1 The second month after our breakup, my father sold my ashes to a cult. When my mom, desperate, went to my ex-boyfriend Sean and begged him for the money to buy them back, he laughed it off as just another one of our scams and had her escorted from the police station where she’d been warned for harassment. Later, I watched as he recounted the story to his friends at the country club, a smirk on his face. “Can you believe Lynn would stoop this low just to get my attention?” he said, swirling the amber liquid in his glass. “Making up some crazy story about a cult. Fine. I’m over being angry. I’ll give her one last chance.” A strange silence fell over the table until one of his friends leaned in and whispered, his voice hushed. “Sean… didn’t you hear? The Crestwood family, the tech billionaires? They bought a woman’s body from a corrupt mortuary last week for one of their… rituals. The coroner’s report was leaked. The name on it was Lynn Tao.” … While Sean was insisting the police charge my mother, I was busy pulling strings in the afterlife, trying to get a head start on my reincarnation. My gambling-addict father had sold my remains to some Romanian psychic who dealt in spiritual artifacts, and she’d brokered a deal to have me bound in a dark ceremony. If I didn't get out of here fast, I was going to end up with a spirit-husband. That’s why Mom had gone to Sean. But he was unshakable in his belief that we were working together to scam him. “Officer, this is a clear case of premeditated fraud,” he’d said, his voice cold. “I want to press charges for harassment. Her daughter, Lynn Tao, is her accomplice.” My mother sat slumped in a chair, her shoulders stooped, her eyes vacant. She just kept muttering the same few phrases over and over. “I’m not lying. Lynn would never lie.” “Lynn is dead.” “She always said you were so good to her. Please, Sean. You have to save her.” I’d never seen my mother look so broken, so fixated. A sharp ache pierced my ghostly heart. But spirits can’t cry, and they can’t speak to the living. All I could do was kneel beside her, feeling her tears fall through my incorporeal form and splash silently on the linoleum floor. Sean’s voice, tight with frustration, cut through the air. “She’s insane.” He shot to his feet, kicking a chair with such force it skittered across the room. “They’re both fucking insane!” “What is all this crap about being dead?!” He turned back to the officer, his tone clipped with irritation. “Officer, just call Lynn Tao’s number. My time is valuable. I don’t have time for these games.” My name seemed to jolt my mother. She scrambled toward Sean, pulling a small, metal object from her coat pocket with a wild look in her eyes. “I’m not lying! Look! Lynn was clutching this when she died. It still has her blood on it.” It was his old dog tag. “Her own father sold her ashes for a ritual, and I can’t find where they took her! I can’t let my daughter have no peace, not even in death! Lynn said you were a good person. I’m begging you, please, help me…” The dog tag fell from her trembling hand, clattering on the floor and rolling to a stop right by my spectral feet. I instinctively reached down to pick it up. Sean, the rich boy, had worked five grueling months as a delivery driver to buy the motorcycle he’d sold to afford the custom engraving on it. It was his proof that he could make something of his own. I had promised him I would cherish it forever. But my transparent fingers passed right through the cool metal. And I remembered. I was dead. And Sean hated me now. I crouched there, frozen, staring at the small piece of metal that tied us together. Sean’s voice, thick with suppressed rage, echoed in the room. “Sold her ashes for a ritual? Do you really take me for that much of a fool? Let me tell you something, ma’am. Forget Lynn not being dead—if she really died, I’d pop a bottle of champagne and celebrate for three days straight!” My mother’s eyes, already red-rimmed, filled with a fresh wave of tears. Her voice was a choked whisper. “How could you say that… Her diary was filled with your name.” I knelt beside her, resting my ethereal head on her shoulder. I wanted to tell her to stop, to stop crying, to stop begging him. He hated me. And so, he hated everything connected to me. Sean’s face was a dark storm cloud. After a long moment, he let out a heavy breath. “Forget it.” He turned and strode out of the station. Behind him, my mother began to sob, telling the officer she wanted to file a report. That her daughter’s remains had been stolen for a dark ritual. Sean must have heard her. His steps faltered for a fraction of a second. Then he walked away even faster. 2 I was trapped, bound to Sean. At first, I kept trying to float back to the police station, worried sick about my mother. But every time, an invisible force would yank me back to him. It wasn't until I saw the dog tag clutched in his palm that I understood. The tag, stained with my blood, had become my anchor. But when had he picked it up? I sighed, reaching out and poking at the metal tag. At that exact moment, Sean’s thumb brushed over it. For a fleeting instant, our fingers—one real, one spectral—touched. My heart seized, and I snatched my hand back as if burned. A sneer crossed Sean’s lips. “Lynn really knows how to commit to a role.” He snapped a few pictures of the tag and sent them to a group chat. I brazenly floated over his shoulder to read. Sean: Lynn’s regretting it. A reply came almost instantly. Friend 1: Damn, took