Chapter 4
Annie sat on the couch, the innocent look on her face disappearing in a flash.
She took out her phone and quickly sent a message.
It read: [Done. That idiot is probably losing her mind tonight. If she snaps and causes another scene, Micah will be completely fed up with her. Then Mrs. Gomez's spot is mine.]
After sending it, she smiled smugly.
Annie picked up a bottle of medicine from the coffee table.
It was my medicine.
The strong painkillers I had forgotten to take when I left.
"What's this?" she muttered.
She twisted off the cap, tipped out a white pill, and sniffed at it. "Vitamins? Geez, how frail is this woman to be popping so many vitamins?"
She tossed the bottle into the trash can with disdain.
It landed with a clatter.
I watched helplessly as my life-saving pills ended up buried under banana peels and scraps of paper.
I floated beside the trash can, staring at the bottle.
I wanted to pick it up.
It was hard to get the doctor to prescribe those. One pill could relieve the pain for four hours.
Even though the pain was gone now, I still couldn't bear to throw them away.
It had been my lifeline.
I reached out to grab it.
After several attempts, I still couldn't grasp anything.
Defeated, I slumped to the floor, staring blankly at the bottle.
Micah stepped out of the bathroom and saw Annie putting things away.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"II noticed some of Eloise's things lying around. They must be what she left behind. I thought I'd pack them up for you, so you don't have to see them and feel bothered," Annie said.
Annie was holding a photo album.
It was our wedding album.
In those photos, I was dressed in a pure white wedding gown, grinning from ear to ear. Micah looked calm as ever, but there was no hiding the affection in his eyes.
When Micah saw the album, his eyes flickered for a moment.
Then he strode over and snatched it from Annie's hands.
I thought he was going to keep it.
But instead, he walked straight to the fireplace and tossed it in.
The album landed in the flames.
The flames instantly devoured the smiling version of me in the photos.
"Burn it all. That's better," Micah said.
His tone was cold as ice. "I must've been out of my mind to ever think she was innocent and kind. Keeping this junk around just reminds me how much of a fool I was."
The firelight flickered across his face, shifting between light and shadow.
I watched as the image of myself turned to ashes in the fire.
The last bit of longing in my heart burned away with the fire.
Micah, you didn't just burn the photos.
You burned the ten years I spent loving you.
Just burned it.
Burned it all to the ground.
That way, when I finally leave, I could walk away with nothing holding me back.
The next morning, I was woken up by the shrill buzz of a phone.
Ghosts didn't need sleep, but I still closed my eyes out of habit, pretending to rest.
Micah was jolted awake, looking pissed off as he snatched up the phone.
"Who is it? Are you trying to get yourself killed calling this early?" he snapped.
Whatever the caller said made Micah's face go pale in an instant.