Chapter 1The Book of Life and Death

Three years after my death, an app called The Book of Life and Death was forcibly installed on every mobile phone in the world.

The rules were simple:

Anyone could nominate a deceased person for resurrection.

After seven days, the user with the highest global Karma score would have their wish granted.

The resurrected person would be soul-bound to their nominator, automatically joined in marriage.

The second the app went live, my husband, the world’s wealthiest man, Adrian Lowe, made his nomination.

But he didn’t nominate me.

He nominated his first love, the one who had always held his heart: Sierra Xia.

He leveraged his immense wealth, launching a global charity blitz. His Karma score skyrocketed at an astronomical rate, leaving everyone else in the dust. The world watched, certain he would be the sole victor.

But on the second day, another nomination quietly appeared beneath his post.

“I want to resurrect the wife of the man above me.”

* * *

I had been dead for three years, murdered by Adrian Lowe, yet my soul remained trapped in our marital home.

Day after day, I watched him.

I watched him grieve for another woman, mourn for another woman.

Until The Book of Life and Death appeared.

Without a moment's hesitation, Adrian orchestrated an unprecedented spectacle of philanthropy for Sierra.

He launched a 24/7 global livestream, donating billions to refugee agencies in Africa. He funded the construction of a thousand schools in remote, impoverished regions. He poured colossal sums into wildlife conservation efforts.

His Karma score shot up like a rocket, creating a celestial chasm between him and the next contender.

In a live interview with global media, his face was gaunt, his eyes bloodshot. He played the part of the heartbroken saint, a man willing to sacrifice his fortune to resurrect his one true love, to perfection.

“Yes, I nominated Sierra Xia,” he said, his voice husky, filled with a storyteller’s sorrow. “She was the only light in my life. The one and only love I will ever know.”

An audacious reporter brought up my name—Nora Grey, his legal wife.

A look of carefully crafted helplessness and pity flickered across Adrian’s face. “My marriage to Nora was… a mistake from the very beginning. A debt of gratitude owed by our parents forced us together. I respected her, but I… I never loved her.”

He paused, as if wrestling with an immense, unspoken pain. Then, he delivered the lie that would stun and enrage the world.

“I never knew a person could be so venomous…” he choked out, a single, perfect tear tracing a path down his cheek. “Three years ago, Sierra needed an operation. It was her only chance at survival. And Nora… Nora was the only bone marrow match in the world. I begged her. I got on my knees. I promised her all my wealth, everything I owned, if she would just save Sierra’s life.”

“She agreed, on the surface. But I found out later… she hated me. She hated Sierra. She hated us so much that, when she went to donate her marrow, she took a banned drug, a substance that temporarily alters the viability of bone marrow cells…”

He closed his eyes, his face a mask of agony. “It was my fault. I should have seen the darkness in her heart sooner. In the end, the drug backfired. She died on the operating table. But she succeeded… in the most vicious way imaginable, she murdered the woman I loved.”

His masterful reversal of the truth instantly transformed him into a tragic hero, a man trapped in a loveless marriage, whose true love was murdered by a jealous wife.

And I, Nora Grey, was summarily crucified on a pillar of shame, branded a "murderer who got what she deserved."

The world wept for him. The world spat on my name.

Everyone believed he would be the sole victor.

But the next day, another nomination appeared beneath his post. It was simple, direct, almost jarring in its audacity.

“I want to resurrect Nora Grey, the wife of the man above me.”

The nominator: Julian Shen.

A name I didn’t recognize.

The internet erupted in ridicule. He was mocked as an attention-seeking clown, a twisted freak who sympathized with a killer.

But my soul, my trapped and tormented soul, trembled violently at the sight of that name.

The bloody, humiliating memories of my life came roaring back, threatening to swallow me whole.