He Gave My Dream to Another Woman? I Took It Back with Interest! Chapter 09

He Gave My Dream to Another Woman? I Took It Back with Interest! Chapter 09

By the time I returned home after the competition, it was already the afternoon of the third day.

Ethan was sitting outside the door, smoking. Cigarette butts littered the ground in front of him.

In just a few days, he looked far more worn down than before. Even stubble had grown in.

I took out my key and unlocked the door.

“So you knew all along, didn’t you?”

Ethan’s voice rose behind me, low and hoarse.

I lifted a brow but said nothing.

Of course I had known Lily was never sick that day. Natalie had only used it as an excuse to lure him over, then tried to use the same trick on him that she had once used on Ryan.

But what did that have to do with me? As far as I was concerned, it was a good thing.

Otherwise, with a protected marriage like this, who knew how long it would have taken me to get out?

I could not afford to wait.

Ethan seemed to read the answer in my silence. He pressed a hand to his brow in pain, his eyes bloodshot.

“No wonder you stopped fighting with me. No wonder you didn’t care.”

anymore that I was always around Natalie. You’d already decided you wanted a divorce, didn’t you?”

“Was it because I didn’t stand by you before? Or because I gave my paycheck to Natalie? Or because I treated Lily like my own child and let her call me Dad?”

“We said we were going to live a good life together. Can’t you just give me one more chance?”

I looked up at him, startled.

Wasn’t this the thing he had regretted all his life in my previous life? Now that he had finally gotten what he wanted, why wasn’t he happy?

“No.”

Ethan buried both hands in his hair, his voice breaking as he spoke.

“I never thought things would end up like this…”

“I really regret it…”

Suddenly, I thought of the child from my last life.

This had been the very time when Ethan had deliberately gotten me pregnant so I would stay home and settle down.

More than once, in all those years of regret, he had said the thing Ethan regretted most was not being brave enough when he was young.

But now, wasn’t this exactly what he had wanted?

So why did he regret it?

Three days before I was set to leave the country, Ethan and I finalized our divorce.

The moment we stepped outside, he made his way toward Natalie in a state that was almost pathetic.

I looked at the smug, triumphant expression on her face, then turned and walked away without a trace of emotion.

Only someone like her would pin her entire future on a man.

And when one man proved unreliable, she would simply move on to the next. It was ridiculous.

The moment the plane landed, I still felt as if my whole body were floating.

I drifted through the first week in a haze before I finally got over the jet lag.

Every day was nothing but eating, sleeping, and endless classes.

By the time I received a letter from my professor, half a year had already passed.

I had not told anyone before I left. Ethan only realized something was wrong after a full month of not seeing me, and when he went to the school to look for me, that was when he learned I had gone abroad to study.

In his letter, my professor scolded me for keeping such a major decision from my family and urged me to write home as soon as possible so they would know I was safe.

I never wrote back. There were no loved ones waiting for news from

me there. And there was no one who truly cared whether I answered or not.

After that, I began receiving letters from Ethan every six months.

At first, he kept them simple and wrote about ordinary things. Later, he must have realized my relationship with the Bennett family was nothing like what he had imagined, so he stopped mentioning them and began writing only about himself.

He said he still had not married Natalie.

I burned the letter.

In this life, I would never have anything to do with him again.

After I returned home, I threw myself completely into the restoration of historic buildings.

It was not until the first New Year after my return that I heard news of Ethan from my professor.

He and Natalie still had not married.

The two of them fought constantly, making scenes day after day. More than once, things escalated all the way to the military compound gates, and the promotion he had once been in line for was taken away.

Now, his monthly pay was not even enough to comfortably support himself, let alone a family.

Natalie was just as unrealistic as ever. Mrs. Bennett had found several jobs for her, but she turned every one of them down, complaining that the pay was too low and the work too hard.

In the end, she had no choice but to send Lily back to the Carter family every month on schedule, just so she could squeeze some child support out of them.

Mr. and Mrs. Bennett had tried more than once to pressure Ethan and Natalie into getting married, but Ethan refused to budge.

When they pushed him too hard, he snapped back that his career was already ruined anyway, so he no longer cared what kind of trouble she caused.

My professor shook his head as he told me all this.

“I used to think Ethan was dependable. I never expected him to turn out like this. Good thing you got out when you did.”

I smiled and nodded.

“At the end of the day, no one is more reliable than yourself.”

Three years later, while I was working on the design for a railway station, the gatekeeper brought me a letter.

There were only two words written inside.

[I’m sorry.]

I knew exactly who it was from. But by then, I no longer needed it.