All Chapters of Gaslit by Reality: My True Husband's Gone: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

After parting ways with Rachel, I wandered the streets with more questions weighing down on me. From the way she spoke and the look in her eyes, I was almost certain she wasn't lying.I even had the engraving inside the wedding ring examined by a professional. They said it was over ten years old, not something recently forged.Just as I was sighing to myself, someone patted me on the back. "Hey, what's with you? You look like a wandering ghost. Your shadow—I mean, Brandon—isn't with you today."I turned around and saw my best friend, Judy Sanders.Brandon had always been cold and distant. He liked being alone and never clung to anyone. Jake, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. He always wanted to stick close to me every second of the day and had never been willing to be apart for long.Seeing how pale I was, Judy dragged me into an ice cream shop and sat me down with a cone in hand. "What are you spacing out about? Come to think of it, this is where you and Brandon first

A surge of excitement instantly overwhelmed me. I knew it! Jake really did exist!"Ma'am, is it him?"The elderly neighbor, Eloise Langley, looked at the photo in my phone and shook her head."No, not this young man. There's a boy in elementary school who has the same name, though. I have to say, he does look like the man next door… Oh, my. I'd be surprised if it's actually what I'm thinking of."I pulled my phone back, unwilling to give up. "Is it true that the family next door only ever had a daughter and not a son?""That's absolutely true," she said firmly. "Mrs. Watson went into labor early. I was the one who called the midwife to help with the delivery. It was a baby girl."Eloise thought for a moment, then went back inside her house to retrieve an old photograph. It showed a young, weak Mrs. Watson holding a newborn baby girl, smiling faintly with relief and happiness.The recorded birth time on the photo matched Jake's exactly, down to the minute."Could this timestamp

That single line of words cut through the fog clouding my mind. This world was truly never where I belonged.Everyone here—my parents, my friends, and even my husband—wasn't lying. Their memories, experiences, and emotions were real.It was just that all of this belonged to another Erica, another version of my life. And I had crossed over into this alternate reality, carrying memories from my original world.I needed proof—more of it. I grabbed a blank notebook and started writing down every inconsistency I could remember.For example, Brandon's allergy to mangoes in my world and his love for them in this one, and how Rachel used to love him, but now despised him and had married Alex instead.With every line I wrote, my heart sank a little deeper.If this were really an alternate reality, where was Jake? In my original world, he had been real. Here, he had been erased, his entire existence overwritten and replaced by Brandon. Unless…A terrifying thought surfaced—unless Jake nev

Late at night, Brandon was fast asleep.I quietly got out of bed and went over to the restored wedding photo. In the picture, Brandon and I looked like the happiest couple, grinning from ear to ear.The background was the familiar studio setup of Genuinely Yours Studio—blue skies, white clouds, and rainbow balloons. It was the same backdrop I remembered from my wedding photos with Jake.I reached out and touched the glass of the frame. The surface was cold beneath my fingertips. If this photo were truly a connection point, what exactly should I do?Meditate? Make a wish? Wait for some specific condition to activate it?I slowly closed my eyes and began to picture Jake in my mind.The slight crease in his brow whenever he was deep in thought, those dark brown eyes that always looked so laser-focused whenever he stared at me…I remembered the warmth of his hands, the faint soap-like scent lingering on him, and the gentle way he called me "babe".I remembered his sweaty palms on o