In the fifth year after my death, my wife, Yuna Lane, visited my apartment once more. She wanted me to take the blame for her childhood sweetheart's corporate fraud crimes.

"Finn, Joe is going to be elected the chairman of the Trade Association. He can't afford any blemish to his reputation. Will you only be satisfied by thoroughly ruining him?

"It's only two more years in prison! Joe said he'll give you a job once you're released. Stop being so ungrateful!"

Her screams and shouts startled my neighbors.

…

When she banged on the door once more, the woman who lived across from me finally stepped out into the hallway. "Miss, stop banging on the door. He died long ago."

"He's dead?"

The woman sighed. "Yes. I hear it goes back to that fraud case years ago. The victim's family wasn't happy with the sentence, so as soon as Finn was released, they had him run over and killed.”

My wife's face turned stark white upon hearing the truth. However, barely a few seconds passed before she let out a cold scoff, confident this was all just a scheme of mine.

"Great. He's willing to fake his death just so he can get out of helping Joe. Does he really think I'm helpless and powerless against his schemes? Tell him that his parents are dead meat if he doesn't show up in three days!"

She then violently kicked the metal grills of my door before strutting away on her high heels.

The woman watched her walk away with bloodshot eyes, shaking her head in pity as she muttered under her breath, "Poor guy. His old man died soon after hearing of his death..."

Dead Parents

Yuna rushed down the stairs in a frenzied rage, and I was forced to follow after her by some invisible power.

As she stomped away, she pulled out her phone and made a call. Her voice softened into something sweet as soon as the call connected. "Joe, don't worry. Leave the association to me."

I could hear Joe Farrell's voice over the phone, filled with his usual gentle warmth. "Did you talk to Finn? Why don't we just let it be? I'll find a way myself."

"There's no way I'd just let it be," Yuna blustered. "How can you side with him at this time? "You wouldn't be implicated if he weren't foolish enough to leave evidence behind!"

When I heard that, it felt like my heart was being sawed out of my chest with a blunt knife.

Joe had been the mastermind behind that fraud case years ago. He asked me to help him out, claiming that I had to take the fall since I was legally involved in the company.

He even said Yuna would be nicer to me if I helped him out this once.

I believed him.

However, she never once visited me in the three years I was wrongfully imprisoned. The only time she contacted me was to ask if I had let anything slip about my deal with Joe.

"Yuna, Finn is actually..." Joe spoke with great hesitance.

"Don't defend him!" Yuna slammed the car door shut behind her as she clambered in. "You've been waiting so long to be included in the Trade Association's elections. I'll lose it if you fail all because that piece of old news got dug up.

"Finn Chance must take the blame. He owes you that much."

After a few moments of silence, Joe responded in an even softer tone. "Be mindful of how you get it done. Don't cause too much of a fuss."

"Don't worry. I know what I'm doing."

Yuna made another call after ending her call with him.

"Don, where do Finn's parents live? Send me their address."

I felt a pang of shock.

Was she really going to hurt my parents?

It had been five years. I was never able to see them one last time.

According to Eliza, my father collapsed when he heard what happened to me. He had passed on before the ambulance could rescue him.

My mother lasted three more days before she too passed away. She had collapsed right before my father's funeral altar, never to open her eyes again.

When they passed, not a single family member or friend had stayed by their side.

"Got it." Yuna glanced at the address and started the car. "You refuse to show your face, huh? Well, I wonder whether you'd stay dead if I squeezed your parents for answers."

As I hovered over the passenger seat, I couldn't help but notice the cold lines of her face.

This woman was once the person I loved to the point of death.

We'd been married for three years, and she had spat on me for being a coward for the entirety of our marriage. She despised how unambitious and untalented I was compared to Joe.

However, I was the one who would help her with her company's financial issues until 3 a.m. when she was just starting out. I hadn't complained that I was tired despite having spent the entire day working away.

For her birthday, she wanted to try the cake from a famous bakery on the west side of the city. So, I willingly queued for four whole hours just to get it for her. When I presented it to her, she took one look at it and said she didn't want it anymore.

I never once held a grudge against her for that.

I thought that she would open her heart to me as long as I was nice to her.

How hilarious.

The car pulled to a stop before an old building.

Yuna's heels clacked against the staircase as she headed up. She knocked and knocked, but no one answered the door.

…

Instead, she attracted the attention of the old man who lived next door.

"Who are you looking for?" he asked.

"Do Finn Chance's parents live here?"

The old man looked her up and down. "Who are you to them?"

"I am..." Yuna paused. "I'm their daughter-in-law."

"Daughter-in-law?" He gave her a strange look. "Why didn't you take care of their last affairs when they passed back then?"

She was stunned.

"What did you just say?"

"They're dead. Both of them." He waved at her dismissively as he continued blandly, "After what happened to his son, Chance passed away on the spot. His wife didn't last more than a few days afterward.

