When I wake up, I find out that my childhood friend, Brandon Moore, is the one lying next to me instead of my husband, Jake Watson.

Angrily, I berate Brandon for betraying his wife, Rachel Schneider. But he asks me in confusion, "Aren't you my wife? Are you rambling drunken nonsense, or are you having a fever?

"Rachel is already married and has a child of her own. Don't go around pinning the bigamy crime on me for no reason!"

I'm stunned, to say the least. Brandon and Rachel are a loving married couple, and yet here he is, telling me that they aren't married at all.

Just as I'm about to call Brandon a jerk, I raise my head to see the wedding portrait. It features me and Brandon.

Cold sweat soon rolls down my forehead. I ask Brandon tentatively, "Then… do you still remember my husband, Jake Watson?"

In the past, Brandon used to be best friends with Jake. Both families even have a betrothal pact with each other.

But Brandon angrily accuses me of cheating on him with another man. He even claims that he doesn't know Jake at all.

The thing is, Jake and I have been married for ten years. How the hell is it possible for Brandon to not know Jake at all?

Thinking that Brandon is lying to me, I show Jake's photo to my parents and everyone around me. They all tell me that they've never seen Jake before, and they even claim that Brandon is the one I've been married to for ten years.

I refuse to accept this reality, which causes me to go dazed all the time. Gradually, I go crazy overtime. Because of that, Brandon files for a divorce from me. My parents soon admit me into a mental hospital.

After dying a terrible death from the electric therapy, I open my eyes to see that I've returned to the day Brandon becomes my husband.

I forced myself to be calm. My eyes drifted to the wedding photo on the nightstand, and a thought suddenly crossed my mind.

"I just think the photo looks a little washed out. We should get it restored. Do you remember where we took it?"

"Honey, how could you forget where we took our wedding photos? You know what? I'll take it in for restoration."

My supposed husband, Brandon Moore, got up and took the framed wedding photo off the wall, turning it around to show me the watermark on the back—Genuinely Yours Studio.

I froze. That was exactly the studio where Jake Watson and I took our wedding photos. Even the wedding date was identical.

Seeing the confusion on Brandon's face, I waved dismissively and insisted on going myself.

With the wedding photo in hand, I headed to Genuinely Yours Studio and found a staff member. "Excuse me. Was this photo taken here? I'd like to know if it's been photoshopped in any way or if it's a deepfake."

The studio assistant took the photo from me, checked the watermark, and then pulled up the records on the computer. "Yes, this was taken here. As for the edits you mentioned, we'll need to run a check."

About 30 minutes later, he returned with the results. "There are signs it's been photoshopped. Most couples want their wedding photos to look nicer, so we did some standard touch-ups for both you and your husband.

"For example, we made your skin tone a little more even and enlarged your husband's eyes slightly."

"I-Is that all?" I asked shakily. "You didn't edit my husband into someone else? It's not a deepfake?"

The studio assistant looked at me, bewildered. "What kind of business would edit another man's face onto the groom's body?"

I opened my mouth to press him further, but decided against it and changed the subject instead. "Well, in that case, how many couples came here for wedding photos on this date?"

"Just you and your husband, ma'am."

The doubts and questions in my mind only grew. After leaving the photo with the staff for restoration, I walked out of the studio in a daze.

It didn't make sense. I would get it if the people around me were lying to me, but why would the staff at the studio also do that?

After mulling over it for a while, I decided to start with the person closest to Brandon. I pulled out my phone and called Rachel Schneider.

"Hey, Rachel. Are you free? There's something I want to talk to you about."

"What's wrong? Did your husband give you a hard time again?" she asked. "Give me a minute. I'll meet you right after I put the baby to sleep."

I hadn't expected Brandon's words from my previous life to be true. Rachel had actually become a mother.

When we met at the cafe, I pulled out my chair and sat across from her. Her face glowed with happiness.

"Erica, it's been forever!" she greeted me. "Ever since I had the baby, I barely get any time to myself anymore."

