Widow Starts Laughing Aloud in the Middle of Husband’s Funeral and Calls a Lawyer – Story of the Day

A young widow bursts out laughing during her husband's funeral and shocks the guests in the solemn gathering. Everyone grows paranoid when she cries, "Please take my husband out of that casket. He is alive!" and calls her lawyer.

The skies wept alongside Emily as she stood under the big, black umbrella, holding Ethan's favorite white roses coiled around a wreath.

Clad in black from head to toe, her veil shrouded her tear-streaked face, and she appeared every bit the grieving widow.

As mourners gathered at the cemetery on that rainy afternoon, the world seemed to hold its breath. The silence was broken only by the distant murmur of the priest offering an eulogy to the departed Ethan, whose cold, lifeless body lay in the casket adorned with lilies.

Emily stood watching the coffin's polished wood as the priest continued:

"...he was a devoted husband, a cherished friend, and a great human being. As we say our goodbyes, let us remember Ethan not with sorrow...but with gratitude for the light he brought into our lives..."

Emily's demeanor suddenly took a bizarre turn. It was as if an unseen force was guiding her. Her shoulders began to shake, and a startling burst of laughter so unexpected, so out of place, erupted from deep within her, shattering the somber silence...

"What's wrong with her?"

"Why is she laughing like that?"

Those gathered around to pay their last respects were shocked. A wave of unsettling whispers rumbled, and Emily laughed wildly.

"Somebody stop her...is she out of her mind?" an angry guest frowned.

"Mrs. Hawthorne? Is everything alright? Please come with me for a minute...you need some rest," Emily's butler, Jonathan, sidled past the guests and whispered to Emily.

But she wouldn't stop laughing.

The guests watched in disbelief. It sent shivers down their spines when Emily pulled out her phone from her overcoat pocket and called someone.

Something was undeniably wrong. The air grew heavy, and all eyes were fixed on Emily.

"Alex, he is alive...and he is watching me...You have to come here right now."

"What's going on? What is she talking about?" another guest frowned.

"She needs help...somebody, take her to the van. Call an ambulance."

"Alex, I swear I saw him breathing. Please ask them to stop the funeral. Come to the cemetery."

The guests grew unsettled as they watched Emily acting weird. She then bolted to the coffin.

"Please, don't bury him. Please...leave him alone," she shrieked, leaning on the casket. This was so shocking for all the guests. And when Emily said that, nobody dared to go near her.

"Somebody, call an ambulance...this lady's gone crazy. Call 911."

Some thought Emily was having an episode. She and Ethan had been married for a year now, so people assumed that losing him in that tragic car crash could've taken its toll on her.

"Alex...come quickly...where are you? Ethan is alive! Come help me take him home!" Emily shouted into her phone again.

Ten minutes later, Alex, Emily's family lawyer and her high school friend, arrived at the cemetery.

"Emily? Wha-what's going on?"

Alex rushed to Emily. As soon as she saw him, she ran to him and hugged him, and cried wildly, pointing to the coffin.

"He is alive. I can see him breathing. Please take my husband out of that casket. He is alive! My husband is alive, Alex!" she shrieked.

"Emily, are you out of your mind? Ethan died in a car crash yesterday. Look over there...his body's in that coffin. He is dead. Snap out of it," Alex grabbed Emily's shoulders and shook her, trying to talk some sense into her.

Emily jerked Alex's hands away and started running. She turned around, behaving as if she was being chased by an unknown entity.

"What is wrong with her?" people whispered.

Soon, the funeral was over without Emily attending. She was taken to the hospital, where Alex met her later, demanding answers for her strange behavior at her husband's funeral.

"What in the world got into you, Emily? Why were you behaving like that? People started saying nasty things about you," Alex fumed as Emily sat up in the hospital bed.

"Tell me...what did you think you were doing?"

Emily snapped her tears away and looked at the door to make sure it was closed. She slid her hand under the pillow and pulled out a crumpled note.

