Chapter 1

Late at night, while scrolling on my phone, a post caught my eye.

[How can I get a wife with a free house and car without spending a single dime?]

The comments were unanimously roasting the original poster, calling him a delusional loser.

Except for one pinned comment, which gave a serious response:

[Just knock her up. Then give her the cold shoulder. Her family will start panicking.

When that happens, forget about demanding a house and a car—they'll probably even hand you cash just to take her off their hands.]

The poster asked, [Does that actually work?]

The guy replied, [Tested it myself. Works like a charm. My future wife is on her way to my parents' house right now.]

[She bought a gold bracelet for my mom and expensive wine for my dad. She couldn't be more desperate.]

I glanced at the pile of luxury gift bags sitting by my entryway. My stomach instantly dropped.

There was no way the world was this full of coincidences, right?

I checked the commenter's location. Miami.

I tapped into his profile. It was completely blank. Even the gender was set to female.

Was I just overthinking?

Right then, Lucas came out of the bathroom.

He had a white towel wrapped loosely around his waist, proudly showing off his sculpted eight-pack abs.

He was gorgeous. Genuinely breathtaking.

I had fallen for Lucas entirely because of his looks.

A man this handsome couldn't possibly be that calculating, right? It had to be a pure coincidence.

Lucas dried his hair, walked over to the couch, and picked up the stretch mark oil from the coffee table. He gently leaned down and began massaging it onto my stomach.

He was actually the one who had researched this product.

He said I needed to start applying it the moment I got pregnant so I wouldn't get stretch marks later.

Looking at how tender and attentive Lucas was, all my doubts melted away.

Besides, the moment Lucas found out I was pregnant, he immediately offered to take me home to meet his parents.

He hadn't frozen me out or made me anxious at all. That alone proved the comment couldn't have been his.

After a two-hour drive, Lucas finally pulled up in front of his family's home.

It was a generic, three-story concrete house out in the rural boonies. The interior was unfinished, and the furniture looked dingy and worn.

A chubby woman in her fifties hurried out the front door when she heard the car engine.

The moment she saw me, her face wrinkled up into an overly wide smile.

"You must be Chloe! Lucas talks about you all the time. I'm so glad to finally meet you in person."

She enthusiastically grabbed my hand and led me inside, while Lucas unloaded the expensive gifts I had prepared for his parents from the trunk.

Mrs. Adams pulled me down next to her on the sofa. Lucas carried the bags in and sat beside his mother.

The sound of cooking came from the kitchen. A moment later, Mr. Adams placed a few bowls on the table and mumbled that dinner was ready.

Mrs. Adams led me to the dining table. The moment I saw the food, I froze.

A small plate of scrambled eggs, a bowl of plain boiled greens, a block of cold tofu, and the rest were clearly last night's leftover dishes.

Mrs. Adams shot an awkward glare at her husband.

"Isn't there pork in the fridge? Why didn't you cook it? Look at this table—it's all plain veggies. How is Chloe supposed to eat this?"

Mr. Adams didn't even look up. "I don't know how to cook that."

Sensing the tense atmosphere, Lucas quickly tried to smooth things over.

"Chloe loves greens anyway. These are all her favorites."

As he spoke, he used his fork to drop a piece of scrambled egg into my bowl.

Mrs. Adams offered a hasty apology. "I'm so sorry, Chloe. We spent all day yesterday cleaning the house to welcome you, so we overslept this morning and missed the farmer's market.”

“You know how hard it is to shop out here in the countryside."

Since she put it that way, I could hardly complain. I could only force a smile and say it was fine.

Throughout dinner, Lucas kept his mouth shut and shoveled food into his face. I felt awkward bringing up the wedding settlement and financial arrangements myself.

After all, that was something the groom's family was supposed to bring up first.