After I died, my forensic mother, who hated me to the bone, regretted it

My mom’s a medical examiner. One day, while she was at the farmers market, she noticed something seriously messed up at the butcher's stall—it looked like they were selling human meat.

After she reported it, her first instinct was to call my cousin, telling him to be extra careful.

Her best friend told her, “Hey, you need to watch out for your own kid too, right?”

Mom just scoffed, “He's better off dead. I never want to see him again.”

What she didn’t know was, she’d already seen me.

She just didn’t recognize that the pile of flesh she was about to examine was her own son.

1

In the trash can behind the meat stall, the yellow, fatty tissue, that looked like chicken fat, was actually human.

Detective Miller, a buddy of my mom's from way back, was first on the scene.

Mom sighed in relief, “Miller, this is bad news, real bad.”

Miller nodded, his brow furrowed.

Finding dismembered body parts at the farmers market was going to blow up big-time.

To keep the public from freaking out, Miller shut down the whole meat section of the market.

"How long is it going to take you to ID all this?" he asked Mom, nodding toward the piles of evidence.

Mom's face was grim, “At least two days, maybe more.” She was dedicated, a workaholic to the core.

I let out a breath, well, not like I was actually breathing, but you get me. My mom would figure this out, she would get the monster who did this.

Miller relaxed a bit, “Alright. Get yourself set up at the precinct, no going home for a few days.”

Mom nodded and grabbed her phone, the serious medical examiner switching to a softer persona.

“Hey, Amy, Mom's gonna be working late the next few days. You be good, stay inside, and call Mr. Johnson next door if you need anything, okay?"

After making sure everything was good at home, she hung up.

Miller called out, “What about Michael? You aren’t gonna give him a shout? Tell him to be safe?”

Mom’s face instantly turned dark, “He better be six feet under. I never want to see him again.”

I let out a humorless chuckle. Turns out, souls can feel pain.

My mom said she never wanted to see me, but here I was, right in front of her.

And a lot of the samples she was studying, they came from me.

She just didn't know it.

2

After two sleepless days, Mom finally sorted the human tissue from the animal bits.

What she found made everyone go pale.

Miller looked at her, “You’re saying only a fourth of what we have here is human?”

Mom just nodded, dead serious.

Everyone was floored.

They’d thought they were missing a head, but the truth was way worse.

If human meat was getting into the food supply, the city would lose it.

The higher-ups were now all over it, making the situation even more intense.

Miller’s eyes swept over the evidence display and stopped on one particular sample.

He handed it to Mom, “And this one?”

My soul began to buzz.

They were about to discover me.

Once Mom knew it was me, she would find the real killer.

Mom was all business, "I was just...