Three Matches To Rewrite Fate

Before her death, my mother left me three matches. She said they could pull me through times currents.

I used the first at a corporate gala when Dominic was drugged. I stayed close, kept him from the spiked drinks, and ensured no other woman stood a chance. Our marriage became flawless, life moving exactly as it should.

I let my guard down, becoming the envied Mrs. Blackwell. Then came the crash. Dominic shielded me with his body, taking the full force of steel and glass. He died on the operating table.

I struck the second match without hesitation, rewriting his fate to avoid that moment. I thought I would never need the third. We were meant to be forever.

Until he tossed an ultrasound photo onto the coffee table. The world tilted. His voice was ice. Jade is four months along. Its my son.

The ringing in my ears drowned everything out. He spoke without warmth. Surviving that crash was a sign. God gave me a second chance to be with my true soulmate. You keep the Blackwell name, but dont touch Jade.

The matchbox in my pocket bit into my palm, sharp enough to draw blood. I didnt know how he remembered the crash. But he clearly didnt think I held the power over time.

The hospitals air conditioning sent a violent shiver through my spine. I forced the question out of my throat.

"Why?"

Dominics expression softened, but not for me. "Jade isn't like you. She grew up with nothing. Shes fragile, she needs security. This baby is her shield, and its my promise to her. Besides, weve been together for fifteen... no, five years. Touching you now feels as exciting as my left hand touching my right."

I caught his slip of the tongue immediately.

In my original life, I discovered his affair with his secretary in our tenth year of marriage. Our child was five years old then. He had slit his own wrists, writing me a letter in his own blood, claiming he had been drugged and only stayed with her out of a sense of forced responsibility. He had transferred all his assets to me in a show of "remorse."

In my panic back then, I used the first match to go back to our fifth year.

But he just said fifteen years.

I fought back the tremor in my chest. "So, shes the love of your life."

Dominic leaned back, looking bored. "Yeah. You might not believe this, but every time Im at deaths door, I wake up in the past. You? Youre tough. You don't need security. You were ready to elope with me right after graduation. You even stole your familys legal documents just to marry me. Sloane, youve always been cheap."

I clutched my chest. A sudden, sharp pain flared beneath my ribs, forcing me to double over.

After high school graduation, we had a plan to run away together. But that night, he never showed up at our meeting spot. My parents found me instead.

When I confronted him later, Dominics eyes were red as he held me. "Sloane, your father was right. Were too young. We can't support a 'forever' yet. Just give me some time. Ill give you the world. Ill take you away properly, with my head held high."

I was furious at his broken promise. I froze him out. Even though we went to the same university, I treated him like a ghost. But in our second year, he started a tech company with some friends and actually made a fortune. He showed up at my fathers house with a mountain of cash to ask for my hand.

My father still refused. Dominic just smiled, said nothing, and went back to making more money. I was the one who snapped. I stole my birth certificate and passport, and we eloped to the courthouse.

He was working for our future, and I was willing to burn every bridge to stand by him.

Dominic looked at me with pure vitriol. "You can ask for a divorce if you want. But just remember, your mothers experimental cancer treatments? Youll be paying for those yourself."

His phone rang. He answered it and walked away without a backward glance.

I touched my heart. Can a man truly become this heartless once the love dies?

After my mother found out he was an orphan, she stepped in and treated him like her own son. She lived in our villa, taking care of us. When people whispered that he was a "nobody" with no family, my mother would chase them down the street with a kitchen spatula.

And yet, no matter how many times I reset the clock, my mother always ended up with cancer.

I stood up and chased after him. I was the one who pulled him back! I was the one who saved his life! How dare he betray me again!

The scent of wet pavement and rain filled the air. Outside the hospital, Jade was standing there, her feet tucked into Dominics oversized designer shoes, her arms wrapped around his neck.

"The baby and I have been waiting forever!" she pouted. "Youre late. You better buy me something amazing to make up for it!"

Dominics lips curled into a genuine smile. "I heard theres a stunning jewelry set coming up at the Sothebys auction. Ill have my assistant bid on it for you."

My feet felt like they were nailed to the floor. I watched as Dominic kissed her, and when she pulled away, he leaned in to chase her lips again.

I realized then that we hadn't been that intimate in years. Since the honeymoon, we stopped kissing. The most we ever shared was a dry peck on the cheek.

I pulled out my final match.

The freezing rain couldn't clear the fog in my mind. Where could I go now? To what point in our lives? Dominics betrayal seemed like an inevitability, a fixed point in time.

But my mothers cancer was under control in this timeline. She wouldn't die in agony like she did the first time. Was it worth resetting?

Two nurses walked past me, their voices filled with gossip.

"I heard he sleeps in the same bed as that Miss Jade every single night just to give her 'security.' Hes desperate for that baby."

