Chapter 3

In just a week, James bought the flower shop. He came in person to watch as bulldozers razed it to the ground.

I stood at the shop's entrance, stretching out my arms to try and block them, screaming desperately.

"No! Please, don't..."

My voice grew fainter.

I had almost forgotten - they couldn't see or hear me.

But James used to cherish this flower shop as much as I did. He cared for it no less than I did.

Once, when some thugs came to collect protection money and I couldn't afford it, they threatened to wreck the shop.

Although James couldn't see, he still stood at the door, vowing to protect our little shop that felt like home.

The thugs beat him mercilessly. Even when he could barely stand, covered in bruises, he still shielded me and wouldn't let them come near the shop.

If the police hadn't arrived in time, he might have been beaten to death.

That night, as I tended to his wounds with tears in my eyes, I asked him why he was so foolish.

James said, "This is where we met. I can't bear to lose it."

I think at that time, James must have loved me deeply, protecting our memories with his life.

How many times had others tried to destroy this place, and James had desperately protected it?

But now, it was he who personally ordered it to be razed to the ground.

I looked back at what was once called home, now just a pile of rubble.

I collapsed to the ground.

James's face was hidden in the dust, his eyes cold as ice. A woman stepped out of the car, thoughtfully draping her coat over James's shoulders.

The woman was beautiful and elegant, dressed in designer clothes from head to toe. Standing next to James, they looked like a perfect match.

"It's just an old flower shop. Why did you have to come here in person?" she asked.

I recognized her. She was Vanessa Thompson, James's high school classmate, known as a social butterfly. How did they end up together?

James seemed to rely on Vanessa quite a bit.

I was shocked. Even though I was dead, I worried about James being deceived by such a manipulative woman. I hurried to follow them.

In the car, James held Vanessa's hand, looking somewhat tired.

"Thank goodness I have you. You helped me find the cornea donor."

These words hit me like a thunderbolt, making my ears ring.

Vanessa snuggled into James's arms, smiling. "Silly, it's because I love you. I'm not like Lily, who abandoned you when you needed her most."

At her words, a crack appeared in James's previously calm expression.

"Don't mention that gold digger. She doesn't deserve to be compared to you. She makes me sick."

The disgust in James's eyes was obvious, sending a sharp pain through my heart.

No, the corneas were donated by me.

I clenched my fists tightly, my shoulders shaking.

Vanessa chuckled softly. "Alright, we're getting married soon. You'd better give me a romantic wedding."

Vanessa rested her head on James's chest again.

My mind went blank.

James was getting married?

To such a liar?

I felt suffocated, staring at James in disbelief. Only then did I notice the diamond ring on his finger.

A heartbreaking pain spread through my entire being.

If I had known that the corneas I donated to James would be claimed by an imposter, I wouldn't have died so quietly.

But it was too late now.

James absent-mindedly looked out the car window, gripping his phone tightly, his knuckles turning white.

I could see that the phone displayed the last message I had sent him.

[I wish you happiness.]

That was the message I sent to James with my last moments of sight before donating my corneas.

I had been following James for a long time now, so long that I had lost track of time.

It seemed that after death, my sense of time had become vague.

"Still haven't found her?" James looked up at his assistant from his desk in the office, his eyes full of impatience.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Foster. We've been searching for a week, but there's no trace of Lily Adams," the assistant said, hanging his head.

"Useless! All of you are useless! How hard is it to find one woman? I refuse to believe she's vanished into thin air! Keep looking! Even if she's dead, dig her up from the grave!"