Chapter 1

1

I had been dead for nine years when Gale Montgomery, the disabled boyfriend I once threw away like trash, finally returned to the city.

His first move upon his return was to hunt me down and make me pay.

Because I had once slapped him, he hired thugs to crush my father's hands until the bones were powder.

I once forced him to his knees in the mud, so he drove his sleek car straight over my mother's legs, shattering them forever.

I once made him eat scraps from a dog's bowl, so he used a jagged blade to rip my little sister's face apart.

Finally, when he set his sights on me, waiting for the moment I would crawl back and beg for mercy, his assistant delivered the news.

"Boss, she's been dead for nine years."

"Nine years ago, she was in the final stages of terminal lung disease."

"The last thing she ever did was sign the papers to donate her heart to her ex-boyfriend."

"Should we... should we track down that ex-boyfriend and bring him in?"

...

Outside a decaying, abandoned warehouse, a dozen bodyguards in black suits blocked every exit. They stood like stone statues, ignoring the agonized screams echoing from inside.

Gale Montgomery sat in a cold metal chair, his expression like ice as he watched a man crawl toward him, sobbing for mercy.

"Gale, please... have mercy on me. I treated you like my own son for years!" my father cried out, his voice cracking.

Gale let out a sharp, cold snort, his fingers absentmindedly brushing a spot on his left cheek.

"You were decent to me, Arthur. But that doesn't mean your daughter didn't commit a sin that needs washing away."

"She went to great lengths to discard me like a broken toy. Now, the father pays the daughter's debt. It's only fair."

He didn't waste another word. With a flick of his wrist, the bodyguards moved in. They pinned my father to the grimy floor and raised a heavy sledgehammer.

I threw myself in front of my father, screaming at the top of my lungs, but my body was nothing more than a wisp of smoke. I passed right through them.

In that moment, the bitter reality hit me again. I was dead. I had been a ghost for nine long years.

A soul cannot touch flesh. I could only watch, paralyzed, as my heart shattered along with my father's bones.

Gale watched with a hollow stare as the hammer fell, over and over, until my father's hands were a bloody mess. He only called them off when the old man drifted into unconsciousness.

"Your daughter slapped me once, so I broke your hands. That seems like a fair trade, doesn't it?"

"Go back and tell her this is just the opening act."

"Everything she did to me, I am going to pay back ten-fold!"

Gale's eyes were filled with nothing but contempt. He radiated power and cruelty, a far cry from the shy, quiet boy I once knew.

I was the one who saved him, and I was the one who destroyed him.

My soul was tethered to him, bound by some invisible chain. I was forced to follow him into his car as he drove away.

He wanted to use this pain to break me, to make me feel every ounce of the agony he had endured.

But I was a corpse. What difference does pain make to the dead?

When Gale arrived at his penthouse, someone was already waiting for him.

I didn't know her name, but her face was hauntingly familiar. She looked almost exactly like me.

The woman had been dozing on the sofa, but she jumped up the moment she heard him enter. In her haste, she caught her leg on the corner of the coffee table, leaving a bleeding gash.

"Luna! Why are you so clumsy?"

Gale rushed to her side, his eyes filled with a raw, desperate worry that I recognized all too well.

He carefully cleaned her wound and wrapped it in gauze. It reminded me of a winter years ago when I had crashed my moped while taking him to school. He had looked at me with that exact same expression.

That was the year we were most in love.

I knew I was the one who ended it. I was the one who forced him to leave. I deserved whatever hell came my way.

But seeing them so close, so natural together, still sent a dull, throbbing ache through my spirit.

My favorite boy finally had someone new to love.

Luna saw the powerful tycoon losing his cool just for her, and a flash of smugness crossed her eyes before she masked it with a pout.

"I'm sorry, Gale... I just heard you were spending all your energy looking for another woman. I was scared you'd replace me."

"You won't leave me, will you?"

Gale paused, then tenderly took her hand.

"She's my enemy. I'm only looking for her to settle a score. Don't overthink it. You're the only one I love."

It was true. Gale hated me with every fiber of his being now.

Even if he found out I was dead, he would probably just laugh and cheer.