When my childhood sweetheart pushed me off the villa balcony, my husband was on the phone, calling her "baby" in that adoring tone he used to save for me. I should have died. Instead, I ended up half-paralyzed. Unsatisfied, she hired men to assault me, and then, broken and bleeding, I was buried alive in the villa's backyard. Three years after my death, she was diagnosed with kidney failure. That’s when my husband finally remembered me. He brought a team of bodyguards to the private villa to drag me back. When they couldn't find me, he assumed I was hiding. "As long as you agree to donate a kidney to Ruby, I'll end your punishment. You can come home." In the end, he dug three feet into the earth, only to find my bleached bones. 1 Carter burst into the private villa with his security team, a permanent scowl etched on his face. This place was managed by his people, but no one was allowed near the main house. It was a prison for me, his "wayward" wife. But I had been dead for three years. No one had lived here since. Weeds choked the walkway, waist-high. Carter wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Nora is so lazy. Look at this place. She couldn't even be bothered to pull a few weeds." "Compared to Ruby, she’s trash." He pulled a silk handkerchief from his pocket and covered his nose and mouth, shielding himself from a smell only he could detect. "Nora! You addicted to living alone? Get your ass out here!" He stood there, high and mighty, his eyes full of disdain. As if his presence here was some great favor he was bestowing upon me. He shouted my name several times. Silence. Carter’s patience snapped. "Break the door down," he ordered his men coldly. With a crash, the guards kicked the door in and rushed inside to grab me. Five minutes later, they came back out, looking confused. "Mr. Sterling, your wife isn't inside." Carter’s brow furrowed deeper. He didn’t believe it. He went in himself, tore through the house, and found nothing. He pulled out his phone to call me. It had been three years since we last spoke. He frowned, scrolling through his contacts, trying to remember my number. Finally, he tapped on a contact labeled "Bitch" and hit dial. Floating beside him, I couldn't help but laugh bitterly. Carter hated me that much. Three years ago, his childhood sweetheart, Ruby, had a miscarriage and blamed it on me. Carter branded me a vicious woman and locked me away in this desolate villa to "reflect." 2 Three years locked away, and he hadn't thought of me once. Now, calling me felt unnatural to him. The call didn't even connect. Straight to voicemail. Carter cursed angrily. "Fine, Nora. You want to hide? You think I won't find you?" "Keep hiding. I want to see how long you can keep this up!" Suddenly, a loud, exaggerated laugh echoed from a dark corner. Carter spun around angrily. A drunkard in tattered clothes was sitting against the wall in a pile of weeds, holding a broken bottle. He looked up at Carter with bleary eyes. "Stop yelling. The person inside is long dead." The drunkard laughed again, a sound so desolate it could have been a sob. "Where did this drunk come from?" One of the guards, eager to please, stepped forward and kicked the man over. "You dare act like this in front of Mr. Sterling? Don't you know this whole mountain belongs to the Sterling family? Get lost before the boss gets angry!" The drunkard took the kick without flinching, as if he felt no pain. He just lay on the ground, laughing maniacally. "Dead. Died terribly." "She was pushed from upstairs. Fell and got paralyzed. Blood everywhere." "And... she was so beautiful. Those animals defiled her, then buried her alive." Carter frowned deeply, looking at the drunkard with disgust. "Who are you? Where is Nora?" The drunkard just kept laughing and crying. His bottle had spilled clear liquid all over his face. It was impossible to tell if it was booze or tears. Still drunk, he crawled over and hugged Carter's leg. "She was a good person. A good person." "If she hadn't given me a meal back then, I would have starved to death... What a pity, she died." Carter kicked him away coldly. The man landed on a small mound of dirt. The drunkard seemed to sober up instantly. He scrambled to fix the mound, muttering apologies. 3 "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." Carter looked confused. "What is that?" The drunkard smiled bitterly. "It's her grave." Carter looked closely. A crude, misshapen wooden plaque had a few words carved into it: "Nora's Grave." The drunkard treated the plaque like a treasure, carefully setting it upright. "Crazy old fool." Carter pushed the man aside with a cold laugh and kicked the plaque in two. "Three years, and Nora is still pull these manipulative stunts. A fake grave? Really? How dramatic." He not only destroyed the marker but ordered his guards to flatten the mound with shovels. "I want to see how long Nora can keep up this act!" The drunkard screamed as his hard work was destroyed. "I told you she's dead! Why won't you leave her alone?" "Miss Nora was such a good person, why did she have to suffer like this?" Carter looked at him with pure loathing and ignored him completely. He addressed the air. "Nora, I know you can hear me." "I order you to come out within three days. Be a good girl and donate your kidney to Ruby. I'll end your punishment and let you come home." "If you keep playing these games and hiding, you will never see your son again!" Carter turned and left. Before going, he ordered his men to break the drunkard's leg. "You filthy beggar, this is the price for offending Mr. Sterling!" I floated there, wanting to cry, but no tears would come. My son, Leo. I hadn't seen him in three years. Carter knew Leo was my weakness. He was using him to threaten me. If I were alive, I would have run out immediately. But I was dead. 4 After Carter and his men left, the villa returned to its desolate silence. By the flattened mound of dirt, only the drunkard remained, sobbing. He was mourning me. Seeing his leg broken and bleeding because of me made my heart ache. In three years, not many people knew I was dead. But this drunkard was the only one who never abandoned me. He had been beaten for stealing once, and I had gotten a doctor to treat him and given him some food. He considered me his savior and refused to leave, guarding the villa door for me. He was there the day Ruby snuck in and pushed me off the balcony. He watched helplessly from outside as I fell. Falling from five stories should have killed me. But I survived, half-paralyzed. The drunkard ran like mad to get help. In that window of time, Ruby, seeing I wasn't dead, hired some drifters to assault me. Then they threw my broken body into the backyard and buried me alive. "As long as you're alive, you're a threat to me and Carter," she had said, her smile poisonous. "Only when you're dead can I truly be Mrs. Sterling." "Don't blame me when you get to hell. Blame your bad luck for being in my way." Ruby’s vicious smile was the last thing I saw. Maybe my resentment was too strong, because after I died, I didn't move on. I was trapped here. I had done nothing wrong, yet I was framed and murdered. As the dirt covered me, I had only one thought: I wanted to see my son one last time. Without me, how would Ruby treat him? Three days later, Carter returned. This time, he brought a frail-looking Ruby and a small boy in a suit. Leo! I floated toward him joyfully. Before I could touch him, Carter grabbed him by the neck. "Nora, I'm giving you one last chance. Three days are up. If you don't come out, I'll strangle your son with my own hands!"
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