99 Times Repeated, Not Once Did They Say I Love You Chapter 01

99 Times Repeated, Not Once Did They Say I Love You Chapter 01

I was stuck on the same day ninety-nine times. All I needed was for my family to say the words “I love you.” Then I could move on to the next day.

But I failed every single time.

After the ninety-ninth failure, the Moon Goddess showed up furious, with her hand around the God of Time’s throat. She put an end to his little joke and promised me a fortune to make up for it.

So I finally stepped into the next day, and I stopped begging for scraps of affection.

That night, I packed my bags to leave. Right then, my parents, my brother, and the girl they had raised in my place came home.

My brother, Silas Lioraen, glanced at the suitcase beside me and frowned. “Hazel, seriously? We forgot you at a rest stop on New Year’s Eve, and now you’re throwing a tantrum and running away from home?”

I ignored him and handed my parents the papers instead. The line at the top said it all.

“I am voluntarily leaving Bleakfang Pack.”

“Seriously? You’re leaving the pack over something this small?”

Silas’s voice came out in a ragged growl.

My mother looked stunned, too, but she forced a patient smile and reached for my hand.

“Hazel, we didn’t leave you behind on purpose. It’s always been the four of us on trips, and it didn’t register in time. It won’t happen again.”

I lowered my eyes and let out a low laugh with no humor in it.

I thought back to my first year in the Lioraen house.

One morning, I woke up to an empty house.

Even the two dogs were gone. The housekeeper told me they had flown off on vacation.

My mother gave me the exact same excuse that time.

She had forgotten that I’d been back for almost three years by then. Their instinctive memory still didn’t include me.

I didn’t bother arguing. I held the papers out to her again.

“Sign it.”

She froze for a second, then lost her patience and shoved my hand away. “God, Hazel, why do you have to be so difficult?”

Before I could answer, the papers were snatched out of my hand.

My father twisted the cap off his pen and scrawled his name in a fury. “You’re wrecking this whole family’s peace over nothing.”

He flung the pages at my face and passed his sentence with an Alpha’s authority. “From now on, you’re no Alpha’s daughter. You’re a rogue.”

The pages fluttered down at my feet. I stared at them, and my nose stung.

The truth was, when they found me at fifteen and brought me back to the pack, I truly hoped for a real family.

That hope died the day my parents told me Maeve’s birth parents were gone, that she had no one else, and that sending her away would be too cruel.

Every one of them had conveniently forgotten one thing. Maeve’s mother was the nanny who swapped us in our cribs and stole my life before I was even old enough to understand what happened.

My childhood was nothing like the life I should have had. I grew up without the family or care I deserved.

After all of that, they still expected me to live under the same roof as the daughter of the woman who ruined my life.

I knew right then that we would never be a real family.

But I needed funds for college, so I stayed.

At first, I kept my distance and planned to quietly stick it out until I could leave for school.

Then yesterday, or maybe ninety-nine yesterdays ago, I got trapped in a god’s idea of a joke. He told me I could walk out of the time loop as soon as my family said “I love you” to me.

I had no choice but to grovel and curry favor with them.

I failed every time.

And every time I failed, I was wiped out and forced to start over.

After the ninety-ninth failure, a woman glowing with warmth appeared in front of me with her hand clamped around another man’s throat.

“You dare toy with one of my children? Put her back the way she was.”

Then she stroked my cheek gently. “Child, you’ve been through so much. It’s all about to end.”

I hadn’t been treated kindly in so long that I nearly cried. Then I turned on the so-called God of Time. “You know I’m in the middle of Rank Exam season, right? That training, I went through it ninety-nine times. Ninety-nine!”

“Every time I failed, I was forced to relive the same day again and again.”

I was shaking with rage. “How do you plan to pay for all the lives you stole from me?”

The man sounded pitiful. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’ll give you a fortune, okay?”

That worked for me.

Wealth changed everything.

I had stayed with the Lioraens for the funds in the first place. Now that I had enough of it, there was no reason left to stay.

I bent down and picked up the severance papers.

It was only a thin sheet of paper, as flimsy as the DNA we shared.

There was nothing in that house worth holding on to.

I walked out without looking back.

For the first time in a long time, I was free.