I’m an artifact restorer. I had just finished my final painstaking repair on the House of Blackwood’s Dynastic Jade Bangle, a piece from the Tang Dynasty valued at over two hundred million dollars. My fiancé’s long-term "charity case," Piper Finch, swooped in and snatched it. “Anya, can I just touch it? Please?” she cooed. Before I could answer, she slipped the massive bangle onto her wrist. “Oh, I love this so much! You should just give it to me!” She leaned in, her voice conspiratorial. “You could make a fake for the client—they’d never know. Pretty please?” I patiently explained that asking me to commit a felony was, in fact, a felony. The next second, the jade hit the concrete floor of my studio, shattering into irreparable fragments. Piper looked down, gave a tiny, remorseful pout, and stuck out her tongue. “Oopsie, I’m so clumsy! I’m such a big dummy.” She lifted her eyes, blinking innocently. “But it’s okay, right? You’re the best, Anya. I know you can fix it.” She strolled away, leaving me to face a two-hundred-million-dollar loss that would bankrupt me. My fiancé, Grant Sawyer, didn’t blame her. “It’s your fault for not guarding it better. Why take it out on Piper? We can always earn the money back. Don’t make Piper upset.” Piper giggled, flashing a peace sign. “I won’t be upset! Just take me out for hot pot! If one meal doesn’t fix it, two will!” The sheer audacity of it all was enough to trigger my heart condition. I reached for my medicine, only to discover the pills had been replaced with effervescent Vitamin C tablets. As I was being loaded into the ambulance, I saw Piper pouting in Grant’s arms. “Anya is always so moody. I just wanted to give her a vitamin boost and help her skin glow.” I opened my eyes and found myself back in my studio, the very moment I had finished the restoration. 1 Piper was holding the bangle, her eyes greedy. “Anya, you should just give it to me. You could make a fake for the client…” Before the words "a fake for the client" left her lips, I snatched the bangle back. I slammed the vault door shut and twisted the combination lock with a decisive, echoing click. “Absolutely not.” She looked stunned, tilting her head like a confused puppy. “If not, then… why not?” I didn’t bother with excuses. I pointed a rigid finger at the door. “Piper Finch, grab your cheap canvas tote and get out. You’re fired.” She blinked slowly. “Huh? I don’t understand. What do you mean?” I inhaled deeply, nodding to my assistant, Sam, to guard the vault. Then, I unceremoniously shoved Piper toward the exit. “You’re done!” She stiffened, clawing at the doorframe. “Grant told me to intern here! It’s only been half a day! How am I supposed to learn if you send me away?” Smack! I drove my open palm across her cheek. “You asked me to give you a client’s priceless artifact and then commit fraud by creating a forgery! You are unethical, legally delinquent, and morally corrupt. You don’t belong in my studio—not as a restorer, not as a janitor!” She clutched her red cheek, her lips trembling in a wounded pout. “I was just joking! I didn’t actually want it. What exactly did I do wrong?” I gave her a humorless smile and began dragging her toward the main exit. “I was wrong! My little empire can’t contain a grand mess like you!” “Security! Escort Miss Finch off the premises immediately. She is permanently banned from the building!” Watching the security guards physically haul Piper away, I finally let out a shaky breath. Grant had been funding Piper since she was seventeen. When she graduated, he insisted she intern with me. She was a History major, a good fit on paper, so I relented. Who would have thought that half a day with her would cost me everything, including my life? The memory of choking on those Vitamin C fizzies as my chest crushed in the last timeline sent a familiar, terrifying ache through me. I fumbled for my backup medication and swallowed a pill immediately. This time, the bangle was safe, and Piper was gone. I just needed to survive the next few hours until the two o’clock handover. I leaned back in my chair, hoping for a moment of peace, but Sam burst back into the room. “Anya! The Dynastic Bangle! It’s shattered!” I sprang up. “What? How!?” Sam stammered, twisting his hands. “It was Mr. Sawyer. He—he brought Piper back. And then he opened the vault himself.” The air rushed out of my lungs. The vault combination—only Grant and I knew it. Only Grant. My fiancé, the one person I thought I could trust, was the variable I hadn't controlled. I threw open the repair lab door. The sight before me sent a bone-deep chill through my soul. Piper was humming a tuneless melody, attempting to 're-bond' the hundreds of jade shards with a tube of Super Glue. “I only wanted to wear it for a minute to feel the energy of a thousand years,” she whined. “I don’t know why it just slipped off.” “Grant,” she looked up at him with tear-filled eyes, “Am I really that useless? I mess up everything.” Grant, my fiancé, was stroking her hair. His voice was devastatingly