He Gave My Dream to Another Woman? I Took It Back with Interest! Chapter 01

He Gave My Dream to Another Woman? I Took It Back with Interest! Chapter 01

“This year, the department only had one slot, and I fought hard to get it for you.”

“If Ethan isn’t on board, I’ll speak to him myself. The two of you have a strong marriage. A few years’ delay won’t make much difference.”

As I stared at the application form my professor pressed into my hands, they trembled uncontrollably.

In my previous life, I had been married to Ethan Parker for forty years. We raised a son and a daughter together, and I had truly believed that was what a complete life looked like.

It was not until after Ethan died, when I was sorting through the things he had left behind, that I found the box of letters and photographs.

That was when I learned he had always had someone else in his heart, the biological daughter of my adoptive parents.

Back in 1984, he had hidden my study-abroad application so he could give that opportunity to her instead.

From that moment on, I became a housewife, while he helped turn the woman he had always loved into a celebrated professor with an overseas degree.

Even my son later wrote their story into a drama himself, all so he could praise the restrained, unspoken love they had carried for a lifetime.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the very day I received that application.

“Professor, I’m definitely going abroad!”

***

“This year, the department only had this one slot, and I worked hard to secure it for you, Claire. Don’t do anything foolish.”

“If Ethan isn’t on board, I’ll speak to him myself. The two of you have a strong marriage. A few years’ delay won’t make much difference.”

Looking at the application form my professor had pushed into my hands, I could not stop trembling. I had actually been reborn.

The professor beside me had not yet noticed anything unusual and kept trying to persuade me with patient sincerity.

“I know you two just got married, and this is the stage where couples can hardly bear to be apart, but…”

“Please don’t worry, Professor. I’m going.”

The moment I said it, I sat back down and filled out the form as fast as I could.

He looked stunned, then asked cautiously, “Whenever I sent you out of town to survey historic buildings, Ethan always insisted on going with you. Are you sure something this big doesn’t need to be discussed with him first?”

Everyone thought Ethan loved me deeply.

In my last life, I had believed that too.

I shook my head, smiled, and handed the completed form back to him.

“If we’re husband and wife, then of course he’d want me to become better. I’ll tell him when I get home. Professor, I’ll need your help keeping this confidential for now.”

Only then did he finally relax and smile. He nodded again and again before locking the application back in the cabinet.

The moment I walked out of the academic building, I let out a long breath.

In this life, I would never again let Ethan bind me in the name of love.

In my last life, I had applied to study abroad too, but I was never accepted.

I thought it was because I was pregnant, so I did not dwell on it. I simply took leave and went home to wait for the baby.

And just like that, I was trapped by family for the rest of my life.

It was only after Ethan died, when I was sorting through his belongings, that I discovered he had never submitted my application at all.

He had done it so the overseas spot could go to Natalie Bennett instead, the biological daughter of my adoptive parents.

After that, he repeatedly took her daughter abroad to see her, hiding every trip from me. Even my own son kept in touch with them behind my back.

Even after Ethan died, our son wrote their story into a screenplay as if Ethan himself were telling it, then went on camera to say that his father had spent his entire life regretting that he had not been brave enough when he was young.

I still remembered the four bold words Ethan had written on the back of a yellowed photograph.

Love of My Life.

That was when I finally woke up. My whole life had been nothing but a complete, humiliating joke.

When I nearly bled to death giving birth, my husband had been thinking about how to persuade me to raise Natalie’s daughter Lily by my side.

While I was sick with worry every time he went out on assignment, he was taking Lily halfway across the world to reunite with Natalie, without a second thought for his own son.

After Natalie came back, he lied to me and said a fallen comrade had left behind a widow and child who needed looking after, then handed over more than half his paycheck to her every month.

And everyone praised their love as tragic, restrained, and full of regret.

Not one of them ever stopped to think about me, the woman who had been kept in the dark for an entire lifetime and turned into the cover for their betrayal.

And there were my adoptive parents, the Bennetts, who had taken me in from the orphanage.

Back then, Natalie had gotten lost because she was careless and wandered off while playing. To comfort Mrs. Bennett after her breakdown, they adopted me from the orphanage.

But later, the story somehow became that I was arrogant, overbearing, and shamelessly occupying Natalie’s place, trying to steal everything that should have been hers.

Never mind that I had moved out the moment I started working.

Never mind that after she came home, I gave back the engagement to Ryan Carter that had once been arranged for me.

Never mind that I had repaid every cent the Bennett family had spent on my education over the years.

None of it mattered.

Everyone still blamed me for everything she had lost, and because of that, they felt perfectly justified in exploiting me.

Even Ethan had only married me because he was afraid I would keep getting entangled with Ryan and make Natalie unhappy.

After Ryan died in service, Ethan’s pity for Natalie only grew stronger.

So he let Natalie’s daughter call him Dad, and he let Natalie use my design draft to win that study-abroad opportunity.

Because in his mind, I owed her, and she needed that chance more than I did.