The Return After We Died

Three years after my best friend vanished, eighteen skeletons were found under Riverbend City's streets.
One victim had 180 stab wounds. In her hand was a folded note:
Don’t be afraid. I’ve just gone home. If you can’t hold on, you can come home, too.
The System’s alarm blared:
[Affection meters for Family/Romance at 10%. Recommend immediate self-termination.]
That night, I put on my wedding dress and sent my suicide note to the family group chat.
My fiancé, comforting my adoptive sister, replied: “Insane?”
My actress mother screamed calls: “Apologize to your sister!”
My cop brother accused: “You’re tormenting Lucy by wearing that dress!”
No one mentioned the suicide note.
They didn’t know I wore the dress not to marry Dan, but to lure the serial killer who murdered my best friend—to escape this 25-year prison of a world.
Only my lawyer brother guessed:
“Vera, you figured it out. That body… it was Thea’s. Her note was for you, wasn’t it?”
I didn’t reply. Clutching my best friend’s photo, I walked toward the hotel, plainclothes officers trailing behind.

1
I sat in the back of the wedding limo, the officers disguised as my bridesmaids and groomsmen looking at me with complicated expressions.
“Are you absolutely sure about this? To draw out the ‘Bridal Butcher,’ you could die.”
“I know Captain Shaw’s career is on the line with this case, but you don’t have to risk your life…”
“This has nothing to do with Leo,” I said, my voice flat.
They didn’t look convinced, assuming I was still angry with my brother.
One of them offered, “I should give the Captain a call. A situation this dangerous, he should be here with you.”
I watched him dial, a faint, bitter smile touching my lips.
When the call connected, he started, “Captain, Vera is going in as bait for the Butcher today. It’s going to be extremely dangerous, you should…”
He was cut off. The line went dead.
A moment later, my own phone began to ring.
I answered, my face a blank mask.
Leo’s voice, raw with fury, exploded from the speaker. “I used to think you were just spoiled and selfish. I never thought you’d stoop this low, that you’d throw away all your morals just to force a wedding.”
He was breathing heavily, his teeth clenched. “Not only are you pushing your own sister to the brink, but now you have the nerve to get my colleagues to lie for you, to say you’re acting as bait? You’re trying to make us feel sorry for you, to guilt us into letting you marry Dan, is that it?”
“Vera, you’re just like your birth mother—a manipulative slut who only thinks about men! How dare you use a case this important for your own sick games!” His voice was a blade of ice. “Get over here right now and get on your knees and apologize to your sister! Tell everyone that you and Dan are over. That you’re a desperate homewrecker trying to steal your sister’s fiancé!”
I listened, my hand tightening into a fist. When he compared me to my birth mother, the world went dark for a moment. He was the one who had read the case files. He had seen how she stood by and did nothing while my adoptive father, Mark, snuck into my room night after night. He knew that when I had screamed and fought and threatened to call the police, she had smashed a vase over my head, leaving a permanent scar above my eyebrow.
Back then, his hands had trembled as he gently traced that scar, his eyes red. He had sworn to me in that same fierce tone, “Vera, I’ll make every single person who ever hurt you pay.”
A bitter laugh escaped my lips. “My birth mother,” I said calmly, “is Lucy’s biological mother. According to you, she should be the one who inherited those traits. After all, she’s the one pretending to be crazy to steal her sister’s fiancé, isn’t she? And you’re all just helping her do it.”
Silence on the other end, then the sound of Lucy’s frantic sobs. “Vera, I didn’t mean to… I’m sick, I don’t remember everything, I didn’t know about you and Dan…”
“Mom, Leo, Dan… I didn’t know my illness would make Vera so unhappy. Maybe it would be better if I just died…”
Then, my mother’s voice, sharp and furious. “That’s enough, Vera Shaw! If you have a shred of decency left, you’ll get over here and apologize this instant! If you don’t, we are done! We will disown you!”
There was a commotion, and the phone was snatched away. It was Dan.
His voice was cold, impatient. “Vera. Cancel the wedding. Get over here and kneel before Lucy and apologize. If you don’t, I’m calling off the engagement.”