"Everyone in the neighborhood helped with the funerals. Their ashes are still stored in the crematorium, uncollected."

I watched as Yuna abruptly clenched her fingers around her phone. Her knuckles were stark white.

She opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the buzzing of her phone.

It was a message from Joe.

"I just received news that the federal office is going to reopen the investigation into the case from back then. Yuna, I'm afraid they'll find out about me."

Yuna inhaled sharply when she read the text, squashing the minuscule amount of hesitation she felt. "Don't worry. I'll get Finn to surrender himself tomorrow," she replied.

After the message was sent, she plastered on a smile as she spoke to the old man. "They're dead. What a guy. He would even go as far as to curse his parents just to get away from me. Fine. Tell Finn I'll feed their ashes to the goddamned dogs if he doesn't show up in three days."

The Old Apartment

The old man's face twisted with rage when he heard what Yuna said.

"How could you say something so outrageous? "You're going to feed someone's ashes to the dogs? You monster!"

Yuna crossed her arms with a scoff "Old coot, cut the act already. Just how much is Finn paying you? You're quite the convincing act."

"Why you!"

"Whatever," she interrupted him with a wave before turning to walk down the stairwell. "Finn, I know you can hear me. Are you trying to scare me off with this act? Do you think I'd fall for something like this?"

She kept talking in tandem with the sound of her heels echoing throughout the stairwell, saying, "I knew who you were the moment you took the fall for Joe back then. You wish to make me feel guilty with this performance? Hah! Dream on!"

I drifted after her.

Conflicted emotions swirled in me as I watched her march toward her car.

She sat in there for a long time with her fingers tightly gripped around the steering wheel.

Suddenly, she slammed her hand against the horn, causing an ear-piercing shriek as the honk echoed across the old neighborhood.

"Fine. You're all going to keep up the act, are you?"

She pulled out her phone and made a call.

"Look up where Finn's parents went. Yes, I want all records, including medical, transport, financial transactions, and everything else. Don't leave even a single stone unturned."

After that, she made another call. "Joe, what did the federal officers say?"

Joe was audibly frustrated. "Don't ask. I don't know who dug up the information from back then. Yuna, the truth will be exposed if Finn doesn't show up to take the blame!"

"He'll do it," Yuna confidently declared. "He always did what I told him to back then. There's no way he'd disobey me this time."

"Didn't his neighbor say he's dead?"

"That's fake news." Yuna clicked her tongue. "I know him like the back of my hand. He may be incompetent, but he's an absolute coward. He'd never have the guts to actually die. He's likely just panicking while hiding away from me."

After a moment of silence, Joe said, "Fine, but be quick about it. The election will start next month."

"Understood."

She hung up and started the car.

I thought she'd be driving back to her office, but I realized she was heading into a rather old neighborhood after a few turns.

I knew that place well.

It was where the two of us stayed when we got married.

She wasn't a CEO, and I was still a carefree young man.

We rented a rundown apartment about 400 square feet with a leaky toilet and a greasy kitchen. When winter came, it would be as cold as an igloo.

Even so, we had spent those days like the married couple we actually were.

She pulled to a stop beneath the building and looked up at the window on the fifth floor.

She eventually walked up the stairs after standing there and staring at the dilapidated building for a long, long time.

The lock had been changed long ago. It was clear that she hadn't expected this, as she paused before reaching up to feel the top of the door frame.

The key was still there.

That was one of my habits.

She always forgot to bring her keys, so I would hide a spare on the door frame.

As she pushed past the heavy door, she found herself in an apartment covered in dust and rotting furniture.

The decorations we bought for the wedding were still hung up on the walls. The paper had turned white from the dust, while a corner flapped in the draft.

She stood there in the doorway, unmoving.

I floated up to her and noticed she was staring at the dining table, which was being held up by bricks due to a missing leg.

Surely, she still remembered our time here.

We were flat broke back then. Even so, I scrimped and saved in order to buy a lipstick for her on Valentine's Day.

She could not bear to use it, so she would hide it under her pillow. Every night, she had the habit of taking a peek at it before we fell asleep.

Later on, she gave that lipstick away to a client.

When I found out, she told me not to be so petty and look at the bigger picture. In her eyes, it was just a lipstick, and I was overreacting.

I did not say a single word.

She walked to the bedroom.

The bed was the same old bed we slept on. The folded-up quilt was my doing.

No one had bothered tidying up after I was gone.

There was a photo on the side table. It was taken when we got married.

She had a bright smile on her lips while I stood there stiffly. I could still remember how nervous I had been, and it really showed.

She picked up the photo and brushed one finger across the faces displayed on it.

Her lips moved as if she wanted to speak, but no words were uttered.

However, I could see her eyes turning red.

Still, everything flashed by so quickly that her reaction felt like a hallucination.

She soon thumped the photo back on the table, speaking in a low and dark voice. "Finn, don't forget how useless you were back then. When Joe moved back, you could not even afford to treat him to a meal."

