I die on my wedding night.

When Zachary Gordon receives a call from the police asking him to identify my body, he snorts disdainfully. "Who cares whether she's dead? I'll be there for the funeral."

"We're not joking, Mr. Gordon. You should come down here."

He glances at the woman in his arms as a hint of impatience flickers in his eyes. "Fine."

When Zachary Gordon arrived at the police station, he had a woman by his side.

The two, dressed in luxury attire, looked completely out of place among the uniformed officers.

Zachary found the police officer who had called him and said indifferently, "I'm here. Where's Jeanie Sutton's body?"

The officer lifted his head and said solemnly, "Mr. Gordon, we received a report this afternoon about a body floating in the river. Based on the evidence, we have reason to suspect that your wife has been murdered—"

Zachary interrupted, his tone tinged with displeasure. "Just because there's a body, you assume it's Jeanie?"

"Apologies, but we can't confirm it yet. However, the dress on the body matches the custom gown from your wedding," the officer, Lewis Tiller, explained, glancing at Zachary with a hint of sympathy.

Standing behind them, Yvette Sutton curled her lips into a mocking smile. With a voice full of sarcasm, she said, "Zachary, could Jeanie be doing this to get back at you? Officer, you might not know this, but Jeanie loves her little disappearing acts. Maybe this is just another one of her pranks."

Officer Tiller was taken aback. He studied her for a moment, seemingly surprised by her words. "And you are?"

"I'm Jeanie's sister. No one knows her better than I do. When we were kids, she tricked me into going to an amusement park and deliberately left me there. Someone like her wouldn't die so easily."

Hearing her slander, I panicked. I rushed in front of the officers, desperately trying to explain. "No, it's not true! She's lying! Don't believe her!"

I had defended myself like this countless times when I was alive, yet no one had ever believed me—not even my own parents.

But now, no one could hear my cries anymore.

Officer Tiller frowned slightly. "There were bloodstains on the wedding gown. An initial test confirmed that they belonged to Ms. Jeanie. The gown also had multiple knife slashes, matching the fatal wounds on her abdomen. Moreover, what's even more tragic is that Ms. Jeanie was pregnant."

Me? I was pregnant?

My period had been late for over half a month, but I assumed it was due to stress. I never expected that I had been carrying a child.

A wave of joy and sorrow crashed over me—I never even got to meet my baby.

With all this evidence, Zachary had to believe the truth now, right?

A flicker of disbelief crossed Zachary's face, but he quickly dismissed it. "Impossible. There's no way she was pregnant. This body is definitely not hers."

He was so certain that it wasn't me because he had always used protection. But even the best protection wasn't foolproof.

Officer Tiller hesitated, momentarily speechless. After a long pause, he finally said, "Mr. Gordon, please remain calm. We are still investigating, but I'm afraid the results will not be ideal—"

"Where is the body? I want to see it for myself," Zachary demanded. He finally remembered to see my corpse.

"This way. I'll take you to it."

My spirit followed them as they walked toward my remains.

The corpse had already begun to emit a faint stench. Beneath the white cloth lay a bloated, deformed body, swollen from being submerged in the river. Deep, horrific wounds covered my abdomen, and my face had been deliberately smashed beyond recognition.

I shut my eyes. I didn't dare to look, let alone relive the agony I had suffered.

"This smell…" Yvette frowned, stepping back to avoid the stench.

Zachary furrowed his brows but forced himself to endure it. He examined the body repeatedly. My spirit drifted behind him, waiting.

He would recognize me. After all, I had been by his side for over ten years. He would take me home and give me a proper burial.

I clung to that sliver of hope—only to hear him let out a cold chuckle.

"This isn't Jeanie. You've got the wrong person. She couldn't be pregnant, and there's no way she was murdered. Do whatever you want with this corpse. Don't bother me again if there's nothing else."

The room fell silent. No one had expected Zachary, my husband, to be so indifferent to my death.

He withdrew his gaze, his expression full of disdain, as if even looking at the body for a second longer would taint his sight.

Zachary added, "If anyone is working with her to put on a show, listen carefully—tell her that in a few days, it'll be Tessie's death anniversary. She'd better go to the cemetery and atone for her sins. Otherwise, don't blame me for dealing with her."

His final words carried a bone-chilling coldness. It was hard to believe they came from his mouth.

I knew all too well what he was capable of. Even if he wouldn't take my life, he would make sure I suffered.

