She didn’t even get a chance to argue. The moment her father announced that she, Emilia Wallace, was to marry a man in his sixties, she heard herself say it out loud: “Why should I marry him? I don’t agree. ”
Her father turned red.
“You disobedient girl. You have no say in this. You’ll marry him as I’ve decided. ”
But this Emilia wasn’t the timid girl her family remembered.
She had traveled through time, 76 years into the future, and somehow slipped into the body of a girl who shared her name and her face. She knew the law. She knew her rights. And she wasn’t about to let a man sell her off like property.
“Arranged and forced marriages were abolished ages ago,” she said, standing her ground. “What you’re doing is illegal. I could report you to the cops. ”
Her stepmother jumped in, trying to sweet-talk her.
“Amelia, Dad only wants the best for you. Mr. Welsh is quite well off. You’re so lucky to have this chance.
”
“Since you think he’s so great, why don’t you marry him? ”
The room went silent. Her father’s face twisted with fury. “Whether you agree or not, you’ll marry him today.
Someone tie her up and proceed with the wedding. ”
But when a man stepped forward to grab her, she took him down before he could blink. Her father stared, stunned. The old Amelia was a pushover.
This girl wasn’t. She escaped the chaos of the wedding and found herself at the edge of the George residence, where a scene was unfolding. A woman screamed at her, accusing her of trying to seduce her boyfriend. Emilia barely paid attention.
She looked at the man, and her heart stopped. He had the same face as someone she’d known long ago. “Your last name is George too. What’s your relationship with Aaron George?
”
The woman scoffed. “How dare you use Nigel’s grandfather’s full name? ”
But Emilia didn’t flinch. “Aaron is his grandfather.
That makes him my great-grandson. Is Aaron still alive? ”
The room erupted. People called her crazy, demanded she apologize.
But Emilia only asked to see Aaron. To prove she wasn’t lying, she rattled off details only someone truly close to him would know: the scar on his waist, his hatred of onions and baked beans, his love for brownies. Nigel’s eyes widened. “How did you know all that?
”
“Your grandfather and I have a special bond. Can you take me to see him? ”
Nigel hesitated, then agreed to bring her to his grandfather’s birthday party the next day. But standing nearby, Dina stewed.
She had spent years trying to marry Nigel, only to be blocked by Aaron’s disapproval. She wasn’t about to let this mysterious woman win him over. The next day, Emilia arrived at the party with a gift. Dina mocked its cheapness.
Emilia’s own father sneered at her, had her locked in a room to keep her away. But she picked the lock and slipped through the halls anyway. Inside, she found the birthday banquet. But Aaron was nowhere to be seen.
When she asked for him, Nigel’s relatives barred her way. “He’s resting. Leave your gift with us. ”
Emilia refused.
She spotted one of the George grandsons holding something—a small dish of food. She looked at it and felt a pang of recognition. “Give me the thing in your hands. ”
“Aaron, happy 8th birthday to you,” she said softly, setting it in front of him.
The boy looked at her with wide eyes. “This tastes exactly like my mom used to make it. Who sent this? ”
“Miss Amelia Wallace.
She’s at the banquet hall right now. ”
Aaron’s face went pale. He stood abruptly and rushed to find her. When he finally saw her, he stopped, shaking.
“Mom? ”
Emilia smiled. “Aaron. ”
“Grandpa, what on earth is going on?
How did you come back alive? And you look so young,” he whispered. They moved to a private room. Emilia explained what she could.
Aaron listened, his eyes wet. He had lived decades believing she was dead, and here she was, looking just as she had when he was a child. “This is your great-grandma,” Aaron told Nigel and Vincent, who stood there stunned. Over the next days, Aaron put his trust in Emilia.
He was old and ill, and he knew he needed someone with a spine to hold the family together. He asked her to take over as chairwoman of the George Group. She agreed. But Nigel wasn’t ready to take orders from her.
He had Dina whispering in his ear, and she had her claws deep in the company. Emilia discovered that Dina’s entire family had been hired into the George Group. Her father had embezzled millions. Twelve other Wallace relatives held positions, pocketing company funds.
She confronted Nigel. “The company might as well be renamed the Wallace Group. ”
Nigel shrugged. “Dina’s my girlfriend.
We’ll be family someday. ”
Emilia demanded they be fired. Nigel refused. But Aaron stepped in and backed her decision.
The Wallaces were fired, and the police were called to charge them with embezzlement. Dina’s family panicked. Her father was facing prison. Dina herself grew desperate.
