The World I Left for You

I felt as if the blood in my body had frozen solid.

I looked around the private room. Everyone was watching me, waiting for me to say yes.

And yet, those familiar faces suddenly made my skin crawl.

"What about them?" My breath caught. "Are they all actors you hired?"

"Yes." Liam Locke didn't hesitate. "I renewed their contracts for six years. They've been playing as your new friends."

The truth hit like a lightning strike.

Just last night, I had been too excited to sleep, thinking I was finally going to become his fiancée.

And now, he was telling me none of it had ever been real.

I looked at him, at his calm, almost amused expression. Something dull seemed to be cutting into my chest.

Six years ago, I came to this city on a business trip and saw Liam walking into a hotel with another woman.

I followed them. When I burst into the room, he looked at me like I was a stranger and said he didn't know me. Even when I pulled up photos of us on my phone, he only looked confused.

"How's that possible? My girlfriend is Demi." He wrapped an arm around the woman beside him, his expression guarded. "But you have so many photos with me. Could it be…you came from a parallel world?"

I tried to call my parents to confirm, but my phone died at that exact moment.

Looking at how serious he seemed, I took less than two minutes to accept something that absurd.

To stay with him, I agreed to become the second choice.

"Keira, I managed to connect with the version of me from your world. He asked me to take care of you."

Liam held my hand and sighed.

"But Demi and I grew up together. I promised her I wouldn't leave unless she chose to walk away first."

Looking into his reddened eyes, I thought of the person I had left behind in my original world, and my heart softened.

"I understand. I guess love comes down to who was there first."

It hurt more than I could say, but I couldn't bear losing him, too. So I compromised.

"I'll wait. I'll wait until she decides to leave."

Liam brought me to a new city, which I lived in for six years.

He went through my contact list one by one, calling numbers, pointing at strangers, telling me they were my friends.

I told myself that in a parallel world, it made sense for faces not to match. I forced myself to adjust and accept it.

But now I knew. They were all actors.

"I bought you a new phone and changed all your contacts except your parents'."

His quiet laugh pulled me back to the present.

"You're forgetful. I took a bit of a gamble, but I didn't think you'd fall for it this easily. Guess you really do love me."

I couldn't speak.

I wanted to tell him the only reason I believed in parallel worlds was that I had actually come from one.

Back in my sophomore year, on my way to meet my first love, I crossed over without warning.

My parents were still the same, and my friends were replaced by people with the same names. But the person I loved was gone.

When I was losing my mind trying to find him, Liam appeared.

Liam stayed with me for two years while I searched. In the end, I accepted reality and agreed to be with him.

But just as we were about to get engaged, everything came full circle.

"Why?" My fingers twisted in my clothes, my voice shaking. "Why go through all this just to lie to me?"

"Because I love you."

Liam pulled me into his arms, his chin resting against my shoulder, his voice low.

"But Demi's way too good in bed. I can't give her up, either. Everyone has someone they can't forget, someone they can't let go of. You're no different, right?"

I froze, then shoved him away.

The hint of cruelty in his smile made my chest turn cold.

"If you were going to lie, you should've lied for the rest of my life. Why tell me now?"

"Because your parents just died."

I froze.

My parents were long gone.

Wait, no.

That had been part of Liam's lie to make me believe I was in another world.

If I never crossed over a second time, then my parents should…

"They looked for you for six years. They never gave up."

He rubbed his forehead and let out a tired laugh.

"Last week, they heard about an unidentified body in a small southern town, so they took a boat to check it out. There was an accident."

A loud ringing filled my ears. I stared at him, unable to process what he was saying.

"The police have already found you."

Liam looked completely unconcerned.

"If it's going to come out anyway, I figured I'd tell you first. I'm the only one you have left now. Why not stay with me and make this work?"

I looked at the ring in his hand.

Suddenly, I thought of the one my first love had bought me after graduation. It was silver, worth almost nothing.

I missed him.

I wanted to go back, to the world where my parents were still alive, where he was.