The last time I argued with my husband, he slammed the door on me and left.

I was so upset that I died from a heart attack. Meanwhile, he took his lover and her son traveling to take his mind off things. The entire time, our daughter, who was just a child, was abandoned at home for seven days with my corpse.

At last, when Eliott remembered me and my daughter, he returned home to see my corpse. Having fallen sick, my daughter was all skin and bones.

When Eliott realized his mistake, he hugged our daughter tightly and broke down crying in front of my grave.

My daughter pulled away from him and hid behind my gravestone. She hissed sharply at him, “Who do you think you are? Don't disturb Mommy’s rest!”

I had the worst argument to date with Elliot.

It ended with him swiping everything off the table and shouting at me, “Anne, quit suspecting me! Nothing is going on between me and Zelda!”

I silently put away the lipstick I found inside his shirt pocket. It was a limited-edition lipstick from a luxury brand, which was very difficult to find. I could tell someone had used it. I sighed desolately. “Could you at least control yourself in front of our child?”

He slapped my wrist and made me drop the lipstick to the ground. His strike left a bright red imprint of his palm on my skin.

“I’m sick of living like this. You can do whatever you want from now on.”

With that, he grabbed his coat and walked out, slamming the door behind him as he left. The sound of the door slamming shut was so loud that it made my ears throb.

I squatted meekly on the ground to clean up the mess he left behind.

That was when my daughter, who was only five years old, ran out of the bedroom. She gently hugged me and caressed the red mark on my arm.

“Mommy, does it hurt?“

I felt my heart ache when I looked at the way she was about to cry. I took the child in my arms. “Ava, be a good girl, alright? It doesn’t hurt. Mommy is just… tired.”

I had trusted Eliott for seven years, yet he had been testing my patience again and again with Zelda. At this point, I could not stand being married to him anymore.

Ava got up and cupped my hand in her tiny palms. “Mommy, I’ll take you to bed to get some sleep. The teachers at kindergarten always tell me that you should get some sleep if you're tired!"

I felt much better when I noted how loving Ava was.

With that, we went to bed. I covered us with a blanket and laid side by side. I read bedtime stories to her—something I would never run out of to tell her.

At some point in the night, the rhythm of her breathing became faint and steady.

The display of my phone suddenly lit up when I received a text.

It was a picture from Zelda. In it, Eliott was lying naked in bed. The bright white bed sheet hinted that they were in a hotel. She did not offer any elaboration but I knew it was her way of staking her power over me.

I felt my blood boil as something tore at my heart. I staggered into the living room to look for my pills. However, the bottle of medicine that I usually kept in the cabinet was gone.

While I twisted in pain, I suddenly made the connection.

It was Eliott. When we were fighting this morning, he had flipped the house upside down. The bottle of medicine was flung out of the window at one point. I needed those pills; it was a matter of life and death.

A fatal throb in my heart told me that it was a cardiac arrest. I had already levitated into the air as a spirit by the time I realized what happened.

I looked at my daughter sleeping soundly in bed and felt an urge to cry. Now that I was dead, I was finally free, but what about my daughter? She was just a child.

Ava slept until the next morning when she woke up naturally. She opened her bleary eyes and tried to snuggle into my arms the way she always did. That was when she found out I was not by her side.

She seemed slightly dejected when she realized I was gone. Then, she went around the house looking for me. She went into every room calling out my name over and over until she finally found me on the couch in the living room.

She pressed herself to my body and whimpered in a darling voice, “Mommy, why are you sleeping here? You are supposed to be in bed with me!”

I did not respond even after she had snuggled against me for a while.

Then, she pursed her lips and seemed upset. Despite that, she was very understanding. “It’s alright. Mommy must be tired and needs more rest.”

My poor baby was just a child. I barely even had time to teach her the concept of life and death. As far as she was concerned, Mommy was only asleep and was going to eventually wake up.

When Eliott stormed off, I wished he would have the guts to never come back.

Alas, whether he cheated on me or not was the last thing on my mind now. I did not care about Zelda and her son insulting me either. If he wanted to cremate me and toss my ashes to the floor, I would not mind either.

So long as he came home as soon as possible.

Our daughter was only five years old and could not possibly take care of herself. It was dangerous to leave her all alone.

My spirit stayed with her from morning until dusk, but Eliott was still nowhere to be seen.

At one point, her stomach started to growl with hunger, which made her crawl up to me again.

“Mommy, are you still sleeping? I’m hungry, I want to eat the sausage rolls you make.”

I was trying to get her to stay away from junk food, which was why there was nothing ready-made at home. The fridge was filled with raw ingredients which I started to regret.

If only I knew that my time with her was limited, I would have spoiled her. I should not have asked so much of her since she was just a child.

As time went on, I could not bear to see her suffering any longer. I left her and went out of the house. I wanted to find Eliott. I had to find some way to bring him back home to save Ava at all costs. Unfortunately, I did not know what hotel he went to spend the night with Zelda.

However, I knew where Zelda's house was. I had seen that same address more times than I could count on Eliott's navigation application in his car.

At last, I found him. The man, who would always tell me about how much he had to work overtime, was now curled up on the couch in Zelda's house. He was playing a video game with her son. He made a point of going easy on Max so that the boy would win.

When Max won the round, he leapt up happily from the couch and hugged Eliott enthusiastically. “Yay! I wish you were my dad, Uncle Eliott!”