soft. “No one is going to blame you, Pip. It was just a slippery piece of jewelry.” “Now, stop crying.” But Piper’s sobs intensified. “Anya will be even angrier! She fired me this morning just because I wanted to touch it! I have to fix it before she comes back. Come on, Piper, you can do this!” Grant playfully flicked her nose. “It’s nothing. Your Grant will handle her.” I grabbed the nearest object—a heavy ceramic water cup—and hurled it straight at Grant's face. “It’s nothing?! A thousand-year-old artifact is destroyed, and you’re still defending her and threatening me?” Grant wiped the water from his face, his expression ugly. “Anya, that’s enough! It’s just a broken piece of jewelry. Piper is trying to fix it! Besides, she’s crying! What more do you want?” She’s crying? So her tears are worth two hundred million dollars? Worth my life? I smiled, pulling out my phone. “Fine. I’ll call the police. Piper illegally entered my studio and destroyed a client’s property. We’ll let the law decide.” Grant slammed his hand down, knocking the phone from my grip. “I won’t let you do that! You want her to have a criminal record? To ruin her life forever?” “Anya, be the bigger person! If everyone were as petty as you, the world would fall apart!” Rage surged through me. I lunged to slap him, but he caught my wrist in an iron grip. “You’re just looking for money, aren't you? Fine! I’ll pay for it!” I stared at him, my teeth grinding. He thought money would solve this? He was a mid-level corporate drone—how could he pay for it? In the last timeline, I had liquidated my studio, borrowed from every friend and relative, and nearly killed myself to come up with the two hundred million. He, meanwhile, had sent me a text. He’d sent me five hundred dollars. Not five thousand, not five million. Five hundred. He’d said, “Baby, I need to save my money to build our home, so you won’t have to suffer later.” He didn’t want me to suffer? He was sending Piper two thousand a month for spending money, but our five-year relationship was only worth five hundred? When I was dying in the ambulance, he was comforting Piper. He hadn’t even looked at me. Now, he was willing to sacrifice everything for her. Fine. I would grant his wish. “We’re done, Grant. I will not be your co-debtor in this disaster. The engagement is over.” Grant’s eyes widened. “Break up? Over a compensation fee?” “A fee?” I laughed, a sharp, disbelieving sound, and was about to state the magnitude of the debt when Piper rushed over, presenting the glob of Super Glue and shattered jade. “Anya, look! I fixed it!” “Artifact restoration isn’t hard at all, you know! Took me a few minutes.” She winked triumphantly at Grant. “Grant, am I talented or what?” Grant chuckled, his expression melting into adoration. “You’re the best, Pip.” Fueled by his praise, Piper pulled out her phone and started a Live on her preferred app. She shoved the glue-soaked bangle right up to the camera. “Trust me, you guys! Artifact restoration sounds all high-brow, but you can basically run the game with a tube of Krazy Glue!” “Look at this hot, fresh, thousand-year-old bangle I just fixed. Self-taught, one-shot success, y’all.” The comments section immediately exploded. [Someone call the police!] [She has to be trolling!] The view count skyrocketed into the tens of thousands within minutes. Grant shot me a cold look and immediately started tossing virtual gifts—ten of the most expensive "Carnivals"—into the live stream. “I’ve always got your back, Pip,” he typed. Sam, my assistant, looked faint, frantically refreshing the live stream. “Anya, this is bad. It’s trending. What if he sees it? Should we make her shut it down?” I shook my head. “It’s too late.” The bangle was a Blackwood family heirloom, treated as the dynasty’s lifeblood. The Blackwoods were an international conglomerate, the ultimate gatekeepers of the collectibles world. I had waived my restoration fee to secure a favor from them, a critical networking move. In the last timeline, after Piper broke it, I had groveled to Mr. Blackwood, and had even been held at gunpoint. It was only out of the thin thread of respect for my skill that he agreed to settle the matter for two hundred million. But getting on the Blackwood’s bad side meant more than just money. My phone rang. Seeing the caller ID, I answered, my voice deferential. “Hello, Mr. Blackwood.” “Anya,” his voice was unsettlingly calm. “I see my bangle on the internet. What is this ‘Genius Restoration Beauty Brings Thousand-Year Artifact to Live Stream’ nonsense? What is going on?” Cold sweat beaded on my palm. “Mr. Blackwood, I…” Before I could finish, Piper grabbed the phone. “Hi, Grandpa Blackwood! I’m Piper, the genius restorer!” “I’m the one who fixed your bangle, not Anya. She didn't help at all.” Mr. Blackwood’s tone was impossible to read. “Oh? You call that… fixed?” Piper nodded excitedly. “Yes! Why wouldn't it be fixed? I worked so, so hard to glue it back together for you, Grandpa Blackwood!” A long silence followed on the