Half a year into my death, my wife, Serena Beckett, wants me to donate my kidney to William Clark, her heavily ill first love.

Serena smashes my tombstone like a madwoman in the graveyard. Then, she kicks the tokens aside.

"He's dead? What sort of sick joke is this? Jason Shaw is a coward! He definitely doesn't have the guts to die!

"I think he just doesn't want to save William's life! To think that he actually roped you guys into putting up this act just to pretend that he's actually dead!"

Serena is furious, to say the least. The graveyard's staff members are so frightened that they dare not speak up at all.

A newly-recruited staff member finally muster the courage to say something.

"Ma'am, Mr. Shaw really is dead. Apparently, he died in the donation surgery that had taken place half a year ago… He—"

"Shut up!" Serena slaps him while cutting him off. "You really think I'll believe that bullshit? Tell him that if he doesn't show his face in three days, his little sister can forget about getting off the surgical table alive! I mean what I said!"

With a dark expression, Serena turns on her heel and leaves angrily afterward.

But the staff member looks toward another tombstone not far away. Then, he lets out a heavy sigh.

"It's a shame that his sister has already died due to her illness taking a turn for the worse."

Six months after I died, Serena Beckett came back to the cemetery looking for me.

The wind blowing was cold and biting. I floated above my grave, watching her charge over in her high heels, her face pale and ashen.

"Jason Shaw! Get out here!"

She shoved aside a staff member trying to stop her and dug her nails deep into my photo on the tombstone.

"William Clark needs a kidney right now. You're going to donate it, whether you want to or not! What kind of stunt is this? Hiding here and playing dead?"

I was still smiling in the photo. It was taken three years ago, when Serena finally agreed to go on a date with me. She had said my smile looked goofy, but she made me keep the picture anyway.

Now, that smile probably looked mocking to her.

"Ms. Beckett, please calm down. Mr. Shaw really passed away six months ago. You can see the tombstone—"

"Why should I?" Serena, with bloodshot eyes, whipped her head around. "That spineless coward can't even kill a chicken, and yet he'd dare to die? Don't make me laugh!"

She suddenly raised her foot and kicked hard at the stone platform where tokens of remembrance were laid out. A bouquet of flowers fell to the ground.

"Jason! I'm telling you, William can't wait much longer! If you don't show yourself today, I'll make Tina experience the agony of waiting for death!"

I felt my heart twist painfully.

Tina Shaw was my 20-year-old sister who had been suffering from uremia for three years.

"She's scheduled for a transplant surgery next week, isn't she?" Serena laughed coldly, pulling out her phone from her bag. "Tell me—if I were to call the hospital now, cancel the surgery, and discontinue her medication…"

"Don't!" I lunged forward instinctively, but my hand went right through her.

Of course, she couldn't hear me.

Because right now, I was just a ghost.

"Ms. Beckett, you can't do this!"

The staff member who had tried to stop Serena earlier rushed over, stepping in front of her. "Mr. Shaw really is gone. He had complications from a liver donation surgery six months ago. They couldn't save him—"

A hard slap landed right on the staff member's face.

"Who do you think you are, lecturing me?" Serena barked, her gaze fierce. "You're all in on this scam together, aren't you? How much did he pay you?"

"It's the truth…" the young staff member said, his voice trembling as he covered his face.

"The surgery records, the death certificate—they're all there. You can check."

"What's there to check?" Serena snapped, her finger practically jabbing his nose.

"Go back and tell Jason he has three days. I'll give him three days, no more than that. If he doesn't show up at Central Hospital to donate his kidney in three days, Tina won't be coming out of that operating room alive!"

With that, she turned and left. Her high heels clicked against the cobblestones, sharp and cold, like blades scraping against bone.

I floated there in a daze, watching her figure grow smaller and smaller.

The staff member slowly straightened up, then turned to look at a smaller tombstone in the far corner of the cemetery.

