Chapter 2

Ethan didn't go home.

He went straight from the interrogation room and called the Criminal Technology Division.

"Marcus has confessed to a suspected burial site."

"Westwood Forest, by the oak trees."

"Deploy the tech team and forensic unit. Depart now."

His voice was all business, betraying no emotion.

I floated behind him, watching him get into his car.

He didn't start the engine immediately.

Instead, he pulled out his phone and opened the pinned chat.

"Elara, what do you want?"

"To think I actually believed you'd bribe a killer to put on this act with you."

"I don't know if you're crazy, or if I am..."

The message sent successfully.

He stared at the screen for a long time.

Her profile picture was their wedding photo from three years ago, never changed.

Just like his.

I stood outside the car window, looking at that chat window.

In three years, he had sent me over two hundred messages.

I hadn't replied to a single one.

Not because I didn't want to.

But because I couldn't.

He took a deep breath and started the car.

The convoy sped through the city in the dead of night, red and blue police lights flashing silently.

Their destination was Westwood.

I sat in the passenger seat, watching his white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel, and his jaw clenched tight.

I wanted to reach out and touch his face.

But my hand passed right through his body.

The cars drove onto the Westwood road, high beams illuminating the abandoned oak grove ahead.

Ethan's breathing hitched.

He remembered Marcus's last words.

"You know the place."

He knew.

Of course, he knew.

Under that tree, he had kissed me, and he had also betrayed me.

The convoy arrived at the oak grove. Several high-powered floodlights illuminated the old oak tree, making it look ghostly pale.

Ethan stood outside the crime scene tape, hands in his pockets, his expression cold.

Detective Dawson, his deputy, quietly asked, "Professor Vance, this... can it be true?"

"If they dig and find nothing, I'll personally interrogate Marcus and make him regret wasting my time."

Ethan's tone even carried a hint of disdain.

But I noticed that his position never strayed more than three steps from that tree.

The tech team began to dig.

He smoked cigarette after cigarette.

He hadn't smoked before. He only started after I disappeared. I remembered, when I was alive, he wouldn't even touch a lighter.

Half an hour later, a young Officer Kim shouted.

"We found something!"

Ethan's shoulders tensed suddenly. Instead of moving closer, he actually took half a step back.

From the mud, tweezers pulled out a broken metal watch strap.

Then, a shattered watch face.

The technician carefully flipped it over.

On the back of the watch face, two letters were engraved.

"E.R."

It was the twenty-fifth birthday gift he had given me.

He had spent two hours picking it out at the counter, his hands trembling when they engraved the letters.

Ethan's pupils constricted violently.

He turned his head away, not letting anyone see his expression.

Without a word, he turned and walked to his car.

He opened the door, got in, and closed it.

Cutting off all outside sounds.

I followed him into the car.

His hands were on the steering wheel, all ten fingers trembling.

"Impossible."

He mumbled to himself, his voice so faint that only I, a ghost, could hear it.

Three seconds later.

He slammed his fist onto the steering wheel.

The harsh blare of the horn pierced the stillness of the desolate night.

Then a second punch.

A third.

He stopped, gasping for air.

A memory suddenly flashed through his mind.

The night I disappeared three years ago, Seraphina Hayes came to him, her eyes red-rimmed.

She carefully, casually mentioned.

"Professor Vance, I think I saw Elara with a man getting into a car today..."

"It might have been a mistake, but she seemed to be wearing that watch you gave her."

At the time, he believed her.