That scar on my stomach, coiling like a centipede with its claws, was truly ugly.

But in reality, it was proof of the love William and I once shared.

Years ago, his mother disapproved of me because I was an orphan. William was willing to sever ties with his family just to marry me. But on the day of our wedding, he got into a car accident, and I disappeared without a trace.

I only returned six months later, with this scar on my stomach.

Everyone said I was a gold digger who ran off the moment William had his accident, only to come crawling back after being dumped by someone else.

Ever since then, our love turned to resentment and revenge.

But what he didn’t know was that after the accident, he had been gravely injured and needed a kidney transplant. I was the one who had donated mine to save him. I then went into hiding to recover for six months.

I couldn't tell him because I was dying. I had late-stage kidney failure.

I didn’t want him to live the rest of his life burdened with guilt.

I just wanted to spend the little time I had left by his side. I wanted to complete the wedding we never had.

With only a week left to live, he still refused to marry me.

The room was filled with the sound of my muffled sobs, yet William remained unmoved.

He grabbed my chin and asked, "What is it then?"

"I–" I hesitated, unable to say the words in the end.

William let out a cold laugh, pulled Jennifer into his arms, and walked away.

I could no longer hold myself up. My body collapsed to the floor.

When I woke up, I was in the hospital.

My doctor, Mike Sommer, looked furious. "You had a high fever all night. Your condition has worsened. Whether you make it through tonight depends on luck."

I let out a shaky breath. "So soon?"

But I still hadn’t finished the wedding with William.

Wouldn’t it be a shame to die just like this?

I smiled bitterly and asked Mike to keep my condition a secret. Then, despite his protests, I discharged myself and returned home.

As soon as I stepped inside, I saw William sitting on the couch. He stared at me gloomily.

"Why didn’t you just die out there? Why did you come back?"

His words sent a shiver down my spine. 'I am dying,' I thought.

I ignored the sharp pain in my heart and said softly, "William, I agree to the breakup. I won’t bother you anymore.

"But I have one condition. Give me a wedding. No marriage license, no legal ties, just put the ring on my finger yourself, like a real husband would."

I asked carefully, knowing he would refuse.

However, I still held onto a faint glimmer of hope.

"Fine. I’ll do it."

His unexpected answer made my heart pound.

I quickly said, "After the wedding, I’ll disappear from your life forever. I won’t interfere with you and Jennifer."

The moment I finished speaking, his expression turned icy. He clenched his jaw. "What a deal, huh? Whitney, I’ll make sure to play my role as your husband at the wedding."

The way he emphasized the word 'play' sent a sharp pain through my heart, but I was satisfied.

William hated me so much that he arranged the wedding for that very night.

That was fine. I might not even make it to tomorrow.

A bloody taste filled my mouth. I swallowed a handful of painkillers and put on my wedding dress before heading to the venue.

But when I arrived, there were no flowers and no guests.

Williams was also nowhere to be found.

Had I come too late?

Stumbling, I searched every corner of the hall, but to no avail.

Panic crept in as I reached for my phone to call William.

Suddenly, the giant screen in the center of the hall lit up.

On it, William, dressed in a tailored suit, was kneeling before Jennifer in her white gown.

He was proposing.

"Jennifer, marry me," he said.

"I, William, swear to love you and only you for the rest of my life. I will never let you down."

It was the same vow he once made to me.

Now, it felt a knife stabbing into my heart.

I collapsed to the floor, unable to believe what I was seeing.

William had played me again, and I was foolish enough to believe him.

I couldn’t hold it back anymore. Blood gushed from my throat, pain ripping through my body as if I were being torn apart.

With the last bit of my strength, I lifted my head, desperate to see William one more time.

But in the end, I couldn’t.

Darkness swallowed me whole.

I died alone on a night no one would remember.

Later, an ambulance took my body to the hospital.

I hovered above as a ghost, watching Mike desperately try to save me, only to collapse in defeat, sobbing on the ground.

"Thank you, Mike," I whispered, but he couldn't hear me.

Then, he reached into my pocket, pulled out my phone, and glanced at it before dialing a number from his own.

I floated closer.

It was William’s number.

"What?" William answered almost instantly.

"No–" I wanted to stop Mike, but it was useless.

"Mr. Gavin, this is Whitney’s doctor," Mike said, his voice hoarse. "Please come to the hospital as soon as possible."

"Doctor? Hospital?" William let out a chuckle.

"What, did she fail at one trick and switch to another?

"Let me guess. Now she wants me to believe she’s dying?

"Tell her this. If she’s going to die, she'd better do it somewhere far away so I don’t have to see it."

Mike put down his phone. Disbelief was written all over his face.

I murmured softly, "William still hates me to the core."

'Fine. Leaving was the best ending anyway.'

But before I could even process the thought, my soul was suddenly pulled right in front of William.

Inside a lavishly decorated villa, he tossed his phone aside. He then turned and grabbed Jennifer by her shoulders before pressing her down onto the couch.

Jennifer let out a soft gasp, her eyes filled with teasing allure as she wrapped her arms around William. She smiled. "Aren't you afraid that if you mess with Whitney like this, she'll really get mad and run away for good?"

William sneered indifferently. "She wasn’t afraid of me being mad when she ran off with another man back then. She got knocked up, dumped, and came crawling back to have me marry her. She treated me like trash. It’s disgusting. Why shouldn’t I get back at her?"

