Jade snapped out of her thoughts and looked at her friend. Pursing her lips slightly, she sighed, "Fine. Nigel texted me to let me know you were here."

"Before you lash out at him," Jade added, raising her hands defensively before Ali could say a word, "know that he was only worried. He wanted someone to know your whereabouts, just in case... you know?"

To Jade’s surprise, Ali just let out a soft chuckle. "Relax, I won’t say anything to him. He actually did the right thing."

She let out a tired sigh, pushing her now-dry blonde locks back from her face. "I’m glad you’re here, J. Believe me, I thought I was going insane keeping all of this bottled up."

She paused, searching her friend’s face. "You don’t think I’m crazy, right?"

A rare, raw vulnerability surfaced in her eyes as she asked.

Jade shook her head without hesitation. "Of course not. You know I’ll always believe you, Ali... no matter how unbelievable it sounds."

"Really?" Ali asked hopefully.

"Really," Jade confirmed with a nod. She swirled the cocktail in her glass before adding, "I know you hit your head pretty hard during your accident a month ago, but... there’s no way you could be making up that woman in your room."

"What do you mean?" Ali asked, her brows creasing.

"I know there was an incident on the third floor of this building," Jade explained.

"The woman you saw was Rose Walters. She actually died after falling down the stairs of her place. Since it happened a month ago and this is the first time you’ve been back to your penthouse... I know for a fact nobody has told you about it. It was all over the news at the time, but it was overshadowed by your own accident, so not many people outside the building really noticed."

Jade shrugged her elegant shoulders before taking another sip of her drink.

"Hm... you’re right. Normally, Nigel would have briefed me on news like that, but things have been so chaotic lately. My frequent episodes became the priority for everyone, so he must have forgotten." Ali spoke thoughtfully, her mind racing.

"So, what else do you know about this Rose Walters?" Ali’s voice was laced with intrigue.

"Nothing much, to be honest. I only paid attention to the story because this is your building. She was the wife of a politician... a socialite in her mid-forties," Jade replied.

"I see. No wonder I felt like I recognised her," Ali murmured.

She then recalled how the woman’s finger had nearly grazed her cheek. She hadn’t felt the weight of a hand, only a faint, cool sensation on her skin. The memory made her pulse quicken with a fresh wave of nerves.

Taking a shaky breath, Ali downed her drink in one go and turned to face Jade, her composure barely holding together. "You have to help me, J! I can’t live like this! The ghosts... they’re everywhere!"

Her voice trembled despite her effort to control it. "I have to travel to Spain this coming week for the World Business Conference, and God forbid I react like that in public... what if the entire world finds out that the heiress to the Van Empire has gone mad?"

She let out a strained breath, her head shaking as panic tightened around her chest. "We could lose every high-stakes project on the table... everything we’ve built, everything my family stands for... it would all be ruined. I can’t let that happen..." she whispered, horror lacing every word.

Jade watched her spiral, her expression tightening with concern. She quickly set her glass aside and reached out, firmly grasping Ali’s hand.

"Hey... calm down, alright?" Her voice softened, but there was strength beneath it. "I know this is overwhelming, I do. But remember who you are." She squeezed her hand, "You are Aliana Vanderbilt. You don’t break. You don’t hide. You face things head-on... and you win."

Her gaze held Ali’s, steady and unwavering. "Remember?"

"Yes, I am. But how do I-"

"Ali, do you know who I am? I am Jade Ross, and I fear nothing. Not even those puny ghosts you’re talking about. And I always have an answer to your problems, remember that?" Jade said with a confident smirk.

Ali saw the look on her face, and something finally settled in her chest. Jade was right... she had always been the solid rock in Ali’s life. She feared nothing, and whenever Ali was in trouble, Jade always found a way out, even if her methods were a bit underhanded at times.

Although the Ross Real Estate empire was nowhere near the scale of the Van Empire, the two families had shared a close bond long before the girls were even born. Their mothers, in particular, were inseparable, which was how Aliana and Jade first met.

Their parents hadn’t expected them to get along; children from wealthy families often didn’t. Most were too busy competing or backstabbing one another, yet Jade and Aliana had formed a natural bond without any outside pressure.

Since then, they had always had each other’s backs, whether they were getting into fights with rivals or taking the blame for one another just to stay out of trouble.

Believing in their unshakable sisterhood, Ali took another deep breath, trying to wrestle her jittery nerves into submission before asking, "So... what’s the solution to this problem?"

Jade’s smirk widened, far too confident for someone who had been handed a ghost situation. "Simple. You take a day off and leave everything to me."

"Okay... okay," Ali nodded quickly. "I’m leaving it to you. We can do this... like always." She repeated it once, then again, as if sheer repetition might magically fix her life.

Jade’s eyes sparkled, clearly pleased to see her friend rise again after having mentally collapsed two minutes ago.

They both smiled until Ali’s smile faltered.

"Okay... but you are staying here tonight, right?" she added, the urgency creeping right back in.

"Abso-f*cking-lutely," Jade replied with a bright grin, as if this was not the same house where her friend had just punched a wandering ghost.

The next day, the two women, still riding the confidence from their late-night pep talk, found themselves standing in front of a church.

Both were dressed painfully conservatively in long floral-print dresses, complete with masks, sunglasses, and hats, looking less like heiresses and more like two suspiciously fashionable fugitives.

Nigel had driven them all the way to the church on the outskirts of Astoria City, and from the look on his face, he was clearly questioning both of their motives at the moment. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"So... this is your big plan?" Ali asked, eyeing the quiet white building, which had almost no one around. "What’s next, Jade? Sudden spiritual awakening? Are we getting baptised?"

Jade pushed her sunglasses up with unnecessary confidence. "Well... not exactly. But let’s find out." She smirked, as though this was a perfectly reasonable next step, before grabbing Ali’s arm and dragging her inside.