Chapter 1

1

My husband's childhood sweetheart, Cora Miller, was holding someone at knifepoint when I tried to stop her. We ended up in a violent struggle.

My husband, Silas Sterling, is a deputy. When he arrived on the scene, he didn't hesitate to fire a bullet straight through my heart.

I collapsed into a pool of blood, gasping and begging him to save me.

But he just held Cora tightly in his arms, his eyes red with fury as he screamed at me. "You did this because you were jealous! You actually tried to stab her! How can you be so heartless?"

He was convinced I was the criminal. He ignored my pleas and rushed Cora to the hospital to treat a tiny scratch on her arm.

Later that night, I died alone in that cold, dark alley.

When Silas eventually heard the news of my death, he dismissed it as another one of my lies. He even pointed at my cold body and told me to stop faking it and apologize to Cora.

.....

When I opened my eyes again, the world was a blur of noise.

I saw Silas holding Cora close to his chest, his face full of agony.

"Does it hurt? Talk to me, Cora! Please don't scare me like this!"

"If anything happens to you, I don't want to live anymore!"

Even though I usually had a saint's patience, seeing this made me want to scream. I rushed forward to pull them apart.

But my hand passed right through them. I stared at my arms in shock.

That was when I realized the truth. I was already dead.

Another officer ran over to Silas and pointed at my motionless body on the ground.

"Silas! We need to get her to the ER now! She's lost so much blood! I don't think she's faking this!"

The moment Silas heard my name, his face shifted from tenderness to pure disgust.

"Don't bother with her! I know her better than anyone. She's just obsessed and jealous of Cora!"

"She used such a disgusting trick just to force me to cut ties with Cora. She's a monster!"

A heavy, eerie silence fell over the crowd.

Even though my heart had stopped beating, I felt a sharp, phantom pain in my chest.

Years of marriage meant nothing. In a life-or-death moment, he didn't have a single shred of trust in me.

To him, I wasn't even worth as much as Cora's little finger.

"Silas... I'm okay. Please, go check on Elena..." Cora whispered, looking frail.

"Don't fight because of me. I just want you to be happy..."

She lowered her head, looking like a wounded puppy. Silas's eyes welled up with tears of sympathy.

"Stop that. You know how much I care about you."

"A piece of trash like her doesn't deserve your pity! Just looking at her makes me sick!"

Watching my own husband confess his love to another woman while standing over my corpse was surreal.

He was tearing me down in front of everyone we knew.

I suddenly realized how pathetic and a joke my marriage had been.

I wanted to laugh, but the tears wouldn't stop falling down my ghostly face.

I remembered the moment Cora drove a knife into my stomach. The world had started spinning.

When I thought Silas was coming to save me, I felt a glimmer of hope.

I reached out, thinking he would pull me into his arms.

Instead, I was met with a cold, lead bullet.

"How could you be so evil? You actually tried to hurt Cora!"

His entire focus was on the microscopic scratch on Cora's skin.

I couldn't even manage a single word of explanation before I hit the pavement.

My husband literally stepped over my dying body to get to his lover.

The people around us looked on with mixed expressions―some with pity, others with mockery.

I used the last of my strength to call out to him one last time.

"Silas, please... I'm really dying. I swear... I'm not lying to you..."

For a split second, his eyes flickered with a hint of doubt.

He looked like he might actually tell the medics to help me.

But then Cora let out a soft, pained moan.

"It hurts so much..."

Silas abandoned me instantly.

He wouldn't even look at me. His voice was dripping with venom.

"When you're done acting, get on your knees and apologize to Cora! I don't have time for your games!"

"Do you ever tell the truth? Do you really think I'm that stupid?"

When I didn't move or respond, he lost the last of his patience.

He ordered everyone to pack up and leave.

He left me all alone in that freezing alley.

I felt my life force draining away into the concrete.

As I watched his back disappear, I actually started to smile.