Chapter 1

The police opened the trunk, and a thick stench hit them in the face.

Everyone around immediately bent over and started retching.

I did not blame them. I thought my own corpse was disgusting, too.

Moonlight fell on the bloody, mutilated body. Its limbs were twisted in grotesque shapes.

The skin around the wounds was rotting, with decaying flesh peeling away.

The body was taken back to the police station and placed on the autopsy table.

I stared at it so blankly that I did not even realize someone had entered the room.

“Is the victim male or female?”

I snapped back to reality the moment I heard that voice.

But my body froze in place, and I could not move.

I would never forget that voice. It was my fiance, Christopher Smith.

He was the best forensic scientist in Cloud City.

But I never expected him to be the one to dissect my body.

I watched him walk right past me and stop in front of the autopsy table.

For a brief moment, I was even curious about his reaction when he realized the body was mine.

Would he feel a little sad for me?

But I had forgotten. Elizabeth Webb had forced my head into a basin filled with acid.

“I hate that face of yours, so I guess I’d better get rid of it!”

The disgusting smell of skin corroding and burning seemed to still linger around me.

So, there was no way Christopher could recognize me.

Just as I thought, he spared one glance at the body and frowned. Then, he covered his nose with his hand, as if in disgust.

Was he disgusted, or did he find it ugly?

But his professionalism quickly kicked in, and he resumed the normal autopsy routine.

“The limbs were forcibly broken and twisted into a ball, and had likely been fitted into a small space.”

True to his reputation as the best forensic scientist, everything he said was spot on.

Elizabeth had indeed stuffed me into a suitcase, just to force me to beg her for mercy in despair.

But by then, I had no strength left in me. I could not even cry in pain.

“Her body is covered in stab wounds, and her head is charred black. This condition suggests she was submerged in acid!”

After saying this, a hint of sympathy flashed in his eyes.

Was he feeling sorry for the pain this body had suffered?

But the pain he saw did not compare to the slightest of what I had experienced.

Elizabeth had ripped off my fingernails with pliers and slashed my entire body.

But it was not enough for her. She then smeared chili oil on the wounds.

My agonized screams and her manic laughter were the only sounds in the room. Then, my cries were completely drowned out by her laughter.

Christopher carefully examined the body. As he was about to turn it over, my brother suddenly walked in.

“Christopher, Liz isn’t feeling well and was admitted to the hospital. Why aren’t you with her now?”

At the mention of Elizabeth’s name, Christopher’s previously calm expression tensed up, and he quickly said in concern, “She didn’t tell me. Is she okay?”

“She said her stomach hurt and needed to get it checked out.”

After saying that, my brother covered his nose suddenly and frowned as he looked at my body. “Another new victim?”

“Yeah, she died about two months ago.”

Hearing this, my brother hesitated for a moment and mumbled absentmindedly, “It’s been almost two months since we last saw her… Could it be—”

Maybe I should be glad that my brother still remembered I existed.

But before he could finish his sentence, Christopher cut him off with an impatient tone, “It’s not her! She might be having the best time of her life with that man now!”

Hearing him, I looked up into his eyes.

Unsurprisingly, they were filled with nothing but hatred.

I smiled bitterly.

He wished for my death, yet I still had hopes for him.

If he knew this body was mine, he would probably celebrate.

Why did I still harbor such unrealistic fantasies?

It was just like what Elizabeth said when she smashed my head against the floor while cursing: I was pathetic.

My brother echoed Christopher’s words with a cold expression, “I agree. But Naomi is ruthless. Even if she’s dead, she deserves it.

“She didn’t just sleep around, she also hurt Liz and killed Dad. What trash!”

I was listening to my brother’s words as I wondered how could the trust between siblings be so fragile.

The man I loved and my own brother cursed me with the vilest words.

Hearing it again, my heart—long numb—still ached as if a blade had cut through it.