All Chapters of She's Not My Ex: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

Opal's adoptive parents had always preferred boys to girls. They hit and scolded her whenever they wanted and often threw her out of the house. Whenever they did, I brought her home and gave her snacks I had been saving for myself. She once told me, "Tommy, you're the only person who has ever treated me well. From now on, I'll do whatever you ask. I'll never talk back." But now, she looked ready to tear me apart. Marcus's eyes shifted from her to me, and his expression hardened. "Tommy, what more do you have to say?" I stared at Opal and spoke one word at a time. "She's not Opal. The real Opal is already dead!" The crowd broke into an uproar as I made that statement. Opal shook with so much anger that even the finger she pointed at me was shaking. "Tommy! You... You've completely lost your mind!" Marcus had lost his patience too, and he signaled for the officers to leave. Then he said, "Take him back to the station! Detain him for disorderly conduct!" An officer immedia

Everyone fell silent for a moment. The silence was so unnatural that even the wind seemed to stop. Then all hell broke loose. "What is the meaning of this?" Victor's expression froze. "Captain, what's this supposed to mean?!" Rochelle pulled her husband's arm with startling speed, a reaction that did not fit her status as a wealthy lady. She said nothing, but her eyes changed. It was not fear, but it was calculation, as if she were quickly deciding whether there was still a way out. Opal stood perfectly still. Unlike the others, she showed no surprise or anger. She simply stood there, her expression calm… Too calm. So calm that it looked unnatural. Dean reacted first. He shook off Opal's hand, his voice rising. "No! Arrest her! Why are you arresting me? I have nothing to do with this! I don't know anything!" No one paid him any attention. Marcus gripped my phone, his gaze moving from Victor to Rochelle, then from Rochelle to Opal. He said nothing else. He was wait

The basement was a wine cellar. That was what the first search had concluded. But this time, the officers went downstairs and didn't come back for a long while. Marcus's radio crackled. "Captain, you need to come down and see this." The tremor in the officer's voice told me something was wrong. Marcus walked toward the basement entrance, and I followed him down the stairs. The staircase was long, the lights were dim, and the walls were cold. The air grew colder with every step. It was not the natural chill of a basement. It was a different kind of cold. It was something that came from machines… Something artificial. It was cold air from refrigeration. Someone was running some sort of powerful cooling equipment down here. There was a door at the bottom of the stairs, and it was already opened. An officer waited in the doorway, his face pale. I walked inside. The basement was huge, even larger than the living room above. Wine racks lined the walls and were filled

I closed the folder and asked Marcus, "When's the trial?" "Next month at the earliest," Marcus said. I nodded. Before I left, I went to the medical examiner's office. The medical examiner who met me was a young woman with glasses and a quiet voice. She led me into a small room and handed me a list. "These are Opal's belongings." On the list was a phone, a necklace, and a jacket. The phone was shattered, its screen cracked like a spiderweb. The medical examiner said it had fallen while Opal struggled on the operating table. Struggled… She had struggled on that operating table. The necklace was a thin silver chain with a small, opal pendant. I had given it to her for her eighteenth birthday. She had worn it ever since and had never taken it off. I picked up the necklace and closed my hand around it. The opal pendant warmed in my palm, as if it were responding to my touch. The jacket was hers. It was a denim jacket that had already faded from washing too many times w