Echoes of Tomorrow: Loving You Was Just a Detour

At one in the morning, I stumbled upon a viral forum thread. The question was simple: If you had to choose between love and your future, which would you pick? Thousands of replies clashed furiously in the comments. Some argued that those who chose their career always ended up full of regret. Others countered that being a hopeless romantic was a one-way ticket to total ruin. I rolled over in bed and glanced at Ethan, who was fast asleep beside me. His brow was slightly furrowed, and his fingers tightly gripped the edge of my shirt. Even in his sleep, he seemed terrified that I might slip away. Without a second thought, I fired off a string of comments: “Choose love, absolutely. We’ve been together for five years.” “He gave up his entire family legacy and inheritance just to be with me.” “Every single evening after work, he goes two miles out of his way just to pick up my favorite coffee.” “We might have nothing to our names, but together, we have everything.” Satisfied, I locked my phone and drifted off to sleep. But when I woke up the next morning, a few new notifications caught my eye. Someone had replied to my comments. The avatar and the username were identical to mine. The only difference was the timestamp: Five years from today. “Choose your future! You have to choose your future!” “His ‘sacrificed legacy’ was nothing but a sob story to manipulate you—he took over his family’s multimillion-dollar enterprise a long time ago!” “He stays up all night waiting in lines just to buy Seraphina limited-edition designer collaborations, all while telling you that your coffee craving is cheap and wasteful!” “Even the daughter you gave birth to, Lily, will be forced to call that other woman ‘Mom’!” Chapter 1 My phone slipped from my hands and clattered against the floor, but I didn’t even notice. The name my future self mentioned—Seraphina Carter—belonged to my absolute best friend from college. With trembling hands, I picked up the phone, my chest tightening as I stared at those terrifying timestamps. I quickly typed out a response. “Who are you? And who is he?” The reply came almost instantly, still carrying a timestamp from five years in the future. “I’m thirty-year-old Alivia Sinclair. And he is Ethan Cross.” And right now, I was a twenty-five-year-old Alivia. The man I had loved for five entire years was currently in the kitchen. The sheer absurdity of the situation made my head spin. As if terrified that I would let my hopeless romantic tendencies blind me, the future me fired off a few more messages in rapid succession. “He only picked up your coffee every evening because it gave him a convenient excuse to drive Seraphina home first.” “He never walked away from his father’s company—he’s been running it behind the scenes this whole time. Seraphina went straight into Cross Enterprises as a managing director.” I stared blankly at the words glowing on the screen. I recognized every single one of them, but stitched together like this, they read like a foreign language. Before I could type another question, one final message popped up. “Ethan is calling me to go cook breakfast now. He wants tomato pasta—Seraphina’s favorite.” Right on cue, Ethan stepped out of the kitchen. In his hands, he held a plate of steaming tomato pasta. In reality, my dream breakfast was a warm pastry and a coffee. But for years, I had genuinely believed Ethan loved pasta in the mornings, so I had happily eaten it right alongside him. He always seemed so thoughtful too, going out of his way after work every day to bring home my favorite coffee. My hands shook as I reached for the plate. The next thing I knew, it slipped, and the pasta splattered all over the floor. Ethan didn’t get angry. He instantly grabbed some paper towels and rushed over to wipe the stray sauce from my skin. “Did it burn you? Why are you so distracted today, sweetie?” Looking down at his deeply concerned face, my eyes welled with tears. “Ethan... will you always treat me this well?” He furrowed his brows, gently blowing on my reddened hand. “What kind of silly question is that? Who else would I care for if not you?” I whispered Seraphina’s name. My voice was so quiet it could have been carried away by the slightest breeze. Ethan’s shoulders stiffened for a fraction of a second. If I hadn’t been watching his every move with absolute scrutiny, I never would have caught it. Without a word, he pulled me over to the sink, running cold water over my hand before gently applying a layer of mint toothpaste to the mild burn. The cool mint provided an instant, icy relief against the sting. He acted as though he truly hadn’t heard those two syllables leave my lips. Even