The Fake Future Call and You, I Want Neither

The night I caught Fabian Fox and Stella Butler in bed together, wrecked beyond words, I got a call from myself five years in the future.

They were set up. Someone wanted to break you and Fabian apart.

Stella is your best friend. Because you refused to forgive her, she jumped off a building. Hurting you was never what she wanted. She's in pain too.

"I'm you, five years from now. I don't want you to lose your fiance and your best friend at the same time, and end up dying young, worn down by grief."

I sat collapsed on the living room carpet all night, going back over the days when the three of us grew up together in the orphanage.

In the end, because of that call from five years in the future, I chose to forgive.

For the three months after that, whenever something they did crossed a line and left me uneasy,

that call from the future always came, right on cue, insisting over and over that I was only imagining things, that they were the two people in the world who loved me most.

And just when the constant push and pull had worn my nerves ragged, I overheard Stella and Fabian talking.

"Natalie Summers really is a fool. Call from the future? All I did was use a voice changer and I had her spinning in circles."

"But I'm sick of keeping up the act now. When exactly are you going to break up with her? You're not actually planning to marry her, are you?"

I pressed my hand hard against my mouth, terrified of making a sound, but the tears still fell, one heavy drop after another, running down the back of my hand.

The call from the future was fake. The betrayal was real.

Then when this show ends is no longer something the two of you get to decide.

Fabian pulled Stella onto his lap, every line of his face soft with affection.

"The company's right at the critical stage before the IPO. I can't afford a scandal in my personal life."

"Don't worry. Once we go public, you're the only one who'll get to stand beside me for the world to see."

Stella clearly liked what she heard, her expression a mix of coy and smug.

"She really is dumb as a rock. You have no idea. Every single time on the phone she cries until she can barely breathe, saying she wants to believe us but can't stop feeling hurt and reading too much into things."

"Ha, I'm going to die laughing. She saw us lying in the same bed and she still brainwashed herself. Unbelievably stupid."

The others in the room chimed in through their laughter.

"Yourself from the future? Only an idiot like Natalie would fall for something like that."

"Fabian, man, ten years with a woman that stupid. I actually feel for you. No wonder you built the company this big."

"If you ask me, Stella's the right fit for you. At work or off the clock, who doesn't say the two of you are a perfect match?"

Listening to all that mockery in the room, I couldn't stop the cold from rolling through me in waves.

Fabian had called me earlier and said the team was doing a company outing tonight, that he'd be home late.

But Fabian always got headaches when he drank, and Stella couldn't stand the cold.

When it got late and he still wasn't home, I finally went out, carrying the hangover pills for Fabian and a coat for Stella.

I lowered my head and stared blankly at the things in my hands.

In that moment, I suddenly thought they were right. I really was dumb as a rock.

I scrubbed hard at my tears, took two deep breaths, then pushed the door open and walked in.

The moment they saw me, the whole room went silent, and Stella, still on Fabian's lap, froze.

Fabian recovered first, shoving Stella off and coming to stand in front of me.

"Nat, it's so late. What are you doing here?"

I didn't miss the panic in his eyes, as if he was afraid I'd heard something I shouldn't have.

It wasn't the time to lay it all out yet, but I wasn't about to swallow this humiliation either.

I pointed at Stella and looked at Fabian, my voice a little hoarse.

"What were the two of you just doing? Why was she sitting on your lap?"

"Don't tell me this is a misunderstanding too?"

Maybe because I hadn't mentioned the fake calls, Fabian let out a barely noticeable breath of relief, and Stella came right up to me.

"Oh, Nat, don't read too much into it. We were just playing a game."

"Truth or Dare, you know how it goes."

"Oh, is this coat for me? Nat's the best, you know I get cold so easily..."

Before Stella could finish, I turned and walked straight out of the room and went home.

I hadn't been lying in bed long when I felt a familiar warmth close over me.

But right now, that warmth made my stomach turn.

Fabian's voice was low, with a coaxing edge to it.

"Don't be angry, hmm? Today was my fault. From now on I'll be careful about how I act."

I didn't answer him. I just lay there quietly, waiting for what would come next.

Sure enough, ten minutes later,

my phone rang.

That so-called "self from the future" was calling again.

The woman's voice on the other end was hoarse, the way it always was.

"You ran into Fabian and Stella playing a game today, didn't you? Don't read into it. You know how it is at team-building events, everybody plays those drinking games. The two of them just didn't want to kill the mood."

"Stella is your best friend. You walked straight out of that room today, and she was upset for a long time afterward."

"You know it as well as I do. Whether it's Fabian or Stella, they're the two people in this world who least want to hurt you. They both love you."

Every other time, I sank into the feeling and never noticed anything off.

This time, though, I caught it fast.

