Chapter 2

2.

I wanted to confront her about Silas right then and there.

Yet, seeing her radiant smile, I couldn't bring myself to shatter the illusion just yet.

"Thank you," I murmured.

Tucked inside the petals was a handwritten card:

*You will always be by my side, and I will never forget you.*

She wrote the exact same sentence every single year.

I had once asked her what it meant.

She had simply laughed: "It means I'll stay with you forever, and you'll never leave me."

Now, I finally understood the dark weight behind those words.

The medical file clearly stated Silas's cause of death.

He took his own life, leaving behind one final note:

*Corinne, in the next life, let's fall in love for real.*

My throat tightened with suffocating pain.

I reached for my wine glass to numb the ache, but Corinne stopped me.

"Clink glasses with me first."

Her stunning almond eyes locked onto mine.

She demanded this ritual every single time.

Now I knew why―Silas used to toast with her before every sip.

I could barely breathe.

The agony was tearing me apart from the inside.

If she had simply cheated on me, it might have hurt less.

At least that would mean she loved me at some point.

But from day one, I was nothing more than a shadow of a dead man.

She had never loved me.

Not even for a second.

"Sure. Cheers," I whispered.

As crystal clicked against crystal, I looked into her eyes and saw only Silas staring back.

After dinner, I locked myself in the bathroom.

I splashed cold water over my face and reached for a towel.

Suddenly, my gaze caught the embroidered initials on the corner tag: *S.Y.*

My mind detonated like a bomb.

The towel slipped from my grip and dropped to the floor.

Corinne had bought all of my daily necessities.

I had never paid attention to the tags before.

I hung the towel back up, trembling, and looked at the body wash and shampoo on the shelf.

The brand was explicitly mentioned in the medical file.

It was the only brand Silas had used for years without switching.

A wave of nausea and terror washed over me.

We had lived together for three years.

Only now did I realize that every corner of my life was haunted by another man's ghost.