Chapter 3

"What are we going to do? Can you please go down there and check? My legs are bad, I can't make the trip!"

My mother's voice trembled with sheer panic and grief through the speaker.

Lily, on the other hand, didn't give a damn. She even scoffed under her breath. "Did Logan tell you to call and trick me into coming home?"

"So now he realizes he pissed me off? If he wants to apologize, tell him to do it to my face! Otherwise, we're getting a divorce!"

With that, she hung up the phone.

Lily had never mentioned divorce to me before. Yet seconds after Julian confessed his love, the word slipped past her lips with sickening ease.

My heart throbbed with a pain so intense it felt paralyzed.

Julian watched her, reaching out to gently ruffle her hair with a soft smile. "Maybe we should head back and check just in case."

"Check what? I know Logan inside and out. He loves playing the victim. I'm not enabling his childish tantrums!"

Julian nodded along. "Yeah, you're right. If something actually happened to Logan, the cops would've called you first since you're his wife. Why would they only call his mom?"

Those words completely convinced Lily that I was pulling a stunt.

She snatched up her phone and fired off a SnapChat message:

[Logan, stop using death threats on me. I'm warning you, I despise liars!]

[I know you're bitter, but the ceremony is over. The entire world thinks Julian wrote that book now. With my testimony, pitching a fit won't change a thing.]

[If you're not home by the time I get back, we are done!]

I stared at the screen, those words blurring together until they felt completely alien.

She had conveniently forgotten that our marriage was kept under wraps; barely anyone in our professional circle knew we were married.

My only listed emergency contact had always been my mother.

The two of them lingered in the rooftop tent, flirting and making out for a long while before Julian finally walked Lily back to our building.

I could clearly see the fresh hickey blooming on her neck.

Lily had to know it was there, but she didn't even bother covering it up. Relying on my unconditional love, she assumed I would swallow whatever lie she fed me.

But I was human.

Every shred of disappointment had slowly drained my love away.

Julian kissed her forehead, reluctant to part, before turning to leave.

Suddenly, a squad of police officers marched toward them.

Lily recoiled, startled by the heavy presence.

One of the officers held up an evidence bag containing my wedding ring and a few charred scraps of fabric.

"Ma'am, we found your fingerprints on these items. We need you to come down to the station with us."

Julian instantly panicked, shrinking behind Lily.

"Did Logan call the cops over this? What do we do? Are we going to get arrested?"

He still had no idea I was dead. He thought I was pressing charges for literary theft.

Lily flared with rage. "Logan really has outdone himself this time! Throwing this kind of tantrum over something so small? Where the hell is he right now?"

"Hiding like a pathetic coward, getting outsiders to fight his battles, huh?"

"If he doesn't give me a damn good explanation for this tonight, I'm divorcing him!"

The officer stared at Lily in sheer disbelief. "You're Mr. Miller's wife?"

Lily nodded.

The officer slowly lowered the evidence bag. "Are you aware there was a fatal fire on the premises tonight? Your husband may already be..."

Before he could finish, a woman burst into the courtyard.

The moment she laid eyes on Lily, she charged forward and slapped her across the face without hesitation.

"It was you! You killed Logan!"

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Lily raised her hand to strike back, but the officers quickly grabbed her arm.

The woman spun toward the police, shouting, "Officers! I want to report them for murder! They killed Logan for their own selfish greed!"

"Logan wrote *Born to Live*! He called me just a few days ago to share the excitement of winning the award! But tonight, the man standing on that stage was the creep standing right behind her! They had every motive in the world to murder him!"

Lily was completely thrown, freezing in place for several seconds before finding her voice. "What are you babbling about? Murder?"

"Stop playing dumb! If it wasn't for you, there's no way Logan would be dead!"

The woman's emotions ran wild. Seeing that words weren't calming her down, the officers had to physically restrain her to keep her from attacking Lily again.

"What proof do you have that Logan wrote *Born to Live*? And who the hell are you anyway? Why would a wife frame her own husband for an outsider?" Julian chimed in smoothly.

"Or are you Logan's little side chick? Did you find out he was dead and decide to frame his legal wife so you could steal his estate?!"

The scene devolved into absolute chaos, but something about Julian set off alarm bells in my head.

Learning about my death hadn't shocked him in the slightest. Instead, he was eerily calm, deflecting the blame onto me and branding me a cheater.

Chloe trembled with rage. "You think everyone in this world is as disgusting as you?"

"Logan and I were dear friends!"

"Friends?" Julian sneered. "Well, dead men tell no tales, so you can claim whatever you want. But Lily is his wife—she'd never hurt him. And I was at the awards gala all night. Every reporter in the room can vouch for my alibi!"

That took the wind out of Chloe's sails.

Lily chimed in, "I've been married to my husband for years, and I've never seen your face once. How could you possibly be his friend? You're nothing but a fraud!"

"Fine! We've never met in person, but can you really not recognize my voice?!"

Chloe lunged forward, grabbing Lily by her collar. "I'm 'Cookie'! Do you remember me now?!"

'Cookie' was Chloe's pen name. Before I married Lily, the three of us used to chat online about literature all the time.

We were great friends back then.

After I tied the knot, I distanced myself to focus on my marriage, and we fell out of touch.

When I won the award recently, I didn't have many close friends in the literary circle, so Chloe was the first person I thought of. I reached out to share the amazing news.

I never expected she would fly across the country just to fight for my justice.

"It's you? You told me back then that you stopped talking to Logan!"

"When did the two of you start sneaking around behind my back?"

Lily and Julian tag-teamed Chloe. Seeing this, I finally saw the woman sleeping beside me for who she truly was.

Watching Chloe run out of words, Julian's lips curved into a smug smirk.

"Fine. You want proof? Then listen to this damn recording!"