***NSFW WARNING***
To keep specific variables in play, I wanted to keep my childhood as close to the Origin Timeline as possible. The goal was to toe the line between what happened the first go around so that I had a path to walk and could control how my life would change.
While there were minute changes I had made so far, such as staying in the first house I ever lived in and keeping Amanda's infidelity in check, in the grand scheme of my life, they weren't drastic changes.
Sure, I could mess around with things to a certain point. However, if I, for some reason, went off the rails and started manipulating every single aspect of my early life, especially before Brenden was born, I could have easily accidentally wiped him from existence; thus, no matter how much I hated the woman who birthed me, I was forced to put up with her presence.