He Owes Nothing to Time

Twenty-eight days after my husband passed away peacefully.

The woman who had been his rivala formidable CEO who fought him in the boardroom their entire liveswas found dead in her home, having taken her own life.

Her lawyer appeared almost immediately, producing a will she and my husband had signed together.

There it was, in black and white: a directive that they be buried together.

Their story instantly became the stuff of legend.

The world romanticized their lifelong battle, calling them fated rivals, two forces of nature locked in an eternal dance. People said their darkness and their glory, their triumphs and their sorrows, were inextricably woven together.

They spoke of the CEO who had never married, finally granted her deepest wish: to be united with him in death.

No one remembered me, his actual wife.

In their epic tale, I wasn't even a footnote, not even worthy of being cast as the villain.

I drifted through three more years, a ghost in my own life.

When I finally closed my eyes for the last time, all I felt was a hollow emptiness.

Then, I opened them again, to the deafening buzz of cicadas in the thick of summer.

He was smiling at me, asking if I would be his girlfriend.

This time, staring into the eyes that had once been my entire world, I slowly shook my head.

...

The smile on Sebastians face froze, replaced by a look of sheer confusion.

After a long, heavy silence, he found his voice.

Lia, I need a reason.

I thought I thought we were just one step away from this.

That was your assumption! I cut him off, my voice sharp.

Looking at the youthful, almost innocent features of the young Sebastian, I hardened my heart.

Ive never thought of you that way. You completely misread the situation.

Without another glance, I turned and fled.

The moment I turned, a tear escaped, splashing onto the back of my hand. The sting of it was the first thing that made this new reality feel real.

I knew, logically, that this version of Sebastian hadn't met her yetVeronica, the woman whose name would be entwined with his for a lifetime.

He hadnt yet done all the things that broke me.

But I still couldnt bring myself to not hate him.

The memories of my past life were like a rusted, jagged knife embedded in my bones, each detail a dull, persistent ache.

Before he was thirty-six, Sebastian had belonged completely to Lia.

He was the boy who would intentionally leave the last three questions on his college entrance exams blank, just because Id once whispered, I dont want to be in a different city from you.

He was the boy who would stay up all night in the dead of winter, his eyes red-rimmed, clumsily knitting me a lopsided scarf and blanket.

He was the young man who threw himself into building a startup in his junior year, all so I would never have to envy anyone elses life.

But after thirty-six, Sebastian was cleaved in two.

One half remained tethered to his marriage, to his responsibilities. To me, his increasingly pale and silent wife.

The other half drifted, uncontrollably, toward Veronica.

Toward the woman who was his equal, his rival, his obsession.

That was the same year.

After eighteen rounds of IVF, I was finally pregnant.

He never saw my swollen legs or the puffiness of my face from morning sickness.

He was too busy going head-to-head with Veronica.

One day, they were fighting over a land deal on the West Side, drinking each other under the table until they had to prop each other up to walk.

The next, they were competing for a major client, rolling dice in a smoky bar until the early hours of the morning.

Once, during a promotional event at a bar, they even got a fake marriage certificate.

They snapped a picture and posted it online, their laughter wild and unrestrained.

The day I went into labor, my water broke suddenly.

Sebastian, panicked, was lifting me to carry me out the door when his phone buzzed with a text from Veronica.

This pink diamond necklace at the auction today is stunning. Too bad a certain someone wont get the chance to outbid me for it.

Sebastian immediately set me down, grabbed his coat, and bolted for the auction house.

I clutched his sleeve, the pain sharp and blinding, my voice trembling.

The baby is coming now. We cant wait.

Is one-upping Veronica more important than me? Than our child?

He pried my fingers off, one by one, his voice urgent.

You know how Veronica loves to gloat. If she gets this over me, Ill never hear the end of it.

He leaned down and pressed a quick kiss to my forehead.

Be good. Ill have the driver take you. Ill be back before you know it.

But that delay, those few precious minutes, cost us everything. I missed the optimal window for surgery.

Our child died in my womb.

Later, he rushed back to the hospital room.

He knelt by my bed, clutching my hand, apologizing over and over.

He slipped a heavy gold bracelet onto my thin wrist.

I stared at the cold, glaring metal for a long time.

Then I heard my own voice, dry and raspy.

The pink diamond necklace. The one you abandoned me and our child for. Did you get it?

A flicker of pride lit up his face.

Of course. When have I ever not gotten what I want?

Seeing my unwavering stare, he hesitated before adding, But I gave the necklace to Veronica.

Imagine how infuriating it must be for her? To have the one thing she wants tossed to her like a scrap by her greatest enemy?

I turned my head away and closed my eyes.

A single tear slid silently into my hair.

A tabloid headline flashed in my mind, one of the many that feverishly shipped their fated rivals dynamic.

They wrote that a rival is a rival. A rival can never be a wife.

Sebastian.

In that moment, when you pried my fingers from your sleeve and walked toward her

Could you truly tell the difference between your desire to win and something else entirely?

Sebastians anxious voice pulled me from my thoughts.

Lia.

He ran to block my path, beads of sweat on his forehead.

Lia, why?

You you like me too. I know you do. Why are you suddenly like this?

The boy in his early twenties was not the man who would one day command boardrooms with an unreadable expression.

