Chapter 1Do-Over

In the seventh year of my mission, Tim Stan’s first love killed herself.

He cashed in his entire lifetime of good fortune, begging the System for the power to turn back time.

He returned to the fateful moment he chose me over her.

“This time,” he vowed, “I won’t let Willow suffer again.”

He abandoned his wife and child, all for a second chance with the woman he truly loved.

But he didn’t know—

The System sent me back with him.

And as compensation, my mission was over.

I no longer had to be anyone’s wife or anyone’s mother.

This time, I could just be me.

* * *

The System found me while I was in the kitchen, making a hangover cure for Tim.

The familiar electronic voice echoed in my mind.

[Host, it has been a while.]

[The second male lead, Tim Stan, has petitioned the Overlord to rewind time, offering his life’s fortune in exchange. We are required to seek your consent.]

[As your mission is already complete, you have the right to veto his request.]

Crash.

The glass slipped from my hand and shattered on the floor.

I turned, stunned. The living room was a disaster zone, littered with empty liquor bottles. There, beneath our family portrait, sat Tim, slumped in defeat. In his hands, he clutched a worn photograph of her—Willow Hayes.

He stared at the smiling girl in the picture, his eyes bloodshot and wild with grief.

“If I had known… I never should have let you go to him,” he choked out. “I should have stayed by your side, protected you, made sure you lived a happy life.”

“How could you be so cruel? Why didn’t you think of me? Why didn’t you think of your big brother?”

He was laughing and crying at the same time, a wounded, animalistic sound tearing from his throat.

I watched him, a cold realization dawning on me.

All this time.

Even after all the years I had devoted to winning him over, even after marrying him and giving him a child…

To him, I was still just the consolation prize. A convenient, laughable shield he used so Willow could chase her own happiness without guilt.