He only wanted to drag me back to continue serving as Chloe’s substitute—to bear children for her.
They searched every corner of the cottage. Inside, it was empty, even the paint peeling off the walls.
Clearly, no one had lived here for a long time.
After waiting so long without finding me, Daniel’s patience began to run thin.
“Get out here, now!”
“Even if you were healing from injuries, it’s been long enough. How much longer do you plan to hide?”
He had long heard of Ryan Brooks’s violent temper—how his three previous wives had all divorced under his abuse.
Daniel assumed I had returned here just to recover from the beatings.
I drifted bitterly behind him.
My ashes had already been mixed with dirt and buried beneath the cobblestone path.
Every step they took trampled on my remains.
But Daniel remained oblivious.
He kept his head down, still sending me messages.
“Emily, I’ll give you five minutes. Come out immediately.”
“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 or 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.