Chapter 1

When I woke again, morning had already come.

The empty space beside me was cold.

It was a familiar feeling, one that reminded me Claire hadn’t come home all night.

Yesterday had been my thirtieth birthday.

It was also the day I decided to divorce her.

I’d finally accepted the truth that she didn’t love me. I no longer wanted to keep hoping she might come back to me.

Something cold brushed the corner of my eye.

I thought it was a tear.

It wasn’t.

A translucent figure sat beside my bed.

It was Claire at eighteen, staring at me in confusion.

“Ethan, where are we?

“Why are you so upset?

“Did someone hurt you?”

Her gaze landed on the wedding photo hanging on the wall.

A blush immediately spread across her fair cheeks and all the way to her ears.

“Is that me in the picture?”

I was just as shocked.

I sat up and pinched myself several times.

Had yesterday’s dream actually come true?

I got out of bed and opened the bedroom door.

The food in the living room remained untouched, exactly as I’d left it the night before.

An elegant jewelry box had been carelessly tossed onto the floor.

Inside was a watch shaped like a little dog.

Yesterday had also been our wedding anniversary.

Claire had taken our child out early that morning to spend the day with Jason Young.

I’d waited at home all day.

All I received was that hastily purchased dog-shaped watch.

And dogs were the one thing I feared most.

“Ethan? Why are you ignoring me?”

Claire’s anxious voice came from behind me.

That was when I knew this wasn’t a dream.

I turned around and saw the girl she’d been twelve years ago.

At eighteen, Claire was bright and innocent. Her eyes sparkled like stars whenever she looked at me.

She was nothing like the thirty-year-old Claire.

When I remained silent, she walked closer.

The moment she noticed the peeling leather strap around my wrist, her expression changed.

“Isn’t that the watch I was planning to give you when I confessed my feelings?

“Does that mean I already told you?

“Are you Ethan Lawson from the future?

“Are you my future husband?”

My fingers instinctively brushed over the watch, and my eyes grew hot.

“Yes.

“I’m your future husband.”

That summer twelve years ago, Claire had pulled me onto the school field and handed me the watch, her face bright red.

“Ethan Lawson, we’re graduating soon, and I don’t want you to forget me. So I want you to have this watch.

“If you’re willing to wear it, then for every day you keep it on, I’ll love you more than I did the day before.”

I had remembered those words for twelve years.

I had worn that watch for twelve years too.

I turned toward the shattered dog-shaped watch on the floor.

Suddenly, I couldn’t hold back my tears.

Her promise still echoed in my ears.

But the Claire who had once truly loved me was gone.

She no longer remembered that I was afraid of dogs.

She no longer remembered that she loved me.

My phone chimed with a message from Jason.

‘Hey Ethan, do you like the watch?’

‘Claire was going to give it to me, but then I remembered yesterday was your wedding anniversary, so I told her to give it to you instead.’

‘So? Are you happy?’