Sacrifice Me to Save You

Not only had I lost my wife, but everyone even looked at me as though I were a lunatic. I ran back to my parents' house, and my mother was trimming a potted plant. I grabbed her by the shoulders and asked where Sophia was. My mother touched my forehead in horror. "Are you… Are you losing your mind just because you wanted a girlfriend? You don't even have one in the first place. Where did this Sophia come from?" I went to see my best friend, Geoff. He had been my best man yesterday. He was playing games at a cybercafe. After I told him, he laughed so hard he almost doubled over. "Leon, have you been single so long you're starting to hallucinate? We were drinking at a bar last night. What wedding are you talking about?" I even went to the clerk's office. The clerk pulled up my file. Under marital status, one word was written. Unmarried. "Impossible! That's impossible!" I slammed the counter so hard it shook. "We watched the clerk stamp it ourselves! The marriage certifica

Wait… No! There was still one living thing. Sophia's cat! A ragdoll she had named Snowball. The cat was her treasure. She had even brought it to the hotel today on purpose, and it had been kept in a cage. I ran to the cage in the corner. It was still there! The white Ragdoll lay inside, watching me with its pair of clear blue eyes. I grabbed the cage and lifted it up. "You're Sophia's cat… She brought you here. You're still here, so that means she existed!" I carried the cat out of the room and ran straight into Geoff, who had just come back after seeing off the guests. "Geoff." I grabbed him tightly. "This cat! You know this cat, right?! This is Sophia's cat! You've held it before!" Geoff looked at the cat in my arms with a strange expression, but he did not deny it. "It's definitely a cat... but Leon, this is your cat. Did you forget? It's the stray you brought home." "Bull! This is a purebred Ragdoll! Sophia spent two thousand dollars on it

Once I had given our relationship a new beginning, the next thing waiting for me was a brutal war within my family. In my previous life, Victor had been able to crush me under his heel because in 2018, he used that illegal laboratory's "biochip" project to obtain a huge sum of foreign investment, then used it to force our father out at a board meeting. But now, it was still 2017. That project was very capital-intensive, and Victor was going to embezzle public funds from a subsidiary to meet the laboratory's funding goal. That gave me the critical leverage I needed. On Monday morning, I wore the custom suit I had only worn for my wedding and walked straight into the top-floor conference room of the Gomez Group. When I pushed the door open, Victor was selling the directors a grand vision, and the slide on the screen was for the biotech project named Titan. When Victor saw me enter, he frowned, and a hint of disdain appeared in his eyes. "Leon, this is an extended board meet

The countdown in the mirror was still ticking. I forced myself to stay calm and returned to the table. I ended dinner with Sophia in a hurry and insisted on driving her home. "Leon, are you really alright? You look dreadful." When she got out of the car, Sophia caught me by my sleeve. "I'm fine. Get some rest," I said to her. I could not stay any longer, and I was terrified the version of me with the knife would suddenly appear. After I watched the light in Sophia's apartment turn on, I turned the car around and sped toward the chemical plant in Eastville. If what Geoff said was true, that other me must have come from 2025. If he had a physical body, that meant whatever laws governing time travel were far more complicated than I had imagined. But… I could not let that other me ruin what I had built, and I definitely could not let Victor find him. Halfway there, rain came pouring down. The chemical plant in Eastville was abandoned on the surface, but only the underground

"…mez? Mr. Gomez?" A gentle voice called beside my ear. I slowly opened my eyes. There was no fire, no monster, no collapsed door. I was lying in a hospital bed. Sunlight showered through the curtains and onto the blanket, warm and soft. Sophia was sitting by the bed, peeling an apple. When she saw me wake up, she cried out in surprise, "Doctor! He's awake!" I sat up abruptly, drenched in cold sweat. Then, I grabbed Sophia's wrist with so much force that I frightened her. "What... year is it now?" Sophia winced from my grip, but she still touched my forehead gently. "Leon, did the crash confuse you that much? It's 2026." 2026? I froze. Not 2017? Not 2025 either? "How long was I unconscious?" I asked. "A full year." Sophia's eyes were red. "Ever since the car accident after our wedding, you've been unconscious. The doctors even said you might stay in a coma forever." The wedding… The car crash… My memories began to return. I remembered. The wedding of 202