"Sorry. I know this will sound weird, but… who's your husband?"

Rachel was visibly taken aback. "What's going on with you? Erica, you were my bridesmaid. It's Alex Cooper, the guy next door."

She showed me the wallpaper on her phone's lock screen. It was a wedding photo of her and Alex.

My grip loosened around the coffee cup, and the brown liquid spilled onto the table. "Wait… I mean, weren't you in love with Brandon before?"

"Brandon? That boring blockhead? I couldn't stand him. I don't know what you see in him. Sure, Alex isn't exactly handsome, but he spoils me. He's willing to spend money on me too."

How could this be? Rachel used to despise Alex. The one she loved was Brandon.

Now, everything had completely reversed.

Faced with my silence, Rachel reached over worriedly and grabbed my hand. "Brandon's not actually mistreating you, is he? He used to love you like crazy. He even spent a fortune engraving both your initials on the wedding rings."

I looked at the band on my finger and hurriedly took it off to check the inside. Sure enough, it had Brandon's initials and mine.

But I clearly remembered that the man who slipped the ring onto my finger was Jake, and that ring had our initials engraved on it too.

Was I really losing my mind? Had Jake never existed at all?

After parting ways with Rachel, I wandered the streets with more questions weighing down on me. From the way she spoke and the look in her eyes, I was almost certain she wasn't lying.

I even had the engraving inside the wedding ring examined by a professional. They said it was over ten years old, not something recently forged.

Just as I was sighing to myself, someone patted me on the back. "Hey, what's with you? You look like a wandering ghost. Your shadow—I mean, Brandon—isn't with you today."

I turned around and saw my best friend, Judy Sanders.

Brandon had always been cold and distant. He liked being alone and never clung to anyone. Jake, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. He always wanted to stick close to me every second of the day and had never been willing to be apart for long.

Seeing how pale I was, Judy dragged me into an ice cream shop and sat me down with a cone in hand. "What are you spacing out about? Come to think of it, this is where you and Brandon first got together."

The ice cream slipped from my hand and fell onto the floor, but I didn't even notice.

Back then, I used to be shy. Every time Jake asked me out, I would drag Judy along with me. Even when he confessed to me, she was there too.

We were both freshmen then. It was the peak of summer, unbearably hot, and Jake bought us ice cream. He confessed his feelings to me for the first time right here, in this very shop.

"Hey, your ice cream fell on the floor! I'll buy you another one," Judy said, her voice pulling me back to the present.

I stared at the ice cream she handed me, but my confusion only grew. "Judy, are you saying Brandon confessed to me here?"

"Yeah. How could you forget something that important?" she said helplessly. "You used to be super shy, so every time you went out with him, you dragged me along—even on that amusement park trip."

My heart skipped a beat. I quickly pulled out my phone and found the photo of Jake and me at the amusement park. "Was it this amusement park? Do you recognize this man, then?"

Judy looked at Jake's picture in confusion and shook her head. "Yeah, it's this amusement park. But who's this cutie? I thought Brandon was your first love. Wait, you dated someone else before him?"

I grabbed her hand tightly. "Do you still have pictures from when the three of us went here?"

"Are you okay? Your face has gone completely pale. Relax. I'm not going to tell Brandon."

As she spoke, she scrolled through her phone and pulled up an old photo from college.

In it, Judy, Brandon, and I were at the amusement park. It was a carbon copy of the photo on my phone, except that Jake had become Brandon.

I kept scrolling through the photos on her phone. Every single one was of the three of us together, without a single trace of Jake anywhere. In fact, Jake had been replaced by Brandon in every memory I had of dating him.

Panic rose in my chest until I finally heard Judy hiss in pain. Only then did I realize how tightly I was gripping her hand, and I quickly let go.

"Judy, can you go to campus with me?" I asked softly. "I want to… revisit those days."

"Didn't take you for such a nostalgic person. Brandon was the campus heartthrob back then. Tons of ladies chased after him, but he only ever had eyes for you. I guess being childhood best friends with him did give you a head start."

