1989, Nancheng.
"Hey, Emily’s back at her parents’ again with the kids?"
As Emily Bennett walked out the door with both arms full and her two boys in tow, the neighbor caught sight of her and chuckled, turning to Mrs. Harding who was sitting on a little stool picking vegetables.
Mrs. Harding didn’t even look up. She muttered as she watched Emily’s figure disappear, "Always running back to her parents' place… What a headache."
All this fuss just because she’d gotten up late again and got a few words tossed at her, seriously?
What daughter-in-law wakes up around the same time as the kids—after seven!—and leaves all the chores for the old woman to do?
Mrs. Harding had barely scolded her when Emily sulked her way back into the room, packed up quick, and dragged the kids home. And who knows what she’s going back for this time!
That factory director dad of hers must have their place stocked with all the fancy cigarettes, liquor and meat—yet every time she comes back, she never brings anything along.
Mrs. Harding snorted. Let her go if she wants to. In a few days, she’d tell her son David Harding to pretend to care, go pick her up or something.
She wasn't about to stoop down and apologize to a daughter-in-law—not even if her dad was the factory boss. She married into the Harding family, so she’d better learn the rules here!
*
Back at the Bennetts’ house.
Emily burst through the door with all her things and got the housekeeper to watch Oliver and Henry.
Then she headed straight upstairs, locked herself in her room, and stared at her reflection in the mirror.
The face looking back at her was barely in her twenties, nothing like that bitter, broken woman from her dreams—blinded by tears after losing her firstborn to drowning, and her second to a raging fever.
In the dream, her dad had been reported, their assets seized. Desperate, she’d taken the boys to David Harding’s family, hoping they’d help.
But instead?
They glared at her kids with nothing but disgust and snapped that her sons were bastards. Said they weren’t going to take in any of them.
They tossed her out like trash. On the way out, her older boy was shoved into a river by David’s sister’s child and drowned. Not long after, Henry got sick with a burning fever.
She sat by his hospital bed for three straight days. Still couldn’t save him.
Then, as if that wasn’t enough, David showed up with his pregnant girlfriend.
Emily had threatened to report him for bigamy. He laughed, tore up the marriage certificate in front of her, and called her stupid for falling for a fake document all those years.
That’s when she learned the awful truth—David had been behind the whole setup that ruined her dad!
Enraged, she’d grabbed a vase to smash him, but during the struggle, she fell and hit her head. Everything went black.
She’d died with nothing but hate in her heart.
Waking up, she'd told herself it was just a nightmare.
But the second she saw Mrs. Harding’s sour face, all those scenes played out in her mind again—this nasty old woman, calling her sons illegitimate, calling her a whore, kicking them out with a broom.
Panic gripped Emily’s chest. Without thinking, she packed up and rushed back home with her sons.She didn’t dare think too much on the way, but that dream felt like life throwing her a warning sign—telling her that in a year, the Bennett family really would fall apart, and David Harding really wasn’t the boys’ biological father.
Just now, seeing her sons’ faces, the more she looked, the more alarmed she became—they really didn’t look anything like David!
So who was their real father?
Who else could it be?
Five years ago, the Harding family threw a banquet to welcome some important guests. David had even invited a bunch of his old classmates.
After that dinner, Emily started feeling dizzy and feverish. Being all caring, David took her to his sister’s room to rest.
Next thing she knew, she woke up next to him. He looked at her with those so-called gentle eyes and promised to take responsibility.
Thing is, that night was such a blur, Emily couldn’t remember much.
But there was one thing that stuck with her—the cold, commanding presence of the man from that night. Rough, but oddly careful.
Emily tried to recall everyone who’d been at the dinner that day.
The more she thought about it, the worse she felt. David’s brother had just gotten seriously injured in the line of duty, and a few military officers from the Northwest had come to escort him home.
She vaguely remembered one of them had the last name Chandler. Everyone seemed to treat him with a lot of respect.
It had been five years in her dream, four in real life… she couldn’t even clearly remember the man’s face anymore.
But thinking it over, the man she slept with that chaotic night was likely one of those soldiers from the Northwest.
Otherwise why would the Hardings have been so sure of themselves, pressing her family to accept the marriage, as if they weren’t worried about anyone calling out David's lie?
Which only meant: That guy wasn’t from Nancheng!
As for whether he bailed because he didn’t want to be responsible, or if there was something else going on—she had to find out for herself.
