My brother stole my fiancé’s canary. My fiancé pressed a knife to my neck, his voice a low threat to my brother. “Send her back.” “Or you can come collect your sister’s body.” My brother didn’t even spare me a glance. “Oh.” “Then kill her.” The words shattered something inside me. My depression, a dormant beast, flared up in that instant, and I threw myself onto the blade. After I died, they all went insane. 1 The day I was trying on my wedding dress, my fiancé, Liam Blackwood, pressed a knife to my neck. “Caroline,” he murmured, his voice heavy. “I’m sorry.” Then, he made a video call to my brother, Caleb Vance. It took three tries before Caleb finally answered. Liam casually maneuvered me into the center of the frame, the cold steel of the blade a chilling line against my artery. His handsome face was a mask of cold, predatory cruelty. “Send her back,” he repeated. “Or you can come collect your sister’s body.” Her? Before the shock of Liam’s actions could even register, before the pain could set in, a girl’s face flashed in my mind. 2 Her name was Jenna Reed. Everyone called her Liam’s little canary. She’d shown up at my university once to confront me. “Liam and I have been together for three years. We’re going to get married eventually,” she’d sneered. “What’s the point of clinging to an engagement? Are you planning on sleeping alone for the rest of your life?” Her face was twisted with contempt as she spoke, and when she was done, she swept away. A sleek, black Cayenne was waiting for her at the curb. Quite the scene. I watched her go, a bitter laugh escaping my lips. She had it all wrong. It wasn't me clinging to the engagement; it was Liam. He was the one who wanted to marry me. It wasn't a new development. For the sake of the alliance between our families, I supposed. What other reason could there be? He couldn't possibly still remember that I was his first love. That kind of foolish sentiment was probably something only I held onto. 3 Jenna’s words didn’t break me, but they sent my best friend into a fury. She called my brother, Caleb, hoping he’d stick up for me. But when the call connected, we heard Caleb’s voice mingling with Jenna’s. “Gave my sister a piece of your mind. Feel better now?” Of course. The Cayenne belonged to my brother. I hadn’t recognized it, probably because Caleb never, ever picked me up. Yes, Caleb was in love with Jenna, too. But he was more “noble” than Liam. He wanted Jenna to have a respectable, happy life. He had repeatedly pushed Liam to marry her and had always been against my engagement to Liam. A shame all his efforts were for nothing. This marriage was about the merger of our family empires. Not everyone was a lovesick fool like Caleb. Certainly not Liam. When the Vance and Blackwood families finalized our wedding date, Caleb had made a scene, demanding of Liam in front of our parents, “How can you do this to Jenna?” Liam had just smiled coolly. “Jenna who?” he’d said. “The only one I know is Caroline.” Liam always knew how to play the game, which was why my father favored him. But now… I never thought the ever-composed Liam could be so reckless. The moment someone snatched his precious canary, he didn't hesitate to put a knife to his fiancée’s throat. 4 Jenna and I shared a striking resemblance. My best friend suspected Liam was indulging in some kind of replacement fantasy. I’d laughed so hard it hurt. Who would threaten the original for the sake of a replacement? There was a time when a simple paper cut on my finger would have Liam fussing over me for ages. Now, for Jenna, he held a blade to my throat. I closed my eyes, my heart turning to ash. Through the phone’s screen, my brother watched, a cold sneer on his lips. “Oh,” he said, his voice dripping with disdain. “Then kill her.” His complete indifference was nothing like that of a brother. I froze, the wound in my soul gaping wide. I stared at Caleb, my eyes wide with disbelief. He was my brother. My own brother. Tears finally escaped, trailing down my cheeks. On the other end of the line, Caleb’s gaze met mine, and his brow furrowed. A flicker of pain crossed his handsome face. For a heartbeat, I thought he might change his mind. But in the next second, he looked away. “Regardless, Liam,” he said, his voice flat, “I’m not giving Jenna back to you.” That was it. He had taken Jenna, and he had no intention of returning her. “You’re a real bastard, Liam,” Caleb continued, his voice sharp with accusation. “You’re about to marry my sister, yet you’re still trying to keep Jenna locked away. What do you think she is to you?” Every word was about Jenna, not Caroline. Not me. My heart plummeted into an abyss. I remembered when we were children. Mom was still alive then. She’d asked Caleb gently, “Will you protect your sister when you grow up?” “Of course, I will!” he had promised, full of boyhood bravado. “What if a bad guy tries to hurt her?” she’d asked. “I’ll hide her,” he’d declared without hesitation, “and I’ll go fight the bad guy.” The memory was a cruel joke now. My hands fell limply to my sides. The mental illness I’d fought for so long, the one I thought I had under control, suddenly erupted. A voice whispered from the depths of my mind. No one loves you. Your brother doesn’t love you. Your fiancé doesn’t love you. Just die. Death will end the pain. Go see your mother… “...Okay.” 5 All I wanted was for