Chapter 1

My mom time-traveled back from 2045 and told me three things.

First, no dating.

Second, no wedding.

Third, a "perfect" man would land me in the ICU three years after we got married.

I thought she was out of her mind.

But later, the guy actually showed up: sweet, considerate, pulling in a quarter mil a year, and handsome as a movie star.

My mom took one look at him and smiled.

"Sweetie," she said to me, "let me show you what a real beatdown looks like."

*****

My mom was obsessed with getting me married off.

Every time she saw a single guy around my age, she practically wanted to gift-wrap me and hand me over.

She always said, "If you don't get married soon, I'll never rest in peace."

I'd tell her, "You're perfectly healthy. You're not on your deathbed or anything."

She'd snap back, "You're gonna stress me to death."

Honestly, she was driving me up the wall.

But when I turned twenty-six, she suddenly changed her tune.

That day, I brought home a guy I'd met on a blind date.

He was a catch: graduated from a top school, worked as a programmer at a major company, and owned his own place and car.

His parents had both passed away. Well, we didn't have to split Christmas between families, at least.

My mom should've been absolutely thrilled.

But instead, she just glanced at him and, without hesitation, kicked him out.

She was super polite. "Sorry, young man, my daughter has an allergy."

The guy looked totally confused. "An allergy? To what?"

"To you," my mom replied with a sincere face. "You can leave now."

The guy was stunned speechless.

After he left, my mom locked the door and shoved me onto the couch.

"Starting today," she said, "you're banned from blind dates, dating, and marriage. Period."

I stared at her, totally baffled. "Did someone scam you or something?"

She shook her head. "Nah."

I frowned, "Did you join some weird group chat?"

She shook her head again.

I pressed, "Are you going through menopause?"

She knocked me on the head. "Nonsense."

Then she took a deep breath and dropped a bombshell.

"I'm time-traveled back from 2045," she said.

I was stunned.

She continued, "In the original timeline, you married Ethan Carter at thirty-two and divorced him at thirty-five.

"At thirty-seven, you jumped off a building. And I saw it with my own eyes."

Her eyes were red, her voice trembling. "My biggest regret in life was pushing you to marry Ethan.

"So I got a time machine and hopped back to the present.

"Just so I could change your destiny."

I was silent for a long time.

Then, quietly, I pulled out my phone and dialed 911.

The cops showed up and asked a bunch of questions to make sure my mom wasn't going senile, hadn't gotten brainwashed by scammers, or sucked into some cult.

My mom was totally sharp, spoke clearly, and even joked around with the cops.

Before the officers left, one of them said to me, "She's in great shape. Don't worry."

"But she says she's from the future. Are you guys gonna let that slide?" I asked.

The officer chuckled, "Well, that's not really something we handle."

After they left, Mom looked at me, her expression calm.

"You don't believe me, do you?" she said. "That's normal. Let me tell you something.

"Next Wednesday, Sophie, who's always giving you a hard time, will get fired for embezzling company funds."

I was skeptical.

Sophie Grant was the supervisor's cousin, and she always acted like she owned the place and loved to mess with me.

She'd steal credit for my projects, poach my clients, and make me take the fall for the mistakes she made.

I'd been wishing she'd get her comeuppance for ages, but I never thought it would actually happen.

Next Wednesday, Sophie actually got fired.

During a financial audit, they discovered she'd submitted a bunch of fake expense reports, over ten grand in total.

The supervisor tried to cover for her. But with solid proof, there was no saving her.

Everyone in the company watched as Sophie packed her things and left in tears.

I ducked behind my desk and texted my mom: [Holy crap!]

She shot back a smug emoji.

I texted her again: [What else do you know?]

She replied: [Next month, you'll win the lottery, seven grand.]

The next month, I won the lottery, exactly seven grand.

Finally, I was totally convinced my mom traveled back in time from the future.

And from that day on, it was like my mom had a cheat code for life. She kept me away from every single pitfall.

First up, she put a stop to all my blind dates.

She said my luck in relationships was totally messed up.

Everyone who hit on me was up to no good.

I shot back, "The good guys never try to date me?"

She rolled her eyes. "Of course they do. You just never like them.

"When a decent guy shows interest, you complain he's not romantic enough.

"But when some player makes a move, you think he's totally genuine.

"So you end up with the jerks, and the good guys just move on."

I fell silent.

Mom caught my expression, adding, "You think you've got a knack for spotting good guys, but honestly, your superpower is picking out the jerks."

I wanted to protest, but looking back at my love life, I couldn't deny she had a point.

My first boyfriend was a high school classmate. We had a sweet two-year thing. But after graduation, he said he was going abroad for college, so we broke up.

Later, I found out he'd never gone overseas. He'd moved to a different city and got a new girlfriend.

My second boyfriend was a senior in college, super charming and smooth. We'd dated for half a year before I discovered he was juggling three other girls at the same time.

My third boyfriend was a coworker I met after starting work. He was honest and dependable, but just too boring for me. There was zero spark, so I broke it off.

He married someone else later, and now he was living the dream: a happy marriage with a son and a daughter.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized my mom was right.

I was basically handing myself over to the jerks out there.

"So what am I supposed to do?" I asked. "Grow old alone?"

My mom patted my shoulder, giving me that classic mom-wisdom look.

"Sweetie," she said, "you gotta live long enough to be old alone.

"Your original fate is jumping off a building at thirty-seven.

"You wouldn't even get the chance to grow old.

"Just listen to me. Trust me, being single is way better than you can imagine."