Choosing Peace: My True Love

“The screech of tires, the violent crush of metal-that' s how it ended. Next to me, my husband David, dying, whispered: "I... I wish I'd never met you." Ten years of my life, a decade of one-sided love, erased by his final, brutal regret, echoing a ghost named Emily White. Then, darkness swallowed me whole. I woke up on a university lawn, young again, dressed in a simple white dress I hadn't seen in a decade. And there he was: David Chen, proposing, the king of campus, holding that familiar velvet box. My heart, once soaring at this moment, was now a block of ice. I closed my architecture textbook with a soft snap. "No," I said, the word cutting through the expectant air. His smile froze. "What did you say?" "I said no, David. I won't marry you." I walked away, straight toward Michael Thorne, the quiet, kind engineering student I had been too blind to see. "Michael," I told him, "I know this is sudden. But I want to be with you." Later, a hand grabbed my arm-David. He knew. He'd remembered our past life. "You're punishing me for what I said, aren't you?" he hissed, his eyes burning with familiar fury. He called me a monster, a liar, and swore Emily had saved him from a falling bookshelf, not me. He was wrong. He threw the ring box at my feet, storming away, convinced I was the villain. But for the first time, I felt a strange peace; this time, his story wasn't mine. I knew my second chance had just begun.”