Mandy seized the opportunity to throw herself into Brandon's arms. She nuzzled against him, whining sweetly that she wanted to stay with him forever.
A family of three. Happy. Harmonious.
I, a lonely ghost, could only stand aside and watch, my spirit weeping silent tears.
Three years ago, it happened on this very riverbank.
A phone call from Bonnie had distracted me, and in that split second, the crowd surged, separating me from Mandy. Later, surveillance footage showed the last person to make contact with her was Bonnie's "white moonlight"—Brandon Pruitt.
I had tried to find him. I wanted to grab him by the collar and demand the truth. But time and again, Bonnie blocked my path.
No matter how I knelt, no matter how I begged, she would only glare at me, her face twisted in righteous anger.
"I did like Brandon once, but that's ancient history," she would snap. "You can't drag an innocent man into this just to evade your own responsibility. Justin, the misery you've caused is enough. Don't bully a pitiful man to make yourself feel better."
Her accusations piled onto my guilt like stones.
Desperate to find Mandy, I quit my job. I gave up my dreams. I spent my days rushing down dead-end roads. In three years, I traveled across half the country. I knelt until my knees bled at over a hundred temples, praying for a miracle.
Each time I left with hope; each time I returned with nothing but ash in my mouth.
The ridicule of neighbors and the condemnation of relatives swallowed me whole. My parents' accusations left me nowhere to hide. Night after night, I punished my own body. I cried until my throat was raw, repenting for a mistake that wasn't mine.
In the end, the burden became too heavy. I chose death to end the pain.
But even as the icy river water filled my lungs, I couldn't forget that night three years ago. And I couldn't forgive the incompetent fool I had been.
It wasn't until I rushed toward death that the truth finally pierced the veil.
Mandy's disappearance wasn't my fault.
It was her. Bonnie. To protect Brandon, to rekindle their old flame, she'd abused her badge to spin a monstrous lie.
Mandy wasn't lost. She was hidden.
And I wasn't the villain. I was just Brandon's scapegoat.
My spectral heart seized—a phantom agony sharper than the icy water that had claimed me. Grief threatened to dissolve what little remained of my soul.