From Funeral Home to Fortune: A Thompson's Rise

My father' s funeral was a blur of lilies and hushed condolences.

I stood by his grave, a shell of grief, the world a gray canvas of loss while my fiancé, Ethan, stood beside me, a comforting presence, or so I thought.

Then darkness. I woke on a funeral home couch, voices drifting in.

Ethan' s smooth tones and his father Senator Carter' s icy pronouncements cut through the haze: "With Senator Thompson gone, the girl' s family is... socially irrelevant now." My breath caught, a sharp, bitter thing.