Theater: NovelMaster | Language: English | NEW
Synopsis
Tags: Identity Theft, Cheating Wife, Ghost POV, Karma
My new novel won the top literary award and took the entire publishing industry by storm.
To make sure Julian—the man she had always pined for, whose writing career had been dead in the water for five years—could become an overnight sensation,
my wife tied me up in our study on the eve of the gala to stop me from accepting the award.
I never expected a burglar to break in. With my life hanging by a thread, I dialed her number.
When she picked up, she just screamed at me:
"Logan, you're talented! You'll have plenty of chances in the future. Winning an award is just a matter of time for you."
"Julian is different. He's worked his ass off for five years without making a name for himself. Standing on that stage tonight will completely change his life!"
"You're a grown man. Can you stop being so damn petty?"
Her words chilled me to the bone.
What my wife didn't know was that a split second before she hung up, the intruder's blade slashed clean through my carotid artery.
Blood sprayed across the room.
After my death, the truth about Julian stealing my identity was blasted to the world.
Both he and my wife were dragged down into utter ruin.
"Logan, it's just a trophy! Why do you have to be so dramatic?"
"On our wedding day, you swore that what was yours was mine, that you'd give me anything I asked for."
"We've only been married for two years, and you're already going back on your vows?"
I never imagined that right before I died, my wife would twist the sacred vows I once made to push me into my grave.
Almost the exact second she hung up, hot blood erupted from my throat.
My hands were bound tight, leaving me to watch helplessly as my life poured out like water.
I watched my own death with wide-open eyes.
When I opened them again, I couldn't believe what was happening.
I was floating in midair!
Thunderous applause echoed below me. I followed the noise, only to find Julian standing behind the podium, delivering an acceptance speech.
And my wife was sitting in the front row, tears welling in her eyes.
"Honestly, standing here today, the person I want to thank most is my dearest friend, Lily. Without her, this book wouldn't exist."
"She gave me inspiration and confidence. She stayed by my side for five years, keeping my dream alive."
The camera instantly cut to Lily. A blush crept across her cheeks. The host walked over and handed her a microphone.
Lily froze in surprise for a few seconds.
"Miss Lily, would you like to say a few words?"
She acted shy, but she took the mic anyway. "Julian's success comes down to his relentless hard work every single day. Literature takes years of dedication. He has that grit. That's why I kept telling him never to give up—and I've stood by him through all five years."
The moment she finished, the room burst into applause. Someone in the crowd even murmured, "Sticking with him through rock bottom all the way to the top... they're truly made for each other."
Listening to the whispers, I balled my spectral hands into fists.
She was a married woman, yet she let the rumors spread without correcting anyone. She bathed in them.
I was the one who was supposed to be standing on that stage!
Now, all I could do was float like a ghost, completely powerless. And the person who did this to me was the woman I loved most.
Looking back, the signs had been there all along.
Ever since my book became a bestseller, reporters had been begging for interviews, but Lily turned every single one down.
She even canceled the book signings my editor set up.
Her excuse? I was a newcomer, so I needed to keep a low profile.
When the committee of the National Book Award reached out to me, her first reaction wasn't joy. It was asking me to step down.
I couldn't wrap my head around it.
Why would she want me to throw away such an incredible opportunity?
I poured two whole years of blood, sweat, and tears into polishing that manuscript to earn this honor.
"Lily, don't joke like that. Aren't you happy for me?"
She gave a hollow laugh, her eyes full of hidden motives. "Logan, if I asked you to give up the award, would you listen to me?"
I went silent.
I couldn't understand why she was so obsessed with making me give it up.
Now, the brutal truth hit me square in the chest. Lily wanted me out of the way just so Julian could have my moment.
Julian was her first love, the golden boy she never got over. He had zero achievements after years of writing. Seeing a rookie like me surpass him had bruised his fragile ego.
Lily wanted to use this award to rebuild his shattered confidence.
So, the night before the ceremony, she tied me up in our study to pull off this sick switch.
Yet, as a literary editor, Lily supposedly despised nothing more than plagiarism and ghostwriting!
Years ago, an author under her plagiarized someone else's work and framed her, claiming she told him to do it. It almost wrecked her career.
From that day on, she claimed she despised literary thieves.
She swore to keep the publishing world pure.
Until Julian came along. Every single principle she claimed to have evaporated into thin air.
