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?"

"Whitney?" The nurse didn't understand and found it baffling.

"She's my girl–"

"William–"

A few of his friends walked in. Their expressions were somber. "Whitney isn’t here. You were in a car accident. It's been twenty-four hours, and she still hasn’t shown up. Most likely, just like back then, she ran away again."

William’s face soured.

After a moment, he let out a sarcastic laugh. "Of course. This is exactly the kind of thing Whitney would do. How ridiculous. I actually wondered if she'd be here this time."

I shook my head, desperately shouting at him, "I'm here, William! I've always been here!"

I wanted to tell him that I never abandoned him. But no matter how loudly I called out, William couldn’t hear me.

In the end, I broke down crying.

Fate was truly cruel. I was right beside him, yet he had no way of knowing.

The people around him started cursing at me, venting William’s anger for him.

"Ugh, shameless gold diggers like her should just get lost!"

"Yeah, as far away as possible!"

I leaned against the corner of the wall, listening to them hold a public trial against me.

Night fell once again.

I stood up dazedly from the corner and suddenly realized that my soul had become much fainter.

Could it be that even my time as a ghost was running out?

"Hmm." In his sleep, William furrowed his brows.

I floated over, wanting to smooth them out for him.

But then, he suddenly spoke. "Whitney, I hate you!"

My entire being trembled, and then an overwhelming sadness crashed over me.

'William, I'm sorry! I've disappointed you again. I'm sorry.'

A cool sensation slid down the corner of my eyes. So even a soul could shed tears.

I raised a hand to wipe them away, only to see that my hand had become even more transparent.

Could this be tied to William’s feelings toward me?

The more he gave up on me, the closer I came to completely disappearing.

'William.' I caressed his brows, and the sheer pain of my reluctance to leave tore me apart.

The next morning, the doctor came in for rounds.

William, however, was adamant about being discharged.

No matter how much his friends tried to dissuade him, he wouldn’t listen.

I was getting anxious when Mike walked in. "If you still have a conscience, then please take care of yourself. Don’t let Whitney’s efforts go to waste."

William looked up, the flames of hatred burning in his eyes. "So you’re one of those doctors who helped Whitney lie to me too?

"You mentioned "her efforts"? Is that what you call abandoning me for another man every time I was in trouble?

"Does a woman like that even deserve my love?"

I had heard these words many times before.

Yet, I still couldn't stop the deep sorrow from flooding in.

Hearing William’s words, Mike couldn't hold back any longer. "Whitney isn’t that kind of person. Have you considered that maybe she had her reasons?"

"Haha." William immediately sneered.

"What kind of reason could she possibly have?

"A selfish woman like her deserves to die!

"From now on, I don’t want anyone mentioning her in front of me."

Every word and sentence cut into me like a blade.

I clenched my fists. Tears streamed down my face.

Maybe this was for the best. This way, William could forget about me sooner and start a new life.

When that happened, I would completely disappear from this world.

William insisted on leaving the hospital.

Once he got home, he had all of my belongings gathered up and burned.

"A woman as unfaithful as her, I feel sick just looking at her belongings."

Our housekeeper, Tina, who had just rushed home, watched as my belongings were thrown into the fire one by one. Unable to hold back, she spoke up. "Mr. Gavin, Ms. Spencer truly loved you. You were the only person she cared about."

She had been in this household the longest, witnessing all the sweet moments between William and I. Although I returned with a ruined reputation, she had seen every little thing I did for him. It had moved her.

"Only me?" William let out a mocking laugh.

"If she only loved me, then why did she run away again when I was at my worst?"

"I–" Tina was at a loss for words.

I had already been shattered into pieces by grief.

"I didn’t run, William. I never ran away. I’ve always been here."

He couldn’t hear me.

In his rage, he grabbed a box from the ground.

It was the one I used to store our photos.

There were pictures of us climbing Mount Titancrest and hiking the Stormridge Heights. Everytime we reached a peak, he would pull me close to take a picture. He once said that one day, we would look back and reminisce on all these photos when we were old.

Those were our happy, beautiful memories.

"No! Please don’t burn them!"

I desperately tried to stop him, crying and begging. My eyes filled with bloodied tears. But William still emptied the photos into the fire.

As the flames swallowed them, my body became even more transparent. It was almost completely invisible.

I was about to disappear.

'Goodbye, William.'

"Whitney, the biggest regret of my life was falling in love with you. I will forget you completely, forever."

Clenching his jaw, William poured out the rest of the box’s contents.

Suddenly, he noticed some documents. They are a will and a donation agreement.