He sighed and muttered quietly, "It's such a shame… Tina's gone too. Her condition suddenly got worse, and she didn't make it.

"First, the older brother died, then the younger sister. How does a whole family just…"

I didn't catch the rest of what he said. Or rather, I couldn't hear him anymore.

The wind seemed to pick up, swirling the dead leaves on the ground up into the sky.

I was forced to follow Serena into the car, and we sped off.

It had been six months.

When I died, she didn't come to see me, and she didn't know when Tina passed either.

Now, she came looking for me just to make me give a kidney to her precious William. She even used my sister's life to threaten me.

What Serena didn't know was that Tina's life had slowly drained away, night after night, while she was waiting for a kidney donor.

On the way back from the cemetery, Serena drove like a madwoman. She kept one hand on the steering wheel while using the other to make a call.

Her tone was cold and sharp as she said, "Scott, send me all of Tina's medical records and her recent treatment status. Right now."

There was a brief hesitation on the other end before a reply came. "Ms. Beckett, Ms. Shaw is…"

"What about her? Do you not understand what I said? I need her attending physician's contact info, her room number, her medication list, and the full schedule for next week's surgery. Send everything over!"

"O-Okay! Right away!"

Not even two minutes after she hung up, her phone chimed several times in quick succession.

When Serena glanced at the screen, a cold smirk curled her lips. She pulled the car over to the side of the road and started flipping through the files quickly, her finger swiping fast across the screen.

"End-stage uremia… Dialysis three times a week… Transplant surgery scheduled for next Tuesday…"

As she muttered to herself, her eyes grew colder. "Jason, you've got a lot of nerve. You'd rather hide from me than worry about your own sister's life."

I floated in the passenger seat and watched Serena act this way, feeling as though my chest had been hollowed out.

I murmured into the air, "Serena, Tina is already dead. What's the point of checking all this?"

But Serena couldn't hear me.

She even called the hospital directly just to force me to show up.

"Yes, that's right. Tina Shaw, the patient in your nephrology department. The one in bed 37. Stop her medication and halt all treatment. It doesn't resume until her brother shows up."

However, something the person on the other end said made her frown.

"What? Say that again!" Serena dropped the harsh look in her eyes and sat up straighter. "Died? When?"

The doctor's muffled explanation came through the line, broken and unclear.

I couldn't make out the words being said, but Serena's expression had darkened completely.

"Last month? That's impossible! I checked her hospital records two weeks ago. She was still waiting for a match!"

The doctor said something else, and Serena suddenly laughed coldly.

"Her condition suddenly worsened? How convenient. I'm looking around for Jason, and his sister 'just so happens' to die? Fine. I got it."

She hung up and stared at the dimmed phone screen, her gaze dark and terrifying.

A few seconds later, she slammed her foot on the accelerator. Through gritted teeth, she said, "Go on and keep pretending, Jason. You think faking your sister's death is going to fool me? Not a chance!"

I watched her speed all the way to Central Hospital.

The scenery outside the window flew by in a blur, just like the last traces of affection between us—long gone.

…

Half an hour later, Serena charged into the nephrology ward. Her heels clicked loudly as she headed straight for the nurses' station.

"Which room is Tina Shaw in? Take me to her," Serena demanded.

The nurse on duty was startled by her. "T-Tina Shaw? She was discharged last month…"

"Discharged?" Serena grabbed the nurse's arm. "Is she discharged or dead? That's not what I was told on the phone!"

The nurse winced in pain. "Ma'am, please calm down.

"The patient, Tina Shaw, has indeed passed away. As we told you on the phone earlier, her condition suddenly got worse, which led to multiple organ failure."

"I don't believe you!" Serena shoved her away. "Show me the death certificate! I want to see the medical records! Now!"

Her voice was so loud that several patients and their families turned their heads to look at the commotion.

The nurse had no choice but to call the attending physician, a middle-aged man in his 40s.