She saw only one way out: get rid of Aaron. She tried to push him down a flight of stairs, pretending it was an accident. Emilia caught her. She grabbed Dina by the arm and slapped her in front of everyone.
“You tried to push Aaron on purpose. I won’t allow anyone to hurt him. ”
Nigel, blind as ever, defended his girlfriend. “How can you accuse her?
She’s even bleeding! ”
Emilia fixed him with a cold stare. “Nigel George, she tried to hurt your own grandfather. From today, I don’t want to see anyone surnamed Wallace in places belonging to the George family.
Otherwise, I’ll teach you a lesson too. You have 10 days to pay back every cent you stole from the George Group, or you’ll rot in jail. ”
Security threw them out. Dina’s whole family was gone.
Aaron later confided in Emilia that he had entrusted Nigel with the company because of his own failing health, and now he regretted it. Emilia was running the company, but Nigel refused to accept her authority. He resigned, declaring he would make his own fortune without the George family. He gave Dina all his savings.
He begged old friends for loans. But Emilia had already sent word to every business partner and friend: no one was to lend Nigel a single cent. He was on his own. Dina grew restless.
She had only ever loved money. And soon, she found another target: an old, wealthy man named Yates. The day Nigel came home to find Dina in bed with another man, he stood in the doorway and stared. Her lover told him to get lost.
Dina laughed. “Without the George family, you’re nothing. You can’t give me the life I deserve. Get out.
”
Nigel was crushed. He went back to Emilia, broken. “You were right. Dina was only ever after money.
I’m such a fool. ”
Emilia offered him his old position back, but Nigel refused. He had finally learned. “True worth doesn’t come from privilege.
I have to earn it myself. ”
Meanwhile, Emilia’s fame grew. Vincent, the wild grandson she had disciplined, had thrown himself into marketing and made her an online sensation. Then one day, news broke: the Yates family, one of the wealthiest in the city, was hosting a decryption challenge.
A coded letter from the 1940s. Whoever cracked it would win a fortune. Vincent signed Emilia up without asking. The day of the challenge, a crowd gathered.
Experts, scholars, big shots—one after another, they failed. The letter sat there, unreadable. Emilia watched. Then she saw the code and her breath caught.
It was hers. She had designed that code system decades ago, with a man named Landon, a young soldier she had loved before she ever traveled through time. They had promised to use it to write letters to each other. She read the words slowly, tears streaming down her face:
“Amelia, if I don’t come back from this mission, no need to look for me.
I’m not afraid to die. I’m just heartbroken we won’t grow old together. I would make the same choice even in my next life. But I hope I can grow old with you in my next life.
”
She stood before the crowd, holding the letter. “This was written in 1947 by a young man serving his country. Before a dangerous mission, he wrote this farewell letter to his wife. ”
The Yates butler confirmed her answer was correct.
She had won. But the echoes of the past didn’t stop there. She overheard the Yate family butler mention the name “Saul Yates,” and her heart nearly stopped. She asked to meet him.
She was led to a private parlor, where an old man sat, frail and barely able to breathe. Amelia’s voice trembled. “Landon. ”
He turned, his eyes widening.
“Amelia. I’m back. ”
They held each other for a long time. He told her the story of how he had never died on that mission—he had changed his name to Saul Yates, built an empire with his bare hands, and spent seventy years believing she was gone.
He had adopted a boy, Colin, because he had no one else. Emilia told him the truth: “We have a son. Aaron. Your son.
”
She brought Aaron to meet him. The old man wept. For the first time in decades, he was whole. But Colin’s girlfriend, Dina, refused to accept any of it.
She had moved into the Yates residence, claiming she was pregnant with Colin’s child. When she saw Emilia, she erupted. “You’re just con artists! You’re trying to steal this family’s money!
”
Colin, spineless as always, stood by her. But Saul Yates was done tolerating it. He disinherited Colin on the spot. “All my assets will go to Amelia.
Colin is no longer part of this family. ”
Colin begged. Dina screamed. Security threw them out.
Now, standing alone in the mansion that had once belonged to the man she loved, Emilia smiled. She looked at her son, her great-grandsons, her family, all around her. Her father, her stepmother, Dina—they were all gone, cast out by their own greed. She walked through the halls of the Yates residence, past portraits of the man she had loved, and whispered to herself: “Meeting you was the best thing that ever happened to me.
”