"Didn't you say that back then you never forgave Stella, and Stella jumped off a building out of guilt?"

"So how do you know everything that's happening now? By rights, if I've made a different choice, you shouldn't know how things turn out afterward."

The person on the line seemed stumped by that. It took a moment before she spoke.

"I... it's because I'm you from the future. You made a different choice, so of course I can find out what happens later."

"You and I are one and the same. Don't you believe me?"

It wasn't time to expose her yet.

I didn't say anything more. I just hung up.

Back in the bedroom, I glanced at Fabian, his eyes squeezed shut.

His breathing was steady, and he looked asleep, but the faint tremble of his lashes gave away that he was faking it.

When I woke the next morning, Fabian had already left for work.

I washed up, pulled myself together, and went out to his company.

But it wasn't Fabian I'd come to see. It was the company's other shareholder, Laurence Norris.

Once I'd done what I came to do and was ready to leave, I ran into Fabian and Stella again at the elevator.

The instant he saw me, his face soured.

"Didn't I tell you not to come to the company? Why are you here again?"

I looked at Stella, standing beside him.

"Fabian, don't forget how this company grew into what it is. I'm a shareholder here too."

"I may have stepped back from running it, but coming in as a shareholder shouldn't be a problem, should it?"

After college, Fabian wanted to start his own company. He didn't want a salaried life he could see the end of from the very beginning.

For as long as I could remember, I'd always stood by his side, and this was no exception.

In the early days, Fabian was hopeless with people. He only knew how to bury himself in R&D, and wanted nothing to do with the give-and-take of the drinking table.

So I learned it. I learned to trade toasts at those tables, to deal with the clients from every company.

Three years later, once the company was on solid ground, Fabian couldn't stand the thought of me out there in the spotlight, and that was when I came home.

We built this company together, the two of us.

But now, the one standing beside him was Stella.

And I couldn't even set foot in the company without being interrogated.

I'd already decided to let go, but I couldn't stop the sting rising in my eyes, and I just stood there, holding his gaze.

Stella hurried forward to smooth it over.

"Oh, come on, Fabian, honestly, is that any way to talk to Nat?"

"Nat, don't be angry. Fabian's probably just worn out from work. I'll straighten him out for you later."

"Don't worry, we're sisters. I'm absolutely on your side. I'll keep this jerk in line for you."

I forced down the lump in my throat and pushed out a thin smile at Stella.

"Is that so? Keep him in line how, exactly? And straighten him out how?"

"In bed?"

With that, I didn't spare either of them another glance and walked straight out of the company.

I hated them to the bone, but the old bond wasn't fake, and the ache in my chest reminded me of it every waking moment.

The good years were all real.

Fabian, Stella, and I grew up together in the same orphanage.

Fabian and I were closer in age, so the two of us were tighter.

Little by little, I started to notice Stella, always tucked away in a corner.

She'd been shy and timid since she was small, couldn't fit in with the group, and got bullied by the other kids all the time.

I was the one who took her hand and walked with her all the way here.

In college we worked part-time jobs together, and she'd quietly save up to buy me the little cakes and coffees I wouldn't spend on myself.

She'd also step in when people got jealous and sneered at me for winning a scholarship.

The most timid of the three of us, and yet, time after time, she was the one who stood in front of me.

I used to think it would always be like that between us.

But friendship or love, in the end it all drifts apart in the long river of time.

I hate them. And I grieve for it too.

After I got home, right on schedule, the call came again.

This time I spoke before the other end could.

"I still can't forgive."

"After all, two months ago, I lost a child."

Three months ago, I found Fabian Fox and Stella Butler tangled together in one bed.

That same night, I got the first of these so-called "calls from the future."

I believed what the voice on the line told me. I believed they'd been set up by a business rival, and I forced myself to forgive them.

But in the countless days and nights that followed, I kept going back to that moment, over and over.

Caught in that endless loop, I found out I was pregnant.

For me, back then, the only light was that child. It was my hope of starting a new life.

When I told "future me" about it, the woman on the other end of the line grew anxious.

"Nat, you can't keep this baby. Fabian and Stella already feel so guilty toward you."

"Stella especially. If she found out you were already pregnant when she did that to you, she'd never be able to live with herself. And if she died, do you really think you and Fabian could ever be happy?"

"Trust me. End the pregnancy, and don't tell anyone. You're both still young. You'll have other children."

Maybe it was because the person on the line was future me, or maybe because by then I was already at my breaking point.

In this whole world I had nothing. Only Fabian Fox and Stella Butler.

I actually listened to her. I went to the hospital alone and ended it.

When she heard me say it was done, the voice on the other end almost broke.

"Nat? Are you blaming me? But I'm you too. That was my child as well. Do you think it didn't hurt me?"

