Chapter 3
It was late at night when Victor finally returned to Hawthorne Manor.
He violently kicked open the door to my former bedroom.
The wood splintered against the wall with a deafening crash.
"Cecilia, get the hell out of here right now!"
His angry roar echoed through the house, but he got nothing but silence back.
He frantically opened every door on the second floor—closets, bathrooms, everything.
He grabbed a priceless antique vase from a hallway display table and smashed it against the floor in a fit of rage.
"Cecilia, you better pray I never find you!"
He glared into the dead silence of the shadowy corridor.
His chest heaved with uncontrolled fury.
"When I do catch you, I will personally break both of your legs!"
The woman he wanted to cripple was standing right in front of him.
I hovered less than a meter away from his face.
I watched him lose his mind with complete numbness.
Victor eventually stormed down to his private study and collapsed into his leather chair with a dark scowl.
His assistant David walked in a few moments later.
"Mr. Hawthorne, we finally traced Miss Cecilia's phone records." David's frame trembled as he held out a glowing tablet.
"Her very last phone call was made to Lucas."
Victor's eyes snapped up at the mention of my childhood friend.
"But Lucas claims he hasn't spoken to her in months."
Without saying a word, Victor stood up and grabbed his coat.
"Prepare the car for Brooklyn immediately."
The black Maybach sped recklessly through the empty nighttime streets.
Soon, Victor stormed up to Lucas's apartment with his bodyguards.
A bodyguard stepped forward and rang the doorbell.
No answer.
Losing his patience, Victor shoved the man aside and kicked the door with brutal force.
He kicked the door three consecutive times until it finally opened.
Deep bruises of exhaustion rested heavily under Lucas's eyes. He looked like a man who hadn't slept in weeks.
"After all these years, you're still as rude as ever," Lucas mocked lightly.
"Cut the crap. Where is Cecilia?" Victor snapped.
"She is already dea," Lucas answered impatiently.
"Didn't the Manhattan crematorium tell you to collect her ashes?"
Victor let out a mocking sneer.
He refused to believe a single word.
He stubbornly believed Lucas was just helping me put on an act.
He pushed aggressively past Lucas into the living room.
He yelled into the cramped, poorly lit apartment.
"Cecilia, don't think Lucas can protect you from this!"
He decided to use Lucas's safety as leverage against me.
"I will count to three, and you better get out here!"
"Three."
"Two."
"..."
Victor's patience officially ran out.
He suddenly kicked Lucas hard in the stomach.
Lucas stumbled backward and hit the floor.
"Tear this place apart and find her," Victor ordered his men.
The bodyguards began ripping open cabinets and doors.
Lucas scrambled up from the floor and lunged forward with sudden speed.
He grabbed Victor's collar and slammed the billionaire hard against the wall.
"I told you, she died days ago!"
Lucas gritted his teeth in sheer frustration.
Victor looked at him with sheer disdain.
His mouth spilled the most vile insults imaginable.
"She has been thoroughly used up by me for years."
"If your heart aches for her so much, I can make you a deal."
"She needs to knock her head against Chloe's hospital bed first."
"After she finishes repenting, I can give her to you."
Lucas's eyes turned bloodshot with absolute fury.
"Victor, you are a fucking beast!"
Lucas threw a heavy punch directly into Victor's face.
Victor's head snapped to the side.
He let out a muffled groan of pain.
The two men instantly tackled each other to the ground.
They knocked over a coffee table in the violent struggle.
Lucas was fit from daily exercise.
But Victor was professionally trained in mixed martial arts.
Victor quickly gained the upper hand in the brawl.
He pinned Lucas brutally against the floorboards.
People always said that ghosts could not feel physical pain.
They claimed the dead were completely free from earthly sensations.
But watching Lucas get beaten up for my sake proved them wrong.
A tearing agony exploded deep within my transparent chest.
It felt like my soul was being ripped into shreds.
I paced frantically around them in the cramped room.
I reached out to grab Victor's raised arm.
My fingers simply phased through his solid muscles.
I wanted to scream and pull them apart.
But I was completely powerless to do anything at all.
Victor stared down at Lucas with supreme arrogance.
He held Lucas down by the throat.
"You are throwing your life away for a murderer."
"Lucas, is she really worth doing all this?"
Lucas spat a mouthful of blood onto the wooden floor.
He let out a cold laugh of pure mockery.
"The only truly pathetic person here is you!"
"You treat the real culprit like a treasure!"
"You drove the only woman who loved you to her absolute death!"
"Victor, you live a life worse than a rat in the sewer!"
Victor's eyes narrowed dangerously at the words 'real culprit'.
He laughed out of pure, blinding anger.
He raised his bruised fist high into the air.
He prepared to deliver a crushing blow to Lucas's face.
Just as Victor prepared to punch Lucas in the face, a panicked bodyguard burst into the apartment.
"Boss, we found it."
Victor froze with his fist suspended in the air.
The bodyguard held up a sealed folder with trembling hands and swallowed hard in visible fear.
"We received the official autopsy report from the New York Medical Examiner."
