The door slammed shut behind her.
Evelyn stood frozen, her bare feet pressed against the cold floor. Her body felt stiff, and her breath came in shallow gasps. Voices echoed around her—ghosts of memories she once called family.
Her parents were gone.
Her fingers trembled as she tightened them into fists. The image of her father's warm smile flashed in her mind. He used to call her "Coco" while lovingly handing her the ribs he cooked slowly. Her mother's playful complaints and the gentle arguments over sleeping arrangements—those ordinary moments now felt like a knife in her heart.
She had died once, and now she returned to a world where everything she knew had been replaced.
The door to the guest room creaked open. From down the hallway, raised voices floated in.
"You let her stay here? In our home?" a woman's voice shrieked. "Don't tell me you still have feelings for her, Adrian! I've been by your side all these years!"
Evelyn didn't need to peek to know who it was. Renee.
Renee Liu..
The woman who had taken her place.
Adrian Carter's voice was low and tense. "It's not like that."
"Then what is it?" Lauren snapped. "You never changed the door code. You still keep her picture in your drawer, Adrian! Admit it—you're still in love with her!"
"Enough."
"If you still love her, fine! I'll leave. I'll take Faye and go back to my parents'. You two can play house like nothing happened!"
Evelyn heard a chair scrape against the floor, followed by a child's sudden whimper, and then—
A loud slap.
Evelyn's breath caught in her throat.
She stumbled out of the room just in time to see Renee in the entryway, one hand pressed against her cheek, her eyes wide with disbelief. In her other arm, she held the sobbing little girl tightly.
"You hit me?" Renee whispered. "For her?"
The little girl—Faye—let out louder cries, the sound raw and painful.
Adrian stood amid the chaos, fists clenched and eyes filled with regret.
It was then that Evelyn noticed the neighbors.
Curious faces looked in from the doorway, some holding up their phones, already recording.
"Renee, what's going on?" one asked, feigning concern and revealing their nosiness. "Why are you two fighting?"
Evelyn wanted to disappear.
Her vision blurred. She remembered when this place was still being built, when she and Adrian picked out tiles together, argued over curtains, and laughed at mismatched paint swatches. Each screw and nail in this home had once held a piece of their love.
Now she felt like an outsider.
The intruder.
A woman's voice behind her whispered, "Who's that? Is she the mistress?"
"I heard she's been gone for years," another murmured. "Probably came back to ruin a happy family."
Evelyn flinched.
Faye turned to look at her with teary eyes, lips trembling as she repeated words someone must have told her. "You're a bad woman! Why did you come to our house? Why are you stealing my daddy from my mommy? You're ruining everything!"
The raw, childish accusations hit Evelyn harder than any slap could.
Her chest tightened. She looked at the girl, then at Renee, and finally at Adrian, silently begging him to speak.
Tell them I'm not the mistress. Tell them this was my house. That you were mine before all of this.
But Adrian stayed silent.
Maybe he was overwhelmed. Maybe he was afraid. Or maybe… maybe he had already moved on.
The neighbors didn't wait for an explanation.
"She's so thin, doesn't hold a candle to Renee."
"Exactly. Look at what Adrian's got—wife, child, a whole family. Why ruin that?"
"Homewrecker. Some women just don't know shame."
The words cut deep, sharp, and merciless.
Evelyn staggered back a step. The floor felt like it tilted beneath her, and the air grew thick with judgment and scorn. Her hands clenched at her sides as she tried to hold herself together.
Adrian looked at her then.
But it was too late.
The damage was done.
Evelyn turned and fled.
She didn't know where she was running to—only that she had to get out, away from the suffocating weight of a life that no longer belonged to her.
Outside, the night was silent. Cool air brushed against her skin, but it couldn't numb the ache in her chest.
She kept walking.
The sidewalk blurred as tears streamed down her cheeks, silent and endless.
How had everything turned out like this?
Her parents were dead. Her home was stolen. Her love was replaced.
And her identity… erased.
She was a ghost haunting her past, a stranger in the life she used to know.