"But I know you better than anyone. If something had happened to Stella because of this baby, you really would have blamed yourself until you couldn't go on."

I already knew who was on the other end of that line, so of course I wouldn't believe a single word she said anymore.

But my baby was truly, truly gone.

I sat on the couch holding the phone, not moving.

By the time I came back to myself, my face was already wet with tears.

I didn't answer her. I just hung up.

The sky outside had gone dark, and I was still sitting on the couch in the same position, unmoving.

When Fabian came home, that was what he found. Me, sitting on the couch.

He set his coat down gently to one side, walked over, and crouched in front of me so we were eye to eye.

"I'm sorry, Nat. I was too harsh with you today."

"But you shouldn't have treated Stella that way these past couple of days. She's a girl, and she went through something like that. These three months have been hard on her too."

"All right. Tomorrow I'll find time for the three of us to have a meal together. We'll talk it all out, go back to the way things were. All right?"

I looked straight into Fabian's eyes, searching for one honest trace of remorse.

It was a long while before I spoke.

"When you apologize to me, is it because you really feel you've wronged me?"

"Or because you don't want it to hurt your company's IPO?"

It was guilt, plain and simple.

The instant that question left my mouth, Fabian shot to his feet, his voice sharp with the anger of someone who'd just been seen through.

"What on earth are you rambling about? It's been three months already, and you're still dredging up things that only hurt us. Do you want this to shadow us for the rest of our lives?"

"Natalie, when did you turn into this?"

With that, he didn't so much as glance at me. He turned and walked straight out of the house.

Bang.

The heavy slam of the door, and then the huge living room fell silent again.

Just as well that he left.

That way I wouldn't need an excuse when I walked out tomorrow at noon.

A little while later, I remembered the things I'd bought for the kids at the orphanage were still in the car.

Exhausted as I was, I got up and went down to the private underground garage.

The number dropped to B1, and the moment the elevator doors slid open, an ugly sound reached my ears.

"Natalie gets more unreasonable by the day. I can't stand another second in that house."

"Stella, thank God I have you. Once I coax the shares out of her hands, we can finally be together properly."

The rear door of Fabian's Maybach stood open, and one smooth, pale leg dangled out past the door.

The garage was empty, and their voices, even their breathing, carried to me with perfect clarity.

"I think she's been off lately too."

"You have no idea how much pressure I've been under making those calls the last two times. She used to believe everything I said. Now she actually argues back."

"Forget it, forget it. The company goes public in three days anyway. After that we won't have to keep pretending."

"That idiot. She really thought the two of us were on her side, that we all treated the other two like our whole world? Then let's teach her a lesson. The lesson is this: people change."

I stood inside the elevator without stepping out, watching the doors open and close, close and open.

Over and over, like punishing myself, I listened to every filthy word.

Only when those ugly voices had faded away did I press the button again and go back up to the house.

I didn't want any of the things I'd bought today, not anymore.

With money, what couldn't you buy?

Even after everything had come to this, before today I had never once thought of doing anything to Fabian's company.

Fabian held forty percent of the company. The other shareholder, Laurence Norris, and I each held thirty.

Even if we broke up, as long as the company did well, I'd take in a good deal every year.

That was the orphanage's safety net. For the children, for Mama Grace who cared for them, I hadn't meant to leave Fabian with nothing.

But now, that was over.

Once I was home, I called Laurence Norris, the other shareholder I'd seen earlier that day.

"I've made up my mind. I accept your offer."

"My flight is tomorrow at noon. Have the share-transfer agreement at my place before ten in the morning."

"Move fast on your end. I don't have time to wait."

That night, as expected, Fabian didn't come home.

I'll give Laurence this much, he was quick.

Early the next morning a knock came at the door, and Laurence stood there with his secretary.

Once I'd signed the transfer agreement, a sizeable sum landed in my account.

That money was enough to give the orphanage children a good life.

I handed the contract to Laurence.

"Congratulations, Mr. Norris. You're now the controlling shareholder of Grandsun Group."

"I hear the company goes public in three days. I hope you get everything you want soon."

Laurence gave a slight nod, took the contract, and left with his secretary.

After he was gone, I set the abortion consent form I'd printed out earlier on the nightstand in the bedroom.

He was the baby's father, whatever he chose to feel about it.

But the baby had been real, and he had a right to know it had existed.

Once all of that was done, I wheeled my suitcase out and took a cab to the airport.

Today was the day I'd promised Mama Grace I'd come back to the orphanage, and I wasn't going to break my word.

I'd just reached the airport when my phone rang again. It was that so-called "call from the future" once more.

Only this was the last time.

"Fabian didn't come home last night, did he? Natalie, don't get the wrong idea. He was only..."

I cut off the voice on the other end.

"Stella, is this game fun?"

"Well, the game's over now."