Chapter 1

Not only had I lost my wife, but everyone even looked at me as though I were a lunatic.

I ran back to my parents' house, and my mother was trimming a potted plant.

I grabbed her by the shoulders and asked where Sophia was. My mother touched my forehead in horror. "Are you… Are you losing your mind just because you wanted a girlfriend? You don't even have one in the first place. Where did this Sophia come from?"

I went to see my best friend, Geoff. He had been my best man yesterday.

He was playing games at a cybercafe. After I told him, he laughed so hard he almost doubled over. "Leon, have you been single so long you're starting to hallucinate? We were drinking at a bar last night. What wedding are you talking about?"

I even went to the clerk's office.

The clerk pulled up my file. Under marital status, one word was written.

Unmarried.

"Impossible! That's impossible!" I slammed the counter so hard it shook. "We watched the clerk stamp it ourselves! The marriage certificate is on my nightstand! How could I be unmarried?"

The security guards dragged me out.

I stood under the scorching hot sun, chilled to the bone. It was as if the whole world had conspired overnight to erase Sophia.

I refused to accept it.

Sophia was a living, breathing person. She had parents, a job, and a life people could trace.

I went to the neighborhood where I remembered her parents living, but when I knocked on the familiar security door, a middle-aged man I did not recognize opened it. He asked, "Who are you looking for?"

"I'm looking for Danny and Linda Wellington. They live here!"

"What? I've lived in this house for a decade, and I've never heard of anyone named Danny or Linda!"

At that moment, my whole world collapsed. Had those eight years really been nothing but a dream? Was I suffering from severe delusions, just like what the doctor had said?

To prove I was crazy, my family sent me to a psychiatric hospital. If they were trying to make me forget, their methods were laughably crude.

Sedatives, shock treatment, and a locked ward. The doctor repeated the same words in my ears again and again. "Leon, accept reality. Sophia is a product of your hallucination. She's a reflection of what you want as a perfect wife."

But I knew she was real.

When Sophia smiled, a shallow dimple would appear in her left cheek. When she was nervous, she bit her lower lip. She had a red mole on her collarbone.

If she was just a hallucination, how could I remember how she felt in my arms? If it was a dream, why did my heart hurt so much?

On the forty-fifth day after I was locked up, I pretended to cooperate and earned the nurse's trust. During yard time, I stole an ambulance and rammed it through the gate.

I had to find proof, or find her.

As I drove blindly, a speeding truck shot out from around the corner. The shriek of brakes and the violent impact hit me at once.

The moment my body flew through the air, I stared at the gray sky, and only one thought remained in my mind.

'Sophia, can I find you in the afterlife this time?'