her two months to come crawling back? Friend 2: Tsk, watch Sean fold in a week. Guy’s a total simp for her. Friend 3: No way. After she took all that money from your mom, she still has the nerve to show her face? I froze. I’d forgotten about the check in my drawer. The “breakup fee” Sean’s mother had given me two months ago. Sean seemed to remember it too. The arrogant tilt of his leg straightened, and he sat up. I watched as he typed out a few cold lines, then tossed the dog tag into the storage compartment in the back seat. Sean: She can dream on. I’ll never forgive her. I lowered my head, a silent, bitter laugh escaping me. It’s okay. I don’t need his forgiveness anyway. Sean stormed into his house with me trailing helplessly behind him, so close that I was practically face-to-face with his mother. “I told you to go to dinner. Why didn’t you?” she demanded. Sean ignored her, changing his shoes and starting up the stairs. “Sean Davenport!” she snapped. “Do you have any idea who the girl I set you up with tonight was? Her family is worth more than your little charity case girlfriend could make in a hundred lifetimes!” Sean stopped, his voice dangerously low. “She has a name.” “It’s Lynn Tao.” “And she’s not half as bad as you think she is!” I floated beside him, staring at his profile, a bittersweet pang in my chest. He had never, not once, defended me like that to my face. I remembered a time he took me to his childhood friend’s birthday party. A guest with a cruel streak had asked me, as a joke, what “tricks” I’d used to land a guy like Sean. I had looked to him for help, humiliated. He’d just paused for a few seconds before smoothly changing the subject. We fought about it later. He just looked at me with that half-smile of his and said, “There’s a huge gap between us, Lynn. What’s the big deal?” From that day on, I started to see our relationship differently. And I realized, with a sense of despair, that his love was always a contradiction. He would work for months to buy me a meaningful gift, something earned with his own two hands. He would appear like a superhero every time my father showed up in a drunken rage to harass my mom and me. But he would also stay silent whenever his friends belittled me with their backhanded compliments and casual insults. Loving him had started to hurt. So, I took the check from his mother. The breakup I couldn’t bring myself to initiate—I would let him do it for me. His mother stormed off in a huff. Sean let out an irritated scoff, shrugging off his jacket and slumping onto the end of his bed. He sat there, motionless, head bowed. I watched him from the window. He pulled out his phone and started dialing. The line was busy. He tried again. And again. His speed increased with each attempt, his expression growing darker. Finally, with a curse, he hurled the phone against the floor. It landed right at my feet. I glanced down instinctively. The cracked screen displayed a familiar number. Mine. He had called me twenty-eight times. 3 After Sean fell asleep, I found I could finally leave the villa. I rushed out, frantically searching for my mom. Just as I left, I bumped into another spirit. “Hey, girl!” she said, grabbing my arm. “Don’t you know your time is almost up?” It was Bao. My intended spirit-husband. I pulled away. “I still have things I need to take care of.” He stared at me, aghast. “Are you crazy? If you miss this window, you’re really going to be bound to me in that ritual!” He muttered to himself, “Then again, my family is pretty well-off, even in the afterlife. The procession they have planned is massive…” I didn’t have time for his chatter. I floated away, searching for my mom. I found her in my old room. She hadn’t even turned on the lights. She was just sitting on my bed in the dark, clutching a photo of me. I stayed with her all night. As dawn approached, she stood and carefully smoothed the wrinkles on my bedspread, then fluffed my pillow. Suddenly, she saw something and bent down, plucking an object from the crack between the nightstand and the bed. I floated closer to look and froze. It was the check from Sean’s mother. When I’d taken it, Sean had been watching from the adjacent private room at the restaurant. He had burst in, his eyes red, and said nothing as he slowly took the check from my hand and threw it in my face. He left so quickly he never saw me collapse into sobs behind him. I had childishly stuck a sticky note on it. To be returned when I stop loving Sean. My mother’s hand trembled as she traced the words, her voice raspy and raw. “Lynn, Mom will return it for him.” I shook my head, trying to block her path. I wanted to tell her not to, that whatever money was in there could give her a comfortable life. But I could only follow her as she went to Sean’s company and, with the help of gawking employees, found him. Sean was on a date. His expression flickered when he saw my mom, his eyes darting around the room. He let out a cold laugh and was about to speak when the check was pushed in front of him. My mother’s voice was hoarse. “This is yours.” Sean’s lip twitched. He stared at the check, a distant look in his eyes. “What, was the amount too small for you?” My mother looked at him, her face devoid of emotion. “Lynn is dead.” I saw his fingers, resting on his knee, give a sudden, violent twitch. The color drained from his face. But in the next second, he exploded as if a fuse had been lit. “Are you people ever going to give it a rest?!” he roared. “Dead, dead, dead! Don't