It was midnight. My fiancé’s secretary sent me a provocative photo. [We went for 4 hours today.] I didn't have time to reply. Because the ghost of my childhood nemesis, who died ten years ago, suddenly appeared in my living room. "Is this your fiancé?" "Tsk... why does he look a little like me?" 1 When I opened the door and saw Caleb, I thought I was still drunk and hallucinating. He was still wearing his varsity jacket from our senior year of high school. His mouth was just as sharp as it used to be. "Wow, look at you. Cosplaying a drowned rat?" I looked down at my phone. The date was correct. I hadn't time-traveled. Thinking my eyes were playing tricks on me, I was about to look up again when several messages popped up. [Miss Summers, congratulations on getting engaged to your consolation prize.] [But compared to you, Spencer seems to like me more.] [Four hours tonight. Twice.] The attached photo was a post-coital selfie of her and Spencer. Before I could look up, Caleb's noisy voice rang in my ear again. "Whoa! NSFW! Is that allowed?" "Summer, does your phone have a virus?" "Wait, fiancé? You're getting married?" "Holy crap! He's cheating on you right before the engagement? You want a man like that?" "Hold on... this fiancé... why does he look a discount version of me?" "Do I smell a 'replacement' trope? Summer, don't tell me you had a crush on me? Heh..." Caleb. The "Silent Groom" of our high school yearbook—because he looked best when he wasn't talking. He was the main character of everyone's high school life. Except for that mouth. Roasting him back was practically muscle memory. "Crush on you? Do I look insane?" My voice dropped, and Caleb froze. I froze too. The next second, screams erupted from the surrounding apartments. "Ahhh!!! A ghost!" "Ahhh!!! Someone can see the ghost!!!" 2 Ten minutes later, I finally calmed down. Leaning against the wall, I fished a cigarette out of my bag. "What is happening? Why can I see you?" Caleb was huddled in the corner. He looked even more shocked than I was. "I’d love to know the answer to that, too." Click. Click. The lighter sparked but couldn't ignite the rain-soaked cigarette. He paused, floated over, and tried to grab it. But he forgot—he couldn't touch anything. His hand went straight through the smoke. Stunned for a second, he leaned in and sniffed me to cover his embarrassment. "Drinking? And smoking?" "Summer, when did you pick up these bad habits?" We went to the same middle and high school. Basically childhood friends. Just because he was three months older, he always loved to lecture me. I was never afraid of him then. I wasn't afraid now. "It's been a long time. I forgot." His eyes went wide. "You forgot? How?" "Whatever. Forget it. It doesn't matter." Yeah. It didn't matter. I tossed the cigarette, walked past him, and took off my soaked trench coat, letting it drop to the floor. He floated right behind me, sticking like glue. "Hey, aren't you scared seeing me? Don't you have questions..." His voice cut off abruptly. Because he saw that after taking off the coat, I was unzipping the back of my dress. The zipper was already down to my shoulder blades. He phased through the wall and vanished instantly. A second later, a roar came from the closed study. "Holy sh*t! Your fiancé cheats on you, so you decide to flash me?" "I am a pure, innocent ghost! I never even dated! Don't try to force yourself on me!" "Besides, I'm dead! I can't help you with that!" 3 Caleb's voice made me pause. Right. He was dead. Ten years ago, the day after graduation. Car accident. I went to his funeral. Over the last decade, everything related to him had been burned or buried. No one around me even mentioned his name. Honestly, my brain was a mess. It was so chaotic that even though I forced myself to be calm, I couldn't tell reality from a dream. I didn't know if what I was doing even mattered. But in this moment, I suddenly sobered up. I looked at the empty living room. Then down at my dripping wet dress. My throat tightened. "I walked home in the rain. If I don't take a hot shower and take some meds, I'll be dead by morning." The room was silent. So silent that seeing Caleb felt like a hallucination. But just as I held my breath, about to open the study door to check, his muffled voice came through. "Shut up. Don't say the D-word..." 4 I sank into the bathtub, surrounded by hot water. Listening to the splash of water, I finally felt pulled back to reality. Just today, I had received a package of Caleb’s old belongings. Just an hour ago, I was at his grave. But through the wall, his voice was crystal clear. "Summer, what is the deal with that fiancé?" "I saw that text. That wasn't the first time you got a photo like that, was it?" "And that guy's face..." The topic I had been avoiding was forced back into the open. Yes. Spencer's secretary, Tiffany, wasn't the first to send photos to provoke me. But so what? I didn't care. "Six years ago, my mom remarried a nouveau riche guy." "It's a business merger. A commercial marriage. You know the drill. He just happens to look like you. Don't flatter yourself." Caleb wouldn't understand. He went quiet. The only sound was hurried footsteps moving from the living room to the bathroom door. Remembering his wall-phasing trick, I frowned. "Caleb, you aren't trying to peek, are you?" No answer. Just a tall shadow cast against the frosted glass door. Do ghosts have shadows? Suspicious, I put on my robe and opened the door. But it wasn't Caleb. It was Spencer, who should have been in a hotel with his secretary. He was holding a photo he’d dug out of Caleb’s box of belongings, looking at me with dark eyes. "I get sick, you send meds. I have a date, you deliver condoms in the rain. You've been simping for me for six years just because of this face?" "Caleb? Right, that's the name you call out when you're drunk." Spencer's words made my heart skip a beat. I instinctively looked toward Caleb, who was floating out of the study. But Spencer wasn't done. He raised an eyebrow and laughed. His tone was casual, dangerous. "Where are you hiding him? Bring him out."
? Continue the story here ?? ? Download the "MotoNovel" app ? search for "388884", and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel