After a Warning from the Future, I Left My Brother No Way Out

01

In 2001, after my brother got married, I decided to head south for work. I was packing my bags when, out of nowhere, another version of me appeared right in front of me. Me, from the future.

Listen to me. Don't go south. Mom's sending you south to get you out of the way. The truth is she's not your real mother. She married Dad and brought your brother along with her. Things aren't good on Dad's end either. You need to talk him into coming home as soon as you can.

That was the first I'd ever heard of it. I'd always believed she was my birth mother, even though she only ever doted on my brother.

"Tonight you go buy a lottery ticket. The numbers are 6, 9, 12, 13, 18, 26, and the special number is 13. Buy ten lines of it."

The me in front of me looked worn down, his face haggard, his hair already going gray.

Before I could say anything, he explained. "After you go south, you'll come into a little money. But the old house here is about to be torn down for redevelopment. When that happens, Mom's going to hand every cent of the payout to your brother. You'll come back with nowhere to even stay, and in the end you'll carry a whole mountain of your brother's debt. You'll die before you ever pay it off."

So that was how it went. And since he was me, my own future self, surely he wouldn't lie to me.

"Once you collect the prize, buy some houses. Rent them all out and live off the rent. Put a little into gold at the bank too. And remember this above everything: never, ever give your brother the house."

...

When my future self finished, he vanished. I turned his words over and over, and in the end I chose to believe him.

My brother had just finished with the wedding. Marrying him off had eaten up most of the family's money. Mom had heard that going south for work could earn you a lot, so she said to me, "Ollie, look, we spent everything on your brother's wedding. You're young. Go south and try to make something of yourself."

"Your dad and I will keep earning here at home, and when the time comes we'll find you a wife too."

There was nothing wrong with what she said. To be honest, part of me was tempted.

I'm only two years younger than my brother. He's twenty-seven. I'm already twenty-five.

The way things stood in our family, finding money for a wife for me too was going to be hard.

So I'd agreed. I'd planned to go south and earn.

What I hadn't known was that before I left, she'd also make me sign a transfer deed.

I tossed and turned all night, that string of numbers running through my head.

The moment it got light I was up, and I went looking for the lottery stand without even eating.

I bought the ticket with the numbers my future self had given me, ten lines of it.

Carrying that ticket around left me with a jittery, uneasy feeling.

When I got home, Mom, my brother, and the new bride were all sitting at the table, like they'd been waiting for me on purpose.

I gripped the ticket in my pocket and stepped through the door.

Mom's face fell the second she saw me. She actually shot me a glare.

"Oliver Gilbert, where'd you run off to first thing in the morning? Your train to Los Angeles is today, or did you forget?"

So that was what she was angry about. Of course I knew the train was today. I'd run off precisely because I didn't want to go.

I twisted the hem of my shirt, my palms damp. I'd been an obedient kid all my life, and now that I was suddenly refusing to obey, my own heart was pounding.

"Mom, I don't want to go to Los Angeles anymore. I want to stay..."

"Stay? What are you going to do if you stay? You're twenty-five this year. Without money, how am I supposed to find you a wife?"

That was how she'd always talked to me. It had never bothered me before, but now, all at once, it stung.

My brother wasn't looking at me kindly either. "Ollie, you already agreed, didn't you? Why the sudden change? Look how worried you've got Mom."

They kept at it, one line after another, and I couldn't get a word in.

Mom shot to her feet, like she was handing down a final order. "You're going to Los Angeles whether you like it or not. If you don't make it today, you go tomorrow."

She slapped a transfer deed down in front of me. "Sign this before you leave. Don't worry, it's not to hurt you. It's decided."

I quietly clenched my fist. Just as I'd thought. I didn't even need to open it to know what was written on that deed.

"Mom, I'm not signing it, and I'm not going to Los Angeles. If you don't agree, then you don't agree. Either way, I'm not going."

I came out so firm that it startled both Mom and my brother. They looked at each other, at a loss, and I didn't wait to see how they'd react. I turned and went back to my own room.

Mom shouted curses after me. "Oliver, you think you can turn this house upside down? Go on and try not going. Tomorrow I'll make sure you don't even get a meal."

Her temper was fierce. I could just picture her spitting those words out through gritted teeth.

I took the ticket out and looked at it again and again. I hoped with everything in me that it would win.

The next day I left early again. My mind was made up: I was staying. The way things were at home, there was no way I could keep living there, so I'd go find a job.

I was out the whole day, and finally I landed a design job. The pay wasn't much, but it came with room and board, and that was what pleased me most.

I got the paperwork done fast, and by nightfall I stepped into a convenience store.

This place always had the TV on in the evening, and they'd find the channel with the lottery draw.

When the draw came, I stood there gripping my hands, tense.

Once all the winning numbers were up, I checked them against mine, over and over.

I really had won.

02

I never really thought there'd come a day when I'd actually win. When I bought the ticket, I'd added ten extra lines, and this time I hit for a total of one hundred and twenty million dollars.

