Chapter 6: I Wish I Could Kill Erin Whittaker

Chapter 6: Chapter 6: I Wish I Could Kill Erin Whittaker

"Julian... Cece doesn’t want you to marry me," Erin cried.

"Ignore her. We’ll proceed with the engagement. Once she’s out of tricks, she’ll come back on her own." Julian thought I was deliberately using this stunt to sabotage his and Erin Whittaker’s engagement party.

It was an engagement party he had made public, one he practically announced to the entire world.

He thought that once I realized I couldn’t change anything, I would stop pestering him.

But he didn’t know that I had already gotten over him.

If I were still alive, I would probably be on a plane leaving Meridia by now.

"Julian... Why doesn’t Cece like me? She pushed me down the stairs and nearly killed me, and now she’s using these tricks to ruin our engagement ceremony. If your mother found out, she would never approve," Erin cried.

Julian’s expression darkened. "What is she good for besides bewitching my mother with her tricks!"

I gave a sarcastic laugh, not even bothering to explain.

He couldn’t hear anything I said anyway.

He never listened to my explanations when I was alive, let alone now that I’m dead.

...

Julian and Erin Whittaker went into the bedroom, leaving me to sit wretchedly on the sofa.

Laughter occasionally drifted from the room, each peal like a sharp knife slicing through my soul.

I looked down at my stomach, feeling my very soul tremble.

The child who never even had a chance to form... had vanished, just like that, along with me.

’If Julian knew I had died while carrying his child, he’d probably laugh in his sleep, wouldn’t he?’

’Finally, someone had eliminated his problem for him.’

BZZT! At three in the morning, Julian’s phone buzzed.

"Hello?" Julian answered, his voice edged with impatience.

"Mr. Fletcher, we found a headless female corpse at Novari Gulch. The bracelet on her wrist has been identified as belonging to your sister, Cecilia Caldwell. We need you to come and identify the body."

Julian shot bolt upright, his breathing suddenly ragged.

Outside, lightning flashed and thunder roared. A sudden, intense headache struck Julian.

"Cece?"

In a flash of lightning, Julian thought he saw a figure in the living room.

It looked just like Cecilia.

I stared at Julian in astonishment.

Can he see me?!

But a moment later, Julian cursed, grabbing his jacket to leave.

In the bedroom, Erin Whittaker woke up and padded out barefoot.

"Cecilia, oh Cecilia. You can’t blame me. If you have to blame someone, blame Julian for being so exceptional. What woman wouldn’t want him? I just didn’t think you’d be so stupid as to actually believe me. Ha... You had it coming, dying like that!"

I lunged at her in a frenzy, my hands going for her neck as I wailed, "You killed me! It was you! I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!"

I tried with all my might to kill the woman who had murdered me, but I couldn’t do a thing. My hands passed right through her.

I couldn’t get my revenge. I was completely powerless.

...

「At the police station.」

"The victim was sexually assaulted before her death, and the clothes she’s wearing aren’t hers."

Julian stood beside the autopsy table, his body rigid. "This bracelet... Cecilia lost it two months ago."

"Are you sure it’s this one?" the detective asked.

"Yes. It was my grandmother’s..." It was meant for the future daughter-in-law of the Fletcher family. He had given it to Cecilia on her eighteenth birthday.

"Cecilia has... a mole on her right breast." Julian was silent for a long time before listing my identifying marks. "And on the left side of her pubic bone... a red birthmark."

He had told the police I was his sister.

’But how could a brother possibly know about a birthmark in such an intimate place?’

The detectives froze for a moment, exchanged a glance, and had the medical examiner check the body.

"If your description is accurate, then this body isn’t Cecilia’s."

Julian slowly closed his eyes, letting out a visible sigh of relief.

"Mr. Fletcher, it seems you’re hiding a great deal from us." The lead detective on the case frowned and led Julian out of the room.

"What, exactly, is your relationship with Cecilia?"