I lowered my eyes, my voice perfectly steady. “Alright.”
Then I hung up.
The officers in the car exchanged uneasy glances. No one suggested calling my brother again.
The limo pulled up to the hotel.
The moment I opened the door, a sickening stench hit me.
Eggs, rotting fruit, and some unknown liquid splattered across my white dress. I stumbled backward, nearly falling as hands shoved me.
“Slut! Stealing your own sister’s fiancé! And you have the nerve to force a wedding! Using the Butcher case to get sympathy? We’ll teach you a lesson today!”
“Her own mother, a beloved actress, was driven to tears by her! A daughter like this should be beaten to death!”
It hit me then. My mother had livestreamed our phone call.
They were pulling my hair, kicking me, trying to force me to my knees. Someone was tearing at my dress, holding up a camera to capture my humiliation.
“Apologize to your sister and your mother!”
“And this dress! You think a filthy woman like you deserves to wear this? Rip it off her! That’ll teach her to steal another woman’s man!”
My fingers were trembling with pain, but I lifted my head and shouted, “I did nothing wrong. Why should I apologize?”
The crowd roared, but then my brother’s and mother’s bodyguards pushed through, forcing them back.
Leo’s voice shook with rage. “You still dare to say you’ve done nothing wrong? I told you not to use your relationship with Dan to upset Lucy! Why did you insist on this farce of a wedding? Why are you so desperate for attention?”
But as he got closer and saw me clearly, he froze.
My dress was in tatters, barely covering me. My body was covered in bruises and scrapes, my forehead and skin smeared with the stinking filth they had thrown.
He instinctively reached out, trying to wipe the mess off me. He turned to our mother, his voice low, struggling for control. “How could you livestream that call? How could you lead these fanatics right to her? What if Lucy had gotten dragged into this?”
For a second, there was a flicker of pity in my mother’s eyes. But at the mention of Lucy, her face hardened. “She brought this on herself. She deserved it.”
I took two steps back, avoiding his touch. “I didn’t come here to force a wedding,” I said evenly. “Whether Dan wants to break our engagement or marry Lucy has nothing to do with me. I’m here as bait. To catch the Butcher.”
My mother’s face went pale. Before she could speak, my brother’s hand cracked across my face.
His expression was a storm of fury and something else—panic. “I warned you not to use this case, a case involving the lives of dozens of girls, as a ploy to manipulate us!”
He took a deep breath, his expression turning to ice once more. “You’re just like your friend Thea—no conscience, no morals!”
“She betrayed my brother, took his money, and ran. And when she got scared of being caught, she planted that fake note on a real victim’s body, trying to fake her own death! I keep telling Liam that body isn’t Thea, but that idiot actually believed it. He’s been drinking himself into a stupor instead of working the case!”
The crowd started jeering again. “Thea? Wasn’t she that gold-digger who ran off with all that money a few years back? I remember her nudes were all over those shady marketplace sites, selling for less than a dollar, hahaha!”
“A bitch like that, obstructing a murder investigation. She should be dead.”
My fists clenched, my heart feeling like it was being ripped apart.
Three years ago, Thea had found proof that Lucy was faking her amnesia. But before she could give it to me, she disappeared. Right before she vanished, those photos of her were posted online. I remember her crying, begging my brother Liam, her fiancé, to help her sue. But Liam, the golden boy lawyer who had never lost a case, just sat there in court, silent, and let her lose.
As they left the courthouse that day, he had dropped his charming facade and sneered, “This is what you get for messing with Lucy. This time it’s just photos. Next time, you’ll be on a black market auction block, a toy for some men in a third-world country.”
That night, Thea cried in my arms for hours.
The next day, she was gone.
I spent three years searching for her, while Liam just scoffed whenever I brought it up. “She’s just playing games, trying to get me to chase her. Let her play. We’ll see how long she can hide.”
Until… the bodies of the Bridal Butcher’s victims were found in that abandoned basement.
And the System in my head finally delivered the news of Thea’s death.
My Thea. Murdered by the Butcher.
