Liam Miller died in a high-speed crash while vacationing on a private island with his assistant. By the time the police notified me and I arrived at the scene, his assistant was still kneeling by his body, screaming his name and sobbing hysterically. But I saw him. I saw Liam’s soul, floating right there in the air. I guess the devil doesn't have a vacancy for traitors yet. 01 The detective standing next to me cleared his throat awkwardly when I didn't say a word. "Mrs. Sterling?" That one sentence cut right through Elena Vance’s wailing. She was Liam’s "assistant," currently draped over his body. It seemed Liam really did love her. In that violent wreck, he had taken the brunt of the impact. He was dead, while Elena walked away with nothing more than a few scrapes and bruises. But Liam’s love… I glanced at the translucent shimmering figure of the man hovering above us and scoffed internally. Liam’s heart changed colors faster than a chameleon in a neon light district. When Elena looked up and saw me, her expression shifted from grief to pure shock. Then, she lunged at me, her face flushed with a manic energy. Liam’s spirit reacted instantly, just like he would have when he was alive. He tried to step between us, desperate to shield Elena from any imaginary harm I might inflict. But he had no physical form. He had to watch, helpless, as Elena passed right through his chest and grabbed my shoulders. "Elena, be careful!" he barked, his brow furrowing. Then he turned his venomous gaze toward me, trying to intimidate me with a look. "Vanessa, I’m warning you. Don't you dare touch her." It was a scene we had played out a thousand times before. Except now, I was the only one who could hear his hollow threats. Elena’s grip tightened on my jacket, her face contorted with malice. She wasn't here for a sisterly chat. I stepped back, pulling away from her. The detective stepped in, steadying her before she could fall. "Ms. Vance, you need to compose yourself," the officer said firmly. "The arrangements for Mr. Miller are the responsibility of his legal wife, Mrs. Sterling." The detective wasn't an idiot. He had clearly clocked the dynamic between the CEO and his "assistant." He put a heavy emphasis on the word wife. Elena froze. Her face twisted into something grotesque—like a demon out of a horror movie. "Officer, I want to report a crime!" Elena shrieked. "This wasn't an accident! She did this! She killed him!" The detective sighed heavily. I looked at her, watching her lose all control, and tucked myself behind the officer. I didn't want this lunatic scratching my face. Liam was standing right beside her now, his eyes cold as he stared at me. I couldn't read his ghostly expression perfectly, but I knew him. He was probably suspecting me, too. 02 The detective looked exhausted. As he opened his mouth to speak, I cut him off, looking directly at Elena. "If you don't have proof, that’s defamation," I said calmly. "And I will sue you for every cent you don't have." Elena gnashed her teeth, her rage bubbling just under the surface. I found the whole thing tedious. I decided to offer her some "friendly" advice. "I suggest you go home and start cataloging everything Liam ever bought you." I paused, letting the silence hang. "Since we were legally married, everything he spent on you is technically marital property. My son, Leo, and I are the sole heirs to Liam’s estate. I wonder how fast I can get a court order to claw back every dollar he wasted on you." Elena, who had been sobbing just seconds ago, went deathly silent. Seeing her finally quiet down, the detective signaled a female officer to escort her out. As Elena left the room, Liam tried to follow her. To his horror, the moment he reached the doorway, an invisible force yanked him back. I smirked. Serves you right. "Mrs. Sterling, we’ll handle the paperwork from here," the detective said. They had already investigated. The crash was a textbook accident—blown tire at high speed. They had only asked me some routine questions on the way over. I had no interest in looking at Liam’s face, especially not the post-crash version. I didn't want nightmares. I called my assistant and my lawyer to handle the logistics, then turned to leave. Everything had been so rushed. I had sent the nanny to pick up Leo from preschool, but I was still anxious. Leo had grown up without his father’s presence. He was clingy, and I was worried he wouldn't go to sleep if I wasn't there. I finished the formalities, confirmed my assistant was on the way, and headed straight to the airport for the first flight home. 03 It was confirmed. Liam couldn't leave my side. I looked up at the ceiling of the plane, knowing he was tethered to the roof or the seat next to me. I squinted into the air. This was going to be fun. The moment I landed, the nanny sent me a video. There was Leo, in his cute pajamas, his big dark eyes blinking at the camera. He refused to go to sleep, constantly calling for "Mommy." It wasn't until the nanny told him I was watching that he sat up and gave the lens a weak, tired smile. "Mommy, I want to cuddle. Please come home soon." Leo was five. He was starting kindergarten next year, but he still had that sweet, high-pitched toddler voice that could melt stone. I hurried home. My driver was waiting, and I was through my front door in less than an hour. The nanny was showing Leo a picture book. When he heard me, Leo sprinted to the door and dove into my arms. I held him tight, carried him to his room, and tucked him in. I read him three stories before he finally drifted off. While I was occupied with Leo, I caught Liam out of the corner of my eye. He was sitting on the padded window seat in Leo’s room. When he was alive, he never bothered with the boy. He claimed he didn't like "kids," but the truth was he just didn't like me. He almost never spent time with his son. That was why, during the whole bedtime routine, Leo never once mentioned his father. I heard Liam’s ghostly murmur. He was asking himself why Leo wasn't asking for "Daddy." I almost laughed. I kissed Leo’s forehead and went to the master bedroom. 