The Unchosen Path

The ballroom glittered, a dazzling spectacle where tech mogul Ethan Vanderbilt was about to pick his bride. I was just Sarah Jenkins, one of 99 hopefuls, a nobody from a modest background. But I’d lived this night before. In that life, I was chosen, a pawn manipulated by his stepmother Eleanor, which eventually led to the cold, cruel death of my beloved grandfather.

This time, I hacked the lottery system to avoid being selected. Yet, Ethan still picked the manipulative Lily, igniting a familiar dread as their lies began to twist my reality. When Lily feigned an allergic reaction to roses, and Ethan, fueled by his stepsister’s vicious charade, threatened my grandfather’s cherished garden and the sentimental old gazebo, my heart pounded with a desperate fear for my last remaining connection to home.