Loved You Once But He's My Forever (Chloe)

I vividly remembered something Jeffrey had once said-Everly had a dimple on

her cheek, in the same spot as Carter's mother.

Yael had one too, but it was on the opposite side, just like Dominic's.

Amber, however, had no dimples at all.

Amber had originally been a twin, and the only way to tell them apart was by the dimple on one of their cheeks.

Could it be that the person who had been cooking for Carter all these years wasn't Amber at all, but Eleanor Dolton-Carter's mother?

That would explain why she had such a strong reaction upon seeing the Stone of Duality on my neck.

The person standing before me at that moment hadn't been Amber-it had been her!

She didn't want her son to die, so she orchestrated the assassination attempt on

me.

Eleanor wasn't dead.

She had been alive all along.

Thinking back to what Sheila had whispered before she died about Lady Rose, I had initially suspected Amber.

But could it have been Eleanor all along?

I staggered back, nearly losing my balance.

Details I had overlooked began piecing themselves together in my mind. All along, Lady Rose had been pulling the strings behind Sheila, orchestrating my death in my first life.

The fire had been started by that old witch. She had orchestrated everything, manipulated Eleanor into believing Jeffrey was her enemy, and turned her into nothing more than a pawn in her quest for revenge.

She had been rescued from that fire and Carter had been taken to the Boltons. Soon, she disappeared from the world.

Her only reason to stay alive was to take revenge against the Boltons.

Then Carter left the country. And she, under Amber's guise, approached him to protect him.

But what if ...

What if she had wanted me dead from the very beginning?

After all, she was the person closest to Wisteria. And Wisteria was the mastermind behind everything-there was no way she didn't know.

I had never seen Carter's mother before. All I had to go on was what Jeffrey had told me about her dimple.

However, Carter had lived with her for over a decade. How come that a smart man like him could not tell the difference between Amber and his mother?

A chill ran down my spine watching the mother and son exchange a knowing smile.

Eleanor went into the kitchen to cook, while Carter, holding the children, walked up to me.

"What's wrong, Chloe? Why are you spacing out?"

"N-Nothing," I stammered. "I forgot to take my medicine. I'll go back to my room to get it."

I turned and hurried away, my shaky steps nearly causing me to fall.

"Careful."

With one arm holding both children, he reached out with the other to steady me.

Instinctively, I pulled away from his grasp and quickened my pace.

In my room, I paced in circles, unsure of how to face Carter.

Maybe he knew far more than I had even imagined.

I reminded myself Eleanor was Eleanor, and Carter was Carter. I shouldn't confuse the two.

However, I couldn't accept that he had been hiding this from me all along.

And Eleanor... she had wanted me dead from the start. What about now?

Had that old witch given her another mission?

My children!

Panic surged through me as I rushed out of the room, only to crash straight into Carter's chest.

"Chloe, what's wrong?"

"I was just going to change the babies' diapers."

"I just checked. They were changed a moment ago."

"I must have misremembered."

He pulled me back into the room, placed the children on the bed, and settled me onto his lap.noveldrama

"Chloe, do you have something to tell me?"

I bit my lip, unsure how to begin. After all, the person in question was his mother.

"Chloe ... You've figured it out, haven't you?"

Of course. I could never hide anything from him.

"If I hadn't figured it out, how long were you planning to keep this from me, Carl?"

I let out a bitter laugh.

His arms wrapped around my waist and rested his head against my shoulder as he pulled me tightly into his embrace.

"I'm just glad you didn't give up on me."

"Idi*t," I muttered. "After everything we've been through, how could I ever doubt your feelings for me? But the way you handled this made me uncomfortable. You knew who she was all along, didn't you?"

"No," he said. "For years, she only ever appeared before me as Amber, so I believed she was my aunt. It wasn't until the real Amber showed up that I started noticing things. At the time, 'couldn't be sure they were two different people. But when you disappeared... I had to find you, and I wanted revenge. I relentlessly attacked Emerald Dragon's bases. My strikes were always precise-not only because of the Carlyns'

assistance but because of a

mysterious informant who provided

me with intelligence.

"We searched for Lady Rose for so long ... I had a pretty good guess about her

identity."

"Did you two ever acknowledge each other's real identity?"

He shook his head. "No. I kept it from you... and her. She refused to acknowledge me as her son because she felt guilty. And I-I felt guilty toward you because of what she did. I didn't want to disrupt the peace now, so I pretended not to know. I didn't expect you to figure it out so quickly."

I reached over and pinched his waist. "You're really good at playing neutral, aren't you?"

"Sorry, Chloe. She's still my mother."

Seeing the guilt in his eyes, I sighed. "Fine, fine. I can't do anything about you. But

do you know why she did all this?"

Carter took my hand and kissed the back of it. "I did some digging and I have a general idea."

"Tell me about it."

"It's actually quite simple," he said.

"Brynn used her to get revenge on my father. But she wasn't stupid-she.only pretended to cooperate, earning Brynn's trust. Without the intelligence she provided, we wouldn't have the

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capacity to take down Emerald Dragon so easily. The information she had wasn't something that could be gathered overnight."

"But she was close to Wisteria."

Carter nodded. "Yes, because from the very beginning, her target wasn't the

Boltons... It was you."

I froze. "Me?"

"Chloe," he said, "do you remember the silver-haired old woman in the town? You

must have already figured out who she was."

I nodded silently. "Yes."

That woman was me. Or rather, a version of me from a parallel timeline.

In that life, maybe I had successfully swapped fates. Carter died saving me.

Though I survived, I had no children or lovers, and I wasn't happy.

I had seen her fate in my dreams-she had eventually thrown herself into the sea,

ending her long and lonely life.

Without love, the rest of her days had lost all meaning.

"What if my mother also knew about that ending?" Carter said. "What if all she

wanted was to save her son?"

I gripped his shirt tightly. "So she manipulated events from the shadows, used Wisteria's hatred to have me killed, and then had my body torn apart, just to make sure I could never be reborn?"

At last, I understood why my death had been so horrific.

Carter cupped my face gently. "I'm sorry..."

She had done so much to prevent my rebirth. However, what she hadn't

accounted for was that in every lifetime, Carter had never given up on me. So when she saw the Stone of Duality, she realized I had returned and was

attempting another fate swap. And just like before, the same cycle had begun to unfold.

That was why she had ordered Damian to kill me before the swap could succeed

—so that her son could escape fate and live out his days in peace.

I bit my lip, unsure of what to say.

This was a battle between human will and destiny. Could I really blame her?

She was only trying to protect Carter. And yet, Carter had been willing to die for

me.

"Does she still want me dead?" I asked.