Chapter 16

Ethan had taken to drinking himself unconscious in Claire's room every night. One evening, in a drunken haze, he thought he saw her come home.

But the moment she saw him, she turned to leave. Panic surged through him. He scrambled after her, reaching out to grab her—but she dissolved into nothing.

Every time he got close, she drifted further away. After it happened again and again, something inside him broke entirely. "Claire, please don't go. Come back. I'll give you anything you want. Just please—don't leave again."

His voice cracked by the end, dissolving into a choked sob. Through blurred eyes, he thought he saw her figure stop. He walked toward her, step by trembling step, and reached out. "Don't go."

The next instant, she vanished like mist. And he went over the balcony railing.

The housekeeper found him the next morning, unconscious in the garden below, Claire's name still on his lips. He was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries to both legs.

In the hospital room, Margaret wept at his bedside. Harold was beside himself with fury. "Ethan, she's just a woman. Can you please get a grip?"

Ethan lay motionless, eyes closed, his face drained of all color. He said nothing. Harold's anger gave way to a bitter, helpless laugh. "If there hadn't been a lawn beneath that window—and if the maid hadn't found you at dawn—you'd be dead right now."

Margaret wiped her tears. "Ethan, please, stay away from that house. That family is cursed. For all we know, Claire's already—" She caught herself, then pushed on. "Just let it go."

Ethan, wrapped head to toe in bandages, opened his eyes at that. He fixed his mother with a look of pure ice. "Mom. Claire is not dead. I will find her. She just doesn't want to see me."

By the end, his eyes were shot through with red, and pain twisted his features. Claire, what do I have to do to make you come back?

After the fall, rumors swirled that the Sterling house was haunted. Julian, grasping at anything, began spending his nights in Claire's old room. He sat among the familiar furnishings, memories flooding back, and his eyes burned.

His psychiatric treatment had stabilized him somewhat, but his mind still slipped in and out of focus. He murmured into the empty room, "Claire, Ethan says he saw you. Won't you let me see you too? Just once. Please."

But then his expression crumpled, and his eyes glistened with unshed tears. "Claire, I should have known. If you were alive and you saw what your brother's become, you wouldn't be this cruel."

"But Claire—I'd rather you be cruel and stay away than be gone from this world."

That night, he followed Ethan's example and drank himself into a stupor in her room. He collapsed on the floor, but when he woke, Claire still hadn't appeared.

He lost his mind in that empty room, screaming until his voice shredded. "Why? Why would you show yourself to Ethan but not to me? Do you hate me that much?"

The household staff watched the young master of the Sterling family unravel. One by one, they resigned. Before long, the only people left in that once-grand estate were a dying Richard and a broken Julian.

Someone filmed it and posted it online. There was no sympathy to be found—only people saying they'd brought it on themselves.

One comment summed up the consensus: "Karma always collects."

After his fall from the balcony, Ethan was confined to the hospital by his family. Julian came to visit and said only one thing.

"Ethan. If someone's alive, they can be found. Claire—she might already be gone."

The words ignited Ethan's fury like a match to gasoline. He drove his fist straight into Julian's face. "Shut up. Don't you dare say that. She's not that fragile. She would never—"

Julian closed his eyes. When he spoke, his voice was ravaged and hoarse. "I want her to be alive too. But if she knew we were looking for her, she wouldn't stay silent this long. It's been over a year, Ethan."

"Claire was always the most tenderhearted person in any room."

He trailed off. A bleak, shattered smile crossed his face, and he turned and walked out of the hospital room, swaying with every step.

In the silence he left behind, tears rolled soundlessly down Ethan's face. The last ember of his will to live flickered and went dark.