Right now, just the rejection from the girl he loved was enough to make his eyes turn red.

He looked like a large, abandoned dog, stubbornly demanding an answer.

My heart felt like it was being squeezed by an invisible hand, the ache so intense I could barely breathe.

How could this be?

How could the Sebastian who panicked at my slightest frown become the man he was in the end?

The nightmare of my past life surfaced again.

To win a real estate project on the East Side, Veronica had spread rumors that Sebastian was sexually harassing her at work.

Worse, at my mothers sixtieth birthday party, she played a deepfake video of her and Sebastian in an intimate moment.

The room erupted.

My mother collapsed from a heart attack on the spot. She never recovered.

I stormed into Veronicas office, demanding an explanation, a shred of decency.

But Sebastian rushed in and held me back.

He gripped my wrist so tightly I thought the bones would shatter.

His voice, however, was terrifyingly calm.

You cant blame Veronica for this.

It was your mothers own fault for taking it so seriously. It was fake.

She knew she had a bad heart. She should have controlled her emotions.

Besides, business is war. Winning is all that matters. Theres no shame in the methods you use.

I stared at him, a chill seeping deep into my bones.

That was my mother! Sebastian, that was the woman who raised me!

Your stupid war with her youll use human lives as stepping stones?

My only answer was his silence.

As he half-dragged, half-carried me out of Veronicas company, I finally understood.

The scales in Sebastians heart had tipped long ago.

He wasnt split in two anymore.

He had fallen completely, irrevocably, to her side.

Back in the present, the red-eyed boy was still waiting, his face a canvas of anxiety.

I lowered my gaze, swallowing the lump in my throat.

There isn't always a 'why,' Sebastian.

Dont come looking for me again. From now on, we go our separate ways.

He refused to believe it.

His eyes grew redder, his voice laced with a raw, wounded disbelief.

What do you mean, separate ways?

We had a plan, remember? Id start my business, youd go to grad school, wed build a life together right here in this city

His words painted a future for us, a future he recited with desperate hope.

But he didnt know.

In that future, he was the only one whose dreams came true.

My memory was pulled back to that other crossroads in my past life.

Near graduation, his startup was on the brink of collapse, his funding almost gone.

At the same time, I received an acceptance letter from my dream universitys graduate program.

Everyone around me urged me to give up my studies, telling me the smart choice was to be Sebastians supportive partner.

Is a masters degree really worth more than being the future Mrs. CEO?

Sebastian needs you right now. You should be helping him.

I held out, gritting my teeth.

Until he was hospitalized for a bleeding ulcer, a result of endless schmoozing and a chaotic schedule.

He lay in that hospital bed, pale and weak, playing on my sympathy.

Lia, youre so brilliant. Youd be such an asset to the company.

If we build this together, well be unstoppable.

And just like that, I surrendered to his sugar-coated words.

But when I actually joined the company, my role was cooking, cleaning, and laundry.

I was his glorified maid, a job anyone could do, and I never received a single cent for it.

Whenever I complained, he would just smile and ruffle my hair. Your job is to manage the home front, babe. Why would the bosss wife need a salary?

I saw his disdain for women in business, but I bit my tongue and endured it.

Until, years later, Veronica appeared.

And that disdain vanished, replaced by an admiration and fascination he couldn't hide.

A sharp pain lanced through my chest, pulling me back to the present.

I spoke his name softly.

Sebastian.

He stopped talking, his eyes lighting up as he looked at me.

I was about to speak.

But a clear, bright female voice from a short distance away interrupted us.

It was Veronica.

A woman who shouldn't have appeared for another decade.

Sebastian clearly didn't know her, his expression puzzled.

Veronica smiled.

Im Veronica, an exchange student from A-University this semester.

Your advisor asked me to find you. The afternoon lecture was rescheduled, and he wanted me to let you know.

Sebastian blinked, then nodded.

Okay, Ill head over now.

He turned back to me, his gaze intense and pleading again.

Lia, I have to go, its urgent.

But Ill find you later. We were not finished talking.

He hurried away.

I turned to leave as well, but Veronicas voice stopped me again.

Lia.

The smile was gone from her eyes, replaced by an undisguised hostility.

I came here, to this exchange program, for Sebastian.

This time, the one who builds an empire with him from scratch, the one who stands by his side through it all, will be me.

I froze, whipping my head around to look at her.

And in that instant, I knew. Veronica had been reborn, too.

But I didn't understand.

In our past life, she was a titan of industry, her name synonymous with Sebastians.

Why would she come back only to give all that up?

To fight for a role that would inevitably reduce her to a silent, supportive shadow behind a man?

My mind swirled with questions, but my face showed only a faint, dismissive smile.

I dont know what youre talking about.

Sebastian and I are just classmates.

I turned to leave again.

My calm demeanor seemed to infuriate her. Her voice rose, sharp and shrill.

Stop acting so high and mighty!

You only won last time because you had a head start! You know perfectly well he fell in love with me! Dont you?!

When I didnt stop walking, she grew desperate.

Her words became poisoned needles, aimed to kill.

Remember that time you were misdiagnosed with kidney disease? You saw Sebastian at the hospital getting tested to be a donor, and you were so moved you cried your eyes out, didnt you?