line. “Anya, two o’clock this afternoon. I want to see the bangle, perfectly intact. Otherwise… you know the consequences.” Before I could reply, Piper chirped, “Don’t worry, Grandpa Blackwood! I’ll personally deliver it for you!” The line went dead. Piper wrapped her arms around Grant and spun around happily, then tossed her hair dismissively. “See, Anya? You worry too much! Grandpa Blackwood is so sweet. We don’t have to pay a thing!” I was beyond words. I simply turned to Sam. “Sam, tell the staff to clock out early. Miss Finch will be personally delivering the bangle to the Blackwood Estate.” Sam exhaled deeply, clutching his chest in relief. I packed my things and headed for my car. Grant and Piper immediately slid into the back seat. “Drive us to the Blackwood Estate.” His tone was a demand. I laughed, a tight, unpleasant sound. “Why would I?” Grant narrowed his eyes, studying me. “Mr. Blackwood demanded you be there for the handover. You need to be present.” He paused, a flicker of genuine anxiety crossing his face. “What exactly are the consequences he mentioned? Is Piper in danger?” I had occasionally mentioned Mr. Blackwood's reputation. At least some of it had registered with him. My voice was deliberately playful. “What do you think?” Grant bristled. “Anya! Piper’s safety is at stake! Can’t you just answer the question?” Watching the vein pulse in his temple, I smiled. Mr. Blackwood’s word could launch a career or obliterate a life. Piper thought he was sweet? Well, he only lightly chastised his own grandson for destroying an antique. For outsiders, the fate was often a lot worse. I waited a moment, deciding to give them one last chance to save themselves. “Maybe we should still call the police.” With the police involved, the Blackwoods would at least show some restraint. “Why would we call the police?” Piper’s eyes were wide. “The bangle is fixed, and Grandpa Blackwood accepted it.” “Anya, you keep saying ‘call the police’—are you hoping I’ll go to jail?” A look of sudden, manufactured clarity crossed her face. “I get it! You’re jealous because Grant is nice to me, so you want me to die in prison, right? That way, Grant will be all yours!” She turned to Grant, forcing a heartbreakingly ugly smile. “It’s okay, Grant. If I have to die, I will. But promise me—in the next life, you’ll find me before my alcoholic father kills me. Promise you’ll keep taking care of me.” Grant’s hands clenched into fists, his eyes bloodshot. “Anya!” He raised his hand and brought it down hard across my face. “If you touch a single hair on her head, I will kill you!” The blow was vicious. My cheek stung, and I tasted blood on my lip. I licked my mouth, then, without hesitation, spun and delivered an equally brutal slap to Piper’s face. “A mark on her skin, a wrench in your heart, Grant. Fair trade.” Piper froze, then dissolved into hysterical, gut-wrenching sobs in Grant’s arms. “Grant, why does Anya always bully me?” Grant’s eyes flashed with pure hatred. He raised his hand to strike me again. I held his gaze, not flinching. His eyes were filled with disgust and loathing, devoid of any of the love he’d once sworn. Yet, he was the one who had pursued me relentlessly for two years, kneeling and weeping for me to agree to marry him. When had his vision become so completely consumed by Piper? Seeing my face, pale and swollen, his hand froze in mid-air. “Is it your heart?” “Don’t just stand there! Take your medication!” My hands trembled as I reached for my emergency bottle in the car door, but only fizzing tablets spilled out. The sudden, terrifying sense of suffocation returned. Piper had dawdled that morning, making excuses to stay in the car. That was when she’d swapped my emergency supply. Not only had she swapped the pills in my apartment, but now she was trying to eliminate my final fail-safe. Was I doomed to die by her hand again? Seeing me immobile, Grant frantically urged me. “Anya! Take them! Why aren’t you taking them?” Piper threw her hands over her head. “Oh no! I didn’t know Anya had a heart condition! I thought they were just Vitamin C! I thought the fizzies would be sweeter and taste better, so I… I swapped them.” “Grant, did I do something wrong again? Why am I always so stupid?” Grant shook his head, his tone still gentle. “It’s okay, Pip. It wasn’t your fault. You were trying to be kind.” He was telling me it was okay that I was dying because of her? Did he truly believe that Piper could commit murder and still be nothing more than innocently clumsy? The scene was a chilling echo of my death in the previous timeline. Desperately, I fumbled for my phone to call 911, but instead, my fingers brushed against a small, hard object in my jacket pocket—the pill I had swallowed earlier. I retrieved the single tablet and swallowed it dry. The suffocating pressure in my chest finally began to recede. Grant let out a huge sigh of relief. “Anya, you need to keep track of your own medication. You really scared me.”
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