Joe's return home...

Yes, everything had changed upon Joe's return.

She began to complain that my cooking tasted awful. She disliked how little I earned. She hated how I was never able to act and speak with eloquence.

She forgot about the days before Joe's return.

She forgot how I was the one who carried her on my back and ran three bus stops just to get her to the hospital when she burned up with a fever.

She forgot that I was the one who braved the bitter winter to bring her supper when she had to stay up late to work overtime.

She had conveniently forgotten all I had done for her.

Personally, I was of the mind that she figured all of those memories were worthless after Joe's return.

I could still remember the first time Joe dined with us in our home.

He was dressed in a fine suit and had brought two bottles of expensive wine. The moment he walked in, he scowled and asked Yuna how she could live in such squalor.

She had flushed bright red in mortification at the time.

She changed after that night.

Yuna sat by the bed for a very long time. I thought she had fallen asleep from how long she had sat there.

Suddenly, her phone rang.

It was a call from her assistant.

"Ms. Lane, I've gotten the information you asked for."

"Talk."

There was clear hesitation in her assistant's voice as they rattled off the results of her investigation. "I've looked into Finn Chance's parents. According to the hospital, his father passed away from a heart attack five years ago. He passed away at 10.23 p.m.

"His mother passed away three days later due to a brain hemorrhage. She passed away at 4.15 a.m. The two individuals' death certificates were filed and recorded by the office on North Street."

There was a pause before they continued, "Also, according to the funeral parlor, no one has collected their ashes or even paid the storage fees for five whole years."

Yuna shot to her feet as if she had been struck by lightning. The hand holding the phone up trembled. "That's impossible! You've got it wrong. Keep investigating!"

"Ms. Lane, I've checked it three times..."

"I'm telling you it's impossible!" she practically roared. "They were healthy back then. How could they have died in a flash?

"Joe even told me they were doing fine last month! I was shown their chat records!"

Her assistant fell silent.

After a long moment, she tentatively brought up, "Ms. Lane, are you sure it's last month? Because that's impossible. I've looked into their numbers and all associated social media accounts. They had all been deleted five years ago."

I Truly Hate Myself

Night had long fallen by the time Yuna left the old apartment.

She immediately drove toward Joe's apartment.

Joe answered the door, dressed in a set of loungewear. He was startled by how lost she looked. "Yuna? Why are you here?"

She stood there, stammering for a long time with quivering lips before she finally forced out her words. "Finn's parents are dead..."

Joe's hand, which was holding a glass of wine, froze mid-air.

He placed it down and walked over to wrap an arm around her shoulders. "Come in. Tell me everything."

Yuna was in a state of complete disbelief as she was guided to sit on the couch, murmuring blankly, "My assistant looked into it. There were medical records, death certificates, and storage records from the crematorium."

She looked up at him with red eyes. "Joe, they're actually gone. Finn's father died five years ago, and his mother died three more days later."

I watched as Joe's face turned stiff for a few long moments.

Then, he knelt down and held her hand with his, gently stroking the back of it with a thumb. "Yuna, it's not your fault."

"But..."

"No buts," he said, interrupting her. "You didn't know this would happen, right? No one would've foreseen such a tragedy.

"If anyone is to blame, then it has to be me. If I didn't need Finn's help with the case back then, you wouldn't have gotten into such a terrible spat with him. If none of that had happened, you wouldn't have lost the chance to see them one final time."

Then, Joe put on the wounded look, pinning the blame on himself to gain her sympathy. Surprise, surprise. It worked like a charm.

"Don't say that, Joe!"

"I'm telling the truth. You've done more than enough for me over the years, Yuna. Once this election is done, I'll personally visit his parents' graves and apologize."

Tears continued to stream down Yuna's cheeks. She held tight to his hands like he was her last shred of hope. "What about Finn? His parents are dead. How do we find him now?"

Joe thought for a moment before speaking in a softer voice than before. "Think about it, Yuna. If Finn is truly dead, who would have organized his parents' funerals? Why has no one collected their ashes for five years?"

Yuna was surprised. "You mean to say..."

"I just find it suspicious. You know how Finn is. He may look like an honest man, but he's the greatest schemer ever. Back then, he only agreed to take the blame for me because he knew you would think well of him."

He turned away from her, a bitter smile painting his lips. "Sometimes, I truly hate myself. Yuna, you wouldn't have been forced to marry him if I had returned sooner."

"Don't say that, Joe!" She walked over and wrapped her arms around him. "I was a blind fool back then. Don't worry. It doesn't matter whether he's dead or alive. I swear I'll make sure to support you through this crisis!"

As I watched the two cling to each other, a chill spread through my translucent form.

What a loving couple.

They loved each other so much that they would scheme to make the victim of their malicious plots forgive them.

My abusers were delusional and totally sick in the head.