Cayden and I were a notorious couple at the base.

He was ruthless, and I was fiery.

If I had a problem with people, he handled them personally.

If anyone gave me a hard time, he'd step in and fight them, even if it cost him his rank.

I'd always believed we would stay like this forever.

Until Theresa Gray showed up.

She was a transferred field-hospital nurse—mute, gentle, quiet.

Every time Cayden got into a brawl over me, she'd be there, silently handing him a bandage with a sheepish smile.

Gradually, he started falling for her.

***

When the photo of them kissing landed in my inbox the tenth time, I didn't smash things like usual. Instead, I had Theresa brought to our quarters.

"I assume you've heard—women who hook up with Cayden always end up miserably."

Theresa went pale. Her hands started flying in sign language, fingers trembling.

The interpreter beside her said in a low voice, "She says... she and Commander Stanley are just fellow soldiers."

"Fellow soldiers?"

With a smirk, I grabbed a combat knife off the table and slammed it into the wall inches from her ear. The handle hummed from the impact. "You think you deserve that title?"

Theresa froze.

I gave her a cold look before ordering, "Guards, get her out of here.

"Show her not everyone gets to call themselves Cayden's 'fellow soldier.'"

Before I could finish, the door burst open.

Cayden stood there in full dress uniform, stars gleaming, his face like thunder.

He walked straight to Theresa, not even glancing my way. Then he stripped off his jacket to wrap around her shaking shoulders and signed something to her. "It's okay. Don't be scared. I'm taking you back."

He scooped her up in his arms.

Eyes ablaze with rage, I grabbed an ashtray and hurled it at him.

"Cayden, don't you dare walk out with her!"

He didn't break stride.

I rushed forward, ripping Theresa out of his embrace.

"If you take her out that door, I'll string her up from the front gates tomorrow morning."

Cayden finally looked at me. The eyes that used to be filled with love were dead cold.

"Go ahead and try."

He picked her up again and walked out without a backward glance.

I stood there, digging my nails into my palms until I started laughing.

The next morning, I had my guys trash Theresa's nursing station, beat her black and blue, and hoist her up the flagpole on the training grounds—the place Cayden would pass by every single day.

I wanted to see how far he could go for her.

That night, he kicked my door in again.

He stormed in, cold fury radiating off him.

Then, he grabbed me by the throat and pinned me against the wall, cutting off my air.

I stared into his bloodshot eyes and grinned. "Commander... do you like my gift?"

He flung me on the floor. My bone cracked against the tile, pain shooting through me.

I swallowed the metallic taste of blood and looked up, defiant. "Why? Why her?"

Cayden leaned down with a scowl, then yanked my chin up and kissed me.

It wasn't romantic; it tasted like blood and felt like a fistfight.

I wrapped my arms around him, my nails digging into his back.

He then dragged me into the bathroom, shoved my head under the cold tap, and then yanked my hair back, forcing me to look at the mirror.

"Evelina, look at us. Look at how disgusting we are."

I looked like a mess—uniform torn, lip split, eyes bloodshot.

Cayden held my face, his voice hoarse. "Eve, it's been five years. Five years of madness. If Theresa hadn't shown up... I would've forgotten why I even joined the army."

I started shaking all over. "You actually fell in love with her?"

"Yes," he replied without hesitation. "I did.

"She's like you used to be—gentle, kind with smiling eyes..."

"Shut up! Cayden, shut up!" I screamed, hammering his chest as tears streamed down my cheeks. "You can't! I forbid you to love her!"

He stayed still and let me vent out my frustrations, his voice completely drained.

"I'm tired, Eve.

"Every second with you for the past five years... it's exhausting."

"Stop talking! Stop it!" I snarled, slapping him hard across the face.

His eyes darkened, but he remained calm as he looked at me. "Eve, I won't divorce you, but I'm done loving you. I'm done with the insanity.

"I'll let what you did to Resa slide this once.

"But if you touch her again, there will be consequences."

I collapsed onto the cold tiles, my sobs tearing out of me, raw and desperate.

There wasn't a trace of the old affection in Cayden's eyes.

After a cold glance, he turned and walked away.

I watched him go, eyes red and burning, my voice raw as I yelled after him. "Liar! You promised you'd love me forever!

"You big fat liar!"

Five years ago, Cayden was the district's standout, and I was the star of the art troupe.

Then, right before the war games, the floor dropped out. Investigators uncovered a massive web of crimes tied to my family, the Lowes.