Liam to kill me quickly. To end it all. But then, with a soft thud, the knife fell from his hand, landing silently on the thick carpet. “I’m sorry,” Liam whispered. I didn’t hear him. It didn’t matter anymore. No apology from anyone mattered now. I just smoothed down the fabric of my wedding dress. They say you’re buried in a shroud. A shroud… it couldn’t be as beautiful as a wedding dress, could it? As I pondered this, Liam turned and left. He had to find Jenna. He couldn’t be bothered to finish me off. But at least he’d left the knife behind. The blade was sharp. I picked it up, whispering to myself, “It won’t hurt.” 6 They say a spirit first returns to a place it holds dear. So my soul drifted back to the familiar old villa. This was where I was born, where I lived until I was fourteen, with Mom always by my side. Being back felt good. I floated onto the large, pink canopy bed in my old room and settled into a peaceful pose. My life had been unhappy enough; I didn’t want to be a restless spirit. But a moment later… Click. The door opened. Strange. Who would come here? I opened my eyes and froze. A tall, imposing figure led a delicate one into the room. It was Caleb and Jenna. “This room is the biggest and gets the most sun. You can stay here,” Caleb said, pulling Jenna in by the wrist. He strode to the floor-to-ceiling windows and yanked the curtains open. A flood of bright sunlight poured in. I recoiled, scrambling under the bed as the light seared my ghostly form. Jenna stood silhouetted against the window, a living figure in a golden oil painting. Caleb stared at her, mesmerized. “Caroline?” he breathed. He said my name. No, I must have misheard. The noon sun was scorching, nearly burning me to ash. It hurt so much. 7 Luckily, the bright light seemed to bother Jenna’s eyes, and Caleb drew the curtains closed again. I could finally breathe. As I drifted out from under the bed, I saw Jenna’s high heels digging into my carpet. “This is your sister’s room. Won’t she be angry?” she asked. A cold laugh echoed in my spectral mind. Of course, I’m angry, you hypocrite. My mother had decorated this room for me with her own hands. The embroidery on the pillowcases—she’d stitched it herself. And tonight, Jenna would be sleeping on them. Jenna’s gaze fell on the photos on my wall, a flicker of envy in her eyes. “Your sister went to Europe when she was so young? She’s so lucky. People really are born different, aren’t they?” Caleb looked at her, his eyes softening with pity. After a moment’s thought, he reached up and took my picture down from the wall. “This is just our old family home,” he said. “She won’t be coming back here.” He paused, his expression darkening. “She has no right.” 8 So, Caleb had hated me all along. He’d been quiet about it for years, but that didn’t mean he’d forgotten. When Dad had his affair, I urged Mom to divorce him. I still remembered Caleb’s enraged shouts. “Mom has the softest heart! Dad already said he’s sorry, she would have forgiven him!” he’d screamed at me. “This is all your fault! You went to college and filled your head with all that nonsense just so you could tear this family apart?” His words had stunned me. I didn’t understand. Dad had hurt Mom. He made her miserable. Why shouldn’t she leave? Was a woman supposed to just endure a man’s betrayal in a marriage? All I wanted was for my mother to be happy, to stop crying in secret. To stop enduring. To stop yielding. But in the end… Mom never saw her new dawn. She died. And Caleb hated me for it. He called me a fool. “Mom was like a vine, Caroline. She couldn’t stand on her own,” he’d spat. “You killed her. All your crazy ideas killed her!” I didn’t know if I had done the right thing, but it was true that she died after the divorce. If she hadn't left, maybe she would still be alive. The guilt gnawed at me. I told Caleb I would never speak out of turn again. He shoved me away. “It’s too late! Mom is dead! Do you think you can ever be happy again?” His words became a prophecy. I was never happy again. And from that day on, I buried my own nature. I endured. I yielded. Even when Liam paraded his affairs for the world to see, then came back and proposed to maintain the family alliance, I smiled and accepted, pretending nothing had happened. Like a doormat. My mother was dead. And I had become her. 9 Clutching the picture frame, Caleb was lost in those same memories. A storm of irritation and a strange, deep regret churned within him. Was Caroline really wrong back then? It was so long ago. He didn’t want to think about it. And what if she was? It didn’t matter. In her eyes, he was no longer the good older brother. Fine. That was fine. Jenna saw his silence and bit her lip. “Will your sister really be okay? With what Liam did?” she asked softly. “It’s my fault. If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have had to make that choice. Liam… how could he hold a knife to his fiancée? He didn’t have to do that for me…” Her voice trailed off, her eyes welling up with tears as if she felt terrible for me. But her words made my spectral skin crawl. “Don’t worry. Even if the sky fell, Liam would never actually hurt her,” Caleb said, his expression flat. The flicker of worry he felt was gone as quickly as it came. “Oh, is that so?” Jenna’s eyes dimmed, and she muttered to herself, “He would never hurt Caroline… Right. I was