The speaker sounded very cautious and respectful. I turned back to look and saw that it was none other than my own mother, Fiona Henderson. 

I hadn’t seen her in three days, but it looked as though she had simply aged overnight, with gray hairs covering more than half of her head. It made her look tired and worn out. She wasn’t even 50 years old yet, but she already looked like an old woman who was tired and done with life. 

Hansel probably heard Mom, but he simply turned slightly to the side and gave her a once-over with his cold eyes. Then, he continued striding forward. 

He didn’t know who Mom was. 

However, Mom kept chasing after him. “Mr. Frost, you know my daughter, Elara Fairlight, right?” 

I was stunned. 

Why would Mom bring me up? Did she come looking for Hansel because of me? 

But I was already dead. What did it have anything to do with him? 

Still, the mention of my name got Hansel to stop in his footsteps. He slowly turned around and looked at Mom again. Yet, the coldness in his eyes never dissipated. The corners of his lips just lifted slightly. He didn’t smile at all, yet his face held a look of mockery and disdain as if he were gazing down at an ant. 

“I don’t,” he answered coldly. 

My heart felt as though it had been mercilessly flung against a bed of nails. Everywhere hurt. 

I used to take up multiple odd jobs just so that I could earn more money to buy his life-saving medication for him. And yet, he dared to say that he didn’t know me! 

Mom was stunned. She probably never expected to hear this answer from him. Nevertheless, she didn’t press the topic further. Tears just suddenly streamed from her eyes as she asked him through her sobs, “Mr. Frost, Lara’s been missing for three days. Do you know where she might be?” 

Mom sounded weak and pleading, but Hansel responded with even more coldness. He called over his assistant, Jack Taylor, and said, “Jack, please tell this lady the address of the nearest police station. Or maybe you can help her file a missing person’s case.” 

Hansel’s indifference only made Mom cry a little harder. “Mr. Frost, the police just found Lara’s phone. Her last call had been to you. But the police told me that they weren’t able to reach you. That’s why I came to look for you. 

“Mr. Frost, what did Lara say in her last call to you?” 

Hansel’s face was shrouded with coldness. He was a whole head taller than Mom, so he looked down at her with ridicule in his eyes as he answered, “I receive plenty of phone calls a day, you know? How would I know which one came from your daughter?” 

Mom was so shocked that her tears just stopped flowing. She probably never thought that Hansel could be so cold-hearted like this. 

Meanwhile, I was fuming as I listened to their exchange. I balled my hands into fists and swung them at Hansel. However, since I was dead, none of my angry pummeling made any contact with him. My fists flew right through Hansel’s body without causing any damage. 

I could only seethe in anger as I watched him being whisked away by his bodyguards to proceed with the ribbon-cutting ceremony. 

Mom stood rooted in place. The crowd around her began poking fun at her. 

“Really now. What’s the world coming to? How dare she try to make it seem like she was related to him!” 

“She’s wearing such drab and dirty clothes too! I bet she’s just trying to marry her daughter off to him!” 

“What a shameless bitch!” 

A bodyguard then came toward Mom and shoved her aside. “The ceremony is about to start. You’re not welcome here. Get lost.” 

Mom was a small and frail lady, and his shove was hard enough to send her tumbling to the ground. 

I immediately rushed over to help her up, but my hands just went straight through her again. 

A short distance away, the ceremony had just started, and Hansel was holding a pair of gold scissors as he stood before the ribbon. Then, he snipped the ribbon in two as everyone in the audience applauded loudly. The camera flashes went off, one after another. 

Hansel still had that cold and aloof expression on his face. He stood there on the stage, looking like a deity, while Mom struggled on the ground, looking like a bug that he’d just crushed under his feet. 

Mom glanced up at Hansel’s silhouette and started to sob again. She mumbled, “Lara, he’s way out of your league. Why would he ever fall in love with you? Why didn’t you listen to me back then?” 

I couldn’t hold back any longer. I fell to my knees before Mom and began to cry as well. 

“Mom, I’m sorry. I was wrong. I was so, so wrong…” 

I had sent Mom a photo of us back when Hansel was still hiding his true identity from me while we were dating. She looked at his impeccable facial features. Even though Hansel had been wearing old beat-up clothes in the photo, he still carried an air of arrogance around him. 

Mom had then told me, “Lara, he’s not some regular person like you and me. You won’t be able to keep him.” 

After all, Mom used to be an elite from the upper crust of society in the past, and she knew a thing or two about reading people. 

She had told me not to fall too deeply for him, but I hadn’t listened to her. I gave Hansel my heart and everything I had because I was a hopeless romantic. 

Mom helplessly got up from the ground and took her phone out before entering a string of digits she knew by heart. But even after hesitating for a while, she ultimately never made the call. 

The number belonged to my dad, Gaston Fairlight. However, he and Mom hadn’t spoken to each other for years. 

Mom was most definitely thinking of asking Gaston for help. In the end, she went to the police station instead. Meanwhile, I soon found myself being led back to where Hansel was. 

He was now in a private VIP room at the club with some of his friends from the same elite circle. 

I was dead, and yet, there he was, having fun on his own. I couldn’t detect a hint of sadness in his eyes even after learning of my disappearance. 

They drank for a bit in the room. Suddenly, one of the guys mentioned my name. “Hans, have you really lost interest in Elara?” 

Hansel leaned back against his plush seat and crossed his legs. His mere presence was overwhelming, completely suppressing the others in the room. He swirled the wine in his glass as the corners of his lips upturned in an ugly smirk. 

“She’s just a toy. Don’t bring her up again. You’re ruining the mood.” 

A toy? 

I was so stunned that I froze in the middle of the air. 

I knew a long time ago that he looked down on me. However, hearing such humiliating words from his lips made my heart throb painfully still. 

“I know, right? We’re all grown men here. It wouldn’t be surprising if we had a couple of one-night stands. So what if you grew sick of someone? Just replace her!” 

Another person piped up, trying to get on Hansel’s good side. “That woman’s just a dumb and broke bitch anyway. She isn’t even worthy of cleaning off the dust on Ms. Lovelace’s shoes. Why would Hans even want to think about her?” 

“She’s still quite a pretty lady,” the first guy said. 

Hansel just threw him a sidelong glance and asked, “What, you want to fuck her?” 

The man got up and poured more wine into Hansel’s glass. There was a creepy, lustful smile on his lips as he answered, “Only if you allow it.” 

“Do whatever you want,” Hansel replied coldly without even a moment of hesitation. 

I inhaled sharply and felt my heart plunging to the depths of despair. 

So, this was what I got in exchange for years of liking him, giving him my heart, and doing everything in my power to try to prolong his life expectancy. Aside from treating me coldly and cruelly, he even thought of me as nothing but a toy for the elites! 

“Thanks, Hans!” the first guy exclaimed gleefully as he clinked glasses with Hansel. It was as though I had already been sold to him. 

Unbeknownst to them, I was already dead. They wouldn’t be able to toy with me anymore—not in the way they wanted. 

For some reason, Hansel didn’t continue drinking the wine the man poured for him. He simply lit up a cigarette and took a long, deep drag of it. 

Just then, the phone on the table began to ring.