After confirming my passing, the hospital contacted the only family member I had left—my father.

When he arrived, he was greeted with the sight of my cold corpse.

Kneeling on the ground, he sobbed, not understanding why his daughter had passed without warning.

With the help of a nurse, he stood up and broken-heartedly started to contact Jeremy, but to no avail. Jeremy hung up on him time and time again, and he ended up not being able to call him altogether.

Jeremy had been so annoyed by his repeated attempts that he'd blacklisted my father.

After he did so, he tenderly held Celeste's hands, who had just woken up. "I'm so glad you're awake, I was so worried about you…"

Celeste was as pale as a sheet, and it looked like a single gust of wind would've been enough to topple her, but I was the only one who knew—she had fallen down those stairs on purpose.

With tears in her eyes, she spoke, "Jeremy, I thought I was going to die too… Thank you for operating on me, or else who knows what would've happened to me?"

Sniffling pitifully, she looked up at him with her doe eyes, filled with adoration.

"From now on, my life is yours…"

In response, Jeremy smiled tenderly as he produced a golden bracelet from his pocket, putting it onto Celeste's wrist. "I bought you a little gift. Hope it's enough to make you feel a bit better."

"Maintaining an optimistic outlook is the best cure."

The golden bracelet was intricately made and was coincidentally one that I had wanted most at one point in the past. I remember begging him to gift one to me on my birthday. He refused my request, back then, but here that bracelet was on Celeste's wrist.

Caressing the bracelet, Celeste smiled brightly. "You're the best, Jeremy."

After she said so, a pensive expression crossed her face. "Would Elodie be mad at you for treating me so well?"

At the very mention of my name, Jeremy's expression turned stormy.

"Don't even mention that woman! If she hadn't pushed you down the stairs, you wouldn't be in so much pain in the first place!" he exclaimed, tightening his grip on Celeste's hands as he continued, "Don't worry, I'll make sure justice is served!"

One thing Jeremy did remember was that I was sent to the same hospital as Celeste, so he wanted to find me so that he could 'serve justice' on her behalf.

The moment he left Celeste's ward, a stretcher was wheeled right past him, and I just knew that the body on that stretcher was mine.

Even though my body was covered with a piece of white cloth, my hand was left hanging outside and uncovered, revealing the promise ring I was wearing. This was the very ring Jeremy had bought me when he proposed to me eight years ago, and I had never taken it off once.

I was confident that Jeremy could recognize that ring.

My spirit floated around Jeremy as I tried to tell him that the body was mine, that he only needed one good look to realize it was me.

I needed to know how he'd react if he knew that he pushed me and our child into the jaws of death with his own hands. Would he feel any semblance of remorse? Would he have a breakdown, or would it just not mean anything to him whatsoever?

"Please let us through." The medical staff requested as the stretcher was wheeled close to Jeremy.

With a frown on his face, Jeremy glanced at my hand hanging outside the cloth, before he stepped aside with an annoyed expression, allowing it to pass him uninterrupted.

In the end, he couldn't even recognize me. The past eight years of my life felt like nothing but a joke.

After my body was wheeled into the morgue, Jeremy entered the ward I was admitted into before I died.

"Where's Elodie Woods? I believe she was admitted here?" He asked a nearby nurse.

Seeing that Jeremy was the one asking, the nurse replied quickly. "Doctor, do you know Miss Woods? She already passed away due to her injuries, and we couldn't do anything about it.

"Her father passed out from heartbreak, so we're currently trying to look for someone who could help settle her posthumous affairs… If you are an acquaintance of hers, would you mind following me to…"

Before she could even finish her question, she was interrupted by Jeremy, exclaiming in a brash tone.

"How brazen is that woman to make people play along with her little act? How could she make such a big deal out of this? Celeste fell down those stairs too, and she's doing just fine!"

I had already guessed that he wouldn't believe what the nurse told him.

The reason that Celeste was doing well was because she was fortunate enough to have immediate medical aid from Jeremy, who was a chief physician.

Meanwhile, I could only wait as my grievous injuries robbed me of my last breath.

Intimidated by Jeremy's response and the thunderous look on his face, the nurse didn't dare speak any further, leaving the ward while shaking her head.

After he failed to find me, Jeremy went back to Celeste, who had found out that I might have passed away.

"Shouldn't you go see Elodie? What if something really happened to her?"

Feigning concern when she was the one who pushed me down those stairs with all her might in the first place, she continued. "I'm sure Elodie didn't mean to push me down those stairs. It was definitely an accident… You're her fiancé, so you should go see if she's been hurt after falling down those stairs, right?"

"You're too kind, Celeste," Jeremy commented, before his expression twisted with anger. "I know the kind of woman she is. She's always been jealous of you, and she has always misunderstood our relationship. Don't you know that she tried to stop me when I wanted to bring you to the hospital? I'm sure a venomous snake like her must've done so on purpose."

"It's fine, I don't blame her. I'm just worried she's hurt too…" Celeste said, the very act of a saintess.