"I found this...on my bed," she said as Alex grabbed the note from her hand and began reading the chilling words:

"He will kill me. I can't tell you more. Save yourself before he comes for you. I love you. Forever and ever."

"What does this mean? Who wrote this?" Alex asked with a suspicious frown.

"I don't know, Alex. I think it's a note from Ethan," Emily cried.

"I found this note the morning he left for that business trip to Hawaii. And then, two hours later, I got a call from the cops saying my husband died in a car crash on the way to the airport. They said he was drunk. But Ethan never drinks before traveling long distances. I think he was...murdered."

"Wait...you think your husband was killed after finding some random anonymous note in your bedroom? C'mon, Emily! How sure are you that he left this note?"

Emily stared pleadingly at Alex. "Alex, please, you got to trust me."

"Alright...even if we assume it was true, why did you laugh during the funeral? And then you started crying…you made a stupid scene there. What was the need for you to act so strange in front of everyone?"

"I think I saw the killer at the funeral, Alex. You gotta trust me. I overheard him talking to someone on the phone, saying, 'He's dead for real.' Why would he say that?"

"I really didn't know what to do. So I acted like I was having an episode…to confuse the killer, saying Ethan was alive. I am sure he'll visit the cemetery to verify if Ethan's body is there or not."

"What? Emily...are you crazy? You could've told me everything earlier instead of making a joke out of yourself. And you're saying that the so-called imaginary person in your head is gonna go to the cemetery...and dig up Ethan's grave...just to make sure he is dead?"

"Look, you need good rest. You're imagining things. Ethan's loss has affected you deeply, Emily. You need to get therapy."

"No! Why don't you understand, Alex? Please trust me...You have known me since high school. Why would I lie? I'm not delusional. Somebody killed my husband. And I have to find him. Please...help me."

Ten minutes later...

"Okay, you know what? I just sent my assistant to the cemetery where Ethan was buried to check the grave. It is untouched, Emily. Nobody dug it up, unlike what you suggested. Now what?" Alex asked Emily.

"Emily, look, I'm sorry to tell you this...but you need medical help."

"No, No! Alex, look, I'm perfectly alright. Please, you have to trust me. Please help me find the murderer. I have to do this...for Ethan. His killer is out there, roaming free. I've got to find him. I've got to seek justice," Emily cried.

Though Alex was convinced Emily's paranoia was probably a result of her depression and denial, he could not bring himself to abandon her in this condition.

"Fine, so what do we do now? How are you going to find the killer?"

Emily gasped. "I don't have to find him......He'll find me. Now that he suspects I know something because of my little 'act,' he'll come to…kill me. That's how I'm going to catch him."

"That's your plan? No. I don't approve of this. You're not thinking straight, Em. This is a ridiculous risk to take. Let me figure something out. I'll help you find your husband's murderer and bring him before the law…if that murderer really exists."

Emily heaved, and two days later, she was discharged from the hospital and hailed a taxi home.

When Emily returned home, she stepped into a world that had been irreversibly altered. The once-familiar living room where she and Ethan laughed and cuddled on countless evenings suffocated her with silence.

Every corner of the house whispered his name. The kitchen, once filled with the aroma of Ethan's favorite dishes, lingered with solitude.

As Emily climbed the staircase to their room, each step echoed Ethan's absence. The crumpled sheets on his side of the bed haunted her. It was where he had last slept. And it was eerily empty now.

Emily lifted their wedding photo off the bedside table and stared at it, allowing her tears to drop on the glass frame. Suddenly, a loud knock on the front door startled her.

It was close to midnight when she looked at the vintage clock above the bed.

"Who is it at this hour?" Emily thought.

Was it the killer on the other side of the door? Had he come to kill Emily, too? A haunting feeling crept over Emily as she grabbed a baseball bat before approaching the door.

