Chapter 4
“If you don’t reply soon, I’ll have your little cottage blown up so your foster parents won’t even have ashes left.”
I floated nearby, looking at the empty chat screen with a bitter smile.
Oh, Daniel Reed…
I’m already dead. If anyone really replied to your messages, now that would be a ghost.
But to my shock, the next second, a reply popped up.
“Stop looking for me. I will never go back with you.”
The veins on Daniel’s forehead pulsed violently.
He instinctively clenched his phone, though even he couldn’t tell if it was from excitement o fury.
Even I was stunned.
Who was pretending to be me, answering Daniel’s messages?
Just as Daniel was about to call, an old woman stepped out from the neighboring yard.
“Who are you looking for?”
She was hard of hearing, so her voice was loud. But the moment she heard the bodyguards mention “Emily Carter,” she trembled all over, slammed the door shut, and didn’t look back. Seeing this, Daniel quickly chased after her.
“Ma’am, do you know something? Where is Emily?”
From inside came the old woman’s trembling voice:
“Don’t ask me. Emmy is dead, she’s been dead a long time…”
Daniel’s body stiffened instantly.
“Old lady, what nonsense are you spouting?”
But there was no more sound from within.
The truth was, Mrs. Thompson-the neighbor-knew very well that I was dead.
When Chloe Miller’s men had dragged my half-dead body to the town entrance and set me ablaze, it was Mrs. Thompson who had been forced to hand them the torch.
Now, her words made Daniel uneasy and confused.
Behind him, a bodyguard sneered:
“Mr. Reed, she’s probably just a crazy old woman. You can’t trust what she says.”
“And didn’t Emily just text you? How could a dead person send messages?”
Daniel nodded, his expression easing.
“You’re right.”
He turned and left with his men, while behind the door Mrs. Thompson shook violently, tears streaming down her face as she muttered over and over:
“I’m sorry, Emmy. I’m so sorry. They threatened my grandson. They said if I didn’t burn you, they’c
break his leas
”
2/2 40.0%
1:25 pm
DDO
break his legs…”
“It’s Grandma’s fault. Forgive me…”
I drifted not far away, shaking my head, wanting to reach out and comfort her.
Grandma, it’s not your fault.
The true culprits were the ones who wanted me dead.
Thinking of Chloe, I clenched my fists and returned, intending to frighten her.
And there she was, clutching the very phone that had once been mine-
pretending to be me as she typed messages to Daniel.
Memories I had almost buried came surging back.
Two months ago, Ryan Brooks had beaten me within an inch of my life, then tossed me to a group of vagrants to be violated.
Afterward, he had me dumped back at the Miller family’s door.
But Chloe intercepted me.
She publicly claimed I had gone missing, while secretly bribing professional killers to drag me tc that countryside cottage.
“Emily, why should you be the true daughter? You never should have appeared in front of ou parents. You never should have lived in this world.”
“Now I’ll send you where you belong.”
Towering above me in high heels, she looked down with contempt.
She reveled in watching me kneel and beg for my life.
In return, she only inflicted harsher torment and revenge.
She forced someone close to me to burn me alive, then scattered my ashes.
After covering her tracks, she confiscated my phone.
And for these past two months, she had been secretly holding it, reading Daniel’s endless texts
to me.
1:25 pm D D