I froze, completely stunned. I pinched myself a few times before I could believe it was really me who'd won.

I knew this was only the beginning, but I couldn't let my brother or my stepmother find out about it yet.

While I was still out, I quietly worked out how to claim the money.

I only went home after I'd calmed myself down.

During that time, my stepmother and my brother called me over and over. I didn't pick up once.

I planned to have it out with her once I got back.

When I got home, they were still waiting for me, just as I'd expected.

Seeing me walk in, Duncan hurried over to coach me. "Ollie, where the hell were you all day? Mom's been going crazy looking for you. When she yells at you in a minute, don't you dare talk back."

Duncan was actually looking out for me, going out of his way to remind me.

I already had my answer ready, and I decided to speak first, before my stepmother could start in on me.

"Mom, I've made up my mind, I'm not going to Los Angeles. But I've already found a job doing graphic design. They provide housing, so I won't be around here getting in your way."

"The pay is a thousand a month. I'll hand over six hundred of it to you."

She'd been all worked up, but the moment she heard that, most of the fire went out of her.

In the end, what my stepmother was after was my money and keeping me out of her sight. Both were covered now, so there was nothing left for her to pick at.

Still, she kept up the huffy act. "Fine, you don't have to go to Los Angeles. But you'll do everything you just said, and you'll sign this agreement too. I promised your brother's wife this before their wedding. If you don't sign, she won't give us a grandchild."

What kind of logic was that? Duncan's wife having a baby depended on me handing over my house.

My father had built this house for me back then, so when the ownership was recorded, he'd put my name on it directly. I never imagined my stepmother and my brother had both been eyeing my house all along.

The matter of me not leaving was settled, but the signing, it seemed, was something they weren't going to let go of.

Only, when I'd taken the chance to look into it that day, I'd learned that a signature alone couldn't transfer the house.

"Mom, I can sign, sure. But signing only means I agree to transfer the house into Duncan's name. To actually make the transfer happen, we'd still have to go to the county records office."

She looked half-convinced. "Is it really that much trouble?"

"Of course. I asked about it specifically."

I turned to look at Letitia Walker, my brother's wife. She had the sunken look of someone whose hopes had just fallen through, and she kept shooting me dirty looks.

"Letitia, if you want to have a baby, just have it. I earn money and give it to Mom, and Mom passes it all on to you anyway, doesn't she?"

Letitia didn't much care for that. She rolled her eyes at me again and went back to her own room.

For me, the whole thing was over for now. But I knew it was only a temporary lull. They weren't going to let it rest.

I decided to go claim the prize the next day. All of this I was doing quietly.

Once I reached the state capital I went straight to the lottery claims center. I didn't take any photo, had the money transferred to a bank card I'd just opened, then rushed back that same night.

Back home, I shut myself in my room and studied the recent property listings. For a few years now, people had been saying big things were coming to the area where our house was. Maybe construction was finally about to start.

While I was still turning it over, the future me sent me another prompt. When you buy property, buy in the development at Pemberton. It's already gone on sale. There's going to be a city-run school there, so whether you rent it out or sell it later, you'll come out well ahead.

03

Following the tip my future self had given me, I went out to Pemberton and took a look at the site in person. Sure enough, the units were already going on sale.

I found the sales office and bought twenty apartments outright, which cost me over ten million dollars. Then I handed all of them over to an agency and had them arrange renovation companies and list the units for rent.

Once that was settled, I stopped by a local gold shop and compared the current gold prices.

Gold was going for less than a hundred dollars a gram. But I noticed a problem: the price at the shop was cheap, yet there was no guarantee of purity.

While I was hesitating, my future self prompted me again, telling me to go straight to a bank and buy the bank's own gold bars.

I went right to the bank and bought a hundred kilograms of gold in one purchase, and I stored all of it there.

That much cash or valuables can only sit easy in a reliable place.

After all that, I still had tens of millions in savings. I figured I couldn't just leave that money sitting in my hands. I needed to find some other way to put it to use.

But before I could settle on what to do with it, it was time for me to head off and start work at the design company.

When I left, my stepmother's face was still sour. I didn't much care how she reacted. Once I got paid next month and handed the money over to her, she'd cheer up on her own.

Ever since I'd learned she wasn't my birth mother, I couldn't quite put a name to what I felt toward her.

My father was usually away, so she ran everything at home. Her whole reason for pushing me to move down to Los Angeles was probably that she'd found out our house was slated for redevelopment, and she wanted the payout to go to my brother.

Right as I was about to leave, I got a phone call from my father. He worked in the coal mine year-round and made it home only a few times a year, and calls from him were rarer still.

I didn't know what he wanted. When the line connected, his voice came through. "Oliver, your mom told me you're not going down south anymore, that you're taking a job at a design company. Does it pay well? You've still got to save up to get married. Your dad's got no real means, all the money ends up in your mom's hands, so getting yourself a wife is going to be on you."

His voice sounded worn out. I'd never seen him at work with my own eyes, but I could picture the conditions and how hard the labor was.