He frowned at Serena's aggressive demeanor and said, "Ma'am, the patient did pass away. We issued the death certificate to her brother, but…"

The doctor paused, looking her over. "What's your relation to her? This is the patient's private information. We can't just show it to anyone."

"I'm her sister-in-law!"

The words came out before Serena could think. She even paused for a moment after saying it.

The title of sister-in-law was one she hadn't acknowledged since William came back.

The doctor studied her for a moment, looking skeptical, but he turned and went into the office anyway.

A few minutes later, he came out with a copy of the medical records.

"These are the progress notes from Tina's final days. She suddenly went into heart failure and pulmonary edema in the early morning. We attempted resuscitation for two hours, but we couldn't save her," the doctor explained.

Serena snatched the medical records and fixed her eyes intently on the text.

"No way…" Her fingers trembled over the pages. "She was supposed to… She could still hold out…"

"Her condition was very unstable. She had end-stage uremia, with no suitable kidney donor. Surviving for three years was already a feat."

"Kidney donor?" Serena suddenly looked up, her eyes red-rimmed. "How could there not be one? I had Jason tested six months ago! He's her own brother—how could he not match?"

The doctor paused. "Jason? You mean Mr. Shaw, the one who passed away after the liver donation?"

He sighed. "Mr. Shaw passed away six months ago. How could he donate his kidney? And even if he were still alive, matches between family members aren't 100% successful."

"You're lying! Jason isn't dead! He faked his death to avoid donating a kidney. His sister's death is fake too! You're all in on this act to fool me!" Serena yelled, slamming the records onto the desk.

The doctor's face hardened. "Ma'am, please show some respect for the deceased!

"Ms. Shaw's remains were handled by one of her brother's friends. The cremation certificate is on file at the funeral home. If you don't believe me, you can check."

Serena froze in place, her lips quivering slightly. She looked at the doctor's stern expression, then down at the medical records scattered on the floor.

The medical terminology, the vital sign records, the detailed list of resuscitation efforts… They all felt too real—so real that it was unsettling.

"A friend?" Serena clung onto the last thread of doubt she had. "What friend? Since when does Jason have friends?"

"It was someone named Mr. Crawford. He said he was Jason's college classmate and helped handle the funeral arrangements."

"Crawford?" Serena repeated softly.

Then, as if grabbing a lifeline, she suddenly demanded, "The contact info—give it to me!"

After a moment's hesitation, the doctor pulled up a number on his phone.

Serena snatched the phone and dialed the number, but only a busy tone answered. She dialed again, but the same busy tone played in her ear.

She didn't give up. Instead, she called the funeral home. This time, the call went through.

"Tina Shaw? Ah, that young woman. She came in last month. Her ashes were claimed by her brother's friend, who said he wanted to bury her alongside her brother."

"Her brother…" Serena's voice began to shake. "Did her brother… really die?"

"He died six months ago due to complications from a liver donation." The staff member's tone was matter-of-fact, as they were used to seeing death by now. "Both siblings had bad luck. It's a real shame."

The phone slipped from Serena's hand and hit the floor with a clatter. She stood frozen, not moving.

The hallway lights cast a harsh glow on her face, making the red veins in her eyes stand out.

Serena opened her mouth to say something, but no sound came out. In the end, she crouched down slowly and picked up the scattered medical records.

"How could this…" she finally croaked, her voice rough and broken. "Jason… did you really die? And Tina…"

Serena didn't finish, because she suddenly recalled something.

She had checked Tina's hospital records two weeks ago. Back then, the system showed Tina was still in bed 37.

But if Tina died last month, what had she seen? Who had tampered with the records?

Or was it…

Serena shot up, took her car keys out, and rushed toward the parking lot.

"Fake! It's all fake!"

She revved the engine, shouting into the air as if trying to convince herself, "Just you wait, Jason! I'll find out what you're up to!"