Chapter 1
On the night of my wedding, my husband left me to be with his first love.
I stood alone outside our new home, trying the door code for the fourth time—and failing.
Then the comment feed exploded in front of my eyes.
[Elizabeth, wake up. The code was changed by Elsie ages ago.]
[Julian's been watching you from across the hall for half an hour.]
[His shirt buttons are about to snap. He's swallowed hard seventeen times already.]
[Go knock on his door. He's been in love with you for ten years.]
The alcohol hit me like a wave. Before I could think twice, I turned and knocked on the door across the hall.
It opened instantly.
A man stood there. His eyes were red as he stared at my wedding dress.
"You show up at his door like that?" His voice was low, sharp. "And you think he deserves it?"
*****
The man on my marriage certificate was Grady Franklin.
I'd been secretly in love with him for twelve years, from fifteen to twenty-seven. He was the center of my world all those years.
Today was our wedding day.
The ceremony was grand, and the hall was packed with guests. When the officiant asked if he would take me as his wife, he smiled.
That smile was so dazzling that I forced myself to ignore the way his eyes slid past me—to the girl in white standing quietly in the corner—Elsie Estrada, his first love and my stepsister.
While everyone was raising their glasses, Grady was already tipsy. His hand gripped my wrist, but his gaze never left her.
Grady said, "Elsie's not feeling well. Don't push her to drink."
I didn't say a word. I just downed my glass.
When the reception was over, he said he'd take her home. I just agreed.
I went back to our apartment alone.
It was the river-view place he bought before the wedding, twenty-third floor, floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over the city lights along the water.
I stood at the door for a long time, the buzz from the wine hitting me, my head spinning.
Then I entered the code.
It showed wrong.
I hit the keypad again.
It was still wrong.
I tried the third time.
But it was still wrong.
The electronic lock let out a cold, mechanical warning, "Maximum number of incorrect attempts reached. Please try again in 30 minutes."
I just stood there, frozen, the alcohol haze starting to clear.
The code was the year we first met. He always said he'd never change it.
Suddenly, a patch of white light appeared before my eyes.
I blinked, thinking it was just the alcohol making me see things.
But the light grew clearer and clearer, turning into lines of text that floated right in front of me.
It looked just like live comments streaming across a screen.
[Here it comes. Iconic moment unlocked!]
[Elizabeth, give it up. That sly fox already messed with the password.]
[Elsie dropped by this afternoon and said she was helping set up the bridal suite, but she went and changed the code to Grady's birthday mixed with hers.]
[Ugh, seriously gross.]
[Where are Grady and Elsie now? Weren't they supposed to be heading home together?]
[Come on, they're not "heading home". Their car's been sitting in the garage for half an hour. You figure it out.]
[Whoa, cheating on their wedding night? That's insane.]
[Poor Elizabeth, left out in the cold in her wedding dress.]
I stared at the words floating past, my head buzzing.
Elizabeth Edwards was my name.
I reached out to touch the words, but my fingers passed right through. There was nothing there.
The comments kept rolling by.
[Wait, can she actually see us?]
[No way, these are system bullet comments. Only readers can see them. She's just a paper character... Wait, is she actually looking at us?]
[Paper character? What's that supposed to mean?]
I spoke up, "Who's there?"
The comments exploded.
[She can actually see us.]
[Oh, Elizabeth is looking at me.]
[Wait, no, she's the villain. In this story, she's the evil supporting character, the one the male lead ends up sending to a psych ward.]
[What story is this?]
[His First Love, a total tearjerker. In the end, Elizabeth loses her mind and jumps into the river.]
I fell silent.
I lost my mind and jumped into the river?
The comments kept streaming by.
[I always thought Elizabeth got such a raw deal. She never did anything wrong—just liked Grady—and the author turned her into some evil plot device.]
[Wait, is this a new setting? Did the transmigration system just wake up? Can she actually see the comments now?]
[Hey, don't spoil too much. Let her play out the story herself. It's a tragic ending anyway.]
[I wanna see her get together with the villain.]
[Yes. Julian Schneider, the guy who lives across the hall.]
[He's been secretly in love with Elizabeth for ten years, since high school.]
[I was watching from his perspective for ages. He just stood there at his door, staring at Elizabeth's back, and swallowed seventeen times.]
[Seventeen times? LOL, you counted that precisely?]