Chapter 3The Five-Year Ghost: My Husband Demands I Take the Fall Again

Carter pushed open the door to Chloe's luxury townhouse. Before he could even look for the supposedly rioting family members, Chloe threw herself into his arms.

"Carter, you found Sarah, right? She agreed to take the blame, didn't she?"

As she spoke, she hurriedly snatched the confession letter from Carter's hand.

When she saw that my signature wasn't on the dotted line, her face instantly turned ghost-white.

"Why isn't it signed?! Why won't she take the fall for me?! That pathetic bitch..."

Chloe's face twisted into a mask of pure malice.

Just as she was about to spit out more venom, she noticed Carter's deeply furrowed brow and quickly caught herself, changing her tone entirely.

"Carter, forget it. It seems she's still holding a grudge over what happened five years ago. I'll just go to prison myself. As long as you're okay, I'll be fine."

Chloe's eyes instantly welled up with red-rimmed tears.

It was a move she had used countless times before.

And sure enough, it worked. Carter hurriedly pulled her into a tight embrace.

"Chloe, don't worry. Just because I couldn't find her doesn't mean the police can't! If she refuses to sign the confession, I'll find someone who will make sure her name gets on that paper!"

A ruthless, dark glint flashed in Carter's eyes.

Chloe hid the victorious gleam in her eyes, feigning deep emotion as she hugged him back.

"But if we do that, Sarah will have to serve five years in federal prison this time. I remember your parents already had a problem with her, right? I'm afraid they might force you to divorce her..."

Carter's face darkened. "Sarah and I are never getting divorced!"

"We made a promise to stay together for the rest of our lives, and I don't break my promises. Even though she's spent the last five years raising Leo into a pathological liar, and throwing a tantrum by refusing to help you out... once I find her this time, I will make sure she learns her lesson."

"When she gets out of prison in five years, we'll go back to being a normal family."

I was so shocked by this delusion that my ghost literally floated in circles.

What Carter meant was that he was planning to cut ties with Chloe entirely.

Years ago, he had abandoned me and Leo countless times just to be at Chloe's beck and call.

Even when Leo was hospitalized with a dangerously high fever, Carter abandoned us at the ER without a second thought just because Chloe called him.

And now, for the sake of some casual promise we made when we were young and stupidly in love, he was voluntarily planning to cut contact with Chloe?

Chloe's features contorted in absolute rage.

But remembering the looming threat of prison, she swallowed her anger, forcing herself to look up at him with a pathetic, wronged expression.

Carter's heart softened for a moment. Just as he was about to comfort her, his phone rang sharply.

"Is this Mr. Carter Hayes? Your son, Leo, was just brought into the ER by ambulance with massive cranial hemorrhaging. Please come immediately to authorize his emergency surgery and pay the deposit."

"Heh! Are you scammers really getting this sophisticated now? Let him die, then. I'm not paying a cent."

Carter sneered coldly.

The hospital staff on the other end was utterly appalled. "Mr. Hayes, your son's life is in critical danger right now. If you don't pay the deposit, we cannot proceed with the surgery. We are calling from City General. You can come verify it yourself right now."

Carter frowned, a brief flash of hesitation crossing his face.

"Carter, Sarah is actually using her own child just to avoid taking the blame. She must truly hate me!"

Chloe looked up at him, her face a portrait of victimization.

Carter's eyes hardened. He suppressed the rising unease in his chest and said furiously:

"Enough! I don't care how much money Sarah paid you to put on this show. When I left earlier, Leo was perfectly fine. How dare she curse her own son just to play a trick! She's not afraid of karma?!"

With that, he violently hung up the phone.

I floated around him in a frantic panic, wanting nothing more than to force him to wire the money immediately.

But Carter was completely consumed with having his assistant forge my signature on the confession letter. Once done, he took Chloe straight to the police precinct.

"Officer, the medical malpractice incident that occurred at Emerson Hospital was caused by my wife. Here is her signed confession!"

The detective frowned as he took the document. A few minutes later, he looked at Carter like he was looking at an absolute lunatic.

"Mr. Hayes, are you attempting to obstruct a police investigation? You actually had the nerve to forge a confession document!"

Carter's heart skipped a beat.

"This was signed by my wife! She has fled to avoid prosecution."

The detective gave him a dead, icy stare.

"The Sarah Evans you're talking about was stabbed to death five years ago by the family of a victim from a completely different medical malpractice case!"

"When we closed the case, we tried to contact you, but you never answered your phone. In the end, it was her child who had to claim her ashes."

"You tell me: how exactly did a woman who has been dead for five years sign this confession?"

All the color instantly drained from Chloe's face, leaving her as white as a sheet.