Her heart pounded as she lifted herself on her toes and pressed her eyes on the peephole.

"Wh-who is that?" she gasped. A man in a crisp blue suit stood on the threshold, facing the other side. Emily got a glimpse of only his back.

Beads of sweat broke out on her forehead. The doorknob clicked, and she slightly opened the door, nervously holding the bat behind her back, just in case.

"Y-Yes?" Emily said, only to freeze in shock when the man turned around.

"E-Ethan??" she shrieked, almost on the verge of collapsing on the floor.

"Hey...hey, easy. Let me help you," the man hurried to hold Emily before she could fall and hurt herself.

She could not believe her eyes. Her head started banging, and a sharp pain shot up in her temples.

"Get away from me. W-who are you?" Emily pushed the man away and waved the bat at him. "Step back. Who are you? You can't be Ethan. He...he is dead."

The man raised his hands to chest level and gently stepped back. "Emily, it's okay. I understand. You're right. I'm not Ethan.

I'm his estranged twin, Daniel!"

"Ethan's twin?" Emily gasped. "H-He never told me anything about having a twin brother."

"I bet he didn't. Emily, look, I'll explain everything, okay? Let's take this inside."

Emily kept the baseball bat beside a table and led Daniel to the living room. Fear gripped her like icy fingers when Daniel's gruff voice startled her.

"Emily, can we talk now?"

"I never saw you at the funeral," Emily said as she cautiously sat on the edge of the couch.

"I couldn't make it on time because I missed the flight from Chicago. And by the time I arrived, everything was over," Daniel sighed.

Emily stared Daniel evenly in the eye. "Where were you all this while? Why didn't my husband ever tell me he had a brother?"

"Why would he tell you about me when he wanted me dead?" Daniel revealed, and a chill ran down Emily's spine.

"What do you mean?" Emily raised a brow.

The revelations that followed were increasingly compelling.

"Ethan and I were identical twins, born to the wealthy businessman, Mr. Hawthorne, our father," Daniel began.

"We were twenty when Dad died. We split our inheritance, and I moved abroad to live with my girlfriend, whom I later married. The business I started hit rock bottom. So, I approached Ethan for help in his office. When I discovered my brother was involved in some illegal business, I confronted him...

"He threatened to kill me if I went to the cops. And I believed he would. I knew the lengths my brother would go to stop me. I had my own family, and I couldn't risk putting them in danger. So, I left for Chicago and had been estranged from Ethan for years. Until I learned about his death and decided to come back here to pay my respects."

Emily was flabbergasted. Her husband had hidden the fact that he had an identical twin brother. And he had been embroiled in a shady business she knew nothing about.

"That's me on the left. And this is Ethan," Daniel then showed Emily an old picture of him and Ethan holding hands under a tree.

Emily's mind raced for more answers. She didn't know if Daniel was trustworthy. He was still a stranger in her eyes, even if he had claimed he was her dead husband's brother.

At this point, she couldn't bring herself to trust anyone. So she looked at Daniel and said, "My condolences to you, Daniel. I just...need time to process all this. Besides, it's getting late, and I think you should probably—"

Daniel interrupted and rose from the couch, lifting his briefcase. "Ah, you're right, Emily. Thanks for understanding. I'm so exhausted. Mind if I stay in the guest room tonight?"

Emily's heart pounded. She wanted Daniel to leave. But it seemed he had come prepared to crash at her house. Although she wanted to refuse, she couldn't. And she took the biggest risk of letting Daniel stay the night.

"Room's that way...please make yourself at home," Emily said, forcing a smile. She was clearly uncomfortable with Daniel's visit.

Emily dashed to her room upstairs and locked herself inside. She called Alex and told him everything.

"I can't wrap my head around this, Alex. Can you be here at the earliest tomorrow?"

"Alright. Don't tell him anything about Ethan's note or anything else, okay? I'll be there first thing in the morning."

