Chapter 2

The next thing I knew, I was standing in a hospital room.

It was bright, luxurious. Not like the public hospital where I' d recovered after giving Chloe my kidney.

This was a suite.

Chloe was there, in a plush bed. She was holding a baby. A boy.

He was small, new.

Liam was beside her, beaming. He leaned down, kissed her forehead.

"Our son, Chloe. He' s perfect."

Our son.

My spirit, or whatever I was, felt a cold I hadn' t felt even on the island.

I' d been dead for months. Eight, to be exact. The calendar on the wall said June.

I had died in October.

I tried to speak, to scream. Nothing came out.

I tried to touch her, to shake her. My hand passed right through her arm.

I was a ghost. An unseen observer.

Forced to watch them.

Chloe looked tired but happy. She cooed at the baby.

"He has your eyes, Liam," she said softly.

Liam puffed his chest. "Of course. He' s a fighter, like his old man."

Lies. All of it. The baby was from a sperm donor. Liam couldn' t have children. He' d told Chloe it was his, his dying wish to have a child with her.

He wasn' t dying. He was a cancer, feeding on her life, my life.

Friends came to visit. Our friends. Or so I thought.

"Chloe, you look radiant," one said. "And Liam, you' re a natural."

They all fawned over the baby. They all told Chloe how strong she was.

How Liam was her rock.

No one mentioned me.

It was like I never existed.

My love, my sacrifice, erased.

I watched Liam hold the baby. He looked so proud, so proprietary.

He' d won. He had my wife, a child he claimed as his, my wealth through Chloe.

And I was just...gone.

A whisper in a room they couldn' t hear.