though it was the dead of a sweltering summer, a sudden, chilling frost settled deep in my chest. “Come on,” Ethan said, flashing his usual tender smile. “Let’s go get you that pastry and coffee.” Looking at his warm expression, I felt a sudden wave of relief. Maybe everything that had just happened was nothing more than a bizarre hallucination. But right before we walked out the door, my phone vibrated in my pocket. “I endured his neglect and swallowed my pride for years, but we’re still getting a divorce.” “Just because Seraphina said she loved children, he forced my daughter, Lily, to call that woman ‘Mom’.” “In the end, I’m left with absolutely nothing.” I gripped the phone so tightly my knuckles turned white. My face drained of color. Ethan pulled the car up right in front of me, rolling down the window with a bright smile. “Get in! What are you standing there freezing for?” Forcing a smile, I climbed into the passenger seat. As I adjusted myself, my eyes fell on a tube of lipstick lying in the center console. It belonged to Seraphina. My phone buzzed one last time. “Alivia, I am begging you. Choose your career.” “Open your eyes and look at what’s right in front of you. Stop lying to yourself.” My breath hitched. She had known exactly who I was from the very start. But when I frantically tapped on the notification, the thread was completely gone. I searched for the username, but the only profile that still existed was my own. Everything had vanished without a trace, as if it had never happened at all. The only proof left behind was the screen-time log on my phone. At the local bakery, the rich scent of freshly baked pastries and brewing coffee filled the air. Suddenly, Seraphina walked out from the back of the shop. She was wearing a beautiful white dress—the exact one I had fallen in love with a few weeks ago. There had only been one left in my size, and Ethan had insisted on buying it for her instead. At the time, I had even praised him, foolishly thinking he was just showing love to the people closest to me. Seraphina’s sweet voice echoed through the shop. “You guys finally made it! I’ve been waiting forever.” A bitter realization washed over me. No wonder Ethan had suddenly offered to skip his usual breakfast routine to take me out. He had planned to meet up with her all along. In that single, agonizing moment, I realized just how crowded a story built for three could be. Chapter 2 The moment Ethan saw Seraphina, he walked straight over and plucked the iced slushie right out of her hands. Without missing a beat, he reached into his small bag, pulled out a thermos of hot chamomile tea, and pressed it into her palms. That bag used to carry only a small bottle of warm water and my stomach medication. I’ve always had a weak stomach, prone to nausea and painful cramps. I had no idea when the contents of that bag had quietly changed to hold Seraphina’s chamomile tea and her favorite painkillers. Seraphina pouted and playfully whined, “It’s scorching outside, and you’re seriously making me drink hot tea? “Ethan, you are so cruel to me!” As she spoke, she reached out and pinched his ear. Ethan didn’t get angry. Instead, he just laughed. “Don’t come crying to me when your cramps act up later!” They playfully bickered as they walked deeper into the shop, leaving me standing there with nothing to look at but their retreating backs. The bakery owner sighed warmly. “Ah, young love. They really are a sweet couple!” I let out a self-deprecating laugh. The owner was right—looking at them, they looked far more like a couple than Ethan and I ever did. I bought two plain pastries to go and drove straight home. I was sick of the coffee from that shop anyway, but a girl still had to eat. As I drove, an email notification popped up on my phone. It was an application for an overseas corporate transfer from my company. Yesterday, I would have immediately hit decline without a second thought. But today, I planned to accept it. I was already home and pulling my dust-covered suitcase out from the back of the closet by the time they finally realized I was gone. Seraphina was the first to call. “Liv, Ethan just got back from the convenience store to buy me some pads, and you vanished! Where did you go?” Hearing her voice sent a deeply complicated wave of emotions crashing through me. “My stomach was acting up, so I headed home early,” I replied evenly. “Take your time eating.” Ethan’s anxious voice suddenly filtered through the receiver. “Liv, make sure you drink some water and take your stomach medicine, okay?” Then, I heard him mutter softly to himself, “Good thing I swapped out the medicine in my bag, otherwise you wouldn’t have any left at the apartment.” My