The following morning, Emily woke up to faint music on the gramophone and bolted out, tying the strings on her night robe.

A shocking sight greeted her downstairs.

"Hey, good morning! I made breakfast. I hope you like pancakes," Daniel said.

Emily smiled. She knew how Ethan hated gramophone music but only agreed to keep the old gramophone she had bought from a thrift store for her sake.

So, this can't be Ethan. He is really...dead! Emily whispered as Daniel looked up and smiled at her.

Just as she sat at the table, Alex knocked on the door and walked in with some papers.

"Hey! Alex, the Hawthorne family lawyer," he said as Daniel and he shook hands.

"Daniel!"

"Emily, these are some papers we have to discuss. It's just a formal thing about the property and other things you may now be entitled to," Alex said as he wiped his mouth with the tissue. "We'll do it after breakfast, okay?"

"Hey, Daniel, where are you going? Do you need help with something?" Emily asked when she saw Daniel heading upstairs.

"Nope! I just wanted this," he said as he removed an old framed photo off the wall. "I don't have this picture of my brother. Mind if I take it with me?"

Emily and Alex exchanged a glance, and she nodded.

"Thanks! I have to catch an early flight home. Emily, it was really nice meeting you. I'll surely visit soon with my family."

Daniel said goodbye and hurried out of the house as Emily sighed.

"Did the killer contact you...in some way?" Alex then turned to Emily.

"Not yet..." she sighed. "But I'm sure he will."

"Oh, I'm out of groceries. Mind dropping me at the supermarket?" Emily then asked.

Tipping his hat, Alex agreed, and they drove to the supermarket. As Emily shuffled through the aisles, she felt like she was being watched.

Emily knew she was just overthinking, but when she looked ahead of her, the aisle was eerily empty, with no shopper in sight.

"Who is that man staring at me from across the road?" she whispered.

Emily stepped back, not wanting to look in that direction. But when she looked out again, she threw the items in her hand and ran to Alex.

"He's here! Alex...it's him!" she screamed, bumping into Alex in the aisle.

"Emily, wh-who is here?"

"There...I saw a man. He was wearing this creepy mask…and was staring at me. Then he came running from across the street. I think he was stalking me."

Emily was panic-stricken and sweaty. Alex sat her in his car and looked around. But he didn't find anyone suspicious.

"Emily, there's nobody out there."

"No, I saw him. My eyes weren't deceiving me, Alex. He ran towards me like a...crazy man. He was holding something in his hand."

"Let's go home now. You need to rest, Emily. I'll drop the groceries at your place this evening, okay?"

When Emily returned home, she felt safer.

Alex dropped by with the groceries later that evening. They had dinner together before he left for his home. Before leaving, he warned Emily to make sure she had locked all the doors and windows.

Emily followed his instructions and went to bed. But when she got up the following morning, she saw the mirror and shrieked.

Emily bolted downstairs to check the front door. It was locked. Everything was the way she had left it the previous night. But she felt somebody had broken into her house while she was asleep.

She raced to her phone and called Alex home.

"Alex, please come right now. I'm so scared. Please. I think he's here. In the house."

When Alex arrived, Emily raced with him to her bedroom.

"There, on the mirror," she said, pointing at the mirror in her room. But Emily withdrew her hand in shock.

"God, I saw it. The words, 'I'm coming for you,' were written in a strange red liquid. I saw it, Alex. You got to trust me," she cried, holding her head.

"Emily, there's nothing written on the mirror. Please, you gotta stop this. Enough."

"No, but I saw it, Alex," Emily cried.

But Alex refused to trust her and suggested she attend therapy or at least visit a doctor.

"Are you taking your antidepressants on time?" he frowned.

"Yes, I am," Emily lied. She had stopped taking them, and Alex thought maybe she was imagining things due to depression.

"I'm sure I saw it...please believe me..." Emily frantically whispered as Alex left.

