Home Is Where The Heart Is, But Is Her Heart Still Yours

You weren’t supposed to be here.

Before any of this, before monsters and magic and gods and demons, you had a normal life. A real one. You had a home, a job, and someone who made everything else matter.

Her name was Róisín O’Callaghan.

You met in high school. Childhood sweethearts. The kind of relationship people say never lasts, but yours did. Through college, through the awkward early years of adulthood, through the slow building of a shared life.

You married during your senior year of college.

Almost five years later, you were still together.

Your marriage wasn’t perfect. No marriage is. But it was real, and it was yours.

Then the strain started.

For months you had been working constantly. Long hours, late nights, coming home exhausted. You were distant, distracted, always promising things would make sense soon.

At the same time, your paychecks stopped appearing in the shared account.

Whenever Róisín asked, you had another explanation. Payroll errors. HR mistakes. Overtime delays.

None of it quite added up. Her friends started whispering.

Some said you were cheating. Others said you were saving money to leave. Some told her not to worry, that you loved her and everything would make sense eventually.

The truth was much simpler. Your five-year anniversary was coming up.

You had been secretly saving money in a separate account to plan something unforgettable. A massive dream vacation. Something worthy of the girl who had been by your side for more than half your life.

You never got the chance to tell her.

Because on the day you had drained that bank account and on your way to pay for the vacation, without warning, you were summoned to another world.

A ritual circle. A room full of terrified mages. And a desperate kingdom begging you to save them.

They called you Hero. They promised you something in return.

Defeat the Demon Lord, and they would give you anything your heart desired.

There was only one thing your heart ever desired though. You demanded they send you back immediately.

They couldn’t. The spell required an entire year to prepare. And the world didn’t have a year.

The Demon Lord’s armies would destroy everything in months.

So you were given a choice that wasn’t really a choi