Chapter 1

My phone slipped from my hands and clattered against the floor, but I didn’t even notice.

The name my future self mentioned—Seraphina Carter—belonged to my absolute best friend from college.

With trembling hands, I picked up the phone, my chest tightening as I stared at those terrifying timestamps. I quickly typed out a response.

“Who are you? And who is he?”

The reply came almost instantly, still carrying a timestamp from five years in the future.

“I’m thirty-year-old Alivia Sinclair. And he is Ethan Cross.”

And right now, I was a twenty-five-year-old Alivia.

The man I had loved for five entire years was currently in the kitchen. The sheer absurdity of the situation made my head spin.

As if terrified that I would let my hopeless romantic tendencies blind me, the future me fired off a few more messages in rapid succession.

“He only picked up your coffee every evening because it gave him a convenient excuse to drive Seraphina home first.”

“He never walked away from his father’s company—he’s been running it behind the scenes this whole time. Seraphina went straight into Cross Enterprises as a managing director.”

I stared blankly at the words glowing on the screen. I recognized every single one of them, but stitched together like this, they read like a foreign language.

Before I could type another question, one final message popped up.

“Ethan is calling me to go cook breakfast now. He wants tomato pasta—Seraphina’s favorite.”

Right on cue, Ethan stepped out of the kitchen.

In his hands, he held a plate of steaming tomato pasta.

In reality, my dream breakfast was a warm pastry and a coffee. But for years, I had genuinely believed Ethan loved pasta in the mornings, so I had happily eaten it right alongside him. He always seemed so thoughtful too, going out of his way after work every day to bring home my favorite coffee.

My hands shook as I reached for the plate. The next thing I knew, it slipped, and the pasta splattered all over the floor.

Ethan didn’t get angry. He instantly grabbed some paper towels and rushed over to wipe the stray sauce from my skin.

“Did it burn you? Why are you so distracted today, sweetie?”

Looking down at his deeply concerned face, my eyes welled with tears.

“Ethan... will you always treat me this well?”

He furrowed his brows, gently blowing on my reddened hand. “What kind of silly question is that? Who else would I care for if not you?”

I whispered Seraphina’s name. My voice was so quiet it could have been carried away by the slightest breeze.

Ethan’s shoulders stiffened for a fraction of a second. If I hadn’t been watching his every move with absolute scrutiny, I never would have caught it.

Without a word, he pulled me over to the sink, running cold water over my hand before gently applying a layer of mint toothpaste to the mild burn. The cool mint provided an instant, icy relief against the sting.

He acted as though he truly hadn’t heard those two syllables leave my lips.

Even though it was the dead of a sweltering summer, a sudden, chilling frost settled deep in my chest.

“Come on,” Ethan said, flashing his usual tender smile. “Let’s go get you that pastry and coffee.”

Looking at his warm expression, I felt a sudden wave of relief. Maybe everything that had just happened was nothing more than a bizarre hallucination.

But right before we walked out the door, my phone vibrated in my pocket.

“I endured his neglect and swallowed my pride for years, but we’re still getting a divorce.”

“Just because Seraphina said she loved children, he forced my daughter, Lily, to call that woman ‘Mom’.”

“In the end, I’m left with absolutely nothing.”

I gripped the phone so tightly my knuckles turned white. My face drained of color.

Ethan pulled the car up right in front of me, rolling down the window with a bright smile. “Get in! What are you standing there freezing for?”

Forcing a smile, I climbed into the passenger seat. As I adjusted myself, my eyes fell on a tube of lipstick lying in the center console. It belonged to Seraphina.

My phone buzzed one last time.

“Alivia, I am begging you. Choose your career.”

“Open your eyes and look at what’s right in front of you. Stop lying to yourself.”

My breath hitched. She had known exactly who I was from the very start.

But when I frantically tapped on the notification, the thread was completely gone. I searched for the username, but the only profile that still existed was my own.

Everything had vanished without a trace, as if it had never happened at all. The only proof left behind was the screen-time log on my phone.

At the local bakery, the rich scent of freshly baked pastries and brewing coffee filled the air.

Suddenly, Seraphina walked out from the back of the shop. She was wearing a beautiful white dress—the exact one I had fallen in love with a few weeks ago. There had only been one left in my size, and Ethan had insisted on buying it for her instead. At the time, I had even praised him, foolishly thinking he was just showing love to the people closest to me.

Seraphina’s sweet voice echoed through the shop. “You guys finally made it! I’ve been waiting forever.”

A bitter realization washed over me. No wonder Ethan had suddenly offered to skip his usual breakfast routine to take me out. He had planned to meet up with her all along.

In that single, agonizing moment, I realized just how crowded a story built for three could be.