When Forever Only Means Five Years

Helen Leonard lost her sight, and Sheldon Hurst stayed by her side for five years, promising to remain with her. His parents and his brother arranged for the brother to take over his identity, so that the years of care Sheldon gave her were credited to someone else. In that life he died holding onto the resentment of never being believed. He was reborn. He decided to let the past go and step back from the family. He was framed again anyway, and treated with the same favoritism working against him as before. At a birthday banquet, a watch that had belonged to his grandfather raised suspicion, and false testimony was used to have him punished for it. After a car accident, the people around him turned on him once more. He cut himself off and left. Helen later found a recording that laid out what had actually happened, and she recognized the mistake she had made. By that point Sheldon was already involved with another woman, the daughter of a family named differently across versions of the account. Helen was left carrying the regret.