Chapter 1

The screech of tires was the last thing I heard before the world went black. When I woke up, I wasn't in a hospital room, but floating in a void. A blue, sterile screen glowed in front of me.

[System Initializing... Host: Ava Miller. Status: Comatose. Vital Signs: Critical.]

My head felt thick, and my thoughts moved like sludge. Comatose? That couldn't be right. I was just walking home from the firm after landing the biggest project of my career.

[Mission: Life Reformation. Objective: Fulfill the regrets of 100 individuals from the future. Reward: Full physical restoration.]

A system? Like in the novels I used to read? It felt absurd, but the cold, emotionless text on the screen was the only thing in this empty space. It explained the rules. I would be sent back in time, into the body of my younger self, to complete missions. Each mission involved changing a past event for someone who regretted it in my present time, eight years in the future. If I succeeded one hundred times, the system would heal my broken body in the present.

It was my only hope.

So, I accepted.

My first mission was simple. A man in the future regretted not buying a lottery ticket with numbers he saw in a dream. I went back, bought the ticket for him, and left it in his high school locker. The moment he found it, a notification popped up on my system screen.

[Mission 1: Complete. Host Health: +1%]

The next 97 missions went by in a blur. I helped a girl confess to her crush, I convinced a boy not to drop out of school, I stopped someone from getting a tattoo they would later despise. With each success, I felt a little stronger, the fog in my head clearing just a bit. Each time, I was sent back to my high school years, a time I remembered with a strange mix of fondness and anxiety.

I was on the verge of success, my health bar at 98%. Just two more missions and I could wake up. I could go back to my life, my career, and my husband, Liam. The thought of him was a dull ache. I missed him desperately.

The system pinged, signaling a new request.

[Mission 99: Incoming Request. Client ID: 778. Do you wish to accept?]

I accepted without hesitation. I was so close.

The client's information loaded onto the screen. It was a voice recording this time, not text. A man's voice, tired and heavy, filled the silence.

"I just... I want to erase a mistake. A big one. It's from high school."

The screen displayed the details. The client wanted to prevent a public proposal that happened after a championship basketball game.

[Target Event: Liam Stone's proposal to Ava Miller.]

I froze.

Ava Miller. That was my name.

Liam Stone. That was my husband's name.

It had to be a coincidence. It had to be. There were other people with those names. My heart started pounding, a frantic, panicked rhythm against my ribs. I tried to calm myself, telling myself it was impossible.

But then the system pulled up a picture of the client to verify his identity. It was him. It was Liam. Older, with fine lines around his eyes I'd never seen, his face hardened by a weariness that was completely foreign to me. But it was undeniably him.

The system then displayed the target of the proposal, the person he wanted to avoid. A picture of me at seventeen appeared on the screen, smiling and bright-eyed, wearing Liam's basketball jersey.

My breath hitched. The mission, my 99th mission, was a request from my own husband, eight years in the future.

And he wanted to erase the very beginning of our love story.