The night before my parents were hauled in for interrogation, they put my brother Antonio Lowe and me on a train to the border. An hour later, they committed suicide in their office at headquarters.

After getting my brother settled, I went back alone.

But I never made it to the district. I was ambushed on the road, dragged off to an abandoned border outpost, and held there for fifteen days of sheer torment.

When Cayden finally led his special ops team to blow the steel door off its hinges, I didn't even have the energy to cry.

The warm, bubbly Evelina Lowe died in that room. The woman who walked out was broken.

To the Stanley family, I was nothing but a stain on their reputation. They pulled every string they had to get me committed to an asylum, just to wash their hands of me.

It was Cayden who stood in their way. He put a gun to his own temple and told them, "I've already filed the paperwork. Evelina is my wife now, and I won't let anything happen to her.

"If she isn't welcome here, I'll transfer to the frontier regiment tomorrow and never look back."

But not even five years later, he was done. He didn't want me anymore.

I locked myself in the bathroom and cried until I blacked out. I woke up sobbing, drifting through the night in a haze.

But when dawn broke, I forced myself to get up. I straightened my uniform, combed my hair, and walked straight to the military hospital.

I walked into Theresa's hospital room, ignored her pale face, and slammed the transfer order onto her bedside table. "Sign it. You're the head nurse at Southern Military Hospital now."

Theresa hurriedly typed on her phone, eyes welling with tears as she turned the screen toward me, "Ms. Lowe, please. There's nothing going on between Commander Stanley and me. I would never do that."

"Really?" I scoffed, flinging a stack of photos in her face. "Then explain these.

"Theresa, I grew up around climbers like you.

"Sign the transfer, and your career will be fine. If you don't..."

My voice dropped, hardening into something cold. "Don't make me show you how ruthless I can be."

Theresa shrank into the corner, weeping harder. She typed again, her fingers shaking violently, "Mrs. Stanley, I know he's married.

"I rejected him from the start. He forced these photos on me; I never initiated anything."

Rage, hot and blinding, surged through me. I backhanded her across the face.

"I'm asking one last time. Sign it, or don't."

She shook her head stubbornly.

I turned to the guard at the door. "Process her discharge papers. Get her out of here and send her back to her hometown."

I walked out, the door clicking shut on the sound of her frantic sobbing.

Back at the empty house, I curled up on the sofa, staring at the wall, feeling completely hollowed out.

My phone buzzed on the cushion.

It was a secure message from the guard, "Mrs. Stanley. Bad news. Theresa was... pregnant. She miscarried during the transfer."

The silence in the room was shattered as the front door was kicked open.

Cayden stood in the doorway, his eyes bloodshot and wild.

We stared at each other for ten long, suffocating seconds.

Then he lunged. He pinned me against the sofa, his utility belt hitting the table with a harsh clatter.

"Let go! Cayden, get out!"

He didn't listen. His rough hands tore at my clothes, handling me with the aggression reserved for a prisoner.

The trauma of the outpost flooded back. I started shaking, struggling, and screaming, my voice thick with panic.

"Don't touch me! Get off! Get away!"

Cayden ignored me, panting heavily as he leaned down and whispered the cruelest thing he could think of right into my ear. "You were damaged goods a long time ago, Evelina. Why play the blushing virgin now?"

I froze. My eyes went wide.

"What... what did you say?"

The moment the words left his mouth, I saw a flicker of regret.

But the thought of his lost child and my vindictiveness buried it under a wave of fury.

He sneered, his grip tightening, his voice designed to maim.

"Did I stutter? Fifteen days in that outpost... don't try to tell me you weren't..."

"Shut up! Shut up!" I lost control, swinging my hand to strike his face as tears streamed down my cheeks.

"I hate you, Cayden! I hate you!"

That captivity was my deepest wound, a shameful nightmare I lived with every day. And he was using it as a weapon.

"Hate me?" Cayden caught my wrist in mid-air, his eyes blazing. "Evelina, be honest with yourself. If I hadn't taken you in back then, who in this entire district would have wanted you?

"Even a dog knows gratitude. Why couldn't you tolerate Theresa?

"You're going to pay for that child."

He slammed the door on his way out, leaving without a backward glance.

From then on, he came home every night reeking of alcohol, forcing himself on me to "punish" me in the most humiliating way possible.

A month later, the tests at the military hospital confirmed that I was pregnant.

Cayden arrived with the military police in tow, his expression cold and hostile.

