He Fumbled Both Timelines

The year my dad went broke, I was sent to live with billionaire heir Jace Blackwell.

We grew up together.

When he had a fever, he clung to me, face buried in my arms.

When he got yelled at, he sprawled across my lap and sulked.

And when another boy wrote me a love letter, Jace pinned me down and kissed me—shaking, jealous, possessive.

Everyone thought we were the perfect couple.

Then, on the day we were filling out our early college applications, a sharply dressed man burst into the classroom and shoved me to the floor.

He grabbed eighteen-year-old Jace, his eyes bloodshot.

"Jace! Look at me! I'm you ten years from now! Don't go to the same college as Nadia. She's not the one you love. It's Faye!"

Faye Whitmore.

The broke new girl.

Eighteen-year-old Jace stared at that identical face, stunned. Then his expression went dark.

"What the hell are you talking about? The only person I love is Nadia! I don't care who you are. Touch her again, and I'll kill you!"

He rushed over and pulled me into his arms.

He was shaking.

I gave a bitter smile.

No one knew.

I was from ten years in the future, too.

And twenty-eight-year-old Jace wasn't lying.

By then, I wasn't the girl he loved anymore.

Nadia's POV

Twenty-eight-year-old Jace's chest heaved as he shouted like he'd completely lost it.

"You don't have to believe me, but I'm begging you—be brave! You already felt it, didn't you? How many chances does a person get? Don't spend your whole life regretting this!"

A dull ache spread through my chest.

So even going back to the past couldn't change anything. Jace still wouldn't love me.

Before I knew it, tears were already running down my face. Then someone gently covered my ears.

Eighteen-year-old Jace tilted his head and leaned closer, smiling as he winked at me.

"Did he scare you? Don't be scared. I'm here. That guy's crazy. Nothing he says matters. Just listen to me, okay? I'll only ever love you. You hear me?"

A teenage boy's love burned bright and felt endless.

But staring into his eyes—those bright, familiar eyes—I heard another voice through the sound of shattering glass—

"Nadia Nielsen! I never loved you! It's better the baby's gone! Touch Faye, and I'll make sure your mom dies on that operating table!"

It was our tenth anniversary.

I caught Jace cheating.

Faye was naked in his bed.

I shattered right there, losing the baby I'd finally conceived after seven rounds of IVF.

When I tried to use the video of his affair against him, Jace wrapped a hand around my throat and threatened my mom's life.

"The truth is, I fell for Faye the second I saw her! If I hadn't sent in that early college application, we never would've missed each other!"

Jace smashed the crystal globe beside the bed.

Along with it, the promise he'd recorded during his confession shattered too.

He threw me to the floor like I weighed nothing, and I still refused to believe the boy I knew was gone.

Not until my mom, right before brain surgery, was "accidentally" hit and killed by Faye—and not a single lawyer in Borevia City would take the case.

Not until I died in a fire caused by a gas leak.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back ten years earlier.

Maybe the pain had been too much. Or maybe, before I died, I really had seen Jace run into the flames. I convinced myself it had all been a dream.

But now twenty-eight-year-old Jace was cruelly reminding me—

It had all been real.

And if that was true, then in this second life, I only wanted the people I loved to stay alive and safe.

So I looked at the boy in front of me and gave him a faint smile.

"I heard you."

But this was where we ended.