04 I wasn't in the mood for games. I sat at the edge of the bed and spoke into the empty air. "Leo is five years old. In those five years, how many times did you actually play with him?" "Did you ever take him to the park? Did you ever tuck him in? What reason does he have to miss you?" "Leo is closer to our driver than he is to you." I looked at the spot where I felt his presence. We had been married for ten years. He had been cheating with his assistant for three. The semi-transparent soul suddenly met my eyes. The room went cold. His face was a mask of pure shock. He didn't look like the powerful "Mr. Miller" anymore. "You can see me." I didn't answer. I just looked at him like he was an idiot. Liam sighed and sat at my vanity. When he realized he didn't have a reflection in the mirror, he sat there dazed for a few seconds. I let out a short, dry laugh and crossed my arms. "So, Mr. Miller, even in death, you can't seem to quit me?" The moment I discovered his affair with Elena, I had asked for a divorce. He refused. He claimed he couldn't live without me, that Leo needed a father—every excuse in the book to block the filing. I even tried to take it to court. But I lacked the "smoking gun" evidence. Elena was his assistant; they were expected to be together around the clock. After enough fighting, I gave up. I looked at it from a different perspective. A billionaire husband who is never home but provides a limitless credit card? That’s just a high-end ATM. So I started buying real estate in Leo’s name. I focused on my own career. I was always prepared for him to eventually force a divorce on his terms. I never expected he’d drop dead first. Liam had no siblings. His parents passed away years ago. That meant Leo and I were the sole beneficiaries of his entire empire. The legal wife and the biological son. What a generous man. 05 We didn't talk much that night. I went to sleep quickly. Early the next morning, my assistant emailed me the cremation certificate and a video of the coffin entering the furnace. Liam drifted over to see what I was looking at. He watched his own body turn to ash. "You aren't even a little sad?" His voice was muffled, hollow. I took a sip of my coffee, feeling quite refreshed. I didn't bother answering. I went to Leo’s room to wake him up. He had preschool. Furious at my silence, Liam started pacing around me, his voice rising in a ghostly roar. "Vanessa!" Leo couldn't hear him. He just woke up, rubbed his eyes, and giggled as he crawled into my lap. "Mommy, can I take extra snacks to share with my friends today?" While he brushed his teeth, Leo was dancing with excitement. I smiled, helped him pack his favorite treats into his backpack, and sent him off. 06 After dropping Leo off and confirming a few things with my lawyer, I went to Miller Group HQ. Liam was still in a foul mood, so he didn't say anything. He just sat in the passenger seat, arms crossed. I knew he was probably hoping to see Elena. He was going to be disappointed. Men are notoriously slow at figuring certain things out. Like the true nature of the women they keep. When we reached the office, Elena was nowhere to be found. Liam’s other assistant, Ms. Gable, already knew the news. My lawyer had called her. She knew exactly why I was there. She had already scheduled a board meeting for 2:00 PM. Ms. Gable led me into Liam’s private office. "Mrs. Sterling, please make yourself comfortable. I’ll bring the files over." She hesitated for a second, then opened a concealed door in the wood-paneled wall, revealing a hidden suite. "If you're tired, you can rest in here." The room had a king-sized bed, a walk-in closet, and a designer tub. I frowned. Thinking about what Liam and Elena might have done in there made my skin crawl. Actually, the whole office felt tainted. "It’s filthy in here," I said, avoiding Liam’s gaze and stepping back. I wiped the tip of my nose. "I’ll wait in your office, Ms. Gable." Liam, who had been silent, was now glaring at me with pure rage. I ignored his fury and followed Ms. Gable out. 07 I spent the morning reviewing files and consulting with a specialist my assistant had hired. By noon, Liam realized what my plan was. As I followed Ms. Gable to the executive cafeteria, Liam was screaming in my ear the whole way. I had known him since we were seventeen. We started dating at eighteen and married at twenty-three. This was the first time I’d seen the "Great Liam Miller" lose his mind. "Vanessa, how dare you sell my shares!" "You bitch!" "That’s mine! You have no right!" Liam came from a comfortable middle-class background. Everything he had, he built himself. He was the golden boy of his generation. He had proposed at twenty and waited until twenty-three to marry me, promising he’d give me the world. But seven years into the marriage, he cheated. I waited until Ms. Gable went to grab our trays before I finally looked at his ghost. "It’s mine now." I didn't offer any further explanation. Liam froze, his ghostly eyes turning a deep, angry red. "Vanessa! I hope you rot in hell!" After lunch and a quick nap, the board meeting started. Before I even reached the conference room, I heard a familiar voice. It was Elena. I leaned against the doorframe and looked back at Liam. The look of desperate expectation in his eyes was pathetic. Men are so predictable. "Members of the board..." Elena’s voice wavered through the door. Liam tried to rush inside, his gaze darting to me repeatedly. But he was tethered. He couldn't go in unless I did. He had to stand there and listen with me. "Mr. Miller has passed away..." Elena’s voice was shaky, acting the part of the grieving, loyal employee. I didn't want her ruining my play, so I pushed the door open. "Ms. Vance. What a surprise." 