Chapter 2
He stood in front of Lily, his little face, so much like Charles's, completely blank. He was clutching a tablet tightly, his gaze fierce.
Oliver spoke, his voice broken. "Dad. Are the photos burned?"
Charles froze for a second, then frowned. "What?"
Oliver raised a hand, pointed at the smoking ashtray, then pointed at the spot in the air where I stood.
Those blue eyes stared through the empty space between Charles and me and locked right onto my face.
Then he said something that made the whole living room turn cold: "If you're done, move. The smoke's making Mom cry. Can't you see that?"
The whole room fell silent.
Charles slowly turned around. His bloodshot eyes fixed on Oliver.
It wasn't fear. It wasn't guilt either.
It was disgust, deep and unshakable disgust for me, the ex-wife he thought still wouldn't stop haunting him.
"Emily Hughes is dead," Charles said through clenched teeth. "She froze to death on the roadside trying to go meet some bastard. Her body was cremated, and her ashes were buried in a cemetery without even a headstone."
He walked up to his ten-year-old son and barked, "And now you're telling me she came back?"
Oliver tipped his head up, veins standing out on his neck. He didn't back down.
Those eyes were frighteningly bright as he pointed straight at me. "She's right there. She's crying. Because you burned her picture, and because you're still going to marry this murderer."
"Shut up!" Jessica shrieked.
She shrank into Charles's arms, pretending to be badly frightened as she trembled all over. "Charles... I'm scared.
"How did Oliver turn this creepy? Is Emily really trying to stop us from getting married, even as a ghost?"
She looked up, tears shimmering in her eyes.
She looked so fragile and pitiful even I almost wanted to believe her.
"If that's the case, then I won't go through with it. I don't want the kids to hate me, and I don't want to make things hard for you..." she sobbed.
"Don't be ridiculous." Charles pulled her tighter into his arms, and the look he gave his son turned completely icy. "There are no ghosts in this world. Only people with ulterior motives."
He grabbed Oliver by the collar and hauled him up.
Charles snarled, "Was this your mother's clever little plan before she died? To stop me from remarrying, you'd even stoop to this cheap ghost act?"
I tried with everything I had to pry Charles's hand away.
"Let him go, Charles, you bastard. You're choking him!" I screamed, "He's your son."
My hands passed through his wrist again and again. Even after I used every ounce of strength left in my soul, I still couldn't move him one bit.
That helplessness sank straight into the deepest part of me.
Oliver's face had turned red, and he was struggling to breathe.
But he still clung tightly to the tablet in his hand. "I'm not lying."
He struggled to raise the tablet, tapping wildly at the screen. "I have proof... I recorded it!
"She was hurting Lily. She was cursing at her. I got it on video."
The video started playing. On screen, Jessica's twisted face was perfectly clear.
Her vicious voice came through as she pinched Lily's thigh. "Make one sound and you're sleeping in the dog crate tonight."
Jessica's expression twitched.
She clearly hadn't expected this usually silent child to learn how to secretly record her.
Evidence.
Hard evidence.
I was shaking with excitement as I shouted at Charles, "Look at it. Open your damn eyes and look. This is the good woman you're holding!"
Charles's gaze shifted to the screen.
Jessica reacted fast.
She didn't go for the tablet.
Instead, she clutched her chest and let herself sink weakly downward, her voice shrill and broken. "Another video. Another damn video.
"It wasn't enough for Emily to fake a video framing me for pushing your mother down the stairs. Now even a child this young has learned to edit videos to set me up."
She lifted her tear-streaked face to Charles. "Charles, is there really no place for me in this family? They're so desperate to drive me out that they'll use anything."
The word edit stabbed right into Charles's deepest wound.
That so-called cheating video and the one that painted me as someone who abused his mother had both been Jessica's so-called ironclad proof.
And Charles had believed every word of it.
That one word blew up all the rage buried in his heart.
"Enough!" Charles roared.
He swung his arm and slapped the tablet out of Oliver's hand.
Smack. The tablet crashed hard onto the floor.
The sound from the video cut off instantly.
That was our only evidence, and my only hope.
I stared blankly at the shattered pieces on the floor. Like I was watching the heart inside me, still not fully cold, get stomped to mush all over again.