Would You Push The Button

Rain Stanton thought she was mentally prepared, but she couldn’t stop her trembling hands. She took the envelope and opened it. Sitting quietly in the envelope was a Divorce Agreement. Rain felt as if her heart was cut by a blunt knife and asked, “What have I done wrong, Payton? Please give our marriage a chance.” Her husband, Payton Phillips, looked at her coldly and replied, “I have never loved you, Rain. The gentleness and tenderness I gave you were not meant for you. When I was in bed with you, I had Zara in my mind. You are nothing but a substitute. I give you five days to sign the divorce agreement.” Rain was not aware that Payton had a first love, if life had a rewind button….

My husband's protégé boasted she could disarm bombs blindfolded, relying on her so-called intuition. Her reckless misjudgment triggered a bomb's secondary detonation sequence, endangering an entire building. I intervened, using the dangerous liquid nitrogen condensation method to save the day. As a result, Rita Smith was removed from frontline duties and placed under investigation. Patrick Munoz tried to defend her, but I stopped him cold. "If you back her now, you won't just fail to save her. You'll be dragged down with her." Crushed by the pressure, Rita staged an accident that killed her, leaving a letter blaming him for abandoning her in her hour of need. He said nothing, only preserving her letter in his study. Years later, he became a nationally renowned bomb disposal expert. During a terrorist attack, I was strapped to a timed explosive. He arrived to defuse it but repeated Rita's fatal mistake. As the timer ticked down, he gave a bitter laugh. "Rita was just nervous back then. If I'd supported her, she'd be a hero today." The bomb detonated, leaving nothing of me behind. When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the point when he tried to defend Rita. He didn't know that the building housed the nation's top-secret core server.

Before Cameron Finch goes on a business trip, he gives me a doll that looks exactly like him. "Babe, whenever you miss me, you can press this button on the doll. Once you've unlocked the easter egg, I'll come back and spend time with you." Later on, the plane Cameron had boarded crashes. I can only hug the doll he's given me, unable to sleep a wink at night. All I can do is press the button repeatedly until my fingertip goes numb and stiff. When I press it for the thousandth time, the doll lags momentarily. Then the recorded voice takes on an entirely different tone. "This marks the thousandth time you've hit this button! Congratulations on unlocking the easter egg! "Gwen, Mari and I have already registered our marriage. Our wedding will take place at the end of this year. I know this is unfair to you, but there's no such thing as 'first-come, first-served' in romance. I hope that you can give us your blessings. "Mari wants me to tell you that you will always be the bridesmaid of her wedding. I really hope you can attend our wedding since our families are friends and all. I will always be an older brother figure to you." My finger freezes at the message. As soon as the last word falls, I feel my phone buzzing. Marissa Becker has texted me. "Gwen, I'm getting married soon! I've reserved a slot for you as my bridesmaid! You must attend the wedding, okay?"

Outside the police tape surrounding a fancy hotel, a police officer can be seen blocking my way. "There seems to be a bomb hidden in the hotel! Unauthorized personnel are not allowed to get any closer!" I'm just about to dig out my work badge when the intern next to me, Christine Wyatt, covers her mouth in a pretentiously shocked manner. "Officer, there's a detonator and a timer in his bag! Those things look so scary!" The entire scene goes eerily silent. Almost immediately, I see a few guns getting aimed at my forehead. Anxiety begins overwhelming me. "I'm a bomb disposal expert from the Headquarters Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit! My bag contains all the tools necessary to dispose of a bomb!" "Throw your bag over to me and keep your hands where I can see them!" Captain Scott Hunter roars at me. My bag is opened afterward. Things like an insulated cutter, a bomb suppression blanket, and a liquid nitrogen cooling tank are scattered across the ground. Before I can explain myself, Christine suddenly points at me while screaming, "Why are you still playing dumb? You just told me that you wanted to set off an explosion in that hotel! "What, now that the police are here, you dare not admit what you just said, huh? You're a terrorist through and through!" Scott reacts quickly by pinning me on the hood of the police cruiser with my hands folded behind my back. "We're taking you back for a thorough interrogation!" My heart almost stops at those words. The bomb that's packed with enough firepower to take out half a street has already gone on a countdown in the hotel lobby. But I, the only bomb disposal expert who can get rid of the bomb, have handcuffs put on me because of Christine's nonsensical accusations. Right now, there are only 29 minutes left before the bomb goes off.

The day my little brother had his asthma attack, I poured every drop of his nebulizer medication down the bathroom sink. When Mom burst into the bathroom, the empty bottle was still dripping in my hand. Cradling my gasping brother in her arms, she slapped me across the face so hard that my ears rang. "You're only eight years old! How can you be this evil? Would you finally be happy if he died?" I wanted to tell her that the medicine was not the right one. The bottle smelled like harsh, burning bleach. The new nanny, Sophia, had grabbed the wrong bottle from the cleaning closet. But Mom didn't let me finish. She grabbed my arm, dragged me into the unfinished walk-in closet and locked the door from the outside. "You can come out when you realize your brother's life is more important than your petty jealousy." Outside, Dad was screaming while rushing my brother to the ER. Inside, I mistakenly knocked my foot over a plastic construction bucket and a thick, toxic white liquid began to puddle over my bare feet. I clawed at the door gap with my fingernails, sobbing, begging for Mom. The next morning, the hospital called. They confirmed that my brother's medication was laced with industrial cleaner. That was the exact moment Mom finally remembered that the key to the closet I was locked in was still sitting in her purse…

A single message at 2:17 AM changed everything. “Follow the instructions.” At first, it felt like a joke. A random message from an unknown number. Easy to ignore… until it wasn’t. When the instructions start getting personal, too personal, he realizes something is watching him. Learning him. Controlling every move before he even makes it. Then he meets her. A girl who has already been through it. A survivor of the system. Someone who knows the rules… and the consequences of breaking them. But there’s one problem. The system doesn’t make mistakes. And it doesn’t let people go. The more he resists, the deeper he’s pulled in, into a hidden network built on control, prediction, and manipulation. Every choice feels like his own… until he realizes it was never his to begin with. Now, he faces an impossible decision: Follow the instructions… Or risk losing everything, including the people he’s trying to protect. Because in this system… Freedom isn’t given. It’s taken.