She would stay up late into the night discussing drafts with him. Whenever I questioned her, she brushed me off. "Am I not even allowed to have friends? Logan, we're married, but we still need our own space."
"As an editor, inspiring my writers is literally my job!"
I tried to be understanding. But when someone works round the clock with another man 365 days a year, anyone with eyes would get suspicious.
Her heart had stopped belonging to me long ago.
Lily returned to her seat after her speech, and all eyes shifted back to Julian.
After the gala wrapped up, Lily unlocked her phone. The apartment complex group chat on SnapChat suddenly blew up with over ninety-nine unread messages.
She opened it, and the color instantly drained from her face.Tenants had posted dozens of videos showing Building 11 on fire.
The blaze was huge. When the firefighters arrived, it took them over three hours just to get it under control.
Lily's fingers trembled as she scrolled up through the chat. Her heart only settled when a resident noted that the fire had started in the maintenance storage shed right next to Building 11.
I let out a bitter, silent laugh.
Lily had no idea that to cover his tracks, the killer had dragged my body into that very storage room. It was packed with clutter, making it the perfect spot to torch a corpse without raising immediate suspicion.
"What's wrong? You look pale."
Lily shook her head and muttered that it was nothing. She refreshed her SnapChat over and over, her expression growing darker by the second.
She and I had never gone this long without talking.
Right now, she was probably wondering why the man who had called her in desperation earlier hadn't sent a single text since.
"Are you waiting for Logan's message?"
"Did you two fight because of me?"
Julian looked guilty, playing the victim like an expert. "Technically, this trophy and certificate should belong to him. I get why he's mad. Maybe I should go apologize to him."
"Apologize for what? None of this even matters to him. Don't feel guilty. I know Logan better than anyone. He'll come crawling back to beg for my forgiveness within three days."
Julian opened his arms and pulled her close, whispering a soft "thank you" into her ear.
The sight burned my eyes.
A faint smile touched Lily's lips. "You never have to thank me. Oh, and to celebrate your big win tonight, I set up a surprise for you."
In all the time I had been with Lily, I was the one who planned every single anniversary and birthday.
She never cared.
She wouldn't even bother buying me a cake.
I used to make excuses for her, telling myself she was just forgetful, or too busy with work. Now I saw the ugly truth: she just didn't care about me. I wasn't worth her time.
Lily led Julian to an open rooftop. She covered his eyes, and the second she pulled her hands away, dazzling fireworks erupted across the night sky.
Julian's eyes turned red with emotion.
He spun around and pulled Lily into a crushing embrace. "Thank you for everything you've done for me."
"Seriously, I don't even know how to begin thanking you!"
Lily cupped his face in her hands, tenderly wiping away the tears on his cheeks.
"Silly. I'm going to give you so many more surprises in the future."
Their eyes locked. Julian leaned down, pressing a soft kiss to her lips.
"Lily, divorce Logan and be with me."
"You've done so much for me. Logan might love you, but he's definitely going to resent you now. I can't stand seeing you walk on eggshells around him."
"I love you. I cherish you. I'll give you everything I have. To Logan, you'll never be as important as his career. But with me, it's different. Lily, please... give me a chance, okay?"
Lily stared at him, her gaze burning with emotion.
I knew right then that his confession had completely swayed her.
At that moment, I was nothing more than a pathetic joke, forced to watch my wife fall into another man's arms.
It felt like my chest had been hollowed out. Every sweet memory I had ever shared with Lily shattered into dust.
Before Lily could give him an answer, her phone suddenly rang.
It was my mom.
She frowned. She clearly didn't want to answer, but out of basic respect for an elder, she picked up.
Pressing the phone to her ear, Lily's voice dripped with annoyance. "Mom, what is it? I'm at the office working overtime. I'm busy."
She lied straight through her teeth without even letting go of Julian's waist.
"Lily! The police just called me! They said there was a fire at your apartment complex!"
"I know," Lily said, her voice freezing cold. "If that's all, I'm hanging up."
My mom broke down sobbing on the other end. "They said they found a body in the fire... They think it's Logan!""What are we going to do? Can you please go down there and check? My legs are bad, I can't make the trip!"
My mother's voice trembled with sheer panic and grief through the speaker.
Lily, on the other hand, didn't give a damn. She even scoffed under her breath. "Did Logan tell you to call and trick me into coming home?"
