Chapter 3

I turned to look at Samantha. Her expression was guarded, hard to read.

After a long silence, just when I thought she wouldn't answer, she whispered,

"Probably not."

A bitter smirk tugged at my ghostly lips. Deep down, I already knew that answer.

I followed them to the restaurant, only to find that Tristan had booked out the entire venue, decorating it into an elaborate proposal setting.

Samantha gasped, covering her mouth in shock.

Tristan turned around, picked up a massive bouquet of red roses, and dropped to one knee before her.

"This is the proposal I owed you three years ago. I don't want to leave this life with any regrets. Let me make it right today."

Before Samantha could reach for the flowers, her phone in her pocket began ringing off the hook.

The caller ID showed Daisy, my junior teammate.

Samantha frowned slightly and answered. Before she could say a word, Daisy’s furious scream erupted through the speaker.

"Samantha, where the hell are you?! Get back here right now!"

"Logan is in trouble! The pilot who crashed into the wilderness... it's Logan!"

The color instantly drained from Samantha’s face. Her eyes blew wide.

"W-What did you say? That's impossible!"

Daisy had no time for pleasantries, barking back:

"A human life is on the line! I don't care where you are, get your ass over here right now!"

Tristan was still on one knee. Seeing Samantha hang up in a daze, he looked up, confused.

"What's wrong, babe?"

Samantha didn't even glance at him. She opened our message thread.

Seeing that her earlier text was still sitting there unanswered, she let out a cold snort, her fingers flying across the screen.

[Logan, playing the same cheap trick twice won't work. Do you really think I'm that stupid?]

[Stop playing sick to get attention. I'm not falling for it. You either show up in front of me right now, or we're completely done!]

She angrily tossed her phone aside and pulled Tristan toward the table.

I knew what she was thinking. She was convinced this was just a pathetic ploy on my part, a childish attempt to get her attention.

Because I had pulled a stunt like that once before.

Back when Tristan had just returned to the country.

It happened to be my birthday. Samantha wouldn't even stay to blow out the candles with me before rushing off to pick him up at the airport.

In front of all our friends and family, desperate to make her stay, I faked an illness.

I wanted to use her sympathy to keep her by my side for just one night.

She saw through my lie almost immediately.

Right then and there, her face turned cold. She flipped the entire dining table, destroying the meal I had spent hours preparing, and walked out without looking back.

Because of that incident, she refused to come home for an entire week.

In the end, I had to run to her office, drop to my knees, and beg for her forgiveness, swearing I would never use a lie like that again before she finally agreed to come home.

So this time, she thought I was repeating the same drama.

What she failed to realize was that if I ever tried to win her pity, I would never involve anyone else.

"I never realized Logan was so close to his little mentee," Tristan remarked casually, his tone dripping with malice.

His snide comment immediately struck a nerve.

Samantha’s face darkened as she sat down in silence. Tristan kept pouring gasoline on the fire.

"I mean, it makes sense. They trained under the same coach in college and stayed close for five or six years after graduating. Sounds like she's quite the little soulmate."

With a loud slam, Samantha slammed her phone onto the table.

Her face was storm-black.

"Soulmate? More like a side chick!"

My fists clenched until my ethereal knuckles popped. I wanted nothing more than to lunge forward and tear Tristan's smirking mouth apart.

No wonder Samantha would come home constantly criticizing me, picking fights, and tossing passive-aggressive insults whenever she met up with him. This was the source of it all.

Moments later, Daisy called again, frantically urging Samantha to hurry over.

Before Daisy could even finish, Samantha sneered directly into the mic:

"Then let him die out there! I don't ever want to see his face again!"

She hung up without hesitation. The cold finality in her eyes slashed straight through my heart.

So this was who I was in Samantha’s eyes.

She really, truly didn't care about me at all.

I closed my eyes and hung my head, mourning the years of devotion I had wasted on her.

Walking away from a marriage was hard, but nothing was harder than watching the person you loved drag your name through the mud.

Disgusted, I turned to leave, but after only a few steps, an invisible force yanked me straight back to Samantha’s side.

I tried several times, bewildered, only to realize I was bound to her. I couldn't move more than a few yards away.

I let out a bitter, silent laugh. Was the universe mocking me?

Did I really have to stick around just to watch myself get trampled over and over again?

I drifted beside Samantha, exhausted, watching Tristan order an extravagant spread.

Just as the two of them raised their wine glasses, a squad of police officers burst through the doors.

"Samantha? You are a suspect in an intentional homicide investigation. Please come with us to the station."