Chapter 11
James‘ head snapped up. He stared at the closet before him, but he could not summon the courage to open it.
The closer he got to the closet, the more his heart raced. He had a feeling that the closet contained an earth–shattering secret.
He raised his trembling hands but struggled to open the closet doors. Sophie wandered into the room at that moment. She looked confused as to why he froze in front of the closet.
“What’s wrong, James? I came to check on you because I heard a noise.” She scanned the empty bedroom. Colette was unexpectedly gone.
A thought struck Sophie. Could Colette have willingly moved out?
James remained standing in front of the closet wordlessly. That prompted Sophie to look at the closet too.
Without thinking, she opened the closet, only to scream her lungs out at the sight that greeted her.
Her scream pulled James back to reality. His heart dropped when he saw what was in the closet
Colette’s blood–stained body.
Colette’s
rapidly decomposed when exposed to the air. Her skin was already discolored. The rotten smell of the corpse filled the air.
eyes were tightly shut. Her body, slightly ed in the tightly sealed closet,
James teared up immediately when he saw Colette’s lifeless body. He cried out in a shaking voice, “Lettie!”
He had never openly cried, but he could no longer hold back his tears. “How did this happen?”
He carefully moved Colette’s body out of the closet. Sophie instantly fled the room on wobbly legs out of fear when she saw him doing that. The first thing she did was to call the police.
The police and the coroner showed up at the villa in no time. By the time they arrived, Sophie had calmed down. She quickly answered the door when they pressed on the doorbell and led everyone into the villa.
She brought them to Colette’s bedroom but refused to step into the space. The police and the coroner entered the room, where they found James hugging the decomposing corpse tightly.
The group had to persuade him to let go of the body and cooperate with the investigation. They hauled the body away later.
Before the authorities left the villa, an older policeman sighed after seeing the unconsolable James. Patting James on the shoulder, the policeman comforted him, “My condolences. I’m
Chapter 11
sure your family member does not want you to be sad. She’s gone. What matters is that you move on with your life,”
After that, he jogged away and caught up with the police force, leaving behind James, who looked lost.
How could he ever move on with his life? He deliberately gave Colette the cold shoulder just to put a stop to her romantic crush on him. He was gone for only five days, but he didn’t expect it to be farewell.
Drowning in his sorrows, he covered his face and sobbed. After a while, he finally said to Sophie in a hoarse voice, “You can leave now.”
Stunned, Sophie realized he wasn’t joking around. She frantically went up to him. “James, I’m not responsible for Colette’s death! I am really in love with you. How could you kick me out?”
Tears drenched her cheeks. She grabbed his thigh and refused to let go, but he did not help her up, unlike before. He pried her fingers away from her. “Sophie Egan, you knew this from the start. I paid you to be my fake fiancée. Well, I don’t need one now.”
Sounding exhausted, he let out a sad chuckle and distanced himself from Sophie. “I will pay you according to what we agreed on. Take the money and leave.”