08 At the sound of my voice, Elena, dressed in a modest white chiffon dress, visibly flinched. "Good afternoon, everyone," I said, ignoring her as I addressed the board members. Elena was still standing in front of my designated seat. I casually tossed my designer bag onto the table and raised an eyebrow at her. "Do you have a reason for being here, Ms. Vance?" Elena wasn't smart. She couldn't hide her tells. I saw the calculation in her eyes. It was the same look she gave me three years ago when she first slept with Liam and came to flaunt it to my face. She was trying to align herself with the board, hoping to leverage Liam’s "bequest" for her own gain. But Liam was a fool. He missed the greed in her eyes entirely. Instead, he only saw the "timid" look she gave Mr. Davenport, the senior board member sitting next to her. Seeing that look, Liam’s ghostly heart broke for her. He hovered next to me, trying to look through me with his murderous glare. "Vanessa, you treat her well, or I swear I’ll drag you to the grave with me!" Tch. The grave? I ignored him and glanced at Mr. Davenport’s balding head. Elena’s taste in men was really going downhill. I knew exactly what Elena was up to. Every person in this room knew about the affair. Elena was a toxic asset now; anyone with a brain would stay far away from her. But Mr. Davenport was famously horny and incredibly rich. I nudged Elena aside and pulled out my chair. "I’m here to discuss the future of the company." I signaled Ms. Gable to give the board a summary of the transition. As she spoke about the "accident," the board members began looking at Elena with varying degrees of suspicion. In the early days, Liam didn't have a driver. If there was a crash with Elena in the car, nobody believed she was entirely innocent of distraction. But since she was the only witness and she claimed it was an accident, the police couldn't do much. Even Mr. Davenport’s gaze toward her lost its warmth. Elena bit her lip, her eyes red, her eyelashes fluttering. She looked like a wounded bird. I tapped the table. "I’m not familiar with the inner workings of Miller Group. After consulting with my team, I’ve decided to liquidate Liam’s majority stake." "I value the contributions you’ve all made, so I’m giving the board right of first refusal." I pulled a stack of my assistant’s business cards from my bag, handed them to Elena, and smirked. "Ms. Vance, would you be so kind as to hand these out to the board members?" When she first started with Liam, she was careful. But after two months of realizing Liam and I were strangers, she stopped hiding. She used to walk past me wearing the jewelry Liam bought her just to see my reaction. Now, suddenly being treated like a low-level clerk, Elena’s eyes welled with tears. The perfect damsel in distress. Liam was fuming, but he couldn't touch me. Mr. Davenport, however, stepped up. He waved a hand, a greasy smile on his face. "Mrs. Sterling, let’s not be hard on Ms. Vance." He reached out and took the cards from her hand himself. I shrugged. "You have three days to consider the offer. After that, I’m opening the floor to outside buyers. All fifty-five percent." I stood up to leave, then paused at the door, looking back at Elena. "Ms. Vance, remember what I said at the station? I’m coming for my money. You might want to start packing." Then I walked out on my four-inch heels. 09 The tether snapped tight, forcing Liam to follow me out of the building. In the car, Liam sat next to me. Seeing that I was dead serious about selling his life’s work and ruining Elena, he finally stopped fighting. His voice softened. "Vanessa, I know I messed up. But I was good to you in my own way. I’m begging you... sell the shares to Graham. And please, stop targeting Elena." Graham was Liam’s co-founder. He had been the best man at our wedding. I hadn't seen him in the meeting. He’d sent a proxy. I kept my head down, watching a video the nanny had sent from the preschool. In the video, Leo was handing out snacks to his classmates. The kids were cheering, surrounding him in a circle. Leo was in the middle, his eyes crinkled into little crescents, laughing with pure joy. Liam hadn't gotten a response, so he leaned over to look at the screen. When he saw Leo’s happy face, his voice caught. He stopped talking. He just stared at the image of his son’s smile, over and over. The car pulled up to the estate. My assistant was waiting for me. Ever since the island, he had been working around the clock. He looked exhausted. Thinking about the cards I’d just handed out, I felt a slight pang of guilt. "Your year-end bonus is doubled," I told him as I walked inside. His face instantly lit up with energy. He followed me in, handing me the formal death and cremation certificates. "I’ve already forwarded these to the legal team. They’re finalizing the asset transfer to you and Leo." I took the papers and tossed them casually onto the armchair where Liam was sitting. "Good work." Just as I said that, the assistant’s phone rang. He looked at me, I nodded, and he put it on speaker. A man’s voice, slightly breathless, came through. "Tell Mrs. Sterling I’ll take the shares. All of them." The voice sounded a bit old. It was Mr. Davenport. I took a sip of water. The timing. The tone. Tch. Elena sure moves fast.
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