"So now he realizes he pissed me off? If he wants to apologize, tell him to do it to my face! Otherwise, we're getting a divorce!"
With that, she hung up the phone.
Lily had never mentioned divorce to me before. Yet seconds after Julian confessed his love, the word slipped past her lips with sickening ease.
My heart throbbed with a pain so intense it felt paralyzed.
Julian watched her, reaching out to gently ruffle her hair with a soft smile. "Maybe we should head back and check just in case."
"Check what? I know Logan inside and out. He loves playing the victim. I'm not enabling his childish tantrums!"
Julian nodded along. "Yeah, you're right. If something actually happened to Logan, the cops would've called you first since you're his wife. Why would they only call his mom?"
Those words completely convinced Lily that I was pulling a stunt.
She snatched up her phone and fired off a SnapChat message:
[Logan, stop using death threats on me. I'm warning you, I despise liars!]
[I know you're bitter, but the ceremony is over. The entire world thinks Julian wrote that book now. With my testimony, pitching a fit won't change a thing.]
[If you're not home by the time I get back, we are done!]
I stared at the screen, those words blurring together until they felt completely alien.
She had conveniently forgotten that our marriage was kept under wraps; barely anyone in our professional circle knew we were married.
My only listed emergency contact had always been my mother.
The two of them lingered in the rooftop tent, flirting and making out for a long while before Julian finally walked Lily back to our building.
I could clearly see the fresh hickey blooming on her neck.
Lily had to know it was there, but she didn't even bother covering it up. Relying on my unconditional love, she assumed I would swallow whatever lie she fed me.
But I was human.
Every shred of disappointment had slowly drained my love away.
Julian kissed her forehead, reluctant to part, before turning to leave.
Suddenly, a squad of police officers marched toward them.
Lily recoiled, startled by the heavy presence.
One of the officers held up an evidence bag containing my wedding ring and a few charred scraps of fabric.
"Ma'am, we found your fingerprints on these items. We need you to come down to the station with us."
Julian instantly panicked, shrinking behind Lily.
"Did Logan call the cops over this? What do we do? Are we going to get arrested?"
He still had no idea I was dead. He thought I was pressing charges for literary theft.
Lily flared with rage. "Logan really has outdone himself this time! Throwing this kind of tantrum over something so small? Where the hell is he right now?"
"Hiding like a pathetic coward, getting outsiders to fight his battles, huh?"
"If he doesn't give me a damn good explanation for this tonight, I'm divorcing him!"
The officer stared at Lily in sheer disbelief. "You're Mr. Miller's wife?"
Lily nodded.
The officer slowly lowered the evidence bag. "Are you aware there was a fatal fire on the premises tonight? Your husband may already be..."
Before he could finish, a woman burst into the courtyard.
The moment she laid eyes on Lily, she charged forward and slapped her across the face without hesitation.
"It was you! You killed Logan!"
"What the hell are you talking about?!" Lily raised her hand to strike back, but the officers quickly grabbed her arm.
The woman spun toward the police, shouting, "Officers! I want to report them for murder! They killed Logan for their own selfish greed!"
"Logan wrote *Born to Live*! He called me just a few days ago to share the excitement of winning the award! But tonight, the man standing on that stage was the creep standing right behind her! They had every motive in the world to murder him!"
Lily was completely thrown, freezing in place for several seconds before finding her voice. "What are you babbling about? Murder?"
"Stop playing dumb! If it wasn't for you, there's no way Logan would be dead!"
The woman's emotions ran wild. Seeing that words weren't calming her down, the officers had to physically restrain her to keep her from attacking Lily again.
"What proof do you have that Logan wrote *Born to Live*? And who the hell are you anyway? Why would a wife frame her own husband for an outsider?" Julian chimed in smoothly.
"Or are you Logan's little side chick? Did you find out he was dead and decide to frame his legal wife so you could steal his estate?!"
The scene devolved into absolute chaos, but something about Julian set off alarm bells in my head.
Learning about my death hadn't shocked him in the slightest. Instead, he was eerily calm, deflecting the blame onto me and branding me a cheater.
Chloe trembled with rage. "You think everyone in this world is as disgusting as you?"
"Logan and I were dear friends!"
"Friends?" Julian sneered. "Well, dead men tell no tales, so you can claim whatever you want. But Lily is his wife—she'd never hurt him. And I was at the awards gala all night. Every reporter in the room can vouch for my alibi!"
