Chapter 2

At that moment, I hesitated.

I had completed so many missions, but Audrey was the very first target who had ever made my heart skip a beat.

After turning it over in my mind, I decided to stay.

Back in the real world, I was just an orphan with no family to call my own anyway, so it made more sense to remain here and build a life with Audrey.

At first, things were genuinely peaceful and sweet between us. But everything changed after my twin brother, Owen, who had been abducted years ago, was found and brought home.

Owen came back into our lives shortly after Audrey and I got married.

Faced with the son they thought they had lost forever, Mom and Dad broke down in tears of absolute joy. No matter what Owen said or did, they believed him and gave him anything he wanted.

I could understand my parents' reaction.

For some reason, though, Audrey started growing incredibly close to Owen as well. I remembered seeing Owen whispering something to her one day, and that very night, she uncharacteristically drank herself into a total stupor.

Once she sobered up, her entire attitude toward me shifted, and she became increasingly distant and cold. I tried asking her what was wrong, but she always brushed it off.

Fortunately, Audrey got pregnant not long after that and gave birth to our son, Ethan Winslow.

The arrival of our baby finally eased the tension between us, and I poured every ounce of love I had into Ethan.

When he was little, Ethan looked at me like I was the center of his universe, his protector and the rock he could always lean on.

As he grew older, though, he inexplicably started gravitating toward Owen, too. He was constantly talking about how cool Owen's tattoos were, insisting he wanted to get inked just like him when he grew up.

I didn't know what Owen had gone through during all those years he was missing, but my gut told me to keep Ethan far away from him.

But the harder I tried to shield him, the more Ethan resented me for it.

At the time, I just chalked it up to a kid going through a rebellious phase. That was until Ethan's birthday party.

I came home with his favorite cake, only to stop at the front door when I saw him introducing his family to his classmates.

With a massive, proud grin on his face, he pointed at Owen and said, "This is my dad. Pretty cool, right? Don't you think he looks perfect with my mom?"

In that instant, my blood ran cold, and I realized that my entire reason for staying in this world had become an absolute joke.

Just look at me now, lying in the ICU with nobody coming to check on me.

I could feel my soul slowly pulling away from my body, and I sighed.

This was never my actual body to begin with, and I should've never let myself crave that fleeting taste of warmth.

Growing up in an orphanage, I had spent my whole life dreaming of having a mother, a father, a brother, and a wife who truly loved me.

In the end, that was the exact thing that walked me right into a dead end.

"Where's Uncle Owen? Is he okay?"

Through the haze, I heard Ethan's voice.

"Ethan, your Uncle Owen is going to be just fine," a nurse said.

She knew our family and told him, "It's actually your dad who's in trouble."

Hearing those words, Ethan let out a massive sigh of relief, a bright grin spreading across his face. "Oh, so Dad's the one who's sick! That's awesome. I'm just glad Uncle Owen is okay!"

The young nurse seemed to think he was just too little to understand what was actually happening, because she tried to guide him toward the ICU to come see me.

Ethan yanked his hand out of her grip, his face tightening with annoyance.

"I don't want to see him! It'd be better if he died! If he's gone, I can finally have Uncle Owen be my dad. Uncle Owen is actually cool, and he actually loves me. I'm going to see him instead!" said Ethan.

Floating in midair, my soul stared down at him in disbelief.

Was this the boy I had given every single ounce of my love to since the day he was born?

I was nothing more than a spirit now, so why did my chest still ache this terribly?

A wave of crushing sadness washed over me as my soul completely broke free from my body. Next to my body, the heart monitor emitted a piercing, continuous whine.