For the first time, I felt a strange sense of relief that I was dead. Though my death had been gruesome, at least my body was still whole.

Officer Tiller looked as if he wanted to say something else, but Zachary had already turned away, pulling Yvette along with him.

I watched his departing figure as an indescribable pain swelled within me.

I was already dead and had become nothing more than a wandering spirit. But somehow, my heart still hurt.

As he walked further away, my spirit was suddenly pulled along, forced to follow him. I tried to distance myself from him, but I couldn't.

I followed them into the car. Yvette sat in the passenger seat. My eyes landed on the dashboard sticker in front of her. It read, "Nini's Exclusive Seat."

That sticker now felt like the cruelest joke.

Yvette spoke with feigned concern. "Zach… about Jeanie…"

At the mention of my name, Zachary frowned again. "Who knows where she's off enjoying herself now?"

A barely perceptible smirk flickered across Yvette's lips before she continued, "Zach, do you love Jeanie?"

At her question, an inexplicable tension gripped me. I wanted to hear his answer.

The car fell into an eerie silence for a few seconds.

"I don't love her. I hate her to death."

It felt like a giant hand had seized my heart and squeezed it tight, suffocating me with pain.

Zachary, I had already died. You didn't have to hate me anymore.

There was a time when he had been unwilling to let me suffer even the slightest injury. He cherished me like a treasure, shielding me from every hardship.

He once promised to make me the happiest woman in the world. Back then, I lived like a princess, carefully protected by him.

The man he used to be and the man he was now were opposite.

It turned out I was the only one still living in the past.

I followed them back—to the home that once belonged to Zachary and me, our marital home.

Today was supposed to be our wedding day. But he abandoned me at the altar, all because Yvette had threatened to take her own life.

She had cried over the phone.

"Zachary, how could you marry her? She's the one who killed your sister! She abandoned me when we were kids! She's nothing but a hypocritical, wicked woman! If you marry her, I'll kill myself to join Tessie."

The moment he heard Tessie's name, Zachary left me without hesitation. He ran to Yvette.

In just two hours, I became the laughingstock of Seaville.

No one knew what I had gone through. They only believed that I had killed Tessie Gordon and abandoned a young Yvette.

I didn't care what others thought of me, but what mattered was that Zachary believed it too.

When I was alive, no one stood by my side. And now that I was dead, no one did either. But…

Tessie's death was closely tied to Yvette.

I shouted Zachary's name like a madwoman, but he couldn't hear me.

Did he even know the difference between me and Yvette?

I wanted to cry, but I realized that the dead have no tears.

"Zach… can we get married?" Yvette asked.

I bit my lip hard as I stared at Zachary.

Zachary froze for a moment, then seemed to think of something and said, "Let her come back and atone for her sins first."

"But what if she never comes back?"

"Then she can die out there."

At that moment, my heart completely shattered.

I really did die out there.

It turned out that everything I had been begged for was something Yvette could get effortlessly. It turned out Zachary's love truly couldn't withstand the test of time.

Because of Tessie, our wedding kept getting postponed.

…

Two years ago, Tessie suddenly became obsessed with motorcycles. I had already been an experienced rider for a long time.

She said I was her role model and wanted me to be her mentor. From that moment on, I took her to every race.

That was until one important race—I couldn't make it because I was too busy.

But I never expected Tessie to take my spot as a substitute secretly.

An accident happened during the race, and some of the racers didn't survive.

I was in the middle of a meeting at work when I got the call. By the time we rushed over, the only thing left of Tessie was her ashes.

Her parents cried their hearts out. And after they were done crying, they placed all the blame on me.

I had no way to defend myself, so I could only endure everything in silence.

At first, Zachary would at least say a few words in my defense, but over time, he turned against me too.

On the day Tessie died, they forced me to kneel in front of her urn all night. That night, heavy snow fell, and I shivered from the cold.

My knees turned red and swollen, soaked in the freezing snow. I cried and begged him to let me off.

But he stared at me with hatred in his eyes and said, "Let you off? Did you ever let Tessie off? Tessie is dead. Why do you still get to live?"

I didn't know how to refute him.

Zachary wouldn't break up with me, but he wouldn't let me go either. He couldn't accept the fact that the woman he loved had killed his younger sister.

After that incident, he rarely touched me. And even when he did, it was rushed and indifferent.

I could only endure his torment in numbness.

