When Death Do Us Part

Five years after my death, Fletcher Reynolds fully recovered from his illness and finally clawed his way up to become a billionaire.

He showed up at a press conference with his new flame, answering questions from reporters.

“Mr. Reynolds, word is that when you were diagnosed with leukemia, it was your fiancée who donated the bone marrow to save you?”

“That’s right.”

Fletcher took the microphone. “But at the lowest point of my life, that cold-hearted woman aborted our child and left me. It was June who stayed by my side day and night, never leaving me for a moment. That was when I decided I would spend the rest of my life with her.”

The moment those words left his mouth, the entire city of Bayshore swooned over the perfect love story between Fletcher Reynolds and his childhood sweetheart, June Balfe.

And they all cursed me as the villain—saying I deserved to be struck by lightning.

They said I was inhuman, that I abandoned my sick fiancée, got rid of our baby, drained him of money and fled overseas.

After the press conference, June noticed he wasn’t looking well. Putting on her most understanding expression, she asked,

“Fletcher, are you thinking about Ashley again? She left so suddenly back then… maybe she had her reasons.”

“Don’t mention her!” Fletcher gritted his teeth. “If I ever find her, I’ll skin her alive.”

Floating above them, I let out a bitter laugh.

Fletcher, I’m afraid you’ll never get your wish.

Because I died five years ago—right there on the operating table, donating bone marrow to you.

***

Whenever Fletcher came home in a foul mood, he’d lock himself in his study.

He’d take it out on the wedding photo in front of him, stabbing it over and over until it was full of holes.

“Where the hell are you hiding, Ashley? Why won’t you come out and face me?!”

His voice was hoarse as he spoke to the smiling face in the photo.

“I stood in front of the press. I have wealth you couldn’t even imagine now… why won’t you come back to me? Well…you probably know that if you did come back, I’d never let you go.”

He’d already raided his liquor cabinet, drinking himself into oblivion.

The small knife in his hand slashed the photo again and again.

From afar, the wedding photo was nothing but a sheet of holes—except for one thing: my bright, smiling face, left untouched.

As Fletcher once explained, “I’m afraid I’ll forget what Ashley looks like. If I run into her one day, I might not recognize her—and I won’t forget what she did to me.”

Fletcher had never stopped hating me.

He would give anything to watch me die with his own hands.

“Fletcher.”

June walked in, carrying a bowl of hangover soup.

She found him half-drunk, her brows knitting in concern as she held his shoulders.

“Why did you drink this much again?”

Her gaze drifted to the shredded wedding photo and she pressed her lips together.

“That was the last one. It’s time to throw it away. Fletcher, our wedding’s next month. You promised me—you’d let Ashley go and let yourself go too.”

Over these five years, Fletcher had ordered copy after copy of that wedding photo—filling even his office with them.

When people saw it and asked who the woman was, he would always answer darkly, “An enemy.”

In his circle, most people thought he and his childhood sweetheart June were a match made in heaven.

But only a few knew the truth…

That his hatred for me came from love.

The deeper he had loved me back then, the deeper he hated me now.

He hated that I broke our wedding vows.

Hated that I aborted the child we’d both been waiting for.

And hated most of all that I never even said goodbye—just vanished into thin air. Which is why, for the past five years, Fletcher had been pouring a fortune into a private search team.

All for the sake of finding one person—me.