"Thats nothing. Last week, she called him a 'dirty dog' because of his wife, and he actually made the doctors give him a chemical peel and full-body scrub just to 'cleanse' himself for her! Hes obsessed."

"I heard she liked the original villa the wife lives in, so he told the wife he had to sell it for 'business investments' just to kick her out. Now hes putting the wife in some cramped apartment near the clinic."

I felt a jolt go through my soul.

A year ago, Dominic told me his company needed to expand. He said he was short on cash. I couldn't stand seeing him drown his stress in alcohol at business dinners, so I suggested we sell our wedding home. We moved into a rental near the hospital to make it easier to care for my mother.

I had been so heartbroken to leave that house. Dominic had held me, promising hed buy me a sprawling estate once the money started flowing back in. I didn't want him to struggle. I used my fathers inheritance to pay for our daily expenses while I worked a grueling 9-to-5.

The nurses' voices drifted further away. "He even opened a flower shop for her right across from the hospital!"

I looked through the veil of rain at the flower shop across the street. A bitter, hollow laugh escaped my lips as tears finally began to fall.

I went there every morning to buy a bouquet. The clerk told me the owner was a close friend of Dominics and always gave me a discount. When I told Dominic, his eyes had flickered with something I couldn't read, and he just vaguely nodded.

I pushed open the door to the shop. The clerk recognized me instantly.

"You were here this morning. Another bouquet already?"

I looked around the shop. From the lighting to the placement of the sink. The specific model of the flower fridge. It was all hauntingly familiar.

When we first started dating, Dominic asked me what Id do if money wasn't an issue. I told him I wanted to open a flower shop. I had shown him a stack of sketches, my dream since middle school. My father had called it a "useless hobby," but Dominic had helped me refine the designs.

But after graduation, I was too busy being his social proxy, entertaining other wives, managing his household, and working my own job. I never had the energy for my own dreams again.

Rage bubbled in my throat.

The clerk suddenly whispered, "Did you do something to offend our boss?"

"What do you mean?"

"Im just saying, maybe you should apologize. Its not good for a sick person to breathe in flowers that have been treated with those specific chemicals every day. Its bad for the lungs."

I dug my nails into my palms. "What chemicals?"

The clerk checked the security camera on the wall, then pulled me into a corner. "The kind that triggers chronic inflammation and allergies. The boss told me you tried to drug her husband and get pregnant on purpose. She said her husband was smart enough to trick you with a fake marriage certificate. He even hired someone to stage a 'fender bender' to get rid of your 'mistake' of a pregnancy."

"But you don't seem like that kind of person. You always bring me those homemade sweets."

I thought of the ultrasound I lost. I grabbed the clerks hand, my grip like a vice. "Last May, was your boss vacationing in the Swiss Alps?"

The clerk nodded. "Yeah. Her husband takes her abroad every month because she loves it. Apparently, he met her at a club right after he finished college and he's been taking care of her ever since."

The world turned gray. I leaned against the wall for support.

Last April, I was in a car crash. I had gone through thousands of hormonal injections to finally succeed with IVF. And just like that, the baby was gone.

I had called Dominic a hundred times. He was in Switzerland, claiming a client was being difficult and wouldn't let him leave. When I finally saw him after my recovery, I had screamed at him, asking why he wasn't there when I needed him most.

He had acted so repentant back then. He stayed by my side, helping me crawl out of my depression.

Now I realized he had been with Jade the whole time. I was just too blind to see it.

I pulled out my phone and sent a photo of my "marriage certificate" to a lawyer friend.

The reply came back instantly. Its a fake, Sloane. A high-quality forgery, but it wouldn't hold up in any court. Who would even dare to pull this kind of stunt?

That was the final blow. Every reset, every sacrifice, was a joke I played on myself. I was the fool who kept paying for her own destruction.

Even the last flicker of hope vanished. I knew exactly which moment I had to go back to.

I sat by my mothers bedside until the sun began to peek over the horizon. My mother opened her eyes, groaning in pain.

"Mom," I whispered, my eyes burning. "If I go back again, will you still have to suffer?"

As if we were linked by a thread of fate, she didn't ask why. She just reached out and touched my hand. "Next time, Ill tell you where those matches really came from."

I went back to the villa he had "sold." I wanted to ask him why. I loved him clearly, and I wanted to leave him with no questions left.

The old housekeeper was still there. Every detail of my life was a lie. Everyone knew about them except for me.

I placed the photo of the fake marriage certificate on the table. "Why?"

Why stay with me? Why not just tell me the truth? Why kill our child? Why let Jade poison me with those flowers?

Dominics pupils shrunken. He didn't expect me to find out. His fingers curled into a fist.

