He Gave My Dream to Another Woman? I Took It Back with Interest! Chapter 07

He Gave My Dream to Another Woman? I Took It Back with Interest! Chapter 07

That very night, Ethan showed up with Mr. and Mrs. Bennett in tow.

The moment he saw my head wrapped in layers of bandages, the deep crease in his brow loosened a little. He sat down by my bed and spoke in a low, soothing voice.

“How could you be so careless? When I heard what happened, I was scared out of my mind.”

Scared out of your mind, huh? And yet you still had the presence of mind to go fetch backup first. You seemed perfectly clearheaded to me.

He gestured toward the door, and Natalie immediately walked in with Lily.

“Lily, why don’t you apologize to Aunt Claire?” Ethan coaxed softly, nudging the little girl toward my bed.

But the second Lily saw me, she burst into tears again.

Her wailing was loud enough to shake the whole room, yet there was not a single tear on her face.

Ethan looked heartbroken at once. He pulled her into his arms, then turned to me and said, “Don’t hold a grudge against a child. I’ll apologize on her behalf. She really was frightened earlier. Besides, if you hadn’t hit her first, she wouldn’t have pushed you, right?”

I listened with detached amusement as he twisted black into white.

So Natalie had already polished the story again. She really was skilled at scrubbing herself clean of every trace.

Mr. Bennett chimed in from the side, “Exactly, Claire. It’s not like you were seriously hurt. Let’s just leave it at that. Ethan can take you home later.”

I ignored all of them and looked only at Natalie.

“You ruined my design draft on purpose so I wouldn’t be able to compete this weekend, didn’t you?”

Ethan glanced at Natalie, opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, then after a long pause, shut it again.

Mr. Bennett’s face darkened.

“What do you mean, on purpose? If we hadn’t raised you and given you such good opportunities, would you even have had the chance to enter competitions like this? Lily was only playing and tore it by accident, and now you’re going to push Natalie this hard over that?”

“Claire, we raised you all these years for nothing. Even an animal would’ve shown more loyalty by now.”

Natalie did not even need to lift a finger. There was always someone rushing forward to charge into battle for her.

Talking to people like them was a waste of breath. No matter what I said, it always came back to the same thing in the end. Somehow, I was the one who owed Natalie.

In my last life, I had questioned that too. I had wondered whether I really had taken something that should have been hers, since I had spent so many years living a life that had never originally belonged to me.

But after being given a second chance, I no longer believed that.

Even without me, the Bennett family would have adopted someone else.

To them, a daughter was simply a tool, a way to tie themselves to the Carter family so they could pull strings for their son’s military career.

Yes, I had benefited from the resources the Bennett family gave me, and because of that I received a good education.

But what I had now was also undeniably the result of my own hard work.

I was willing to repay their kindness. I just would not do it by sacrificing myself.

After they finally left, only Ethan and I remained in the room.

“I know Lily lied,” he said at last. “But she’s still just a child. If we exposed her in front of that many people, it would leave a mark on her.”

“I promise I’ll find Natalie and Lily another place as soon as possible. After that, we’ll just live our lives properly together.”

He looked at me as he spoke, explaining himself word by word with a seriousness I rarely saw from him.

“Oh,” I said, then lay back down on the bed.

A moment later, as if I had only just remembered, I turned my head and looked at him again.

“Natalie said today that you only ever believe her. She also said that

place would be her home sooner or later.”

Ethan froze. Then, like I had struck the exact nerve he was trying to hide, he practically jumped to his feet.

“Don’t listen to that nonsense. I only take care of her because of Ryan. We all grew up together, sure, but how could she possibly compare to you?”

As if he were trying to convince himself as much as me, his voice grew louder with every word.

I nodded once.

“Oh.”