Chapter 1

The day Marcus Fox said he'd gone bankrupt, I got a phone call from the future.

"I'm Marcus Fox's son."

Joy flooded through me, and without thinking I assumed he was our child.

He gave a cold little laugh.

"Don't be stupid. You don't even have a womb, so how could you give birth? I'm the only child of Anne Pruitt and Marcus Fox, the sole heir to the family. You're nothing."

My eyes went wide, and I shot back on instinct.

"Impossible. Marcus would never cheat on me, not if his life depended on it!"

I said that because.

When I nearly died in the earthquake, he threw himself over me, coughing up blood as the rubble struck him, refusing to let go until I was safe.

When I wasn't recovering, when I nearly went into shock, he gave me a lethal dose of his own matched blood.

He loved me that much. He couldn't cheat.

But the laughter on the other end only grew louder.

"Foolish woman. Let me show you what you look like now. Resting comfortably in the psychiatric hospital, are you?"

The image shifted, and I saw the me of the future.

Skin and bone, out of my mind.

My heart dropped, and he pressed on without mercy.

"The day my dad lied to you about the bankruptcy, he said you couldn't afford a child and tricked you into an abortion. After that you could never have children again. Then my mom and I moved right into your house, out in the open, and all you could do was watch the three of us be happy together."

"My dad really loves my mom so much. She'd pull some little trick, and he wouldn't even hear you out. He just shipped you off to the sanatorium in Southridge. Locked you in there your whole life and never once came to see you."

"Oh, right. Here's one more thing to tell you."

My hand trembled as I pressed the speaker button.

"That man with you now is Marcus Fox from ten years in the future. Want to guess whether he'd choose you if he had to do it all over again?"

...

The static swelled all at once, the voice cutting in and out.

A single beep, and then nothing.

When it hit me, I shot up and ran downstairs.

And there was Marcus, who'd just gone down to make me soup.

"Why are you down here? And without a coat. What if you catch cold?"

He quickly set down the cup, took off his jacket and draped it over me, his voice full of reproach.

As if the man on the phone couldn't possibly be him.

I wiped my eyes and looked at him with a smile.

"I just came to see if the soup was ready. I'm so thirsty."

He gave the tip of my nose an indulgent little flick.

"It'll be ready in a minute."

My eyes drifted, and they landed on the takeout chicken soup packed up in the corner. My heart dropped.

"Isn't there already some right there?"

The words were barely out when Marcus swept me up and carried me toward the bedroom.

"That one got scorched. I'll throw it out later. You get back to the room now. You're pregnant, you can't let yourself get cold."

I went rigid.

Marcus stopped too, right where he stood.

"I never told you I was pregnant."

The air was silent for several seconds before he spoke, a little awkwardly.

"What could you ever keep from me? I saw the test report you hid in the drawer. Get back to the room. Stop treating your own body like it doesn't matter."

With that, he carried me carefully back to bed and tucked the covers in around me with such care.

Marcus leaned in for a goodnight kiss, the way he always did.

But I flinched away on instinct.

He frowned slightly, then let it go, glancing at his watch.

"There's nothing left in the house you like to eat. I'll go pick something up, I'll be back in ten minutes. If you get sleepy, go on and sleep."

The door slammed shut.

Only then did I notice one side of the pillow was already soaked with my tears.

Because of that pregnancy report. I'd been busy answering the phone, and hadn't had time to put it in the drawer.

He really was the Marcus Fox from ten years later.

I broke, and went downstairs. I wanted to see exactly what he was going to do.

But I'd barely reached the bottom when I heard a sweet, cloying voice.

"Marcus, when do the baby and I get to come to the house? He says he misses his daddy so much, wants to see you every single day, don't you, sweetie?"

A soft, babyish voice came through, and I froze.

It sounded so much like the voice on the phone just now.

Marcus strode to the door, not noticing me behind him at all.

He gave a doting little laugh and said,

"You're cuter as a little kid. Once you grow up you turn into such a pain, ha."

The words had barely left him when his hand went still on the turning key.

"How long have you been standing there?"

Something ruthless surfaced in Marcus's eyes, and I thought of the woman I'd seen in that video.

The moment I understood that this man, who had once risked his life for me, truly had cheated.

My legs gave out, and I fell down the stairs.

"Ah!"

The world spun. I opened my eyes through the tearing pain.

My hands were covered in blood, yet Marcus only stared at me for two seconds before he began to sigh.

"Looks like there's nothing to be done. This baby can't be saved either. Sophie Pruitt, I owe you."

After that, I couldn't make out anything anymore.

Marcus scooped me up and rushed straight to the hospital.

In my daze I even heard that woman's voice.

"Marcus, if I just sit here in the car like this, she won't make a scene after she sees me, will she?"

Marcus laughed softly.

"She's passed out. It's on the way anyway. I'll drop her at the hospital now. Hurry and drink the chicken soup. You need to take good care of yourself all these years. Having kids left you with health problems, and if you don't rest, the headaches and back pain later will kill me to see."

The two of them talked like an old married couple, about things we had never once shared.

I don't know how long it was before I opened my eyes.

Marcus's eyes were red.

"Sweetheart, the baby's gone. I'm sorry."

The anesthesia hadn't worn off yet. I didn't even have the strength to open my mouth.

He dropped to his knees in front of me.

"I made the decision myself. The doctor said they had to remove your womb, and I agreed. You know it too, your life matters most! I don't care whether we have a child, it's you I love."

A bitterness spread through my mouth, and a single tear slid from the corner of my eye.

He knew. He knew how much this baby meant to me.