The campus heartthrob? Jake had clearly been the campus heartthrob throughout all four years of college. Why did she remember it being Brandon instead?

Confused and conflicted, I followed Judy back to college. She led me to the wall where old photos of popular male students were displayed.

"Look. Brandon's photo is still here. You even secretly wrote 'I'm into you' under his photo."

I reached out and touched the handwriting beneath the picture. It was mine indeed.

Yet, the photo hanging here back then had been Jake's, and I had left that confession for him. Why was everything completely different from my memories?

Not only had Jake been erased from my present life, but even the past had been rewritten, as if he had never existed.

After parting ways with Judy, I slipped into the college administrative office and pulled out the archived records. There wasn't a single mention of Jake in the student registry.

How could that be? How could he not exist?

I didn't believe it, so I pulled out the group photos from all four years of my time here and flipped through them one by one. Someone was missing.

There were 48 of us in the cohort, yet only 47 students were in the photo. The missing one had to be Jake. This meant he existed, but his existence had been erased.

Suddenly, the door behind me creaked open. I looked up in a panic and met the eyes of the person who walked in. It was the academic dean, Ms. Greta Rosewood. "Erica, why didn't you tell me you were coming back?"

Seeing that she wasn't angry about me trespassing, I quickly asked, "Ms. Rosewood, do you remember a student in our cohort named Jake Watson?"

She pushed up her reading glasses, her expression full of confusion. "Jake Watson? Was there a student by that name in your cohort? I may be getting old, but I don't forget my students."

I hurriedly pulled out the group photo and pointed at the number 48. "We had 48 students in our cohort, yet one is missing from the photo. It was Jake, right?"

Ms. Rosewood studied the photo for a long time, only to chuckle out loud. "Oh, that. It'd be Alex Cooper. He ate something bad that day and had diarrhea, so he ran off during the photo."

The faint hope I had just started clinging to evaporated, plunging me back into the pit of helplessness. There was still no trace of Jake and certainly no shared memories of him.

When I left the administrative office, I walked away empty-handed. Whether it was the present or the past, it was as if he had vanished from the face of the earth.

Yet, the ten years I had spent loving him were carved so deeply into my bones that I refused to deny them.

On my way across the campus, a couple walked past me, chatting casually, "So, when am I meeting your parents? What about the holidays?"

That simple question jolted something in me.

I had been searching from the wrong angle all along. I had only been investigating the people around me, but what if I started from the people around Jake instead? For example, his parents.

Following my old memories, I found my way to the Watsons' home. When I saw the familiar street and gate, I finally felt a tiny sense of relief.

I knocked, and the door opened, revealing Jake's mother. She looked exactly as I remembered. Perhaps I could finally find an inkling about where he was.

"Hello, Mrs. Watson. Do you remember Jake Watson? Your… son."

She frowned at me in confusion. "What are you talking about, miss? I don't have a son, just a daughter."

Behind her, a young woman about Jake's age peeked out. "What's going on, Mom?"

Honestly, I was taken aback when I saw her. She looked convincingly like Jake's sibling. But he was an only child. He never had any siblings.

I pulled out my phone and showed them a photo of Jake. "Does this ring a bell? At all?"

The young woman answered first, "He does look kind of familiar…"

A spark of hope surged in my chest. "Have you seen him before? He's very important to me. Please, just tell me what you know."

Yet, her answer sent me straight back into hopelessness. "Mom, I think he looks a lot like Dad. Could this be Dad's secret child or something?"

Mrs. Watson tapped her on the forehead, chiding, "Yeah, right. If your father hears this, you're going to be in a lot of trouble."

She then turned back to me. "Miss, we don't know who this is. I don't know how you found our address either, but please leave. We don't want any trouble."

Without waiting for my response, she shut the door.

Not only did they fail to recognize Jake, but they didn't remember me either. My investigation had hit yet another dead end.

Just as I turned to leave, an elderly neighbor opened her door. "Young lady, I heard you're looking for Jake Watson. I know where he is."