Chapter 5

*"The knife meant for Sarah pierces you instead. You lose your ability to have children forever."*

*"But this time, Sarah doesn't nurse you back to health. She doesn't care."*

*"Because the child in her belly belongs to Xavier."*

*"She commits you to a mental institution. Within a year, she transfers all your assets and files for divorce."*

*"You spend the rest of your life in misery, rotting away."*

As the red script bled onto the page, memories I had deliberately suppressed exploded in my mind. The pain I had locked away, the past I refused to face—it all came rushing back like a tidal wave.

I remembered.

The countless nights Sarah refused to come home.

The faint, cloying scent of foreign tobacco clinging to her clothes.

The tears, the humiliation, the screaming matches.

The day I lost our child. Sarah had pointed a manicured finger at my face, her eyes filled with venom.

"Jayden Henson, you are useless trash! You live off a woman like a parasite!"

"You couldn't even keep a child safe. What good are you?"

"What right do you have to police my private life? If I were you, I'd have bashed my brains out against a wall long ago!"

Those words had pushed me over the edge.

That night, after Sarah slammed the door and left me alone yet again, I took a razor to my wrist. The bathwater turned crimson, terrifying the housekeeper who found me. I was rushed to the hospital, subjected to electroconvulsive therapy, hypnosis, and heavy medication.

The high-intensity treatments and experimental drugs erased the trauma. My mind's defense mechanism rewrote history, beautifying Sarah, turning a monster into a savior.

Gradually, my brain turned to mush. I forgot the cheating. The betrayal. The rage. I only remembered the ancient history—the love from a decade ago that had long since turned to ash.

But now, the dam had broken.

The Jayden from ten years in the future, filled with hatred, was screaming the truth at me.