His thumb brushed against Jennifer’s lips as he added coldly, "I only have enough space for one person in my heart. Besides, I won't tolerate any form of betrayal.

"If she really runs away this time, then good. I’ll finally be rid of her."

I stood there listening, and in that moment, I understood that this was just another act of revenge. I should have known.

He wanted so badly to get rid of me. Now that I was finally dead, no one would bother him anymore.

He should be relieved from now on.

It was what I had wanted too. So why did it still hurt so much?

Looking at the man I had once loved so deeply, I whispered, "Be happy, William. I hope you and the one you love will be happy forever."

For the next few days, William spent his time between nightclubs and Jennifer’s place. He never once returned to our house.

It was another wild night.

A group of people lay sprawled across the club’s lounge, drunk and laughing.

Someone said, "The way William ditched Whitney at the wedding was epic! She’s probably hiding somewhere and bawling her eyes out."

William swirled the liquor in his glass, smirking in agreement, but his face was obscured in the dim lighting, making his expression unreadable.

Another voice chimed in, "A gold-digging woman like Whitney must be losing her mind right now. Imagine watching her perfect, rich husband slip right through her fingers!"

"Exactly! She deserves to be left hanging a little longer."

"Yeah, women like that are just shameless."

The conversation grew more and more outrageous.

I stood there, listening to every word. Tears welled up in my eyes.

"Don’t worry. From now on, I’ll never bother him again," I said to no one in particular. Not like they could hear me.

I turned to drift away, hoping to catch a breath, but suddenly I heard a loud collision.

Crash!

A glass shattered against the floor, shards scattering in every direction.

William shot up from his seat. His expression was ice-cold.

"All of you, shut the hell up!"

Everyone was stunned for a moment.

I, too, looked at William in confusion.

He spoke again. “Whitney is mine. Only I can insult her. Why are you all even bringing her up? Don't you feel disgusted by just mentioning her name?”

The group immediately forced out awkward laughs.

"Ah, yes, we spoke out of turn."

"William, don’t be mad."

I stood frozen for a moment before letting out a bitter smile. I allowed myself to sink into the darkness.

Fate always seemed to go against my wishes.

Before, I never wanted to leave William, yet I was forced to. Now, I wished to leave, to never entangle myself with him again, yet I was trapped by his side, bound to him every second of every day.

That night, for the first time in a long while, William returned to our house.

He didn’t seem to sleep well.

In the middle of the night, he suddenly woke up.

He picked up his phone and glanced at the screen. It was filled with missed calls and messages from Jennifer.

He had drunk too much the previous night and never went to see her.

By now, he should probably call her back to smooth things over.

But unexpectedly, William frowned in irritation. Then, without hesitation, he blocked her.

I was puzzled. Weren’t they supposed to be madly in love, ready to spend forever together?

Just as I was wondering, I saw William scrolling through our chat history.

The last message from me was from the night before the wedding.

No matter how much he had humiliated or taken revenge on me in the past, I would always text him the next day, testing his mood and desperately trying to please him. I was terrified that he would abandon me.

But this time, five days had passed, and I hadn’t reached out to him even once.

William stared at the screen for a long time.

He finally typed a question mark in the chat box, only to delete it the next second.

Then, he got out of bed and called for his maid, Stella. “Has Whitney come back in the past few days?”

Stella answered, “Since the day Ms. Spencer left in her wedding dress, she hasn't returned.”

William’s expression instantly turned gloomy. “She’s been gone for days, and you didn’t think to tell me sooner?”

"I–" The maid stammered, unable to find an excuse.

She had merely followed William’s lead.

Since he had always looked down on and insulted me, as his maid, she naturally took the same attitude by treating me with indifference and disrespect.

I couldn’t really blame her for that.

"Get out," William ordered coldly.

Once the room was empty again, he sat back on the bed and murmured, "Gone, huh? Good. This time, you'd better not come back so you won’t be an eyesore anymore."

But strangely, in his voice, I caught a faint trace of something else. It was something that almost sounded like sorrow.

I must have misheard.

William hated me to the core. Why would he feel sorrow over my disappearance?

That night, William got in his car and drove off.

He sped through the streets recklessly, as if trying to outrun something.

I had never seen him like this before. It made me uneasy.

I shouted at the top of my lungs, “William! William, slow down!”

But he couldn’t hear me at all.

Just then, at an intersection ahead, someone ran a red light.

William spotted the person and swerved the car.

He narrowly avoided them, but his car was now headed straight for a concrete wall.

"William!"

Without thinking, I threw myself in front of him, trying to shield him.

But I had forgotten that I was just a spirit.

I couldn’t stop anything.

Bang!

The car crashed violently into the concrete wall.

An ambulance rushed him to the hospital.

I followed him into the emergency room, overcome with anxiety, but there was nothing I could do.

All I could do was stay by his bedside, gripping his hand tightly, calling his name over and over.

Thankfully, the airbag had deployed in time. His life wasn’t in danger, but his legs were severely injured.

After an entire night of emergency treatment, William finally woke up.

To my surprise, as soon as he woke up, he said, "Whitney, you’re back."

His eyes were bright with excitement as he glanced around the room. His expression then turned gloomy.

Suddenly, he grabbed the nurse who was adjusting his IV drip.

"Where’s Whitney? Where is she?"