The System had also delivered my verdict. My decade-long quest to win the affection of my family and my fiancé was a complete failure. It told me to kill myself, to leave this world immediately.
But I chose a different path. I would use my death to get justice for those poor girls.
…
Dan strode toward me, his face grim. “If you insist on defying us, then fine. As you wish. The engagement is off.”
I nodded, took out my phone, and posted a public statement.
—My engagement to Dan Croft is hereby terminated.—
I held up the phone for them to see. “Is this good enough for you?”
All three of them were stunned into silence.
Dan stared at me in disbelief. Then he gritted his teeth. “Fine. Then you’ll get rid of the baby, too. Who knows what kind of trouble you’ll cause with it later.”
I touched my stomach, a sad smile on my face. “The baby’s already gone.”
The words had barely left my lips when Dan lunged, grabbing my shoulders. “What are you talking about? How could you? How could you get rid of our baby without even talking to me?”
He had every right to be shocked. He had seen how much I wanted this child. My pregnancy had been high-risk, and I had endured countless hormone shots that left my stomach bruised and purple. I had forced down bowl after bowl of bitter medicine to fight off the nausea. I, a doctor who believed in science, had even placed a statue of a fertility goddess in our bedroom, praying to it every day.
I wanted this child because, in my other life, I was an orphan. I had always yearned for a family, for someone connected to me by blood.
But I also knew that if this child was born into a world where it was unloved, just like me, its life would be a torment.
Dan, in his shock, assumed I’d had an abortion. His eyes were shattered. He forgot completely why he had come here, grabbing my hand and trying to drag me to a hospital to confirm it.
Just then, a cry came from behind us.
It was Lucy, her voice high and shrill. “Dan, isn’t this supposed to be our wedding day? Why are you holding her hand? Why is she wearing a wedding dress?”
“Vera, did you call me here just to show me Dan betraying me? I hate you! I hate you both!”
She turned and ran, sobbing, straight into the street.
My brother shouted her name. My mother slapped me again. “What did you call her here for? Are you not happy until you’ve driven her completely insane? If anything happens to Lucy today because of you, we are finished!”
“Dan, stop her!”
Dan threw my hand away. I fell backward, the gravel tearing through what was left of my dress, scraping my knees raw.
I sat on the ground, a bitter smile on my face, and watched them all run after Lucy.
I had seen their backs turned to me like this so many times before.
When I first came to this family, there had been a brief, beautiful time. Mom would cook for me, smiling. Leo would buy me ice cream after school. Liam would pull me into his room to play his favorite video games.
Everything changed the day I started dating the boy next door, Dan.
Lucy started having episodes. She would cry and scream that I was threatening her, that I was going to send her back to my abusive adoptive parents.
“Vera said it’s not fair!” she would wail, tears streaming down her face. “Why should she have to suffer while I get to live her good life? She said she’s going to make my life a living hell, too!”
At first, they would try to soothe her. Mom would say, “That’s not possible, darling. Vera would never say that.” Leo would defend me. “She’s a good kid.” Liam would add, “You must have misunderstood her, Lucy.”
But over time, my mother and youngest brother started to side with her. During Lucy’s tantrums, they would turn on me, their faces cold.
“When are you going to stop? Do you enjoy tormenting her like this?”
“We never should have brought you back. You’ve ruined this family.”
Back then, Leo would still stand up for me. He told them about my volunteer work, helping girls who had been abused. “How could a kind person like Vera say something so cruel? Mom, you’re being unfair!” He would take me out of the house, away from the tension.
Once, on my birthday, Lucy threw a massive fit, forbidding me from celebrating. Leo just came and picked me up. He bought me a cake and used his own money to buy me a white dress. “It’s your birthday tomorrow,” he said, ruffling my hair. “I’m taking you to Disneyland. Don’t think about any of that other nonsense. I will always believe you, Vera. I’ll always be on your side.”
But it all ended the next day.
I had taken the day off from work to surprise Leo. On my way home, my adoptive father, just released from prison, cornered me in an alley.