you get tired of saying such cursed things?!” He took a deep breath and pointed a trembling finger at the door. “Get out! If Lynn wants more money, tell her to come and ask for it herself!” My mother gave him one last look, a sad, hollow smile touching her lips, before she turned and drifted out of the restaurant like a ghost herself. Sean sped to a bar. After downing several drinks, he just sat there, motionless. The owner came over to serve him. “Sean, what brings you in tonight?” Sean’s eyes looked red. He laughed, a self-deprecating sound. “Lynn took money from my mom to break up with me.” “She was only with me for the money.” “And now, for more money, she’s having her mom lie and tell me she’s dead.” He took a swig of his drink, scoffing. “Tell me, what part of any of that is real?” The owner’s expression was strange. “You think Lynn was with you for money?” Sean gave a defeated grunt. “But… that girl worshipped you like a hero.” Sean’s hand froze halfway to his lips. 4 The owner continued, “She was barely eighteen when she started working here part-time. Sweet kid, pretty face. Everyone liked her. The number of rich kids who tried to ask her out could’ve lined the street for three blocks.” “One time, a guy wouldn’t take no for an answer, got aggressive. You were the one who saved her.” Sean looked even more confused. “I saved her?” The owner chuckled, polishing a glass. “Yeah. I guess every girl dreams of a knight in shining armor. She started paying attention to you after that. You probably never noticed, but nine times out of ten, she was the one who served your drinks.” “Then one day, she told me she was quitting. She said she wanted to meet you properly, for you to see her as an equal.” Listening to him, I felt a wave of nostalgia. Just working up the courage to appear in front of Sean had taken all the strength I had. I used my part-time earnings to retake my exams, got into his university, and then carefully, slowly, got closer to him. The day he confessed his feelings, I felt like I had been given the most beautiful gift in the world. “Impossible!” Sean’s voice, trembling with shock, pulled me back to the present. He forced a laugh, trying to convince himself as much as the owner. “I saw her take the check with my own eyes.” But the glass slipped from his grasp, spilling liquor all over his pants. He shot up, fumbling to wipe it off, but froze when his hand brushed against his pocket. I sat beside him and watched as he pulled out the check, his hands shaking like he had Parkinson’s. Maybe it was my imagination, but his eyes seemed to glint with fear. I heard him whisper, “No way. Absolutely no way.” Sean took the check to the bank. He slumped onto a sofa in the private client lounge, his face pale, his eyes staring blankly at nothing. After what felt like an eternity, the bank manager returned with the check. Sean stumbled to his feet, swaying so badly he almost fell. The manager spoke hesitantly. “Mr. Davenport… there are no funds in this account. In fact, this is a voided check.” Sean and I both froze. I almost laughed out of sheer frustration. Sean, on the other hand, went berserk. He grabbed his hair, kicked the coffee table, then threw the check on the floor and stomped on it repeatedly. “Fuck!” he roared. “Lynn Tao, you’re ruthless! You played me for a total fool!” I silently cursed his mother. She was the one who played me for a fool, giving me a worthless piece of paper. Later that night, Sean was still fuming as he drank with his friends. He was sprawled on a sofa, letting out bitter, cold laughs. The friend next to him finally got creeped out. “Dude, what’s wrong with you?” Sean tossed the check onto the table. “This is the check my mom gave Lynn.” His friend was shocked. “Seriously? How’d you get it back?” Sean sneered. “The money was all used up.” “So now Lynn and her mom have cooked up this insane story. They’re saying Lynn died, and her ashes were sold for some kind of ghost marriage.” “Hah!” “She’s really terrified of me breaking up with her, isn’t she? To make up something so sick!” Someone else chimed in. “A person like that is capable of anything.” I emotionlessly started to float away. The coffee table was kicked again. Sean’s warning voice cut through the air. “Can’t you keep your mouth shut? You want another beating?” I stared at Sean in surprise. That guy had insulted me to my face plenty of times before, and Sean had never reacted. The guy surrendered, chugging his drink. “I don’t know what kind of spell Lynn put on you. Every time I say one bad thing about her, you punch me.” He paused. “So, are you gonna get back together with her?” Sean grunted. “We’ll see.” Then he muttered under his breath, “Idiot. She could’ve had all my money if she just married me.” “Whatever. I’m not angry anymore. I’ll give her one more chance.” I stared at the faint smile on his lips, a lump forming in my throat. He still didn’t know I was dead. We didn’t have any more chances. Just then, a hesitant voice came from a corner of the room. “Did you guys just say… a girl named Lynn Tao was sold into a ghost marriage?” Sean’s brow twitched. He turned to his friend. “Who’s that?” “Some guy from Aethelburg. Not important.” Sean shrugged and started to get up to leave. The man raised his voice. “A few days ago, the Crestwood family arranged a spirit marriage for their eldest son. They said the bride was a perfect match.” “The bride’s name… I think it was Lynn Tao.”
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