"You were a perfect wife," he said. "But I wanted Jade to be a princess. I wanted her to never have to worry about anything. During that year we were 'fighting' in college, she was the one comforting me, giving me ideas on how to win you back. The flowers, the jewelry, the sweet talk... she taught me all of it."

"She told me she loved me, but she was too ashamed because her father had sold her to a club to pay off his debts. On our wedding night, when I told you I was 'busy' at the office? I was at the club, buying her out. Shes cleaner than you, Sloane. She doesn't throw herself at men like you did."

"And that divorce agreement? I slipped it into the paperwork when we 'sold' the house. Youve already signed it."

Nausea surged in my gut.

I remembered the night we eloped. He had cried, promising me everything. He bought me a diamond ring with his last cent. I thought I saw love in his eyes back then.

I looked at him, my voice a mere whisper. "Youre disgusting."

Dominic sighed and tried to take my hand. "Sloane, youve always been sensible. Ill make sure youre taken care of."

But all I got from him was pain, lies, and betrayal. This man I had lived with for fifteen years... his face was warping into a monster before my eyes.

I pulled my hand back and turned to leave. I was done.

Dominic stood up, looking frustrated. He grabbed my wrist with bruising force. "Who are you putting on this 'victim' act for? Do you think I don't know what you were doing behind my back?"

He threw a stack of photos in my face. I looked down at them. My face had been crudely photoshopped onto various bodies in compromising positions.

"You were sleeping around while we were fighting in college! If Jade hadn't shown me these, Id still be in the dark! I loved you enough to marry you despite your filth!"

I started to laugh. It was so absurd it was hysterical.

I had wasted two matches on this man. I had let my mother suffer through cancer twice for this piece of trash.

"Dominic," I said, my voice steady. "You aren't a fool, and neither am I. You could have hired a pro to check those photos. You could have called the cops. But you didn't. You wanted me to be 'guilty' so your own disgusting behavior would seem justified. You wanted to be the hero in your own twisted story."

My phone rang. It was the nurse, her voice frantic.

"Miss Whitmore! Come quickly! Miss Jade came into the room, and your mother has gone into shock!"

I violently shook off Dominics grip. He grabbed me and shoved me toward his car. "You want to wait for an Uber? Your mother doesn't have that kind of time!"

I didn't argue. My heart was thundering.

I pushed open the hospital door to find Jade kneeling on the floor, looking terrified. "Sloane! I just tried to talk to her, and she started calling me a homewrecker! She tried to hit my stomach!"

I walked past her, desperate to reach my mother. "Liar! A patient with stage four pancreatic cancer doesn't have the strength to hit anyone!"

Jade collapsed, clutching her belly, her face pale. Before I could say another word, a stinging pain exploded across my cheek.

Dominics voice was lethal. "You couldn't keep your own brat because of your lifestyle, so now you want to kill mine?!"

I had just walked past her. But because it was Jade, it was my fault?

The heart monitor let out a long, flat drone.

Terror paralyzed me. I watched as Dominic scooped Jade up and ordered all the doctors to follow him.

I stood in his way. "My mother is dying! Move! She took care of you for years! She cooked for you, she cleaned for you! Shed wake up at 2 AM just to make you soup when you were hungry!"

Dominic looked at the bed, a flicker of hesitation in his eyes. Jade let out a pained whimper in his arms. "The baby... is he okay?"

Dominic signaled a doctor to take her. Then he turned to me. "Sloane, your mothers cooking was trash. I never needed her help. A mother who raises a daughter as loose as you... shes probably rotten to the core anyway."

The world turned into a blur of static.

The doctors ignored my mother to follow him. My mothers line stayed flat.

I couldn't stand. I fell to my knees. My hands were shaking as I pulled out the final match.

The lighter flickered, but my tears kept dousing the flame. Finally, it caught.

A sharp pain erupted on my scalp as someone grabbed my hair. "Miss Jade almost lost her baby because of you! Mr. Blackwell said to give you a lesson!"

I didn't fight back. I just watched the match burn on the floor.

From the room next door, I heard Jades voice, thick with flirtation. "The doctor says the baby is stable now... we can celebrate, honey. I want you."

"Don't you think its more exciting with Sloane and her dead mom listening next door?"

Rage boiled over. I kicked the person holding me and grabbed a paring knife from the fruit basket.

I didn't think. I lunged.

Dominic was there, his shirt unbuttoned, his chest marked with her hickeys. Jade gasped.

Dominic instinctively moved to shield Jade. The blade sank deep into his chest.

As Jades screams filled the room, the match in my hand burned down to my fingers.

"Dominic," I whispered. "Im the one who controls the clock. This time, lets go back to before we ran away."

Dominics face went white, his eyes wide with disbelief as the fire consumed the room.