nose stung with a sharp, sudden ache. How had I never noticed how painfully flawed his logic was before? After hanging up, Seraphina’s voice echoing Liv kept ringing in my head. Only this time, the voice belonged to a memory from seven years ago. Back then, sophomore year P.E. required everyone to pass a swimming exam, but they only announced on the day of the test that we had to swim in the deep end. I had a severe phobia of deep water ever since nearly drowning as a child. Just looking at the deep end made me dizzy. I gritted my teeth and forced myself into the pool for the final exam, and I nearly drowned all over again. As I was going under, it was Seraphina who saved my life. She pulled me out, called me Liv in the infirmary, and stayed by my side for a full day and night. I heard later that someone else had also immediately dove into the water to save me, but I never found out his name. From that day on, Seraphina and I became inseparable best friends. We shared absolutely everything. I had a soft personality, and my roommates constantly took advantage of me. Seraphina didn’t hesitate; she immediately petitioned the administration and moved into my dorm room to protect me. I had lost my parents at a young age, so my grandmother raised me single-handedly. During school holidays, Seraphina would come back to my hometown with me just to help take care of her. And when Ethan first asked me out... Everyone else in our friend group immediately agreed I should say yes. They told me he was wealthy, handsome, and that I needed to lock him down fast. But Seraphina? She risked our entire friendship just to go confront Ethan and thoroughly vet his character before she gave her blessing. So when exactly did everything change? I opened the closet doors, but the tears wouldn’t stop falling. As I moved things around, a photograph slipped out from a hidden crack in the shelving. The people in the photo were Ethan and Seraphina. They were pressed tightly together, smiling radiantly at the camera. Together, their hands were holding up a framed business license. Usually, I was the one who folded the laundry, and Ethan was the one who put it away in the closet. Every night, he would pick out my outfit for the next day and lay it on the bedside table. Because of that routine, I had never had a reason to dig deep into the back of the closet. I had never seen this photo. But I definitely recognized the business in the picture. Two years ago, Seraphina finally achieved her dream of opening a high-end dessert boutique. She was absolutely ecstatic. I had teased her about it back then. “Sera, which rich heir is chasing you so hard that they just gifted you an entire storefront?” She had only blushed deeply, looking back and forth between Ethan and me as she laughed. I assumed she just wasn’t ready to tell me who the mystery investor was. I never could have imagined that the man funding it was standing right beside me the entire time. Click. The sound of the front door unlocking violently yanked me back to reality. Chapter 3 The person who walked through the door wasn’t Ethan, but Seraphina’s young assistant. She had been sent to deliver a container of fish chowder to me. As it turned out, Ethan had accompanied Seraphina to the neighboring city to scout locations for her new boutique bakery franchise. I hated seafood. Ethan, on the other hand, loved it. They really were thoughtful, always remembering each other’s favorite things. The rich, fishy aroma drifted up to my nose, and a wave of nausea hit me instantly. I lurched toward the sink, dry-heaving as though my stomach were about to turn itself inside out. I glanced out the window. Dark, heavy storm clouds blanketed the sky, threatening a massive downpour. By the end of the afternoon, every single item in the bedroom belonging to me was completely packed away. My phone remained dead silent; neither of them had sent a single text. However, Ethan did post an update on his social media feed. In the photo, he was sitting in a café, looking down as he sampled a pastry, while Seraphina leaned into the frame, flashing a peace sign at the camera. The caption read: Chef Seraphina’s homemade pastries really hit the spot. Just the day before yesterday, I had begged him to go with me to the new bakery that had opened down the street, but he refused, claiming he needed to restrict his sugar intake for his workout routine. At the time, I had actually praised him, thinking he possessed incredible self-discipline for turning down his own girlfriend’s request. Reflecting on it now, it wasn’t that the food was wrong. The person asking was wrong. Lost in a daze, my finger accidentally tapped his profile picture, opening his