Chapter 2

Clutching that freshly cremated, still warm bag of ashes, I walked out of the crematorium.

Brandon's ghost trailed behind me, like a persistent phantom.

His curses hadn't stopped the entire way.

"Stella, may you rot in hell!"

"I must have been blind to marry a woman like you. You're not even worth a single strand of Chloe's hair!"

"You're old and ugly, and your personality is so vile. No wonder I never wanted to come home!"

I opened the car door and tossed the bag of ashes onto the passenger seat.

Brandon's ghost tried to sit inside but passed straight through, stumbling.

He was now just an intangible mass of energy, unable to touch anything.

This made him even more agitated.

He floated outside the car window, flailing at me.

"Do you think the company is yours now that I'm dead? I already made a will. Everything I own goes to Chloe! You won't get a single cent!"

I started the car, my expression unchanging, and turned on the stereo.

Deafening rock music instantly drowned out his screams.

As the car sped onto the highway, I rolled down the window. The wind rushed in, making my hair whip around.

Brandon's ghost was blown haphazardly by the wind, like a torn kite.

He was still cursing.

Accusing me of being cold and heartless, saying I'd been wishing for his death all along.

He wasn't wrong.

I had wished for his death every single day.

I just never expected it to come so soon, and with such satisfying finality.

Back at our sprawling, empty villa, I tossed the bag of ashes onto the console table by the entrance and went straight upstairs for a shower.

Hot water washed over my body. I closed my eyes, feeling the fatigue of the past few days melt away.

Brandon's ghost passed through the bathroom door, hovering above the bathtub, glaring down at me.

"Stella, you're in the mood for a shower? Are you really that happy to see me dead?"

I opened my eyes and looked at him calmly through the rising steam.

It was the first time I'd truly looked at him since his death.

"Yes," I said. "Very happy."

"You!" His ghost trembled with rage. "You bitch!"

"Where's Chloe? My Chloe? Where is she? She must be heartbroken, she loved me so much... Where have you hidden her?"

He finally got to the point.

I turned off the shower, dried myself, and slowly put on my robe.

Throughout the entire process, Brandon's ghost shrieked, cursed, and demanded Chloe's whereabouts.

He firmly believed that his beloved girl must be devastated by his loss.