Chapter 2

The moonlight outside the window was like gauze, layer upon layer pressing down on me until I could barely breathe.

I clutched my chest and took deep breaths for a while before I felt like I'd come back to life. Ethan, who should have been lying next to me in bed, was nowhere to be seen. The sheets were cold as ice.

He'd been gone for quite a while.

My mind still echoed with my future self's desperate screams—that Ethan married me not out of love, but to use me as a shield for his affair with the Johnson family's foster daughter, Lily. My heart grew cold.

This was too much of a coincidence. Ever since Lily came home from college for break and moved into the new house Ethan and I shared, he'd been disappearing at night.

I used to ask him where he was going. Ethan would smile and pinch the tip of my nose.

"Just going out for a smoke. You have rhinitis and can't stand the smell, and I can't bear to make you uncomfortable."

The hand he reached out indeed carried a faint scent of tobacco. Usually at times like this, I'd be deeply moved, thinking Ethan was gentle and considerate.

But now...

I quietly got up, pushed open the master bedroom door, and approached Lily's guest room, trying to hear something that would confirm the prophecy my dream-self had given me.

There was no sound at all, only the hum of the refrigerator still running in the deep night.

"Chloe, what are you doing?"

A voice suddenly sounded behind me. I shuddered all over and turned to see Ethan standing in the shadows holding the inner pot of a rice cooker, his expression unclear.

I clenched my fists to suppress my heart that nearly jumped out of my chest, and slowly spoke.

"I had a nightmare and woke up scared. When I didn't see you, I came to find you."

"Silly girl, dreams are fake."

Ethan chuckled lightly, walked out from the shadows, and stood in front of me with gentle eyes, raising his hand to ruffle my hair.

"At dinner you said you wanted eight-treasure porridge for breakfast. I forgot to set it before bed, and only remembered while smoking in the middle of the night, so I rushed to program the rice cooker for tomorrow's breakfast. That's why I was late getting back."

"You go back to bed first. I'll come back after I put the pot away. Don't be scared."

I lowered my eyes and indeed saw rice with water added in the rice cooker. Because I didn't like peanuts, Ethan had even carefully picked out the peanuts that came pre-mixed with the rice.

Just a casual remark, yet someone had taken it so seriously to heart. My nose stung, and I felt very guilty.

It was just a dream, yet I'd started suspecting my lover of having an affair with his foster sister.

Ethan's kindness to me was the kind that everyone who heard about it would envy.

Whenever I needed him, he'd appear by my side immediately—whether I had menstrual cramps or when my car got scratched and a male driver stood outside my car pointing at my nose and cursing.

I only needed to call Ethan.

"Ethan, I'm so scared."

He would always respond with two words.

"Wait for me."

So as long as I was with Ethan, I had endless security.

He was also very generous with me. When gold prices were at their highest, I casually mentioned wanting a gold bracelet. The next day, that bracelet would appear on my wrist, along with a matching necklace and ring.

When I said it was too expensive, moved, Ethan would hold me and comfort me indulgently.

"As long as Chloe is happy, these pieces of jewelry have value."

And in my impression, although Ethan doted on his foster sister Lily, he'd always maintained clear boundaries with her.

I'd seen their chat records—they were all very mundane, like his parents calling him home for dinner, or Lily wanting him to bring something home, ending with a "thank you."

When eating at the Johnson house, the shrimp Ethan peeled would first appear in my bowl, with Lily getting the second one. Even when alone together in the same room, every time I pushed open the door, I'd see them sitting far apart.

I once jokingly teased them.

"Why are you sitting so far apart? You're not strangers."

Afterward, Ethan pulled me into his arms and explained carefully.

"Men and women should maintain distance. What's more, Lily is just my foster sister—I need to keep even more distance from her. Besides, wouldn't you be jealous if Lily and I sat close together? Don't tell me my little jealous baby wouldn't cry about it later."

My heart warmed, and I pouted, saying I wouldn't be jealous at all.

Lily was also very polite to me. Every time we met, she'd call me "sister-in-law." Even if she wanted to go out to eat alone with Ethan, she'd tell me in advance.

So when she suggested staying at Ethan's and my new house for a while during her break, I agreed without hesitation.

Perhaps dreams and reality really are opposites.