His Last Regret: Unmade

The city festival lights blurred, then the world exploded into screams and dust.

Liam was on top of me, saving me again, for the third time.

But this time, his last words, choked out with blood, were not what I expected.

"If only... I had never met you."

Ten years of a cold marriage, of my unrequited love, ended with that brutal, devastating line.

At his funeral, his mother's sharp voice cut through my grief: "He died because of you. Always you."

The whispers followed me out of the church, society agreeing I was the reason Liam Walker, the city's golden boy, was dead at thirty-three.

I was branded the burden he'd carried to his grave, utterly alone and consumed by guilt.

Liam's words echoed, haunting me: "If only I had never met you."

I desperately wanted to undo it all, not for a romance that never was, but for *his* peace, for *my* peace, to save him from a life of quiet desperation.

Then, a whisper from the city's underbelly reached me: the "Chronos Device," a secret, experimental temporal machine.

It was unstable, dangerous, and, according to the scientist, tied directly to the deepest regrets of the person whose fate you were trying to change.

I knew Liam's regrets intimately from his hidden journals: marrying me, abandoning his music, and failing to "save" Jessica, his true love.

Driven by this desperate knowledge, I strapped myself into the humming machine, ready to rewrite his regrets, to give him the life he wanted.

Even if it meant erasing myself from his life and future forever.

The festival lights blurred, then the world turned into screams and dust.

Liam was on top of me.

Then, nothing but the crushing weight and his blood.

He'd saved me again, for the third time.

The first was a mugging, years ago. They took our wallets, but one came back for my necklace. Liam fought him. The guy had a pipe. Liam's hand was never the same, his dream of being a concert pianist died that night. He joined his family's real estate empire instead.

The second time was a flash flood, a camping trip gone wrong. We had one emergency kit, one bottle of water left. He gave it to me.

This time, the collapsing stage at the city festival, he didn't walk away.

His last words, choked out with blood, were for me.

"If only... I had never met you."

Ten years of a cold marriage, of my unrequited love, ended like that. He loved Jessica, his dream girl, not me. His parents, the Walkers, pushed him into marrying me. They thought it was for his own good.

At Liam's funeral, his mother didn't look at me.

His father's face was stone.

"He was too good for you," Mrs. Walker finally said, her voice low and sharp. "He died because of you. Always you."

The whispers followed me out of the church. Society agreed. I was the reason Liam Walker, golden boy of the city, was dead at thirty-three.

They saw his sacrifice, and I was the burden he'd carried.

I was alone, completely. The Walkers, who once tried to be kind, now saw me as a curse.

Days blurred into a haze of grief and guilt. Liam's words echoed, "If only I had never met you."

I wanted to undo it all, not for a romance that never was, but for his peace, for my peace. To save him.

Then I heard about it, a whisper in the city's underbelly, the "Chronos Device." Experimental, dangerous, a secret government project.

A temporal device. A way back.

Desperation fueled me. I pulled strings I didn't know I had, spent money I didn't care about.

I found it, a sleek, humming machine in a hidden lab.

The lead scientist, a nervous man, tried to warn me. "It's unstable. Limited window. And it's tied to... to the deepest regrets of the person whose fate you're trying to change."

Liam's regrets. I knew them. His old journals, hidden in his desk, were filled with them.

1. Marrying me.

2. Not defying his parents, giving up music for the family business.

3. Failing to "save" Jessica. She died in a car accident years ago, an accident he indirectly blamed on me. He thought my complaints to his parents about her, about his lingering attachment, stressed her out, made her reckless.

I had to fix those. For him. For us to have a different ending, even if it meant I wasn't in his life at all.

I strapped myself in. The machine hummed louder, lights flashed. My mission was clear: rewrite his regrets, give him the life he wanted.

The world twisted, then snapped into focus.

Sunlight. City Hall.

My younger self, ten years younger, stood frozen.

And there was Liam.

Younger, vibrant, no shadows in his eyes yet. He looked impatient, checking his watch.

He was waiting for me, for Maya, to get our marriage license.

Today was the day.

A wave of emotion hit me, so strong I almost buckled. Joy, pain, hope, all mixed. He was alive. I had a chance.

Thirty-six hours, the scientist had said. That's all the Chronos Device gave me. Thirty-six hours to change ten years of tragedy.

He saw me. "Maya. You're late."

His voice, younger, sharper, but still him.

I walked towards him, my heart pounding.

"Liam," I said, my voice surprisingly steady. "Before we do this, can I ask you something?"

He frowned. "What is it? My parents are expecting us to have this done by noon."

"Are you sure," I asked, looking him straight in the eye, "that you want to marry me? Not Jessica?"

His face tightened. A flash of annoyance, then that familiar coldness I knew so well.

"Jessica has nothing to do with this. This is an arrangement. You know that."

He didn't deny his feelings for her. He never did.

It hurt, even now, even knowing what I had to do.

His words, "This is an arrangement," echoed in my mind. The same arrangement that led to a decade of quiet misery for both of us, and ultimately, his death.

I remembered his journals, the pages filled with his cramped handwriting, detailing his regrets.

Regret number one: Marrying me.

Regret number two: Giving up his music, his passion, to join the Walker real estate empire, crushed under his parents' expectations.

