The anomaly scan came back with a suspected finger deformity in the baby.

I called Geoffrey Finch in a panic, and somehow the line connected to a call from the future.

"Lorraine Swanson, your baby is fine, but you have to end this pregnancy!"

The woman on the other end had red-rimmed eyes, her voice twisted into a low, broken growl.

"Remember, you have to end it! Otherwise you'll regret it for the rest of your life!"

Staring at a woman who looked exactly like me, I instinctively went to hang up.

Her eyes were full of hatred, and she scrambled to stop me.

"Lorraine! Listen to me!"

"The woman Geoffrey is sleeping with is going to drunk-drive on Lantern Court tonight at eleven-oh-nine and kill Mom and Dad!"

"You have to save Mom and Dad, find the evidence that he's cheating and covering for Carol Delgado, and divorce him right away!"

"After the divorce, you have to land the female lead in Brendan Weiss's new film. That movie is going to blow up, and it's your only chance to turn everything around!"

She said it all in one breath, and in the last second before the line dropped, her whole face was wet with tears.

"Lorraine, promise me. You have to change the past!"

"Don't let us spend the rest of our lives drowning in regret…"

1

In the hospital bathroom, the call cut off.

The phone in my hand went back to normal.

I looked down at the time on the screen. Not a second had changed.

My fingers wouldn't stop shaking.

The shock hadn't even faded when the phone rang again.

"Lori, did the scan go okay?"

"Was the baby giving you any trouble?"

Geoffrey's low, gentle voice was right there against my ear.

I froze for a few seconds.

I didn't mention the suspected deformity on the scan.

Instead, my voice came out rough.

"Geoffrey, do you have a female employee named Carol Delgado?"

"No."

After three seconds of silence, Geoffrey denied it without hesitation.

I looked down at the search results on the screen, cold all over.

His company had a Carol Delgado on the roster.

Geoffrey had hyperthymesia since childhood.

There was no way he couldn't recall an employee's name.

He was lying.

The instant that landed, my head filled with a dull roar.

To be with Geoffrey, I'd given up everything I could give up.

I'd walked away from my career at its peak and let down every last one of my fans.

Five pregnancies in four years. Four miscarriages.

My figure ruined, thirty pounds heavier.

I'd thought love could get us through anything.

I never imagined I'd been living inside a lie the whole time.

Fighting to hold my body still, I sent Carol's name to my best friend.

【Claire Summers, can you do me a favor and pull Carol Delgado's hotel records?】

I sent it and waited a few minutes.

Then Claire's messages came flooding in.

【Lori, Carol Delgado's hotel records line up completely with Geoffrey's!】

【Starting from your first year of marriage all the way to now, there are over a thousand of them!】

A hotel once or twice could be a coincidence.

But more than a thousand times?

Staring at a list of matching check-ins so long I couldn't see the end of it, my stomach cramped.

Carol had only been at the company for three years, and she'd checked into hotels over a thousand times.

That worked out to once a day, every day.

I'd never once had morning sickness, and now I threw up until my whole body was trembling.

The woman's words kept circling in my head as I looked at the time on the screen.

Six hours until eleven.

Mom and Dad were traveling in the Maldives. There was no way they'd be back.

Maybe she'd made it all up.

I couldn't believe my parents would be killed by the woman Geoffrey was cheating with.

I tried to talk myself out of it.

But the very next second.

My phone rang.

"Sweetheart, your dad and I decided to come back early to take care of you."

"We're boarding now. We'll get to Metropolis City around… ten-thirty."

Mom's voice came through, word by word.

I went cold all over and had just opened my mouth to speak.

The call had already ended.

My fingers wouldn't stop shaking as I shoved the bathroom door open in a panic.

The nurse looked apologetic.

"Miss Swanson, I'm so sorry."

"One of our machines was malfunctioning. There's nothing wrong with your prenatal scan at all."

"If it would put your mind at ease, we can run the whole thing again, very carefully."

The nurse's words confirmed it one more time.

My heart was pounding, and the words came out on instinct.

"This baby. I don't want it."

I booked the abortion as fast as I could.

Then I took a cab to Geoffrey's company.

I staked out a coffee shop across the street for three hours before I finally saw her, the woman Geoffrey was cheating with, Carol Delgado.

She climbed out of the car Geoffrey's personal driver used, a brand-new limited-edition LV bag on her arm.

There was only one of that bag in all of Metropolis City.

Three months ago, the day it launched, I'd asked Geoffrey to buy it for me.

Three months of waiting, and it never came.

And here it was, on Carol Delgado's arm.

"Lori, that Carol woman is unbelievable!"

"She runs a social media account off looking like you, hundreds of thousands of followers."

"She even puts your current photos side by side with her heavily edited ones on purpose."

"She says you faded out a long time ago, that you don't even come close to her…"

Claire's furious voice came through my ear.

Only then did I realize how much Carol looked like me.

Like the me from four years ago, at my most famous, at my proudest.

Like the me Geoffrey fell for at first sight at that awards show.

I pulled my eyes away, and they caught on the coffee shop's reflective glass.

I saw myself now.