Later that night, Emily swallowed her antidepressants and flicked the light off before going to sleep.

When she woke up in the morning, she sprang from her bed and dashed to the toilet. She gagged herself to throw up before storming to Jonathan with the pill dispenser.

"Jonathan? Jonathan, what the hell did you do?" she barked at the butler. "Didn't you check before refilling my pill dispenser? You could've poisoned me. What's this lethal substance doing in my pill dispenser?"

The butler raised a brow in confusion. "Mrs. Hawthorne, I'm sorry. I don't understand what you're talking about. It's your antidepressant."

"Then what is this? I saw poison written here..." Emily's voice trailed off when she looked at the dispenser. It had a label for the prescription drug she was taking. There was no mention of poison on the label like she'd claimed to have seen.

"B-but I just saw it. God, what is wrong with me?"

Jonathan excused himself and later called the family doctor.

"Mrs. Hawthorne, I recommend therapy to you. I totally understand what you must be going through after your husband's death. I know a good psychiatrist..."

"What? I...I'm not going crazy, doctor. I'm alright. I just...I need some time. I'll be fine."

"Mrs. Hawthorne, please, try to understand. Moreover, you're pregnant. You need help."

Emily sank when the doctor had to remind her that she was four weeks pregnant. She had wanted to share this happy news with Ethan. But fate never gave her the opportunity.

"Alright, I'll consider it. But I need time to think," Emily snapped away her tears.

She sat in her room, lost in deep thought, and silently cried when her gaze fell on the mirror. It felt as if her own reflection was stalking her.

Suddenly, Emily rose from her bed and hurried out. A strange thought had struck her mind.

What if...what if I'm really being stalked in my own home? she wondered.

She recalled seeing the stalker, the threatening message in the mirror, and her medication being tampered with. Emily connected the strange occurrences she claimed to have witnessed and decided to investigate.

Emily called Alex over, and they began searching every nook and cranny of the house.

They checked the basement. They found nothing suspicious. They checked and rechecked, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary until Alex let out a startling whisper.

"Emily, come check this out!"

Emily could not believe her eyes when Alex showed her a hidden combination keypad behind the row of books on the shelf.

"What is a safe lock keypad doing here?" she gasped.

"You know the combination?" Alex turned to her.

It was all guesswork for Emily as her trembling fingers pressed the digits—0-5-2-8—Ethan's birthdate.

To their horror, the wall beside the shelf opened like a curtain, revealing a hidden passage that led all the way to a secret room.

Emily and Alex cautiously entered the passage. Moments later, they arrived in front of what looked like a one-way mirror.

"Holy—! Emily, that's your bedroom!" Alex exclaimed as Emily froze. She was looking at her bedroom through the mirror.

"So I was right. Somebody was watching me all the time…from this secret room!" she gasped.

Suddenly, it all went black for Alex and Emily as they groaned and collapsed. A stabbing pain shot up their heads, and a heavy object, likely a crowbar, hit the floor with a shrill thud.

The last thing Emily saw was a dark figure wearing a creepy mask dragging her across the floor. Then everything fell dead silent around her.

When Emily and Alex opened their eyes hours later, they were tied up in a cabin in the woods.

Fear choked them from all sides as they looked around the dark room for a way out. Suddenly, they heard footsteps approaching.

A figure stood before them and ignited a lighter, revealing his face in the flickering flame's glow.

Emily's eyes bulged in horror.

"Daniel?"

"SHUT UP!" the man pulled out a pistol and shot the ceiling. "The next time, it would be your goddamn head," he barked.

"Who shall I finish first? You...or you, for playing the unwanted detective and helping her find my secret room in the house?" He aimed the pistol at Emily and then Alex.

"Daniel, please, let us go. I won't say anything to the cops. Please, let us go. Why are you doing this?" Emily pleaded.

The guy burst into wild laughter and stared Emily square in the eye, pressing the pistol's cold metal against her chin.