That took the wind out of Chloe's sails.
Lily chimed in, "I've been married to my husband for years, and I've never seen your face once. How could you possibly be his friend? You're nothing but a fraud!"
"Fine! We've never met in person, but can you really not recognize my voice?!"
Chloe lunged forward, grabbing Lily by her collar. "I'm 'Cookie'! Do you remember me now?!"
'Cookie' was Chloe's pen name. Before I married Lily, the three of us used to chat online about literature all the time.
We were great friends back then.
After I tied the knot, I distanced myself to focus on my marriage, and we fell out of touch.
When I won the award recently, I didn't have many close friends in the literary circle, so Chloe was the first person I thought of. I reached out to share the amazing news.
I never expected she would fly across the country just to fight for my justice.
"It's you? You told me back then that you stopped talking to Logan!"
"When did the two of you start sneaking around behind my back?"
Lily and Julian tag-teamed Chloe. Seeing this, I finally saw the woman sleeping beside me for who she truly was.
Watching Chloe run out of words, Julian's lips curved into a smug smirk.
"Fine. You want proof? Then listen to this damn recording!"The moment the word "recording" dropped, the color drained from both Julian's and Lily's faces.
"Officer, who knows what kind of dirty relationship she had with my husband? She was on the other side of the country. How could she possibly have a recording?"
"She clearly faked it to get her hands on his money!"
"First it's an audio file, next she'll probably show up with a forged will!"
Lily's desperate excuses convinced no one. Everyone knew criminal investigations relied on hard evidence, not personal smear campaigns.
The way she talked made it sound like the police were just props in her little drama.
"Rest assured, everyone. We follow the law and go where the evidence leads. We will get justice for Mr. Miller."
Chloe pulled out her phone and played the audio of my final phone call with Lily. It was the recording I had sent her with the very last ounce of strength I had before bleeding out.
"I also have the voice message Logan sent me when he first heard about winning the award."
While these files couldn't directly prove they had murdered me, they were concrete proof that Julian and Lily had stolen my work without my consent.
Chloe watched their horrified reactions and sneered. "This is my first time flying into this city in years. And as you can hear from our chat logs, Logan and I were completely professional."
"On the other hand, Miss Lily... your husband is barely cold, yet that hickey on your neck is practically glowing. You look a lot more like the one who was sleeping around."
The officers' gazes shifted straight to Lily's neck. Her guilty flinch gave everything away.
"AI voice cloning is everywhere these days! You could have easily faked that! Besides, why would he send a recording of a call with his own wife to you? That makes zero sense!"
The only reason I sent it to Chloe was pure desperation.
Aside from Lily's, Chloe's chat had been pinned right near the top of my inbox.
Drowning in my own blood, I didn't have the strength to scroll for anyone else.
"Data roaming and carrier records don't lie. All the police need to do is pull the timestamp from Logan's carrier to confirm whether that file came from his phone. The truth will be obvious!"
Julian stepped in, trying to stay calm. "Even if I did accept the award in his place—which I didn't—how on earth does that prove we killed him?"
Floating above them, watching Chloe fight tooth and nail for my name, a faint warmth brushed against my cold spirit.
"All of you, come down to the station to give formal statements."
"The case hasn't even been solved yet, do we really have to go with you?"
The moment Julian asked, the lead detective's expression darkened.
Julian caught himself and scrambled to recover. "I mean, of course, I'll fully cooperate with your investigation. I just want my name cleared."
At the precinct, Julian leaned in and whispered to Lily repeatedly.
"Lily, Logan is dead. As long as you insist he was having an affair with Chloe, it doesn't matter what audio she has. She was out of state, and local records take forever to subpoena. Don't panic. The cops have nothing on us."
"Do you hear me? Don't worry, I'll protect you. Even if things go south, I won't let anything happen to you."
Seeing Lily staring blankly into space, Julian hooked his finger around hers. "Did you hear a word I just said?"
"People die when their time comes. Logan's death isn't your fault. Lily, you don't need to blame yourself."
Those words finally pulled a reaction out of her. She still hadn't fully processed the fact that I was gone.
"Was it a mistake... to tie him up..."
Before she could finish, Julian cut her off sharply. "We're right outside the interrogation rooms! This is their turf. You keep that buried in your chest. You take it to the grave, understood?"
Chapters (4)
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Watch & Promotions
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