The noises Ruth and Ivan made pierced my ears. I wanted to cover them so I wouldn't have to listen to them, but the noise penetrated my soul. I clamped my ears as hard as possible, but it didn't help.

I couldn't escape, either. It was as if I'd been placed under a spell that bound my soul to Ruth. I couldn't get away from her.

I could only watch as my fiancée, the woman I loved more than life itself, slept with my murderer. I was so disgusted that I wanted to puke.

After retching, I cruelly thought about how Ruth would eventually learn that the corpse was mine. Would she have a mental breakdown when learning she'd slept with her fiancée's murderer and even helped him destroy my corpse?

This thought made a hint of thrill rise in me. It made me feel better, at least.

Ruth and Ivan did the deed beside my remains for over an hour. When she finally went home, she opened the door to find the apartment in pitch-black darkness. She turned the lights on and headed to the kitchen for a glass of apple juice.

When she opened the fridge, she smelled rotting vegetables. She covered her nose and cleaned them out. There was also a bottle of milk inside that was only good for a day. It had been manufactured a week ago.

When Ruth saw that date, she naturally thought of my corpse. It had only taken her a single glance to tell I had died a week ago.

The fact that my corpse had yet to rot was enough to show how much effort Ivan had put into preserving it. She shook her head, not wanting to think about why Ivan had done it.

I watched as she stood before my room. She hesitated for a long time before pushing the door open.

Clean, unfolded clothes were piled on my bed. She folded and put them away, but as she did so, she accidentally made something fall out of my cupboard.

I immediately recognized it as the ring I'd wanted to use when proposing to Ruth. She opened the box and stared at the ring for a few seconds. Then, she snapped it shut, looking irritated as she threw it back into the cupboard. Then, she left the room.

I followed her and heard her mutter angrily, "If you're going to keep this cold war going, you might as well not come home anymore. You can die outside for all I care!"

It was too bad she didn't know I was already dead.

…

The following morning, Ruth was aroused by her phone's ringtone. A street cleaner had found my body and had called the police. They soon arrived at the scene, as did Ruth. She immediately recognized it as the one she'd helped Ivan deal with.

"The body's face has been destroyed, and the fingerprints have been smoothened. We're unable to identify it just yet, Dr. Goldman."

Ruth was relieved when she heard her assistant, Morgan Hall, say that. It was fortunate she hadn't left any traces that could help identify the corpse.

"Bring the body back to the station for now. I'll ask Captain York for more details."

Ruth approached Joseph York, the police captain. He was also my mentor. She wanted to know more about the corpse.

"The corpse has been severely damaged, Captain York. It's going to take a while to identify him through an autopsy. Is there any evidence found at the scene?"

Joseph had no clues. "This isn't the murder scene, and it rained last night. We can't find anything useful—this is a tough case. It doesn't help that Eugene is on a break now!"

Joseph deliberately mentioned me before Ruth. A trace of anger flitted across her face when she heard my name.

"Has he contacted you?" Joseph asked. He knew Ruth was angry with me because of that incident and wanted to help ease the tension.

"I'm returning to the station to get started on the autopsy, Captain York." She turned and left.

Joseph shook his head and sighed. "Oh, youngsters nowadays. I have no idea what goes through their minds!"

After that, he pulled out his phone to call me. "I still can't reach Eugene. Jamie, can you try calling him?"

…

My soul couldn't be far from Ruth, so I followed her back to the station.

"This murderer is really cruel, Dr. Goldman. This victim died at such a young age," Morgan said while looking at my body.

When he saw Ruth was ready to start the autopsy, he stepped aside to make way for her. "We have to seek justice for this victim, Dr. Goldman!"

Ruth was holding a scalpel, ready to start. Her hand trembled at Morgan's words.

I noticed her eyes were slightly red. She was probably sad that she'd helped Ivan escape persecution.

What would she think once she learned the body before her was mine? She would probably be happy, right?

Her mother had died because of me, after all…

...