It was a dark, damp place that smelled of peeling paint and mold. He dragged me into the shadows, snarling, “You little bitch. You dared to call the cops on me. I’ll teach you a lesson.”
I struggled, but he kicked me to the ground. He snatched the cake box from my hands and stomped on it, the cream and frosting mixing with the grime on the pavement like a pool of blood.
He beat me until I was dizzy, tearing my new dress. In that moment, I felt like I was back in that hell I had escaped from.
When I came to, I ran to find my brother, clutching my wounds. He was sitting outside a hospital room. I threw myself at him, crying, “Leo, help me…”
Before I could finish, he slapped me. It was the first time he had ever hit me.
He grabbed my arm and dragged me into the hospital room, forcing me to my knees in front of Lucy’s bed. “I can’t believe how good you are at pretending,” he spat, his voice laced with disgust. “You actually paid that animal to attack your own sister!”
Tears streamed down my face. “No… it wasn’t me…”
But he didn’t believe me. He just looked at me with cold disappointment. “I can’t believe they turned you into this. Now Lucy’s had a complete breakdown because of you! You will spend the rest of your life atoning for this, Vera. You will live with this guilt forever.”
My mother stood by, her face blank. Even Dan looked at me with cold eyes and said, “I’m so disappointed in you.”
After that, he spent almost every day with Lucy, saying he was making amends on my behalf.
For the longest time, I thought my adoptive father had lied to get revenge on me.
Until Thea overheard Lucy on the phone with a friend.
She was laughing. “Of course I’m fine! It was all an act. A little bit of money and that old drunk was happy to play along. I told you, she’s nothing. All I have to do is cry a little, and the whole family believes me.”
When Thea told me, I just went numb.
…
I snapped back to the present.
I pushed myself up from the ground and started walking toward the hotel. I’d only taken a few steps when Leo ran up and grabbed my arm.
“You did this on purpose!” he roared. “You called Lucy here just to trigger her! She almost got hit by a car, and now she’s fainted from shock! You’re coming to the hospital with us, and you’re going to kneel by her bed and beg for forgiveness! We’ll decide whether to let you go when she wakes up!”
I struggled, but he was too strong. He dragged me to his car. A voice in my earpiece crackled to life. “Target’s gone dark. Stand down for now. No need to enter the hotel.”
I let out a long sigh. “Roger that,” I whispered, and turned off the device.
They took me to the emergency room where Lucy had been admitted. Leo pushed me toward the door. As it swung shut, I spoke, my voice quiet.
“Leo, I never told anyone I was going to the hotel in my wedding dress. I didn’t call anyone to meet me there. And I certainly didn’t call Lucy.”
“This time, will you believe me?”
He just frowned, pushing me impatiently. “Enough with the excuses. Just do as you’re told and apologize. If Lucy forgives you, Mom and I will let this go.”
A bitter smile touched my lips, the last flicker of hope inside me extinguished.
I turned and walked into the ER.
The moment the door closed, a sharp pain shot through my neck, and the world went black.
When I woke up, I was tied up in a musty warehouse. The air was thick and smelled of mildew. Lucy was lying next to me.
Her eyes fluttered open, and she immediately started cursing. “Mark, you old fool! Are you senile? I told you just to knock her out! Why did you drug me too?”
She tried to sit up but found she was tied. “I told you it was just an act! You were only supposed to tie her up! Why am I tied up? This manicure cost me three grand a nail! If you mess it up, can you afford to pay for it, you old bastard?”
As she was ranting, something was thrown into the room.
Lucy’s eyes focused on it, and she let out a bloodcurdling scream.
It was a body, hacked to pieces. It was my adoptive father, her biological father, Mark.
A stooped figure emerged from the shadows, a sinister smile on his face.
The System’s voice was cold in my head. [This is the Butcher.]
Just as Lucy started begging for her life, the doors burst open. A team of armed police officers stormed in. “Release the hostages, or we’ll shoot!”
My brother was at the front, his eyes blazing. “Let my sister go!” he roared. “And I’ll make sure they leave your body in one piece!”
Dan heard Lucy’s cries and shouted, “I’ll give you three hundred million! Just let Lucy go!”

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