Meanwhile, Zelda scooped a spoonful of watermelon and fed it to Eliott. She remarked faintly, “Max, what are you talking about? You have a dad. He just didn’t want us anymore because times are too hard.”

Eliott’s heart ached for Zelda when he observed the pain welling up in her eyes. He picked Max up and propped him on his shoulders. “It doesn’t matter anymore. You can call me your dad if you want, Max. A father’s love is very important for a child, and I have always treated you as my own son anyway.”

After Ava was born, Eliott claimed that he trusted me and gave me complete authority over how I wanted to raise her. He hardly if ever participated in the parent-teacher meetings at the kindergarten.

I was kind to him and took his side. I even remember having to explain to Ava before, “Daddy doesn’t hate you. He’s just busy with work. Don’t hold it against him.”

Eliott did not know this, but I did everything I could to bridge a relationship between him and Ava. To my surprise, while he had been neglecting our daughter, he had been opting to father another boy instead.

Zelda seemed troubled by this and asked skittishly, “Do you think Anne will be upset about this?”

When Eliott was reminded of me, his face suddenly darkened. He stated icily, “Don't worry about her. We just had an argument before I left the house. She was good to me in the past, but these days she has been nagging at me.”

Zelda smiled radiantly upon hearing this. Then, she snuggled into his and spoke in a voice so affectionate that Eliott felt he would melt right then and there, “Well, why don't you sleep here tonight? You can clear your mind here.”

The entire time, I was levitating over them and fuming. I shouted at the top of my voice, “Eliott, could you just go home already? You need to look after your daughter! How about you stop worrying about someone else’s child? Don’t forget Ava is your daughter!”

It was no use as they could not hear my frantic cries.

Eliott thought for a moment before slumping into the couch and smiling, “Sure.”

With that, he turned on the TV. The noise of the program drowned out the living room while Max snuggled into his arms. Zelda also leaned against his shoulder and would feed him fresh fruits from time to time.

They looked like the picture-perfect family.

I was disgusted by the sight of how smug Zelda and her son looked.

At this point, I was done with seeing them affectionate with each other. Besides, I was still worried about Ava, who was at home.

When I got back home again, Ava was still next to my body. Her eyes were red like she had just cried. She even brought her favorite bunny plushie to my side. The bunny was made of cheap material that caught dust, and I had always forbade her from sleeping with it because of hygiene concerns.

To convince her to give it to me, I would tell her that I liked the bunny too so that she would hand it over. It was usually not very effective. She would cry and throw a round of tantrums before finally relenting.

And now, she lifted my arm that had turned stiff and stuffed her most precious bunny into my hands.

She then murmured, “Mommy, you can have Bunny. I don’t want it anymore. Please don’t be angry at me.”

She then wrapped herself around my arms. “Mommy, you can sleep with Bunny. Will you forgive me after you wake up?”

I could feel my tears fall and vanish in the air. My silly, darling daughter assumed that I was only sleeping because I was upset with her. Why would I ever be upset with her?

I regretted marrying and relocating so far away from home. I also regretted all the times I forgave Eliott.

However, I never regretted giving birth to Ava. She was the light of my life, the only consolation during my roughest days. Without Ava, there would not be anything worth holding onto in this world.

I wanted to reach for her and take her into my arms. However, my phantom arms merely phased through her body, and she could not feel my touch.

When I was alive, I could feel her warmth just by reaching out. Now, I could no longer touch her.

She finally fell asleep leaning against me.

It was autumn and the nights were colder than usual. At one point, she startled herself awake with a sneeze. Her nose was red, and I could tell that she was falling sick.

Despite that, she ignored the discomfort. Her first thought was to inspect me.

Bunny slipped from my hands and dropped to the floor. She burst into tears when she saw the plushie that was just as lifeless as me drop onto the floor.

Then, she began to shake me while dribbling snot, “Mommy, even if you don’t want me anymore, why don’t you want Bunny?”

At this point, she must have realized that something was wrong with me. She reached forward and touched me on my forehead. “Mommy, you must be sick too. I know you’re not ignoring me. When I was sick, you always stayed by my side to take care of me. Now, it’s my turn to take care of you.”

With that, she tried to drag my body back to the bedroom. She must have thought I would be able to get better rest in the bed rather than on the couch. It was the best way for me to recover.

However, she was too weak to manage the hefty task. She had not had anything to eat for an entire day and had to give up after several tries. From her abnormally flushed cheeks, I could tell she was beginning to develop a fever.

I anxiously circled in the air and begged her to call her father. I had taught her to call her father if she was ever in trouble.

Perhaps she heard my cry or not, but either way, she suddenly ran to get the phone.

“I’m sorry for being useless, Mommy. I’ll call Daddy to help.”

I heaved a sigh of relief. Great, as long as Eliott would come home. Everything would be fine. He may hate me, but surely he would not abandon his birth daughter.

Ava dialed the number she had memorized, but the call disconnected on the second ring.

I could feel my heart drop right then and there. In the past, I would have been very upset, but now, all I did was plead and pray that Eliott would answer the call.

Ava did not give up and dialed again.

After a wait that seemed like forever, the call finally connected.

Eliott impatiently grumbled into the phone, “Anne, what is your problem? Shouldn’t you know that I’m busy?”

“Daddy, it’s me.”