That night, Meilin couldn't sleep. Every time she closed her eyes, her mind replayed Rui's wrist — that faint scratch, the small mark that matched the one in the photo.
Coincidence? Maybe. But fate had never been kind to her, and trust, once broken, didn't heal easily.
She sat by her dressing mirror, staring at her reflection. Her eyes looked haunted, tired, older than her twenty-nine years. The woman staring back at her was both her and not her — someone changed by betrayal and survival.
"Why can't you just believe?" she whispered to her reflection. "Why do you always expect pain?"
The reflection didn't answer, but the silence in the room pressed against her chest like a weight.
A soft knock came at the door.
"Mommy?" Yanyan peeked in, rubbing her sleepy eyes. "You're still awake."
Meilin quickly wiped her tears and smiled. "Come here, sweetheart."
Yanyan climbed onto her lap, resting her head on Meilin's shoulder. "I had a bad dream," she murmured. "There was a man calling your name, but his face looked scary."
Meilin froze. "What kind of man?"
Yanyan frowned, thinking. "He said you should come back. That you belong to him."
Her heart thudded. "Did he say his name?"
"No." Yanyan yawned. "But he said something about fire."
Meilin's skin prickled. Fire. That was what had almost killed her and her daughter years ago when Li Chen set their home ablaze in a drunken rage.
She kissed Yanyan's forehead, forcing a calm smile. "It's just a dream, baby. Go back to sleep."
After putting her to bed, Meilin sat again at the mirror, her pulse racing. Something about Yanyan's words felt too vivid — too real.
Her phone buzzed with a message from an unknown number.
> "You think you've escaped the fire, Meilin? Look closer. You're already burning."
She dropped the phone in shock. Her reflection flickered in the mirror — for a split second, she thought she saw someone else staring back. A man's shadow behind her, blurred but unmistakably watching.
She turned sharply, but the room was empty.
Her heart pounded wildly as she reached for her phone again, trying to trace the number, but it was already gone — deleted.
When Rui returned from a late call, he found her sitting motionless, clutching the bracelet he'd given her.
"What happened?" he asked, rushing to her side.
Meilin wanted to tell him everything, but fear held her tongue. What if he thought she was losing her mind again?
Instead, she forced a smile. "Just tired. Bad dreams."
Rui sighed and pulled her into his arms. "Then sleep. I'll stay with you."
He turned off the light and wrapped his arm around her, but her eyes remained open in the dark. The mirror across the room reflected the faint glimmer of moonlight — and for an instant, Meilin could have sworn she saw that shadow again.
Watching. Waiting.
And in that moment, she realized something chilling — Li Chen wasn't acting alone. Someone close, someone inside her life, was helping him.
The thought rooted deep in her chest, twisting into fear.
Who was it? And why now — when she was finally starting to heal?
As dawn began to break, Meilin whispered to herself, "No more running. If ghosts from the p
ast want to haunt me, I'll be the one to face them this time."