private feed. His background image was still the photograph from our graduation year, featuring him standing right behind me with a bouquet of flowers in his hands. It felt as if the old graduation song was echoing in my ears all over again. Back then, that boy in the crisp white shirt had eyes for absolutely no one but me. I scrolled down, but his privacy settings only permitted me to view his last ten posts. Six of them featured Seraphina. Three of them were group photos of the three of us. The last one was a belated birthday post dedicated to me, uploaded only because he had completely forgotten the actual date. Yet, I distinctly remembered a time when this digital space held absolutely nothing but photos of the two of us. Outside, the sky had turned pitch black. I locked the front door behind me, leaving the hollow, echoing apartment. I began to walk aimlessly down the sidewalk. My phone buzzed with a text from Ethan. “Liv, we just finished sorting out the issues with the storefront lease. I’m back at the hotel now.” “It’s too late to catch a decent train back tonight, so we’ll head home tomorrow right after the ribbon-cutting ceremony.” In the five years we had been together, Ethan had always been meticulous about reporting his whereabouts. In the past, I would have instantly smiled, teasing him about what a fiercely loyal and perfectly behaved boyfriend he was. Now, I simply realized that his heart had slipped away a long time ago. Huge, heavy raindrops began pounding the pavement, as if a massive wound had suddenly torn open across the sky. I stood frozen in the downpour, staring blankly ahead. Even the heavens seemed to be weeping. Suddenly, the torrential rain no longer pounded against me. A large black umbrella appeared overhead. For a fleeting second, I foolishly thought Ethan had come for me, just like he did back during our senior year of college. “Why are you punishing your own body like this?” A crisp, cool voice cut through the sound of the storm. It sounded nothing like Ethan’s usual warm, gentle tone. I tilted my head up to look at him. His face seemed vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t quite place where I had seen him before. “I’m Lane Walker,” he said softly. “The rain is getting worse. Let me walk you home.” As I reached the lobby of my building, Ethan called me, though Lane had long vanished into the storm. “Liv, you didn’t reply to my messages for hours. I was terrified something happened to you!” As he looked at my completely drenched frame, his eyes instantly filled with a sharp, anxious distress. “Liv, Seraphina and I were only gone for half a day, and you somehow managed to get caught in the storm?” “Yeah, Liv,” Seraphina added, stepping out from right behind Ethan. She was wearing one of his oversized button-down shirts, casually using a towel to dry her damp hair. “You really had us worried sick.” I looked at them and asked directly, “Why are the two of you together right now?” Both of them froze. Ethan was the first to recover, his expression shifting from confusion to a hint of irritation. “The shower at her sister's place broke, so she came over to use mine. Liv, what is wrong with you today? Haven’t the three of us always done everything together?” I forced myself to remember the past. There was a time when a hotel ran out of rooms, and Ethan had casually suggested that the three of us could just share a single king bed. At the time, I had felt incredibly blessed, thinking how wonderful it was to have my boyfriend and my best friend filling my life. Looking back on it now, it was a tragedy far more dramatic than any movie. Chapter 4 They didn’t come back that night, nor the next morning. The only sign of life from Ethan was a single, curt text message lying in my inbox, telling me to stop throwing a tantrum. My head felt incredibly heavy, and my skin burned hot—a lingering consequence of getting caught in yesterday’s torrential downpour. On social media, Ethan and Seraphina stood shoulder to shoulder at the grand opening, cutting the ribbon together. They looked like a picture-perfect power couple. Looking at it just made me feel physically sick. I swallowed some fever medication and forced my aching body out of bed, packing the absolute last of my belongings into my suitcase. It was already noon by the time Ethan finally bothered to call. “Liv, the ribbon-cutting ceremony is over. We’re just going to grab a quick bite to eat, and then we’ll head back,” he said casually over the video call. “Sera even went out of her way this morning to track down one of those limited-edition designer blind box figurines for you.” My voice came out raspy and hollow. “I don’t like those figurines, Ethan. And