"Restrain her. Take her to the basement quarters. Don't stop beating her until she loses the baby."

My vision blurred, red rage mixing with grief. I fought against the guards' grip, screaming, "Cayden! Don't you want a child? I know about Theresa, I know she lost hers—but I'm carrying your baby. This is your child!"

A cruel, cold smile touched his lips. He reached out, his fingertips barely ghosting over my stomach. "Did you honestly think it was an accident you haven't conceived in all these years?"

My body went rigid. I couldn't breathe.

"You aren't fit to carry an heir for the Stanley family." He leaned in, his voice dropping to a whisper against my ear. "But Theresa is different. She is pure. Innocent. She gave herself to me, shy and inexperienced. That is what I want."

He stopped looking at my tearing, bloodshot eyes and turned away with icy indifference, throwing one final order to the guards over his shoulder. "Remember, don't stop until the baby is gone."

I stopped fighting.

I went limp in the chair, letting them strap me down.

As the heavy batons struck my lower abdomen again and again, I felt a warm rush of liquid between my legs.

I was losing my child.

Eventually, a guard noticed my breathing had gone shallow and erratic. They called it off and rushed me to the ER.

In the hospital lobby, I was fading in and out of consciousness. Through the haze, I saw Cayden walking out.

Theresa leaned against him, a faint, fragile smile on her lips.

He was holding her with extreme care.

He looked down at her with a gentle tenderness.

They walked right past me without a glance.

When I opened my eyes again, they burned with hollowness.

I snatched the phone from the bedside table. My hands were shaking as I called my brother Antonio, who was overseas.

"Toni, send me that prototype you've been working on—the pills that could feign death. As soon as possible."

Cayden, anyone else in the world could lie to me or hurt me, but not you.

I needed you to watch me die. I wanted you to live in regret and never find peace.

For the next few days, I didn't contact Cayden, and he didn't return to our quarters.

The package arrived three days later.

Cayden appeared at the door with Theresa.

"Resa wants to see the new field training grounds. Get dressed. You're coming with us."

"No," I said coldly.

Cayden grabbed my wrist. "That's an order. Resa asked for you specifically. Don't be ungrateful."

He forced me out to the range.

We used to know this place intimately.

He used to bring me here for night shooting practice. We had shared so many moments of connection on this very ground.

But now, Theresa stood in our special place.

She watched Cayden constantly from the moment we arrived.

Catching her gaze, Cayden smiled with that rare gentleness, pulled her close, and kissed her.

I watched the scene, and my stomach churned.

I was about to raise my gun and fire a shot in their direction when a deafening explosion erupted in the distance.

The ground lurched violently, and thick smoke choked the air.

Cayden immediately shielded Theresa with his body, his back taking the brunt of the flying debris.

"Damn it! They didn't clear the live ordnance from this sector!"

Ignoring my own pain, I scrambled up and sprinted toward the nearest blast shelter.

I reached for the door handle, but Cayden slammed me aside and shoved Theresa inside instead.

"Cayden!" I screamed, staring at him in shock.

"The shelter is single-occupancy. Theresa goes first. She'll get help once she's safe."

He sounded terrifyingly calm, as if my life meant nothing to him.

Theresa grabbed his sleeve, signing frantically with her hands, looking at me with feigned concern.

Cayden paused, then turned to me. "Eve, she doesn't know how to send a distress signal. I have to guide her out. We'll be back for you."

"No!"

I tried to stop him, but he pushed me back.

"Follow orders."

He sealed the shelter, pulled Theresa into his arms, and ran.

He glanced back one last time. "Eve, you're a soldier. You're trained for this. Find cover. I will come back."

Then they vanished into the smoke.

Almost immediately, a second explosion detonated nearby. The blast wave knocked me off my feet.

I remembered there was a backup shelter on the east side.

The fire was roaring now, and the structures around me began to groan and buckle.

I rolled into the backup entrance just as a beam crashed down exactly where I had been standing.

But as I fell into the depression, a steel support structure collapsed on top of me. I heard my bones crack.

Blood poured from my mouth.

Lying in the rubble, broken and pinned, I managed to pull out my communicator and send one last encrypted message to Antonio. Then, I took the pill from my pocket and swallowed it.

Moments later, blood welled up in my throat.

Through the shattered roof of the bunker, I saw a fighter jet streak across the sky, leaving a long white trail in its wake.

I smiled faintly.

I didn't care if I lived or died.

Cayden, we were finally done.