Chapter 1

I died on the day Adrian proposed to Melissa.

As the lead detective, he stepped over my body at the crime scene, his only concern covering Melissa's eyes. He whispered, "Don't look. It's disgusting."

He said I was disgusting.

My heart had been carved out. My blood drained dry. I was nothing but a discarded rag doll.

Later, I became a ghost. I watched him burn every trace of me to win Melissa's favor.

Watched him move into the house I bought. Watched him sleep with my killer in that very room.

I hated him so much that I wanted to kill him.

Until the wedding day. The day he pulled the knife from Melissa's chest and drove it into his own heart.

In a pool of blood, he reached toward an empty corner. Tenderly.

"Natalie, am I worthy to see you now?"

Natalie's POV

Seven days after my death, Adrian brought a woman home.

I floated in midair, looking at my own portrait, then at Adrian's garish wine-red shirt.

Melissa clung to his arm. She was the heir to Lincoln Medical Group, the woman he'd shielded at the crime scene, afraid she'd see something disgusting.

I didn't have much family left. My uncle stood off to the side, his hands trembling with rage.

"Adrian, today is Natalie's funeral. You dress like this and bring a stranger here. Do you want to break her heart?"

Adrian laughed.

He casually adjusted his cuffs without even glancing at my portrait.

"She's dead. How can she be heartbroken? Superstitious nonsense."

Melissa leaned coquettishly on his shoulder, covering her nose and looking at my casket with disgust.

"Adrian, the smell is too strong. It's making me dizzy."

Adrian immediately wrapped his arm around her waist, his hand caressing places he'd never touched on me.

"Then let's not stay. I didn't want to come anyway. Just going through the motions."

My uncle grabbed the flowers from the table and hurled them at him.

Adrian tilted his head. The flowers smashed against the doorframe, turning into a pile of mush.

His eyes instantly went cold.

I knew that look well. It was the one he used on criminals, the look that could devour a person. But now he was turning that viciousness on one of the few family I had left.

"You son of a bitch. You looking for death?"

Adrian lunged forward. My uncle stumbled back, terrified.

I desperately wanted to rush down and stop him, reaching out to push against Adrian's chest, but my hand passed straight through his body.

No sensation whatsoever.

I'd forgotten. I was already dead.

Of course Adrian didn't hit my uncle. He simply grabbed my black-and-white portrait.

"Adrian! What are you doing!" my uncle shouted.

"This photo looks unlucky."

Adrian flicked his wrist.

Crash!

The frame hit the floor, glass shattering everywhere. The photo I'd chosen so carefully, where I smiled my brightest, was torn to shreds by the sharp glass.

Melissa clapped and laughed beside him.

"Adrian, use this one instead. This one's prettier."

She pulled out a photo she'd prepared in advance.

It was her photo.

She wore white lace, smiling radiantly.

Adrian took it and casually placed it where my portrait had been.

I almost laughed from sheer fury.

At my funeral, displaying his mistress's photo?

Adrian, you really are capable of anything.

"Done. Spot's taken." Adrian dusted off his hands and turned to Melissa with a gentle smile. "Let's go home. It's cold in here. Don't want you getting sick."

My uncle trembled with rage, pointing at Adrian's retreating back and cursing him as a bastard.

Adrian didn't even pause.

I floated behind him, staring hard at his back.

Adrian, how can you be so heartless?

We were married for three years. You once ran all over the city to buy me a discontinued toy. You once had tears in your eyes just because I cut my finger.

You said you'd protect me for a lifetime.

Turns out that lifetime was this short.

They walked out and got in the car.

Melissa sat in the passenger seat, touching up her lipstick in the mirror.

"Adrian, you were so fierce back there. You scared me."

Adrian started the engine, steering with one hand, his tone casual.

"If I'm not fierce, those poor relatives will think they can extort money from me. Natalie's dead. All she left behind worth anything is that house. Can't let them get their hands on it."

"Then just sell the house."

"Sell it? That location's prime real estate. Keep it for appreciation."

I sat in the back seat, listening to them calculate my inheritance.

That house was left to me by my parents, and I'd used my savings from journalism to barely pay off the mortgage.

Now it belonged to him and his mistress.

Melissa seemed satisfied with this answer and leaned over to kiss his cheek.

"You're so practical. Oh, and that dead woman's stuff isn't all cleared out yet, right? I don't care. It all has to go tonight, or I'm not going in."

"Whatever you want."

Adrian agreed too quickly, without a second's hesitation.

The car drove into the night.

Streetlights flickered across his face as they passed.

I looked at this profile I'd once loved so deeply and felt only strangeness.

When they reached the apartment, Melissa got out first.

Adrian was locking the car when his movements slowed.

I saw his hand on the car door trembling.

He looked down at his right hand.

His index and middle fingernails were broken, flesh exposed, blood dripping from his fingertips.

I froze.

When had that happened?

Then I remembered.

At the funeral home, when he turned to leave, his fingers had dug into the doorframe.

He'd had his back to everyone then. No one saw his expression, no one saw how hard he'd gripped.

He stared at the wound for a moment, expressionless, then wiped the blood on his pants, cleaning it off. Then he put on a smile and headed upstairs.

"Coming, babe."

He called out in the stairwell.

I floated in place, looking at those few drops of blood on the ground.

Adrian, are you in pain?

Does your fingernail hurt, or is it something else?

No.

I quickly dismissed that ridiculous thought.

A man like him couldn't have a heart.

If he had a heart, he wouldn't be bringing his mistress home just days after my death.