Chapter 1
After the accident, Elena gained the ability to drift through time.
Whenever she fell into a deep sleep, she found herself back in a Maine town during her senior year of high school.
There, Elena saw seventeen-year-old Julian again—the boy who looked at her like she was his entire world, not the chronic cheater he became.
But Elena forgot that the teenage Julian loved her more than life itself, and he prepared something to prevent the monster from destroying her one day.
The boy asked her, “El, the future me... he treats you terribly, doesn’t he?”
Elena froze. A searing sting hit her eyes, and her vision blurred with tears.
When the world came back into focus, she was standing inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art...
Inside the Met, Elena stood by a marble pillar, and her eyes were fixed on Julian, her husband, who was currently treating her like a ghost.
He stood with Giada, a tech heiress whose only notable talent was looking expensive.
As they moved toward the center of the gala, Elena’s breath hitched.
Julian’s hand rested on Giada’s back—a possessive, lingering touch he hadn’t offered Elena in a decade.
And Giada was draped in a vintage dress that once belonged to Elena’s mother.
Elena saved it for her own gallery opening one day, but it seemed pointless now.
“You’re doing it again,” Marcus, Julian’s lead counsel, hissed. “Looking like a victim. Drink your champagne and smile.”
“She is wearing my mother’s dress, Marcus.”
Before he could respond, Julian’s cold gaze locked onto hers. He walked toward her, dragging Giada along.
“That dress, Elena,” Julian said. “You look pathetic in this bloody red dress, you know that? Seriously, are you so desperate for attention?”
“No. I simply like the color. It feels... alive.”
“Well, I don’t like it,” Julian said.
He snapped his fingers. “Bring a jacket. A black one. Now.”
The waiter returned, Julian snatched it and thrust it at Elena’s chest. “Put this on, now. And for God’s sake, don’t ever wear it again. You’re embarrassing me!”
“Julian, why is she in my mother’s dress?” Elena pointed toward Giada. “How could you do this to me?!”
“Don’t give me the attitude! Plus, the lace was rotting in the closet. It was a waste. And look, Giada looks perfect in it. It suits her better.”
“Julian is so sweet, Elena. I happened to see it in your closet the other day, and said it was pretty. Then, guess what, he kept that in mind and had someone bring it to my apartment the next morning. He indulges me so much since we’re expecting.” Giada placed a hand over her belly.
“Expecting?” Elena’s eyes widened.
“Yes. Which brings us to the evening’s announcement,” Julian said.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Julian addressed the elite crowd. “The Thorne Firm was scheduled to sponsor the ‘Echoes of the Coast’ exhibition curated by my wife, Elena. However, we’ve decided to pivot. We are withdrawing all funding for the gallery. Instead, the Thorne Foundation will be providing a five-million-dollar endowment to Giada’s new digital lifestyle platform.”
Elena froze. Her career, her mother’s legacy, her marriage—all of it was being incinerated in one moment.
Julian stepped down and handed her a file bag.
“It’s a divorce settlement. No alimony, no assets. You’re leaving with exactly what you brought into this marriage: nothing. Now, Giada is giving me an heir, something you failed to give me for all these years.
“Plus, you often have those false images on your mind, and you’re simply losing it. I can’t have a crazy woman as my wife. You’re a depreciating asset, Elena. I have to let you go.”
“And you know exactly why we can’t have children!”
“Oh, that again. Don’t be dramatic,” he snapped.
Elena turned and ran, her tears kept falling.
She pushed through the heavy doors and rushed into the biting New York night.
She saw her reflection in a dark window.
It was a girl on a sun-drenched dock, looking at a boy who had once promised he would always love her, and she meant the world to him.
“I love you, El. You’re everything I could ever wish for, and I’ll never let you down...” the memory of a seventeen-year-old Julian flashed in her mind.
The static in her head roared.
She looked at the divorce papers and bit her lip.
No, it wouldn’t end this way!
She would find the boy who once loved her so desperately before this monster destroyed her! And Giada would never get what she thought she was targeting.
To rewrite the future, she had to go back in time...
