Julia was certain she'd covered every trace.
“I don't care if you're doing this for Joel Sullivan or anyone else. No one's going to believe a murderer.”
“Smear us all you want. Sebastian and I are clean—completely innocent!”
“And Joel? He can't even stay quiet in the grave. Should've been dust and ashes a long time ago.”
I stood behind her, a twisting ache deep in my chest.
I'd been dead a long time, but the love and the hatred hadn't faded.
Day after day, night after night, I watched them live their happiness while the memory of being torn apart ground through me without end.
“He must've been quite the charmer. Dead and gone, and people are still crying injustice on his behalf.”
Julia let out a cold laugh, glancing around the room.
“Joel Sullivan, if your ghost is here, listen carefully.”
“You threw acid on Sebastian and scarred him for life. I never even settled that score with you.”
“I'm carrying Sebastian's child now. If you keep stirring up trouble from the other side, don't blame me for digging up your grave and whipping what's left of your corpse.”
I drifted in front of her.
Those eyes that once brimmed with love held nothing now but a resentment so sharp it burned.
Julia, do you really think I'd haunt you even in death?
Ten o'clock. Another scream.
Blood spattered the camera lens, and Julia jerked backward.
The kidnapper wiped the lens with a blood-soaked glove,
leaned in close, and let out a low, amused laugh.
“I'm not here to watch you perform.”
“Professor Baxter, if you won't talk about yourself, then let's talk about Sebastian Barnes.”
“How'd he get you to fake the autopsy—sleep with you?”
The words hit and Julia's breathing broke hard. Behind the gold-rimmed glasses, her eyes went lethal.
“How do you know that?!”
A single instant of exposure.
She caught herself almost immediately, smoothed her expression, and signaled Captain Bennett to pause.
She walked straight out of the interrogation room and knocked on the tech division's door.
“I can stall for another hour at most. The kidnapper's patience is running out.”
“Sebastian is still in their hands. You need to trace that IP address as fast as possible.”
She paused, hiding the tremor that had crept into her hands without her realizing.
“One more thing. The kidnapper is wearing a designer gown. Track it down. Only a handful were sold in the entire city.”
I drifted behind her, watching her leave the tech room and step into the corridor.
She stood alone and dug her nails hard into her palms.
She opened the phone's photo album, scrolled deep, and found my picture. She stared at it for a long time.
“Joel Sullivan, why won't you leave me alone?”
“It was just an accident. You're already dead—why can't you forgive him?”
“You always were petty……”
She tilted her head back.
Her body slid down the wall, all the strength gone from her legs, until she crumpled to the floor.
Inside the album was a folder named after him.
Tens of thousands of photos, every one taken by her own hand.
The one glowing on the screen showed me holding up a wedding ring, laughing.
In ten years, she had looked at it more times than she could count.
But she could never bring herself to look at the ring itself—the one they'd pried from my shredded flesh.
Julia couldn't let herself remember the moment she'd written those words: “No notable forensic leads found on the remains.”
She closed her eyes and walked back into the interrogation room.
On the other side of the wall, the tech team was rapidly narrowing the search, closing in on the kidnapper's location.
I followed close behind Julia, watching her feign grief, her jaw clenched so tight the muscles stood out.
I wanted to reach out and slap her across the face, again and again.
But my hand passed through nothing.
The clock read ten thirty.
After several rounds of back and forth, Julia's composure was fraying. She paced the room.
“What do you want me to say?!”
“If it'll bring Sebastian back alive, I'll die in his place!”
The kidnapper stared at her. Then the laugh came—loud, unrestrained.
“Professor Baxter, you know exactly what to say.”
He raised one hand and mimed shaking a reagent bottle.