A rounded face, a loose dress that hid my figure.

The woman who once burned bright, whom the press used to say could get away with anything on her looks alone.

For love, I'd turned into the thing I now hated most.

"Claire, did you get the shots?"

My throat was raw and tight as I reminded her.

My phone rang.

"Lori, there's a director coming back to the country to make a film. I've got to go entertain him."

"Just giving you a heads-up so you won't worry."

Geoffrey's voice, the same as every other time.

But this time, somehow, I caught something different in it.

"Sss…"

On the line, Geoffrey sucked in a sharp breath.

I froze, still catching up.

He spoke first.

"Bumped into the table, careless of me. Lori, I've got to go."

He hung up in a rush.

In that hazy half-second, I heard him scolding someone in a low voice.

That voice carried the domineering, possessive edge he only ever had in bed.

The thought of what he and Carol were doing right then.

My stomach heaved, and I clamped a hand over my mouth and ran to the restroom.

When I came back out, Claire spoke in a hurry.

"Lori, Carol's coming down!"

"And Geoffrey's with her."

"Come on, we've got to follow them!"

"Wait, why did Carol suddenly change into a different dress…"

Claire's voice trailed off, her eyes turning to me.

"Lori, don't read too much into it."

I forced down the nausea and pushed out a smile.

"Claire, I won't waste tears on a man who's cheated more times than I can count, even if he is Geoffrey." Even if he is the Geoffrey who holds half of Metropolis City in his hand.

The moment I learned he'd cheated, I wasn't going to look back.

"Got it. Lori, let's get in the car and go after them! They're about to be gone."

We tailed Geoffrey's car until it stopped at an upscale private club in Metropolis City.

Claire and I sat in the car, waiting to catch more evidence.

Then another car pulled up.

"Lori, that's Brendan Weiss!"

"The director Geoffrey's meeting is actually Brendan Weiss!"

"He just won an Oscar overseas!"

Claire's stunned voice rang in my ear.

I sat frozen for a few seconds, then heard Claire cursing again.

"That shameless Carol, she's actually saying she's going to be in Brendan Weiss's new film!"

"Does she have any acting experience at all? And she's landing a movie role?!"

"It's all because Geoffrey's pushing her…"

Every sound around me slowly fell away, and I thought again of the new film that "woman" had mentioned.

Her words.

Proven true, one more time.

My body was shaking.

My fingers dug into my palm.

"Claire, do you have a way to reach Brendan Weiss?"

"His film, I have to be in it!"

I wrote out over three thousand words, everything I'd done in the business, every role I'd played.

At the end, I asked him sincerely to consider me.

When it was done.

I looked up at my phone and realized it was almost ten-thirty.

My parents' flight was about to land in Metropolis City!

The woman's words, thick with pain and regret, came back to me again.

Carol would drive drunk and kill my parents on Lantern Court at eleven-oh-nine.

And Geoffrey would choose to cover for her.

No more doubting it. I texted my parents right away.

【Mom, Dad, once you land in Metropolis City, don't go anywhere!】

【Wait for me to come get you!】

I'd just sent the text and was about to start the car.

Geoffrey came out carrying Carol, who was passed out drunk.

The two of them, standing in that gilded private club, looked exactly like a scene from some romance drama.

My heart clenched before I could stop it.

My phone suddenly rang.

"Lori, are you asleep?"

"Is the baby giving you trouble?"

Geoffrey's voice came through the phone, word by word, into my ear.

I stayed silent and said nothing.

"Lori, that bag you asked me to buy three months ago, I found it."

"I'll bring it to you tomorrow."

My eyes stayed on the LV bag, the one drunk Carol had tossed out of the car and left in the street.

I didn't make a sound. I didn't answer.

I just listened, quiet, to Geoffrey breathing.

And to the faint whimpering of a woman.

Until the call went dead.

Geoffrey helped Carol into the car and drove off.

The car drove all the way to the lakeside villa in Metropolis City.

From there to Lantern Court was only three minutes.

My fingers were shaking as I opened my phone again and searched for my parents' flight.

The moment I saw it had landed, I called them.

"Mom, Dad, are you in Metropolis City yet?"

"Did you see my text?"

"Whatever you do, don't drive yourselves!"

"Wait for me to come get you!"

I was rushing to get it out, and before I could finish.

My dad's voice suddenly came through, excited.

"Sweetheart, your mom and I got to Metropolis City ages ago!"

"We're longtime members of your fan club. Tonight's your fifteenth anniversary in the business, and we've got a surprise for you!"

"Surprise!"

My dad's voice came through, word by word.

I froze where I sat, my mind going blank.

Then, suddenly, I heard my mom's excited voice.

"Sweetheart, we're on Lantern Court right now, almost home..."

Lantern Court?

A cold went down the back of my neck.

Before it even registered.

My best friend's shocked voice cut in.

"Lori, a car's coming out!"

"It's Carol!"

"Didn't she just get drunk? How is she driving?!"

The black car came roaring past.

Terrifyingly fast.

My head was ringing, and I screamed into the phone, panicked.

"Mom, Dad, pull over right now!"

"Listen to me, don't drive any farther!"