Two

Chapter 2: She is going crazy"Dad, I'm afraid of pain. I don't want to get an injection…"

When the little boy spoke, he slightly raised his chin and looked at the man, revealing a beautiful and delicate face without reservation.

I stopped breathing, and my eyes were fixed on the little boy's face.

That face looks almost exactly like Ethan!

Is that Ethan's son?

Could it be that Ethan… cheated?!

The color drained from my face. My mind tried to reject what my eyes were telling me, but my body understood first. My hands began to shake.

It felt as if a piece of flesh had been cut out of my heart, and the pain made my whole body tremble.

Ethan coaxed the child very patiently, "Charlie is good, you need an injection to get better. Dad is with you. Let's be brave, okay?"

"Then Charlie will take the injection. Dad, can you sleep with Charlie at night? Mom said that tomorrow is Charlie's fifth birthday. Charlie wants to see his father when he opens his eyes on his birthday!"

Ethan's long, slender fingers gently stroked the boy's head, "Okay, daddy promises Charlie."

"Thank you, Dad! Dad is the best, and Charlie loves daddy the most!"

The man curled his lips and said, "Dad also loves Charlie very much."

The child’s innocent, coaxing voice and Ethan’s patient gentleness lingered in my mind. Every word cut deeper than the last.

Five years old. The number struck my harder than anything Ethan had said.

My heart felt like it was being held and torn randomly by a big invisible hand, and my stomach was churning.

I covered my mouth and turned around in embarrassment, retching into the trash can nearby!

The sound of retching caught the little boy's attention.

The little boy turned to look around the corner and raised his finger to point at me, "Dad, there's an aunt over there who seems to be sick too. She looks so uncomfortable."

Ethan frowned slightly. When he heard the sound of vomiting, his expression tightened with concern.

He stood up with the boy in his arms, and was about to step forward to take a look when a rush of footsteps approached behind him—

"Ethan!"

Ethan paused and turned his head to look at the person coming.

I froze when I heard the voice. It was all too familiar to me.

This voice was all too familiar to my…

The woman in professional attire came to Ethan, reached out and touched the child's red face, looking anxious, "What did the doctor say?"

"Only when there is inflammation in the body will the fever keep recurring and require infusion." Ethan said in a deep voice, "Let's pay the f*e first and then take Charlie to get the injection."

"Okay." The woman nodded and looked at the little boy with a distressed face, "Charlie, I'm sorry that mom is late."

The little boy shook his head, "Dad said that mom was busy at work. Charlie knows that mom is working hard, so she doesn't blame her."

"We, Charlie, are the most sensible." The woman touched the little boy's head, then turned to look at Ethan, "Ethan, can I hold him?"

"No, the child is quite heavy…"

The man held the child, the woman accompanied him, and the family of three gradually drifted away.

I gripped the wall. My knees weakened, and tears blurred the hallway until Ethan, Olivia and the child became one indistinct picture of a family I had never been invited into.

Before that day, I never imagined Ethan would cheat on me. I never imagined Olivia would betray me either.

One was the man I loved with all my heart and soul. The other was a poor student I had rescued from the mountains, personally funded through college, and introduced to everyone as my younger sister.

…

When I came to my senses, the car was already parked under the shade of the trees outside the villa.

Through the car window, I watched Ethan's Maybach drive into the villa.

The electric embossed copper door slowly closed, completely cutting off my sight.

The hand holding the steering wheel was shaking uncontrollably. I stared at the door. In the closed car, my breathing became more and more rapid.

"Ugh—"

The car door was pushed open suddenly, and I ran out of the car with my mouth covered, holding on to the tree beside the road and retching.

After a while, my convulsing stomach gradually calmed down. I stood up straight in embarrassment, wiped the tears from my face, and turned around slowly while holding on to the tree trunk.

I looked around at this villa whose architectural style was extremely familiar, and the pain in my heart was almost numb.

In the wealthy center of New York City, where apartments were almost impossible to find, Ethan and I had our wedding home, Seaview Estate, in Area A. This villa, Willow Creek Estate, stood in Area B.

There is only a residential driveway of more than 1,000 meters between the two villas.

So this was where Ethan and Olivia had built a home and raised a son behind my back.

I don’t know how long it’s been?

The child was five years old. That meant I had spent five years trapped in the pain of losing my children while Ethan and Olivia enjoyed the warmth of a family of three behind my back.

Ethan had a new home and a new child, so why would he care about the twins I had lost?

I got into the car again and closed the door.

I sat in the car, took out my cell phone from my bag like a masochist, and dialed Ethan's number again.

When I didn't answer the first call, I made a second call…

I couldn't remember how many calls I made. Just like when I lost control of my emotions in the past five years, I dialed Ethan's number over and over again. I knew he wouldn't answer, but I still pressed the dial button again and again.

Until nightfall, the phone automatically shut down when it ran out of battery and fell off my hand.

I blinked my sore eyes, tears falling down.

The lights in the villa area were turned on, and the light shone into the dim car.

As if I had a premonition, I raised my eyes and looked in the direction of the master bedroom on the second floor.

Through the window screen in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, I vaguely saw two figures embracing each other…

I closed my lips tightly and tried hard to calm down, but my jaw still couldn't stop shaking.

My heart did not simply hurt. It felt as if every fragile piece of hope I had rebuilt over the past three months was being torn apart at once.

He reached out to hold the handle, and when he opened the door, his eyes caught a glimpse of the pregnancy test form on the center console.

What the twins said to me in the dream echoed in my mind.

Finally, I let go.

From now on, the baby I was carrying belonged to me alone.

…

After I returned home, I collected the pregnancy test forms.

That night, Ethan didn't come back, not even a call back.

I stopped calling him and lay quietly on the bed, keeping my eyes open until dawn.

When the first ray of sunlight shone into the room in the morning, I turned over and sat up, opened the communication and dialed the lawyer's number.

Lawyer Rachel was my high school friend. When I told her I wanted a divorce, she sighed helplessly. “Claire, when the children died, Mr. Carter must have suffered too. It’s been five years. Please let it go.”

I had heard too much of this kind of persuasion in the past five years.

My mutual friends had all advised me the same way. They pitied me for the pain of losing my children, but they always asked me to understand Ethan’s difficulties.

In the past, I would even reflect on myself. It wasn't until I bumped into Ethan and Olivia's family yesterday that I realized how stupid I was!

How could Ethan be in pain?

How could Ethan be in pain? He was enjoying family happiness in that house. When he saw me come back, he would probably think I was an unreasonable lunatic.

In fact, there were already traces of everything from the time he failed to return home on the pretext of work and entertainment, but I couldn't see clearly.

Thinking of that boy, my heart suddenly throbbed.

I felt worthless for my own children!

The resentment and hatred towards Ethan had reached its peak after a night of calm. I said coldly, "Rachel, I want a divorce. Ethan is the one at fault. I want him to leave the marriage with nothing but the assets he brought into it."

“What?!” Rachel was so shocked that she could barely speak. “Is Mr. Carter really at fault? He… he cheated? That’s impossible, isn’t it?”

"He and Olivia lived together behind my back and gave birth to a son." I paused and spoke again, my voice choked with sobs: "Hey, that child is five years old this year, as old as my child…"