After two years of mutual torment, we finally entered the "sacred halls of marriage".

I asked him why he still chose to marry me, and he said he wanted to keep me by his side forever—to make my life a living hell.

…

The next morning, it seemed like Zachary finally remembered me. He called me, but no one picked up. He texted me, but no one replied.

I would never answer his calls again, and I would never reply to his messages anymore.

He called several more times before he finally lost his patience. His expression darkened as he tightened his grip on the phone. "Jeanie, would it kill you to answer the phone? What kind of trick are you pulling this time? Trying to fool me again, aren't you?"

I sat helplessly in the backseat of the car. It wasn't that I didn't want to answer. It was because I was already dead. He just refused to believe it.

Zachary drove to another one of my houses. He called my name over and over again, but silence was his only response.

Unable to find me, he stood by the table, gripping its edge so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

"Jeanie, if you're playing a game, you better make sure I never find out. Otherwise, I'll make you wish you were dead," he sneered.

Suddenly, as if something had just occurred to him, Zachary quickly walked out.

My spirit followed him. He was driving fast—so fast it made me instinctively afraid.

The blurred scenery rushing past looked oddly familiar.

This was… the road to Jerome's house. Had he returned?

I wasn't wrong—Zachary drove straight to Jerome's house and rang the doorbell repeatedly.

Jerome Locke was a child my parents had sponsored. I always saw him as a brother. He had been living abroad for years.

When the door finally opened, Jerome didn't look well.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Where's Jeanie?" Zachary demanded.

Jerome froze for a moment at the mention of my name. "Nini… she's already dead."

"So now even you are playing along with her? Are you two that bored? Just because I left her at the wedding? She deserved it, then. Someone like her should die."

Jerome's shoulders trembled slightly. He was trying to suppress his emotions, but his tense muscles and bulging veins betrayed him.

"Zachary, what are you talking about? Don't you know Nini is dead? Didn't the police call you?" Jerome snapped.

Zachary's expression darkened instantly. He pressed his lips into a hard line, a flicker of rage flashing in his eyes.

"Jerome, don't tell me you've been fooled by Jeanie too? She's really outdone herself this time—she even tricked you."

I didn't understand why Zachary was so convinced that I wasn't dead. Did he really think that I was that deceitful?

"Tell her to come out. Where is she? I knew you still couldn't let her go. What's wrong? Did you forget how her father nearly beat you to death back then?" Zachary jeered.

I froze.

There was a time when Jerome walked out of my father's room covered in blood. After that, he left the country.

No one knew what had happened. I had always assumed he had done something terrible. But it turned out… it was all because of me.

Zachary had run out of patience. "I need to take her to apologize to Tessie. Hand her over, now."

Jerome finally lost control and threw a punch at Zachary. He took a deep breath to calm himself, but his eyes still burned with fury. Even his tone sounded heavier than before.

"Zachary, how many times do I have to say it? Nini is dead! She's dead! Didn't you claim her body yourself?" he shouted.

Zachary still wasn't convinced. "Impossible. What kind of spell did she put you under to make you protect her to this extent? After all these years, you still love her? She's nothing but a liar—she doesn't deserve to be loved by anyone. She not only killed Tessie, but she also abandoned Yvette. How could you still like someone like that?"

I was in so much pain that I couldn't even argue back.

Jerome had had enough by then. He tackled Zachary to the ground and started punching him.

"Zachary, you're unworthy of her! Do you even know that Nini didn't kill Tessie? Have you ever investigated the truth? How dare you accuse Nini without proof? Do you remember what you promised me?

"You said you'd take care of Nini. You said you wouldn't let her suffer. You said you would treat her better than I ever could. And now? You drove her to her death. You forced her to die in such an undignified way. How dare you come looking for her now?"

Zachary's eyes widened in shock. "What did you say? Jeanie didn't kill Tessie?"

Jerome let out a cold chuckle. "What do you think? Nini has been by your side for years. Do you really not know what kind of person she is? She rescues stray cats—how evil could she possibly be?"

Just then, a voice interrupted them.

"Mr. Gordon, we've found Mrs. Gordon."

Both men immediately turned toward the secretary, Taylor Grant.

"The police have identified the perpetrator in Mrs. Gordon's murder. They've also concluded their investigation into the crime's circumstances… and regarding the DNA verification, yesterday's body has been confirmed as Mrs. Gordon."