Chapter 1

Heavy rain washed over the grounds of Silent Oaks Cemetery as Elizabeth Winters' ghost floated above the newly erected tombstone.

She stared at the inscription "Beloved Wife of Daniel Wilson—Elizabeth's Grave" and felt nothing but disgust.

The screech of brakes cut through the air as several black SUVs pulled into the cemetery.

Matthew Moore stepped out of the car, his face cold as ice.

John Martin followed with a black umbrella, but Matthew shoved him away, letting the rain pour down on him as he rushed to the tombstone, staring at it intensely.

"Who gave him permission to carve his name next to yours?" Matthew's voice was hoarse as he pulled a dagger from his waist.

Matthew slammed the handle against the tombstone repeatedly, his knuckles bleeding profusely, but he didn't care. He kept going until the stone cracked.

"Put up the new stone! Do it now!"

Several bodyguards frantically carried over a prepared replacement stone, engraved with: [Matthew's Beloved Wife Elizabeth]

Elizabeth's ghost trembled in midair. Even in death, Matthew wouldn't let her go?

Matthew knelt in the mud, clawing at the soil with his bare hands, his fingernails immediately tearing back.

"Elizabeth, don't be scared. I'll get you out. It's too dark in there. You're afraid of the dark, aren't you?" He dug while muttering, his voice shaking badly.

Elizabeth sighed, wanting to tell him she wasn't worth this.

To marry Daniel, she'd even threatened suicide to make Matthew let her go. And what happened?

Soon after the wedding, Daniel strapped her to an operating table and, without anesthesia, cut out her heart for his adopted sister Sophia Wilson.

Turns out, all his kindness was only because her heart was a match for Sophia.

She died in agony and regret, her body carelessly buried here.

John couldn't take it anymore. He knelt beside him, crying out: "Mr. Moore! Stop digging! Ms. Winters is gone. Let her rest in peace!"

"Get lost!" Matthew kicked John over.

The rain poured harder. His ten fingers were a bloody mess, but finally, the black coffin emerged.

Matthew collapsed on the coffin lid, gasping for air, trembling as he pried out the nails one by one.

The coffin opened, releasing a rotting smell, but Matthew seemed not to notice at all.

Elizabeth saw her own corpse—a gaping bloody hole in her chest, a horrible death.

But Matthew's expression softened. He reached out, gently touching that decayed face. "I'm sorry... Elizabeth, I came too late..."

Matthew suddenly turned to John: "Bring them up here!"

"Yes!" John responded grimly, turning to order the bodyguards behind him.

A man and woman were dragged out by the bodyguards and thrown at Matthew's feet like animals for slaughter.

Daniel's white suit was covered in mud as he struggled on the ground, all dignity of a rich man gone.

Sophia's face was deathly pale, her body shaking.

Elizabeth's ghost trembled violently, watching these two people who had cut out her heart alive, hatred surging through her.

Matthew stepped on Daniel's face, grinding down hard with his shoe.

"Matthew, you're crazy," Daniel shouted. "This is kidnapping. It's illegal."

Matthew showed a twisted smile: "When you cut out Elizabeth's heart, did you think about the law?"

He pulled out a dagger, the cold blade flashing as it drew blood across Daniel's neck.

Daniel's voice turned shrill. "Elizabeth was my wife. She signed the agreement willingly."

"Bullshit!" Elizabeth's ghost screamed frantically in the rain. "You forced me to sign it!"

"Willingly?" Matthew glared at Daniel through gritted teeth. "Do you think I'm an idiot?"

Before he finished speaking, Matthew gripped the dagger and stabbed it into Daniel's right eye, then pulled out a bloody eyeball.

A piercing scream tore through the cemetery. Daniel instinctively tried to cover his eyes, but Matthew stepped on his wrist and stabbed again, gouging out the other eye.

"Bastard." Matthew's face was expressionless. "Elizabeth was the best woman in the world, and you cut out her heart for another woman."

Elizabeth's ghost froze in midair.

She watched the man whose heart she had broken, now like a demon crawled out of hell, taking revenge for her.

Daniel couldn't scream anymore, only making painful gasping sounds from his throat, the two bloody holes in his face particularly horrifying.

Even so, Matthew didn't give him a chance to live. One knife stroke killed him.

Sophia was paralyzed with fear on the ground, watching Matthew approach with terror, unable to speak a word.

Matthew looked down at Sophia's heaving chest, muttering: "Do you know how she died? Without anesthesia, her heart was cut out alive. How much pain she must have felt!"

The dagger plunged into Sophia's chest, twisted, then pulled out, extracting a complete heart as blood gushed out, splashing all over Matthew.

Sophia's body convulsed violently twice, then stopped breathing.

Elizabeth watched all this in shock.

She knew Matthew liked her, but she never imagined he could go this far for her.

Rainwater washed away the blood on the ground. Matthew held that fresh red heart and knelt before Elizabeth.

"Elizabeth, I've avenged you."

Matthew carefully cradled the heart and gently placed it into Elizabeth's empty chest cavity.

He wiped his hands on his clothes, then had John bring over a dust bag and took out a diamond-studded wedding dress.

"Elizabeth, I had this wedding dress custom-made five years ago. Let me help you put it on, okay?"

He lifted Elizabeth's stiff body and carefully dressed her in the wedding dress.

He took out a lipstick and carefully applied it to Elizabeth's lips, then arranged her hair.

"So beautiful." Matthew looked at her tenderly.

Elizabeth screamed silently: "Matthew! You idiot! I'm not worth this!"

Matthew held Elizabeth and lay down in the coffin, shouting outside.

"John, take everyone and leave. Feed those two bastards' bodies to the dogs!"

John bowed three times to the tombstone and led everyone away crying.

He knew no one could stop Matthew, who was determined to die.

Matthew held the corpse tightly, picked up the dagger, and pointed it at his own abdomen.

"Elizabeth, wait for me. I'm coming to be with you."

He smiled, and with a sudden force of his wrist, the dagger plunged deep into his abdomen, blood spreading rapidly.

Matthew groaned in pain, but his smile grew wider.

He pulled out the dagger and stabbed again, deeper this time, blood flowing faster.

Elizabeth's ghost threw herself on him, screaming silently.

"No! Matthew, stop! Please stop!"

Matthew's consciousness began to fade. He buried his head in Elizabeth's neck, his voice growing weaker, but the smile never left his lips.

"In the next life... don't hide from me anymore... okay?"

Matthew's pupils began to dilate, but his arms around Elizabeth only tightened.

Elizabeth watched Matthew, feeling her entire soul trembling with pain: "Matthew! If there's a next life, I'll never leave you again!"

As soon as she spoke, a white light descended from the sky, enveloping the two people in the coffin and pulling Elizabeth's ghost in with them...