"Dad, don't worry about me. Just take care of yourself. If it really comes to it, come home. I'll support you."

I couldn't tell my father I was rich now, but supporting him was something I truly could manage.

"I'll be coming home soon. Two more years and the mine won't want me anymore, and then it'll be time to go home. So your dad won't be able to earn much more for you."

He said it so sadly that it left me uneasy just hearing it.

"Dad, don't think like that. I'm your son. Raising me was already more than enough. You really don't need to worry about me."

"You know she isn't your birth mother now," my father asked carefully.

I made a small sound of yes. Then he sighed. "It's not that I didn't want to tell you. Your real mom passed when you were one, and the mom you have now raised you. I think she's given a lot for this family too. I just want the four of us to have a plain, happy life."

It was the first time my father had ever said these things to me. In my mind, he'd only ever been the man who broke his back earning money to keep the family fed.

"To be honest, I didn't agree with your mom sending you south this time either. It's just as well you didn't go."

The two of them had been married so many years that it had become the norm for my stepmother to be the one in charge.

Whatever she decided, my father wasn't allowed to object.

I never expected that by not going south, I'd unknowingly fallen right in line with my father's wishes.

At the end, my father told me, "There's one thing I've kept from you all these years. Your mom and your brother's household registration aren't under our home. In other words, legally, the only relatives here are you and me, father and son."

Hearing that, it suddenly clicked why my stepmother was so set on my signing the property transfer. If the house really became my brother's, his registration would naturally fall under our household too.

My father and I had given them our whole hearts, and I'd never imagined the two of them could be scheming this deep.

That call was the longest my father and I had ever talked. What I never expected was that, soon after it, disaster struck him.

04

I'd been working at the design firm for about a week when a call came in from a landline.

I picked up, and a hurried voice came through. "You're Leon Gilbert's son, right?"

"I am..."

"Your father had an accident down in the mine. He's trapped underground with a dozen or so miners. The odds of survival aren't good. He left a farewell letter before he went down. Come to the mine site, quick."

I don't know how I hung up the phone, and I don't know how I got to the mine site. When I arrived, the place was packed with people, wall to wall, the crying and the shouting never letting up.

The families of all those trapped miners must have come. My mother, Summer Fox, was already there too, held up by my brother, Duncan Gilbert. The whole site was in tears. Only the two of them looked like they were searching for something.

The moment Summer saw me, her expression changed, and she came striding toward me with Duncan.

"What letter did your father leave you? They said he left it only to you."

I hadn't even seen anyone from the mine yet. How was I supposed to know what my father had left me?

"I don't know."

"Liar. You two always had it in for me and my boy. Your father can't even write a farewell letter without shutting us out. And you call us family."

Summer flew into a rage. I didn't know how she'd found out about my father. Maybe the mine had notified both of us at once.

I wasn't in the mood to fight with her here. I found the man in charge of the site, told him who I was, and he handed me my father's letter.

"Writing a farewell letter before going down is standard procedure. We just never thought it would actually be needed this time."

Seeing my father's familiar handwriting, my eyes went wet for the first time. Before, maybe because I didn't know how bad it was, I'd stubbornly told myself he'd be fine. But standing there, seeing it all with my own eyes, I felt the helpless pull of a reality I couldn't refuse.

With trembling hands I opened the letter my father left me. Oliver, it's my fault. I put you through so much. Let me say this to you now: if something happens to me, the mine will pay compensation. You're the son who shares my blood, and the money will all be yours. Summer and Duncan won't get a cent of it.

I've known for a long time what they were plotting against you. I just never found a way to change it. I was away for years, and if I didn't go along with Summer, she'd have made life hard for you at home. It's your father who was useless.

If there's a next life, I'd still choose to be your father. That's all. Hold on tight to your own house. As for my old house, if Summer wants it, let her have it.

Signed, Leon Gilbert. I stared at the letter, tears streaming down my face. I never knew how much his silent love had been carrying all this time.

The families couldn't accept that people who'd been fine were just gone like this.

The people from the mine were all urging the families to sign the consent forms to abandon the rescue.

Some signed. Some flatly refused. Before it was even our turn, Summer snatched a form and was about to sign, and my fogged head snapped clear.

I stepped forward and grabbed the form away. "You don't sign. The golden rescue window hasn't passed yet. There's still a chance he's alive."

Summer glared at me like she wanted to swallow me whole, teeth clenched, nails digging hard into my arm. "What do you know? The sooner you sign, the more compensation you get."

I could see it plainly, that face of hers that only wanted the money. I told her without the slightest hesitation, "I'll transfer the house you're living in over to you. Now leave. I'm going to save my father."

The words stunned Summer for a second. Then she smiled. She had me write the transfer agreement right there, and only then did she stop getting in the way of what I was about to do.

I got someone to contact the most experienced rescue team in the country right away. I felt my father still had a chance.

After three days of searching, the golden rescue window was almost up. The hope in front of me was shrinking by the hour, and everyone was telling me to give up.

I was still wavering when the good news came.