One crossed-out date is all it takes to learn that saving a life doesn’t mean saving a future.

McNulty’s Rare Teas & Choice Coffees is the sort of shop people walk past without really seeing—until the day it sees them. When Rafael steps inside, he finds more than the scent of old wood, spices, and history. He finds a book that does not belong to this century, and an offer that feels impossibly simple.

Change one day. Just one.

What follows is not a neat fantasy of second chances, but a quiet, unsettling reckoning with memory, consequence, and love. As Rafael navigates the weight of what was, what might have been, and what now exists alongside it, the story asks a dangerous question: if you could intervene at the precise moment everything went wrong, would you—and could you live with the result?

Rooted in intimate family bonds and small, human decisions rather than spectacle, McNulty’s explores time travel as an emotional burden rather than a miracle cure. Each choice echoes. Each memory lingers. And some outcomes, once altered, reveal truths far darker than the tragedy they were meant to erase.

Subtle, haunting, and deeply human, this is a story about the cost of love—and the terrifying realisation that not all rescues are merciful.

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