I’ve always hated blind boxes.” His brows instantly knit together, his tone dripping with an irritation I had rarely heard from him before. “Liv, drop the attitude. Seraphina treats you so well. You should be grateful, not sulking.” Right then, Seraphina stepped into the video frame, her eyes notably red and welling with tears. “Liv, please don’t be upset. I’m telling Ethan to head back right now so he can be with you.” I let out a sharp, bitter laugh. “He’s my boyfriend, and yet you’re the one giving him permission to come home to me?” Ethan’s voice flared with a sudden, protective anger. “Seraphina, stop. This isn’t your fault. The three of us have gotten along just fine like this for years. Alivia clearly isn’t thinking straight today. Just ignore her and let her cool off on her own.” Five years. It had been five whole years since he last addressed me by my full first name with that kind of cold, dismissive edge. A suffocating wave of irritation swelled in my chest, and my voice rose before I could stop it. “Ethan, let’s break up.” Ethan froze for a fraction of a second, his voice dropping into a low, dangerous rumble. “Alivia, I’ve told you before—do not use breaking up as a threat to manipulate me! What exactly are you trying to accomplish with this?” I looked at the two of them on my screen, keeping my voice as flat and steady as humanly possible. “I’m not trying to threaten you, Ethan. I mean it. Let’s break up. Let’s stop making things so miserable for ourselves.” Ethan’s face darkened completely. The last time I had seen him look that furious was two years ago when I had recklessly eaten spoiled food and ended up in the emergency room. “Alivia, did you take the wrong medication today? Is that why you’re throwing this pathetic fit?” I forced a bright, radiant smile onto my face. “No. I finally took the right medicine.” Seraphina’s expression shifted, adopting a grave, deeply disappointed tone as she tried to lecture me. “Liv, no matter how upset you are, you should never throw the word ‘breakup’ around so carelessly. It’s incredibly toxic. Stop trying to use a breakup as a weapon to get your way.” Ethan didn’t even let her finish. He grabbed her arm, pulling her back as he threw one final sentence at the camera before severing the call. “She’s completely spoiled! Leave her alone until she reflects on her behavior.” In the past, whenever he got angry, I would instantly panic, analyzing what I did wrong and rushing to soothe his temper. But this time, I was just completely exhausted. I was done trying to squeeze myself into the suffocating spaces between them. I placed my house keys flat on the table and walked out of the apartment we had shared for five years. Outside, the rain was still falling. My chest felt hollow, as if a vital piece of me had been ripped away, leaving a gaping hole for the freezing wind to blow right through. The world was vast, yet in that moment, it felt like there wasn’t a single square inch of it left for me. I checked into a luxury five-star hotel and ordered a massive spread of all my favorite dishes. Ever since Ethan allegedly walked away from his family inheritance for me, I had spent years pinching pennies, desperately saving every cent so we could afford a real future and a home together. I had spent so long saving that I had almost forgotten how to love myself. I didn’t receive another word from them until the following evening. Ethan and Seraphina had spent the last two days enjoying themselves at an amusement park. The message he sent was a single photograph. It was the exact diamond ring I had been dreaming about for years. But in the photo, it was slipped firmly onto Seraphina’s ring finger. I tapped the accompanying voice note, and Ethan’s smug, arrogant voice filled the quiet hotel room. “Alivia, the moment you offer Seraphina a proper apology, I’ll officially propose to you. Sera already did you a favor and made sure the ring fits perfectly.” It was laughably pathetic. The ring meant for my finger had to be put on someone else’s hand first. Without a word, I blocked both of their numbers and pulled up my work email, tapping the confirmation button on the overseas transfer. The timeline was incredibly tight; my flight to New York was scheduled for tomorrow morning. Right before boarding the plane the next day, I took one final look at my phone. A message from an old college classmate popped up, containing a screenshot. Ethan had posted the picture of the ring on Seraphina’s finger to his public feed. His caption read: People who use breakups as weapons don’t deserve a ring. I didn’t bother to reply. I shut off my phone entirely, turned my back on the terminal, and boarded the flight to New York.