Chapter 4

Erin had just been resuscitated by the doctors. An oxygen mask was strapped to her face as she struggled to breathe, unable to get a single word out.

Emily tried to grab my mother's ashes, but she failed.

Lucas gave the bag in his hand a shake, wearing a look of utter triumph. Not being able to track me down these last few days made him feel that things were out of control, and he absolutely hated it.

But now, that sense of being in command over everything was back.

"If Sophia really wants her mom's ashes, she needs to show up herself," Lucas said.

Erin blacked out again, while Emily was crying and begging him, her voice cracking. "Mr. Sterling, those are Sophia's ashes. Please, just let her go."

But Lucas was unmoved. He didn't believe a word Emily said. With no hesitation, he dumped the last bit of my ashes into the toilet and flushed them away.

Emily was stunned, unable to process what she'd just seen. "Sophia never did anything. Why would you treat her like this?"

He did it for Chloe.

I walked over to Emily and pulled her into a hug.

Honestly, having a friend like her is all I could ever ask for in this life.

Emily's voice shook as she pleaded, "Mr. Sterling, you don't know what Chloe's mom did—"

"I know all about it," Lucas sneered, clearly unconcerned. "Sophia's mom was just way too soft. And honestly, all that's ancient family drama. What's it got to do with Chloe anyway?"

Turned out, while my mom was pregnant, our family's nanny—Chloe's mom—got together with my father. Not long after I was born, their illegitimate daughter showed up.

She was Chloe.

Chloe's mother flaunted her in front of my grandparents while they were gravely ill, and even made my sleazy father call her his wife with everyone watching.

The rage literally killed my grandparents, and my mother's health kept going downhill until, right before her death, she handed me—just a tiny baby—over to Erin.

Chloe picked up all those schemes she pulled from her mother, and honestly, she even surpassed her teacher.

Lucas had always known everything, but he still looked down on my mom for being too soft.

But aside from wishing I'd grow up safe and happy, my mom's last wish was to disappear from this world without a single trace.

After I died, Erin knew how much it pained me that I'd never gotten to meet my real mom. So she put my ashes in my mom's empty grave.

Erin kept the truth hidden all these years, so I could actually grow up happily.

And Erin did what she had promised.

After Lucas flushed the last of my ashes down the drain, I found myself fading from this world, growing less and less visible.

But surprisingly, each day I could actually get away from Lucas for a little while.

I'd spend all my time at the hospital with Erin, keeping her company.

She was getting weaker, and all I wanted was to stay by her side till the very end.

I didn't have a mom, but Erin was my mom.

Lucas burst into the hospital twice, frantic and furious, but all the doctors did was shake their heads.

He couldn't find a single trace of me anywhere, and Erin, who knew the whole story, lay there and was unable to say a thing.

And now Emily's gone completely silent.

As Chloe's death drew closer, Lucas was drowning in guilt. The pain and regret squeezed his chest so tight that he could barely breathe. Sometimes, he wished he could trade places with her.

All Chloe ever wanted for her birthday was to marry him, and Lucas had sworn he'd protect his girl for the rest of his life.

He couldn't break that promise.

Lucas yanked Emily up from her chair, jaw clenched tightly.

Lucas snarled, "Sophia signed that heart donation agreement three years back, but she never showed up to fulfill it. You tell her straight—if she gives Chloe her heart, I'll give her a boatload of cash, and she can even keep the Mrs. Sterling title."

For Lucas, this was what he thought counted as mercy.

To him, this was the biggest compromise he could make.

But he never even considered that I was human too. People die without a heart.

Emily trembled and was about to speak up for me, but Erin clutched her hand, stopping her.

Erin was determined to make Lucas regret.

She wanted the truth to slam into him hard and make him feel worse than being dead.