"Got it, thank you Mel." Hearing what she said sounded the alarm bells in my brain. Lily must have planned early on to get insurance money if anything happened to me, and now that the company was transferred to her, Johnny, and Lorraine's names, they'd be forced into the corner the moment the court found them.I wouldn't be surprised if they did anything drastic.After some thought, I decided to figure out the password to Louis' offshore account, then move somewhere far away and start my life afresh.That being said, a short six-digit password was going to be the death of me. I tried Louis' birthday, Lily's, Johnny's, Lorraine's, our dog's… I even checked his entire family register for three generations, and none of the passwords were correct."Lulu, maybe you should go at it from another angle?" Melissa advised over the phone. "Why haven't you tried your own?"I scoffed. "Because it's impossible that it's mine, of course!""But aren't things always like that? People always s
"Luna, I know you're sad, but my colleagues and I already tried our best to save him." My brother-in-law passed a blood-stained talisman into my hand, with a pained expression on his face. "My brother must have loved you a lot… This was in his breast pocket when the accident happened, but he was wounded too greatly…"A chill ran down my spine as the fog in my brain cleared. I had obtained this lucky charm from a mountaintop, going through the rites of kneeling all the way there, and it was exactly because of this talisman that I've never questioned the love between Louis and me.Back then, I only took one look at the talisman before I passed out crying. By the time I came to, Johnny told me that his brother had been cremated and took me to the crematorium to claim his ashes.Back then, I hugged the urn, overcome with grief as I cried, and no one could convince me to bury it. Later on, the court sent enforcers to notify me that I had to move out of my house within two days, and
"L-Let's not do that, Luna…" Johnny froze visibly at my request. "He was completely disfigured from that accident, so I'm scared it'd scar you."As he spoke, he tried handing me the tissues again. If I wasn't mistaken, he definitely drugged those tissues with chemicals that'd make me pass out quickly. The first time this happened, I had passed out immediately after using the tissues he handed me to wipe my tears, only waking up to see cremated ashes.Who knew if those were human ashes or the ashes of some animal?!"Please, let's not be rash…" Johnny tried to stop me as I stood up and made a beeline for the morgue, but he was too late."Honey! Why did you have to die like this?!" I screamed, crying as I reached to remove the bloodstained cloth, revealing Louis' bloody, borderline mutilated face. The wounds on his body were badly mangled, and it truly was a gruesome sight, just as Johnny had warned.Of course, it was easy enough to deduce what had happened, seeing as he had a chil
As I spoke, the air in the room went down to freezing point.Johnny's expression changed a few times, before he put on an awkward, forced smile. "What are you saying, haha…""Then let me do it," I said, reaching to snatch the phone back.As soon as I did, however, Johnny took a few steps back and raised his hand as far as he could. "Please stop joking around, Luna. Shouldn't you ask Mom's opinion about this?"Oh, so he was calling in the cavalry.My mother-in-law, Lily, was what one could call an all-rounder. She was someone who could put on a facade of civility one day and curse your entire family while causing a scene the other, and as such was infamous in the residential area we lived in.I didn't say anything to refute his suggestion, however. "Sure, call her now."Louis was still alive now, after all. If this fact became apparent after the coroner examined his body, they'd even try to save him instead…But I couldn't possibly have that happen, could I? What I wanted was
Louis was still unresponsive by the time he was carried into the car, and I couldn't help but scoff.Back in the day, he did not have a single nickel to his name, unable to afford even a single bouquet of roses, while I was already the top name of the television station.In an effort to help his career, I had used all the connections I could, and almost got violated a few times in the process. In the end, he had succeeded.The first time the company turned a profit, he had hugged me excitedly. "Luna, I must be the luckiest man in the world to have you! From now on, I'll earn lots and lots of money, and give it all to you!"Naïve as I was, I had believed every single word.And what had come of that?He had given all the money he earned over to Lorraine, buying luxury brands and diamond rings for her, and even joined her as they jeered at my appearance that had deteriorated after what he'd done. "You're so disgusting, Luna. You look like an old rag! If it rained, you'd probably
What did it feel like to be cremated?I felt like no one would have more of a right to answer that question than Louis… Unless they wanted to be cremated alive too, maybe."Hello ma'am. Here are the different plans we've got." The staff handed me a pamphlet as she introduced the contents by memory. "We have the regular plan, the advanced plan, the luxury plan, and the rocket plan. I do need to let you know that the regular plan uses traditional methods and equipment, meaning that our staff would have to flip the corpse with a hook throughout the entire process, so it might not be the best for the body."That was honestly the one I wanted to pick. Nothing would suit him more than being burned alive while being rotated by a hook!On the off chance that he woke up immediately because of the pain, however, the consequences would be annoying to handle, to say the least, so I gave up.In the end, I tapped at the pamphlet. "Let's go with the rocket plan."I didn't really care about the
"O-Of course not!" Johnny stuttered, almost uttering the truth, his face flushed a bright shade of red. He was the one who had signed the certification of death, after all, so if he said anything else, he'd be locked up immediately for forging medical certificates.That's when Lily chimed in, "What, can't I see my son one last time and talk with him?"As she talked, she started moving towards the cremator."That's right, we just miss him, that's all!" Johnny nodded, and it was as if he'd run a mile from the way he broke out in cold sweat. Evidently, he'd almost burned out his internal processors trying to think of a proper excuse in the past few seconds."Mom, Johnny, please don't cause a ruckus here… I know that you're worried that you won't get your original dividends from the company because Louis died, but…" I stopped them quickly, putting on a tired expression. "I promise you'll only get more after this, alright…?"Of course, not in the form of money.Once the staff heard
In my past life, I would've already broken down at this point, but this sort of thing was nothing for someone who's already died once.What, did they think they were the only ones who could shed crocodile tears and captivate the social justice warriors?Had they forgotten that I graduated from performing arts? They had picked the wrong opponent, honestly!"Lorraine, please open your eyes…" Immediately, I slumped onto the floor weakly, and the heartache was palpable in my voice. "Is telling everyone all about what you did… The only way to make you stop?""What do you mean?!" Lorraine became nervous, but seemed to compose herself, confident in how well she had hidden her relationship with Louis. "Listen here, I can sue you for slander!"I scoffed under my breath. Using words properly was bread and butter for an emcee, after all, and I knew that the less I said out loud, the more people would fill in their blanks with their own imaginations.Lucky for me, everyone noticed how Lorr