A month ago, our precinct worked with the state authorities to crack down on illegal activities. I'd worked overtime for a month. I was so busy that I'd even forgotten Ruth's mother, Tracy Moore's birthday.

Tracy understood the responsibilities that came with the nature of my job. She'd felt bad for me for working overtime for a month, so she'd cooked chicken soup and brought it to the station so I could have it.

After she called me, I was about to head outside to bring her in when a couple of the police officers on duty nabbed a runaway criminal. They brought him in, wanting to interrogate him.

I joined them for the interrogation, forgetting about Tracy. Once the interrogation was over, I saw Ruth charge at me, looking furious.

I remembered she didn't need to work overtime because there weren't any urgent cases. What was she doing at the station in the wee hours of the morning?

I could tell something was wrong and was about to ask her what had happened when she slapped me hard. "Do you still remember that you made my mother wait for you?"

Only then did I remember Tracy was waiting outside the station for me.

"I'm so sorry! I honestly forgot about her. I'll apologize to her right now!" I was about to run outside when I saw Ruth remaining where she was.

I wanted to ask her what was wrong when Joseph came in, looking grim. "Come with me, Eugene, Dr. Goldman."

We followed Joseph into his office. Only then did I learn that Tracy was dead.

"Tracy's dead? What happened?"

Joseph told me that Tracy had run into some gangsters while waiting for me outside the station. Thanks to our recent crackdown on illegal activities, I'd arrested their leader.

They wanted to get revenge on me, so they knocked Tracy out and dragged her away. Then, they'd chopped her limbs off and thrown her remains into a nearby drain.

I couldn't believe Tracy was dead. I looked into Joseph's eyes, my disbelief evident.

He lowered his head and sighed. Meanwhile, Ruth slumped onto the desk and burst into tears.

"You're an asshole, Eugene! None of this would've happened if you'd brought my mother into the station sooner!"

She wanted nothing more than to kill me when she thought about Tracy's death being an act of revenge on me. Tracy had only been at the police station to bring me chicken soup.

I had planned to propose to Ruth the following week, but that had to be set aside because of this. She refused to forgive me and even moved out of our shared apartment.

I called and texted her, but she ignored me. She even had people stop me from entering the funeral parlor on the day of Tracy's funeral. "What right do you have to attend my mother's funeral when you're the one who caused her death?"

Ultimately, I could only kneel outside the funeral parlor in the direction of Tracy's coffin.

One aspect of this incident confused me—how had those gangsters known about Tracy's connection to me?

Due to the unique nature of my and Ruth's jobs, we told Tracy not to tell outsiders about her relationship with us. This was a precautionary measure to prevent our enemies from pursuing her.

The surveillance cameras near the police station captured the gangsters who'd murdered Tracy, so I led a team to arrest them. No matter how I questioned them, they just said they'd done it on a whim.

However, all the evidence we'd found pointed to the crime being pre-medicated. After all, no one would be dumb enough to loiter around the police station with blades in the middle of the night.

I traced those blades to a hardware store. To my surprise, Ivan owned the store. I showed him the photos of those gangsters and asked him whether he knew them.

He looked at them seriously before shaking his head. Left with no clues, I turned to leave. Then, I caught sight of a gold earring in the corner. It was from a pair I bought for Tracy's birthday last year.

The day before her death, she'd even called me to apologize for losing the earring. What was it doing in Ivan's store?

I picked it up, wanting to ask him what was up with it. Then, I saw Ivan whip out a metal rod and whack me in the head with it.

Before I lost consciousness, I heard a man's voice ring out behind Ivan. "Do you think the old hag told him about our smuggling, Ivan?"

...

"Dr. Goldman, I've extracted the body's DNA!" Morgan had worked overnight, finally managing to extract a DNA sample from my body. "We'll find out who he is after submitting this to the tech department."

I saw Ruth stare at the container in Morgan's hand. She was debating whether to destroy the sample.

"I've been here the whole night, so I'm heading home to catch up on some sleep, Dr. Goldman. I'll have to trouble you to submit the DNA sample to the tech department later." Morgan left, yawning the whole time.