When He Cheated, I Connected To Young Him

The day Yara Wren decided to file for divorce, her husband was at a gala with his mistress. "All the paperwork can be finalized within two weeks," the divorce attorney promised. Yara glanced at the calendar. Then a ringtone cut through her thoughts — her old phone, the one she hadn't touched in ten years, was ringing. "Yara, meet me at The Blue Lagoon tonight at eight." Her husband's voice came through the line. But something was different — lighter than usual, stripped of its familiar coldness, almost bright. Shock flickered through her eyes. She had heard those exact words before. Ten years ago. The night Ethan Ross made his grand, sweeping confession of love. She looked at the calendar again and asked carefully, "Ethan — what's today's date on your end?" "Yara, it's October 15, 2015. My birthday. Don't tell me you forgot?" Her heart lurched. The man on the other end of the line was twenty-year-old Ethan! Realizing the call was coming from the past, she asked, "Ethan, you're planning to confess to me tonight, aren't you?" "How did you know—" "Save it. I don't have feelings for you." The words had barely left her mouth before the twenty-year-old Ethan panicked. "Yara, what's wrong with you? You clearly—" He stopped. "Wait. You're not Yara." Yara's gaze drifted to the i********: post Ava Harper had just put up — a deliberate, gloating display. Her voice went flat. "I am Yara Wren. Just ten years older. Ten years from now, you'll betray me. You'll fall in love with someone else." "That's impossible," Ethan shot back, his voice raw with disbelief. "You're the only one I've ever wanted." And that had been true once. The twenty-year-old Ethan had loved her with everything he had — so fiercely that he had been willing to turn the entire Ross family against himself just to be with her. But last night, she had dragged her injured body home, only to find the thirty-year-old Ethan on one knee before Ava, pouring his heart out. She had heard Ava's syrupy voice: "Ethan, you actually hired men to attack Yara — just to get her out of the way so you could propose to me?" And Ethan's cool, measured reply: "You kept threatening to leave me. I made Yara a vow that I'd never divorce her, so marriage is off the table. But other than that, I'll give you everything." So that was it. She had nearly died in a trap her own husband had built for her. She had also heard someone ask him, "Boss, what if Yara finds out?" He had said, "Make sure she doesn't. Eight years ago, she walked alone into the Shelton family to save me — endured a full day and night in that place. I made her a vow. I will never abandon her. It's just... Ava reminds me so much of what Yara used to be. If that night had never happened, Yara would have stayed this way — clean and untouched. But what happened to Yara already happened. All I can do is raise Ava to be the girl Yara should have been." Eight years ago, Yara had walked alone into enemy territory — the Shelton family, the Rosses' most feared rivals — and traded herself for Ethan's broken, bleeding body. A full day and night of what they put her through. Then they threw her out. When Ethan finally found her, she was drenched in blood — and she had lost the child she was carrying. After that, rumors swept through the entire city. That Yara Wren had been used up and thrown away. Only Ethan had told her, again and again, that he believed her. That his Yara would always be the purest girl in the world. It had all been lies. The thought made her knuckles go white around the phone. She spoke each word with quiet, deliberate force: "Ethan. Don't confess to me. If you do, I will end up dying at your hands." The line went dead. The door swung open. Ethan walked in carrying a slim velvet box. "Hey, I picked this up for you at the auction. Do you like it?" Yara didn't answer. Her eyes dropped to his abdomen. "I went too easy on you last night." After the crowds had dispersed the night before, the first thing she had done when she got home was grab a fruit knife and drive it into his stomach. She had always believed in settling scores. Ethan smiled. "If it makes you happy, you can stab me a few more times. I can take it." "Ethan." Yara kept her voice steady, forcing down the nausea rising in her throat. "Let's stop torturing each other. I've already spoken to an attorney about the divorce." His expression cooled instantly. He caught her hand, his eyes glassy with something obsessive and unwell. "Baby, in my world, there's no such thing as divorce — only widowhood. I treat Ava well because I see your younger self in her, that's all. She's so clean, so pure — just like you at eighteen. I won't let her threaten your position." Yara wrenched her hand free. "You make me sick." A few days later, Yara stood at the floor-to-ceiling window with a cigarette burning between her fingers, staring at the half-jade pendant resting in her palm. Ten years ago, on the night Ethan confessed his love, he had given it to her as a token. "Yara, I am nothing without you. From this day forward, we lead the Ross family together." He had also signed over half his shares in Ross Group to her. The whole city had talked about nothing else for weeks. Then, without warning, the jade piece in her palm began to fade — growing translucent, dissolving into nothing, until it was gone entirely. Yara's brow lifted sharply. She unlocked her phone and searched for the old news. Nothing came up. Every story about Ethan's city-wide public confession — gone, as if it had never happened. Her fingers trembled. Could it really be a butterfly effect?