"I'm not Daniel, Emily. I thought you were smart. Couldn't you guess it's ME?! By just my scent…my voice...my touch? And the way I call you—Em-ill-ee?!"

"ETHAN??" Emily gasped. "Y-you're ALIVE??"

A roar of laughter filled the cabin.

"Everything was going fine until that goddamn twin brother of mine found out about my illegal trade in the black market and threatened to report me to the cops," Ethan began.

"Had that fool not poked his bloody nose in my business, he would've been alive. And I wouldn't have had to get my hands dirty by killing him."

"Ethan, please let us go. I promise I won't tell this to anybody. Please. Why are you doing this to me? I loved you."

"Because I want the insurance money," Ethan yelled. "Your husband Ethan's dead in the real world. And if you die now, all the property and the insurance will be legally transferred to the only heir to this entire estate—my brother Daniel...who is now dead!

…People will think you were mentally unstable…and that you died due to depression. I get to live my life in my brother's shoes. And nobody will ever know that Daniel is actually me!"

"You monster! How could you kill your own brother? Ethan, are you out of your mind? I'm pregnant with...our child," Emily cried.

Just as Ethan pointed the pistol at Emily, a loud crashing sound startled him from behind. Before he could act, Ethan was surrounded by cops and K-9s.

"Officer, he killed my husband. He is Daniel, my late husband's twin brother who murdered him in a premeditated car crash…and he was going to kill us too," Emily cried as a horrified Ethan raised his arms in the air.

"No, sh-she's lying, Officer. I-I'm not…" Ethan stuttered and paused. A cold sweat broke on his forehead. He could not tell the cops that he was Ethan and had faked his own death by killing his twin brother, Daniel.

"You have the right to remain silent, sir," the officer handcuffed Ethan and led him to the cruiser.

Emily and Alex were freed and driven to the police station to record their statements.

"Emily, what did you do? Why did you lie to the cops? Wait, h-how did the cops know we were in the cabin?" Alex asked her.

"This is how the cops came!" Emily showed an emergency panic button with a GPS tracker. "I had it in my pocket and pressed it when that rogue was busy delivering his monologue!"

"Remember the incident at the cemetery? Ethan's note? The creepy stalker in the supermarket? And the scary message on the mirror?" Emily smiled. "I made all that up! Nothing of that was real!"

"A day before Daniel was killed in that crash, he secretly visited me in a coffee shop. He introduced himself as Ethan's estranged twin brother. I was shocked because Ethan never told me he had a brother. Daniel told me Ethan was planning to kill me for the insurance money and property. He would make it look like I took my own life due to mental illness...Daniel had overheard Ethan's plan while visiting him in his office...

...So, I acted ahead of Ethan and played along. I made him think I was really going crazy after his fabricated death. When I saw the body in the coffin, I knew it was not Ethan. It was Daniel. Because only Daniel had his left ear pierced. I realized Ethan was alive and would come to kill me soon for the money. But nobody would believe me if I said any of this."

"I knew Ethan was breaking into the house and watching my every move. My suspicions proved correct when I found his favorite lighter near the bookshelf. It was never found after the car crash."

"I gave my so-called 'dead husband' the bait by pretending I was not in my right state of mind after his death. Ethan took the bait and waited to kill me until I got the insurance money settled. I pushed him into his own trap!"

…Ethan's gonna rot in jail for the rest of his life. Sorry for not telling you, Alex...I wanted you to play your part naturally so Ethan wouldn't suspect anything!"

Later that evening, after leaving the police station, Emily visited the cemetery with a bouquet of roses. "Rest in Peace, Daniel," she whispered, staring at the grave with the epitaph:

"In Loving Memory of

Ethan H

July 23, 2020."

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A woman gets her evil husband killed in a car crash and moves on. Two years later, she goes on vacation to Brighton and sees him alive there. Here's the full story.

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