Thinking about what the dream showed her—how the Bennett family would go through a tragedy in a year, how she’d lose her two boys one after the other and be torn apart by grief—Emily knew what she had to do. She had to find their biological father, no matter what.
Only if she did that, could she change their household registration and cut ties with the Hardings.
If that man was willing to step up, great.
If not, all she needed was his help to get the boys out of the Harding family's grip.
Having made up her mind, Emily went to wash her face, then opened her drawer and started counting her savings.
Four years ago, the Hardings had used the whole “drunken mistake” excuse to propose marriage, but her parents had thrown them out.
Even though their daughter had lost her innocence, Mr. and Mrs. Bennett still didn’t want her marrying into a scheming family like that.
But two months later, she found out she was pregnant.
They weren’t happy about it, but Emily’s health wasn’t good enough for an abortion. If the Hardings started spreading rumors, her reputation would’ve been ruined.
So the Bennetts swallowed their pride and agreed. Still, they doted on their daughter and had secretly given her a generous dowry.
Emily, being sharp, didn’t bring any of that stuff to the Harding house, knowing how calculating they were.
And now, looking through everything, she had about 8,000 yuan in cash—enough to take the boys to the Northwest and find their real dad.
That night, when her parents got home, Emily sat them down at the dinner table and seriously brought it up.
Mr. and Mrs. Bennett were stunned, completely speechless at first, then started inspecting their grandsons’ faces more closely, disbelief written all over them."They really don’t look like anyone from the Harding family. I used to wonder why our two little sweethearts are this cute, and the Hardings act like they don’t even like them!"
Mrs. Bennett looked the boys over again and again. She hadn’t thought much of it before, but now the more she looked, the more the difference showed.
Emily Bennett didn’t bother hiding things in front of her sons. "After we got 'married,' David basically moved into the dorms claiming work as an excuse. He barely came home."
Since Emily often took the boys back to visit her family, the boys were never close to David Harding anyway.
She came right out and told her parents, "Mom, Dad, in the past four years, David and I only slept in the same bed that one night after our wedding. Other than that, there’s been absolutely nothing between us."
If the kids weren’t his, then yeah, their relationship was totally clean.
No wonder dream-her had a total breakdown after learning the truth—her entire life had been wrecked by the Harding family.
And her family got dragged into it too. Her sons even died because of it.
Emily’s eyes darkened with a mix of hurt and anger. "Mom, Dad, I want to take the boys to the Northwest to track down those officers who were at the Pan wedding years ago. If I can find out who’s really their father and get a paternity test done, I could sue the Hardings for fraud and get Oliver and Henry’s household registrations moved out of their records."
If she couldn’t find the real father... then just going off her strange dream and a hunch, who’d believe her?
The Hardings could just claim she was mentally unstable and take the boys away from her for good.
That’s why, the moment she woke up today, Emily didn’t say a word at the Harding house. She just packed up and left with the boys.
Bertrand Bennett’s expression was the worst. He’d been against her marrying David from the start. But Emily had already been pregnant, and no matter how mad he was at the time, he eventually had to go along with it.
Now his daughter was telling him she overheard Mrs. Harding and her husband saying the boys weren’t David’s. That meant the Hardings had known all along and still went ahead with the marriage.
But Emily saying she’d take the boys all the way to the Northwest? Bertrand wasn’t entirely sure that was wise.
He worried the officer might just brush her off. If he was decent, why hadn’t he stepped up back then?
"Mom, Dad, I get why you’re worried. I’ve thought about the possibility that he might turn out to be a total deadbeat. But I need to see for myself. The Hardings fooled me for four whole years—what if the boys’ real father doesn’t even know he has kids? He could’ve been drunk off his head back then..."
With the boys right there, Emily tried to paint their father in a better light.
Mr. and Mrs. Bennett exchanged glances, then looked at Oliver and Henry with gentle eyes.
"We’re more than capable of raising you boys ourselves," Mrs. Bennett said softly, "but kids need their real dad whenever that’s possible."
Especially now, when they didn’t have a shred of solid proof and the Hardings would never willingly hand the boys over. The boys were still registered under their name.
Oliver and Henry’s big, bright eyes darted back and forth, then the older one spoke up firmly: "Grandpa, Grandma, we wanna go with Mom to the Northwest and find our real dad!"
