Chapter 3 Gone for Good

A pair of hands suddenly yanked me away.

I spun around, only to realize that I did not feel any pain. There was not a single wound on my body. And somehow, I was in Zoe's car.

The sauna I had been trapped in moments ago felt like nothing more than a dream.

Zoe was driving at breakneck speed, staring straight ahead as tears streamed down her face. I knew she was grieving for my mother.

"Aunt Zoe…" I reached out to wipe her tears, but my hand passed straight through her face.

Staring blankly at my transparent body, I finally understood.

I was dead.

…

By the time I had fully processed that realization, Zoe had already arrived at Miller Estate. She kicked the door open and shouted at the top of her lungs.

"Tristan! Get out here! Where have you locked Aria up? She's barely hanging on! Let her out, now!"

The moment Zoe remembered the state I had been in when I called her, her voice began to tremble. She could not bear to imagine what might have happened to me.

My father sauntered out of a room, several buttons on his collar fastened incorrectly.

"Zoe? Did Aria send you here? Didn't I tell her I'd let her out in the morning so she could get some sleep before her exam? It was just a quiet place out in the suburbs. She's as oversensitive as her mother."

Zoe closed her eyes, forcing herself to stay calm.

"A sauna at 160 to 175 degrees isn't something to take lightly! Harper is already dead because of you. If you have even a shred of humanity left, don't let both of them die at your hands!"

Silence fell over the entire estate.

My father stood frozen for a long moment before letting out a cold laugh.

"So, Aria couldn't fool me by herself, and now she's dragged you into it too? It's only two or three years in prison. What's Harper making such a fuss about? Besides, she'll still be Mrs. Miller when she gets out."

He glanced at the urn in Zoe's arms and sneered. "So, pretending to be dead didn't work. Now, you're going to tell me you've even got her ashes?"

Zoe glared at my father, so furious she could barely contain herself.

She was just about to scream at him when Stella suddenly rushed out of the room and shrieked. "Ah! Tristan!"

Clutching her head, she cowered behind my father and pointed a trembling finger at the urn in Zoe's arms.

"There's something filthy in that box! I saw it! It's horrible! Is Harper trying to get someone to take revenge on me?"

She looked so pitiful as she cried that my father couldn't help feeling sorry for her.

He immediately pointed at the bodyguards. "Throw that disgusting thing out!"

I panicked, instinctively wrapping my transparent body around my mother's urn as I floated in the air, desperately trying to shield it.

Zoe stared at him in disbelief and shouted, "These really are Harper's ashes!"

She clutched my mother's urn even tighter, refusing to let it go. When the bodyguards rushed toward her, she desperately shoved them to the ground.

Stella only grew more frightened as she sobbed in my father's arms.

Seeing her so terrified, he lost what little patience he had left. His expression darkened as he strode toward Zoe.

"I really underestimated Harper. She sent one person after another to fool me and make me feel sorry for her, and now she's even using this disgusting thing to scare Stella! Well, I'll be damned if I let her get her way!"

He waved to the bodyguards, ordering them to restrain Zoe. Then he snatched the urn from her himself.

I floated frantically around him, reaching for the urn again and again, but my hands passed right through his body every time.

He strode over to the faucet. Water rushed out. Within seconds, the running water washed my mother's ashes down the drain.

I stared at the rushing water, frozen in place.

They were gone. Every last bit of them. He had not even left my mother her ashes.

I did not even have a heart anymore, so why did my chest still hurt so much?