Chapter 1

After I died, Victoria finally smiled.

It was a smile of pure relief, a look I had never seen on her face in my entire life.

She held Lily’s portrait tightly against her chest. The resentment and hatred that had etched deep lines between her eyebrows seemed to vanish the exact moment I drew my last breath.

"Lily," Victoria whispered, her voice cracking with a fragile, broken tenderness. "That nuisance is finally gone. Now, it’s just the two of us left in this house. Aren't you happy?"

I floated in the air. My translucent soul was pierced by the warm glow of the living room lights, yet I couldn't feel a single ounce of warmth.

My body was still locked inside the tiny utility closet next to the kitchen, a space less than twenty square feet.

My flesh had already grown cold. The skin that had been burning with a high fever just hours ago was now losing the last trace of human temperature.

And the reason for my death?

It was simply because, at my sister's memorial dinner, I had asked a single question: "Victoria... can I please have a tiny piece of cake?"