imagined his master doing this for a woman.
Not only he saves the young miss, he even bring her to a cemetery which was of 2 hours long drive without single word on the way.
He just hoped Verena would say yes to his proposal.
Joshua wanted his master to start opening his heart to women. He wished him happiness.
"Aren't you coming?" Louis look at him through his shoulder making him flinch by his stare.