Chapter 1

I' ve spent five years of my life trying to save one man.

His name is Ethan Lester.

In my world, he was the tragic antagonist of a TV show called "Bay City Blues," a brilliant detective framed by corrupt city officials and gunned down in an alley. In this world, he' s the man I love.

A mysterious program gave me a chance to change his fate. It sent my consciousness into the body of Gabby, a waitress with no family and no future. The mission was simple: save Ethan Lester from his scripted death.

My mission completion rate is at 99%.

Last night, after five years of rebuilding his life from the ashes, Ethan proposed. We' re getting married in seven days. According to the program, once we say our vows, the mission will hit 100%. I can stay here, with him, forever.

But tonight, everything fell apart.

I' m standing in the cold, drizzling rain, staring at the guesthouse window on Ethan' s property. Inside, bathed in warm light, is Annabel Chadwick, his beautiful, wealthy ex-fiancée. The woman whose family destroyed him.

His voice, the one that promised me forever just last night, drifts through the glass, clear and devastating.

"Annie, I never stopped loving you."

"Compared to you, everyone else is just static."

My breath catches in my throat. Static. That' s what I am. Five years of devotion, of working multiple jobs to support him, of nursing him through his darkest depressions-all of it just background noise.

Then he delivers the final blow.

"You're the only one that matters. I'd still take a bullet for you, you know that."

A cold numbness spreads through me, starting from the scar on my back. The scar I got from literally taking a bullet for him. His words don't just hurt; they erase my entire existence here.

My hands are shaking as I pull out my phone, but my voice is steady when I contact the program.

"I want to pull the plug. I' m going home."

The program' s synthesized voice responds, devoid of emotion.

"Mission completion is at 99%. Initiating extraction will reset all progress. Are you sure?"

I look back at the window, at the silhouette of the man I gave up my life for, who is now promising that life to someone else.

"I'm sure."

The final 1%, his true, undivided love, was never mine to have.