Regret number three: Not "saving" Jessica. He believed my distress over his attachment to her, my eventual complaints to his parents, had caused her to be upset, leading to her fatal car accident in the original timeline. He carried that guilt, misplaced as it was.

These weren't just regrets, they were my roadmap for the next thirty-six hours.

My own pain from the original timeline, his dying words, his parents' blame – it all fueled my resolve. I had to do this, not to win him, but to free him. And in freeing him, maybe I could free myself too.

The Chronos Device's instructions, or what I pieced together from the scientist and Liam's journals, were clear: Fulfill his three deepest regrets. That was the key to altering our intertwined, tragic fates.

Liam's happiness, his life, depended on it.

My peace depended on it.

The first regret: Marrying me.

I looked at the marriage application form in his hand. That was my first target.

"Let's go inside," I said, trying to sound like the compliant Maya he expected.

Inside City Hall, the air was stale.

Liam handed the forms to the clerk.

While the clerk was distracted by another couple, I leaned over the counter, pen in hand. My heart hammered.

"Just need to double-check the spelling of my middle name," I murmured, feigning innocence.

Liam was looking at a text on his phone, probably from Jessica.

Quickly, I found the bride's name section. My hand shook, but I wrote "Jessica" where "Maya" should have been. Jessica's last name. I knew it well.

I made a few other small, almost unnoticeable marks and smudges on critical parts of the document, enough to cause problems later, enough to delay things, to make it contestable.

"All good?" Liam asked, not looking up.

"Perfect," I said, a strange mix of triumph and sorrow in my chest. Step one was in motion. He wouldn't be officially married to me.

He took the receipt from the clerk. "They said the certificate will be mailed. Don't peek when it arrives, okay? Let's open it together. Consider it a... surprise." I managed a small, mysterious smile.

He just grunted, already halfway out the door, eager to get away.

His confusion would come later. My small victory felt hollow, watching him walk away.

He paused at the City Hall steps, waiting for me.

"Are you coming, Maya? I told my parents we'd be right over after this."

His parents. The Walkers. My next stop.

I remembered a conversation, years ago in the original timeline. I'd tried to talk to him about my dreams, about a music scholarship I'd secretly applied for before our engagement was announced.

He'd dismissed it. "We have a life planned, Maya. My parents expect us to focus on the business, on our future together."

My future, swallowed by his.

The memory was a dull ache. Now, that lost dream would be my tool.

"Actually, Liam," I said, "I need to go see your parents alone first."

He looked surprised. "Alone? Why?"

"Something I need to discuss with them. Privately."

He hesitated, then shrugged. "Fine. But don't be long. We have that dinner with the Hendersons tonight, remember? Important for the new development."

Always business. Always duty.

Then, he did something unexpected. He reached out, brushed a stray strand of hair from my face. A fleeting, almost gentle touch.

"Is everything alright, Maya? You seem... different today."

For a second, I saw a flicker of concern, the Liam who had saved my life three times.

My resolve wavered. This man, despite his coldness, had an innate kindness, a protective instinct he couldn't suppress.

But I couldn't let that distract me. This was for his own good.

"I'm fine," I said, forcing a smile. "Just a lot on my mind."

He nodded, seemingly satisfied, or perhaps just eager to move on. "Alright. I'll meet you at their house later then. Don't keep them waiting too long."

He turned and walked towards his car, his broad shoulders a familiar sight.

A brief, almost normal exchange. Like we were a real couple with real plans.

The illusion shattered as soon as he was out of earshot.

Just as Liam's car pulled away, my phone buzzed. An unknown number.

I answered. A frantic voice. "Is this Maya? Liam Walker's fiancée?"

"Yes?"

"It's City Hospital. Jessica Albright was just brought in. A car accident. It's serious."

My blood ran cold. Jessica. Her accident. It was happening, but much earlier than in the original timeline. The butterfly effect of my changes already at play.

Liam's third regret: failing to save Jessica. He had blamed me, thinking my unhappiness and complaints to his parents about his continued connection to Jessica had pushed her into a reckless state leading to her accident.

He was blind to her manipulative nature, blind to how she used him. I'd tried to tell him, to warn his parents, but they'd dismissed my concerns as jealousy.

Now, here was my chance to address that regret directly, to save her, and maybe, just maybe, open his eyes.

My next goal was clear.

I took a cab to the Walker mansion. My hands were clammy. This was harder than City Hall.

Mrs. Walker opened the door, her smile warm, expectant. In this timeline, she still believed I was the solution to Liam's perceived immaturity, his lingering attachment to Jessica.

"Maya, dear! Come in, come in. Liam just called, said you were on your way. Is everything done at City Hall?"

Mr. Walker was in the living room, reading the financial news. He looked up, a rare smile for me.

They were good people, in their own way. They loved Liam fiercely. They just didn't understand him.

The warmth of their greeting made what I was about to do even harder.

I felt a pang of exhaustion. The temporal jump, the emotional weight, it was all catching up.

Mrs. Walker fussed over me, offering tea, cookies. "You look a little pale, dear. Is everything alright? Wedding jitters?"

Her kindness was a heavy blanket.

Mr. Walker put down his paper. "So, it's official then? Our Liam is finally settling down."

The pride in his voice. They truly believed this marriage was Liam's salvation.

This was going to hurt them. It was going to hurt me. But it was necessary.