"Impossible!" Jeremy was convinced. "She loves tricking me like this. One time, she lied and said she was infected with pneumonia when she wasn't even sick, and I almost had to take a trip back from overseas to see her!

"I know how much of an actress she is, so she's the person I trust the least!"

I opened my mouth, but I couldn't say a word.

It was true that my health was poor, and Jeremy knew of it as well.

In an attempt to not affect his career, however, I always went to the hospital myself, not letting him know of it so that he wouldn't be worried.

Sometimes, my frailty would show while I was recovering, and he would joke, "What, are you going to trick me into staying behind to take care of you again?"

Going along with it, I would reply, "You caught me red-handed."

While I was putting on a brave face, Celeste called Jeremy every other day, talking about how she was feeling under the weather and how she wanted Jeremy to check on her condition. Strangest thing was, Jeremy was always susceptible to her wiles.

I was mad at first, when I found out.

I found Celeste and asked her directly what she was planning, but I was barely two sentences into the conversation before tears started dripping down her face like a faucet that had been left running. I couldn't get any answers from her after that, so I left.

Not much longer after that, Jeremy came to me, angrily questioning me.

"Why did you have to humiliate Celeste? She and I were neighbors growing up, so isn't it normal that I went to the hospital with her for checkups?" As he said so, he dug out his phone and tapped on a picture, showing it to me. "Is violence all you know? Why did you have to hit her?"

I stared, stunned at the photo he showed me of a red imprint on her face in the shape of a palm.

I hadn't even touched a hair on her head!

I didn't know how to explain myself for something I hadn't even done, and even if I did, Jeremy wouldn't have believed it.

Pointing at me furiously, he warned me, "You can come at me if you're not satisfied with me. Don't cause trouble for an innocent bystander!"

All I wanted to say then, was that I hadn't done anything that would've warranted this response.

Innocent, angelic Celeste, ironically enough, was the one who ended up reaching her hand towards me, ruthlessly shoving me to my demise.

I could only watch helplessly as they gazed into each other's eyes lovingly and embraced each other.

And so, Celeste stayed at the hospital for a few days under Jeremy's unfaltering care, and he was the one who helped her out with all her procedures the day she was discharged too.

After Celeste was escorted home, she held onto Jeremy, not willing to let go. "Jeremy, I don't want to worry my parents, but I'm a clumsy dummy who can't take care of herself… Can't you stay and keep me company?"

Jeremy, as always, enjoyed the feeling of being relied on by Celeste, and he held onto her. "Of course. I'll take a few days off work to take care of you."

The resulting pang in my heart was indescribable.

To think that the man who I didn't dare inconvenience in the slightest was willing to give himself so freely to another woman.

Their sweet embrace was interrupted by a sudden incoming call.

Seeing the unfamiliar number, Jeremy confusedly accepted the call, and the voice of my father's shouting came from the other end. "You bastard! How could you treat my daughter like that? You're the one who caused her to die so painfully!"

Jeremy's expression immediately twisted. "That's quite enough from you. Are you playing along with Elodie's little act too? What, was acting sick not enough that now she has to play dead? Tell her this for me—I won't play her sick little game! If anything happened to her, she deserved it!"

His words undoubtedly splashed oil onto a burning flame, and my father was completely enraged. "My daughter died because of you! You and that bitch are the ones who are supposed to be dead!"

He sounded completely hysterical; his sense of reason was lost to his anger.

In response, Jeremy only hung up with a furrow of the brow, prompting Celeste to ask in curiosity, "Who was it?"

"Just Elodie's father here to keep up the act. How could a father jinx his daughter and say that she's dead?" Jeremy replied with a shrug, his expression like he was witnessing a joke. "It's funny how far that family can go to make Elodie get married to me."

At the very mention of our marriage, Celeste's expression became overcast. "Then… Are you still planning on getting married to Elodie?"

A conflicted expression made its way onto Jeremy's face. "We're officially engaged, and my parents have a really good impression of Elodie, too. Things might become really messy if we break up…"

As he said so, he sighed. "Actually, other than the fact that she keeps initiating squabbles with me because she doesn't like you, she's actually not that bad."

What he said was the truth.

In the eight years we were dating, and the half year we were engaged, I've been nothing but unconditionally accepting of Jeremy on everything, except for when it came to Celeste.

I understood how hectic his job was, so I was fine with not voicing how I felt neglected. I wanted to continue to be his most stalwart supporter, after all. Even when his parents became sick, I was the one who took care of them and paid for their care.

Perhaps, at the end of the day, that just made him think of me as nothing more than a suitable candidate for marriage.

Celeste's expression became more and more dissatisfied the more she listened, and she was about to kick up a fuss, Jeremy got another call from his own father. "This is preposterous, Jeremy! How could I have given birth to a son like you?"

Without any warning, Jeremy's father started scolding him, "How could you act so coldly when something this terrible happened?!"

Jeremy was stunned for a moment, before he laughed. "Dad, why are you playing along with Elodie too?"

Jeremy's father sounded like he was going to get a heart attack. "This isn't a joking matter, Jeremy.

"How could you not know that Elodie passed away? My future daughter-in-law's dead!"