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After his first love–died, my husband spent the next ten years resenting me.
No matter what I did to win him over, he’d just sneer and say, “If you really want to make me happy, why don’t you just die!”
His words cut like a blade.
But the moment a truck came barreling toward me, it was Logan who leapt in front of it. He died right there in the street, lying in a pool of blood.
His final words haunted me: “If only… I’d never met you.”
At his funeral, his mother, Eleanor, broke down sobbing. “I should’ve let him be with Madison. I never should’ve forced him to marry you!”
His father, Charles, stared at me with nothing but hatred. “Logan saved your life three times. He was a good man–why wasn’t it you instead?”
Everyone regretted that Logan had married me. Even I did.
Overwhelmed by their accusations and my own guilt, I left the funeral, my heart heavy with shame.
Three years later, a breakthrough was announced: the Quantum Temporal Projector. A device capable of sending people back in time. And I knew exactly what I had to do.
This time, I would cut Logan out of my life completely. I’d make sure everyone got their happy ending–without me in it.
As the machine powered on, blinding light flooded my vision. I squeezed my eyes shut.
Then I heard his voice–sharp, familiar, and full of disdain.
“My parents said they’d cut me off if I didn’t marry you, Emily. You really are something else. But even if we go through with this wedding, what do you think you’ll gain? You really think we’re going to be happy?”
I snapped my eyes open.
There he was. Alive.
Logan stood just a few feet away, hands in the pockets of his tailored dress pants, that same smug scowl on his face. The Logan from the future had grown colder, more restrained. But this
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version of him–the younger one–was still cocky, restless, and devastatingly handsome.
A lump formed in my throat.
My eyes stung with tears.
The time jump had worked… just not the way I’d expected.
I hadn’t returned to when we first met.
Instead, I was back ten years–on the day we were supposed to obtain our marriage license at
Cresthill City Hall.
Still, it wasn’t too late to fix everything.
I swallowed the ache in my chest and met his gaze.
“You don’t want to marry me because you’re still in love with Madison, right?”
He flinched–just barely–but I caught it.
His expression turned to ice.
“So what if I am? We’re already here, standing on the steps of City Hall. You think there’s a
way out now?”
I nodded. “There is.”
Logan gave a bitter laugh.
“I don’t have time for your drama, Emily. Just sign the license application, get this over with,
and be done with it. I’ll wait outside.”
He turned on his heel and walked off.
The sharp sting in my chest told me he still didn’t know how much I’d once loved him.
In both my past life and this one, I had loved Logan for years.
He’d saved me from death twice before, and I’d clung to those moments, thinking maybe-
just maybe he cared about me, deep down.
–
His parents had only added fuel to that hope: “Logan’s not cruel. If he didn’t care, why would he risk his life for you?”
So I believed them. I married him, full of hope.
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But after Madison died, the truth became impossible to ignore–his heart had never belonged
to me.
And in the end, his last words destroyed me: “I wish I’d never met you.”
My decade of love had been his decade of misery.
Before I stepped into the Quantum Temporal Projector, a spiritual counselor warned me: if I wanted to break the cursed bond between Logan and myself, I’d need to resolve his three
greatest regrets.
Only then would I be able to stop him from dying at thirty–three–and finally set us both free.
I lowered my gaze and quietly filled out the marriage license application. In the field for the intended spouse, I hesitated, then wrote: Madison Cole.
I still remembered the regrets he’d written in his diary:
He regretted marrying me.
He regretted never standing up to his parents.
And most of all, he regretted not saving Madison.
By altering the form, I hoped to erase the first regret from his life.
I stepped out of City Hall, clutching the completed application in my hands. Logan was leaning
against a pillar, waiting.
He reached for the papers, but I gently stopped him with a hand over his.
“Don’t look just yet,” I said, smiling faintly. “There’s a surprise.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “What’s with you today? You’re acting weird. Don’t tell me you’re
so thrilled about marrying me, you’ve gone completely insane.”
In a way… I was thrilled.
Because for the first time in three years, I was seeing him alive again.
I smiled. “I think you’re the best man in the world. Whoever ends up with you… they’ll be really lucky.”
He rolled his eyes and turned away, walking off like he couldn’t get away fast enough. If 1 didn’t know better, I might’ve mistaken his reaction for bashfulness.
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Nearby, a young couple walked past, hand in hand.
“There’s supposed to be a meteor shower tonight!” the girl squealed. “They say couples who watch it together will be in love forever. Let’s go!”
Their voices faded behind me, but their words lingered in my mind.