overthinking it.” Caleb didn’t notice the change in her expression. His gaze drifted up to the crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling. It seemed to sway slightly, as if someone were sitting on it. Heh. Impossible. He was just overthinking things. It must be because he was thinking of Caroline. She was so small as a child. Once, during a game of hide-and-seek, she’d climbed onto the chandelier and couldn’t get down, nearly falling. He’d asked her if she’d dare do it again. She’d tilted her little chin up defiantly. “I will next time! If you make me mad, I’ll climb up there and scare you to death!” Caroline had been fearless as a child, always ready to challenge him. They had been so close. He was the one who had changed. At that thought, Caleb’s fingers trembled. What was Caroline doing right now? Was she sad? Should he call her? They were siblings. It was only natural for him to care about his own sister. 10 I sat perched on the chandelier, looking down at Caleb. It had been a long time since I’d really looked at him. Our features weren’t that similar, really. Maybe he’d known all along we weren’t related by blood, and that’s why he’d started treating me so coldly. I swayed back and forth, watching him hand a tissue to a tearful Jenna, all warmth and gentlemanly concern. He looked just like the brother I remembered. Just then, the sound of fighting erupted from downstairs. Liam had found them. His security was clashing with Caleb’s. Caleb heard the commotion and strode out to the second-floor landing. He rested a hand on the railing, looking down imperiously. “Weren’t you supposed to be at a wedding shoot with Caroline?” he called out, his voice laced with sarcasm. “You really want it all, don’t you?” The veins on the back of his hand stood out as he gripped the railing. There was no one Caleb despised more than Liam. And yet, he had allowed him to marry Caroline. Liam had everything… why did he still have to come for Jenna? Anger simmered beneath Caleb’s calm facade. “Caroline won’t be happy about you being here.” Liam looked up, a disdainful smirk playing on his lips. “You’ve got a lot of nerve. You didn’t care about Caroline’s life, but now you care if she’s happy?” If he and Caroline were on good terms, Liam thought, he would have beaten Caleb to a pulp by now. Some brother. Seeing the enmity in Liam’s eyes, Caleb’s hands clenched into fists. “I’m not the one who held a knife to his own fiancée. Aren’t you afraid you’ll regret that?” Caleb cursed their father under his breath. The old man must have been blind to pick a man like this for Caroline. Caroline, who as a child had the courage to tell her mother to get a divorce. Why could she tolerate this man now? How much did she have to love him to forgive his endless transgressions? A sour feeling churned in Caleb’s gut. At the word “regret,” a strange tightness seized Liam’s chest. But the feeling vanished as quickly as it came. Caroline owed him this. He had nothing to be sorry for. Besides, he liked seeing her hurt by him. At least he could still hurt her, couldn’t he? A slow, cruel smile spread across Liam’s face. “I never regret anything I do.” 11 Listening to their barbed exchange made me sick. The afternoon air was hot and sticky. The old villa’s air conditioning was barely working. I huddled next to the refrigerator, the only cool spot. Someone had left the door ajar, and a stream of cold air washed over me. I never thought being dead would come with its own set of physical discomforts. Speaking of being dead… I checked the time. It had been half an hour. The bridal shop was one of Liam’s properties. Hadn’t anyone found me yet? I had been too impulsive. Using that knife… I hope I didn’t traumatize the staff. Why did I have to be a burden even in death? Sigh. I felt a wave of gloom. I wanted to go check, but I found I couldn’t leave the villa. So, I was forced to watch this drama of two men fighting over one woman. Liam was losing his patience. “Cut the crap, Caleb. Give Jenna back to me. Or else…” He hated having what was his taken from him. He clenched his fists, ready to fight for his possession, but then he paused. His hand felt empty. Something was missing. What was it? Liam’s handsome face suddenly crumpled, his eyes losing focus. It felt like he’d lost something vital. That’s right. The knife was gone. Had he brought it with him when he left the bridal shop? Or… had he left it there? In the dressing room. An image of Caroline’s fragile frame flashed in his mind. When he’d held the knife to her throat, he’d seen how delicate her neck was, the sharp line of her collarbones, her slender arms without a trace of excess flesh. Just how thin had she gotten? Did she even eat anymore? Liam suddenly remembered that he hadn't made sure she ate her meals in a long time. The last time they’d eaten together, she’d suddenly gotten sick halfway through the meal. He’d been so furious he’d kicked the table over. But why had she gotten sick? His mind unwillingly drifted back to the reason they had fallen apart. The fact that Caroline had been with another man. His heart felt like it was splitting in two. What was he doing? He had left Caroline and a knife together in that dressing room. A wave of panic, sharper and more terrifying than anything he had ever felt, washed over Liam.
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