Adrian stared at the silver ring in my hand.

“Who gave it to you?”

His voice was different now.

Not gentle.

Not apologetic.

Jealous.

I slipped the ring into my pocket.

“The man who saved my life.”

Elena’s breathing suddenly became uneven again.

“Adrian…”

But for once, Adrian didn’t immediately look at her.

His eyes remained fixed on me.

“What man?”

I almost laughed.

“You don’t know?”

His expression darkened.

“No.”

“Of course you don’t.”

Because Adrian had never returned for me.

During the landslide, the mountain road had collapsed beneath our convoy.

Mud swallowed trees, vehicles, everything.

Elena had been trapped near the riverbank.

I had been buried farther uphill.

Adrian reached us first.

I remembered stretching my hand toward him through the mud.

“Adrian!”

He saw me.

I knew he did.

Then Elena screamed.

Adrian turned.

He chose her.

I spent nearly forty minutes under mud and broken branches, barely able to breathe.

Then someone began digging.

Not rescue workers.

One man.

His hands were bleeding when he finally uncovered my face.

“Stay awake.”

I couldn’t see him clearly.

Rain covered his face.

But I remembered his voice.

“Your husband isn’t coming back, so you’re going to survive without him.”

His name was Nathan Reed.

A former military doctor attached to a civilian rescue team.

He carried me six miles because the road had disappeared.

At the field hospital, doctors told me I had lost the baby.

Nathan was there when I woke.

Adrian wasn’t.

He was with Elena.

Nathan stayed until dawn.

Before leaving, he placed the silver ring beside my bed.

“My mother gave me this before my first deployment.”

I stared at him weakly.

“Why give it to me?”

“So you’ll have a reason to find me.”

Then he wrote an address on the back of my discharge papers.

“Divorce him.”

His eyes were calm.

“Then come with me.”

I thought I would never see him again.

But I kept the ring.

And Adrian had just discovered it.

“Isabel.”

His voice pulled me back to the roadside.

“Get back in the car.”

“No.”

“We’ll discuss this after your examination.”

“There is nothing to discuss.”

I turned away.

Adrian grabbed my wrist.

“What exactly happened between you and that man?”

I looked down at his hand.

“Let go.”

He didn’t.

So I asked quietly:

“Were you this worried about where I was when I was buried under the mountain?”

His fingers immediately loosened.

Silence.

That was answer enough.

I ordered another car.

Twenty minutes later, I reached the hospital alone.

The doctor examined me and said my recovery was slower than expected.

I listened calmly.

Then I asked for copies of every medical record related to the miscarriage.

Afterward, I went somewhere else.

The military legal affairs office.

I placed a divorce application on the desk.

The officer recognized my name and hesitated.

“Colonel Walker knows about this?”

“He will.”

“Mrs. Walker, perhaps you should discuss—”

“I have discussed enough.”

I signed.

For three years, I had waited for Adrian to choose me.

I wasn’t going to spend a fourth.

That evening, I packed.

Not much.

Some clothes.

My documents.

A photograph of my parents.

And Nathan’s ring.

Adrian returned after nine.

He entered quickly.

“Elena told me you left the hospital without saying anything.”

I continued folding my clothes.

He stopped.

“What are you doing?”

“Leaving.”

His face changed.

“Because I asked you to get out of the car?”

“No.”

“Because of the landslide?”

“No.”

“Then what?”

I finally looked at him.

“Because I don’t love you anymore.”

Adrian froze.

I had imagined saying those words many times.

I thought they would hurt.

Instead, they made me feel lighter.

He walked toward me.

“You’re angry.”

“No.”

“You lost our child. You’re grieving.”

“Our child?”

My voice remained quiet.

“Do you know what the doctor told me when I woke up?”

His face went pale.

I continued.

“She told me there was nothing they could do.”

“Isabel…”

“I asked for you.”

His lips tightened.

“They told me you were in another building with Elena.”

“She was unstable.”

“And I wasn’t?”

He had no answer.

I zipped my suitcase.

Adrian suddenly grabbed it.

“You’re not leaving.”

I looked at him.

He seemed shocked by his own words.

Then his voice softened.

“Give me time.”

“For what?”

“I’ll change.”

That almost made me sad.

Three years ago, I would have given anything to hear that.

Now it was too late.

The doorbell rang.

Adrian frowned.

I already knew who it was.

When I opened the door, a tall man stood beneath the porch light.

Nathan Reed.

For several seconds, nobody spoke.

He looked exactly as I remembered him.

Broad shoulders.

Calm eyes.

A faint scar near his eyebrow.

His gaze moved to me.

Then to the suitcase.

“You called.”

I nodded.

Adrian appeared behind me.

The moment he saw Nathan, his entire body stiffened.

“You.”

I turned.

“You know him?”

Nathan’s expression became cold.

Adrian stepped forward.

“You were ordered to leave this district after the rescue operation.”

Nathan gave a humorless smile.

“Ordered?”

My stomach tightened.

“What are you talking about?”

Neither answered.

I looked between them.

“Adrian?”

He stared at Nathan.

“He didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

Nathan reached into his jacket and removed a waterproof envelope.

He handed it to me.

Inside were photographs.

Reports.

Radio transcripts.

One photograph showed the landslide site.

Another showed the rescue command post.

Then I found a printed communication log.

My hands began shaking.

There was Adrian’s identification code.

And beside it, a timestamp.

Twenty-seven minutes after he had rescued Elena.

I read the message.

My throat closed.

Adrian had known exactly where I was trapped.

More than that, another rescue team had been preparing to reach me.

But someone had redirected them.

I looked up slowly.

“You sent them somewhere else?”

Adrian’s face lost all color.

“Isabel, listen—”

Nathan stepped closer.

“The official report says Colonel Walker believed your location was inaccessible.”

He pointed toward another page.

“But that’s not what happened.”

I couldn’t breathe.

Nathan’s voice became quieter.

“He received confirmation that you were alive.”

My eyes filled with tears.

“And?”

Nathan looked directly at Adrian.

“He ordered the rescue unit to prioritize Elena’s sector.”

The room went completely silent.

Adrian approached me.

“I thought you were protected by the vehicle wreckage.”

I stepped backward.

“You knew I was alive.”

“I intended to return.”

“But you didn’t.”

“Elena was—”

“Stop saying her name!”

For the first time since the landslide, I screamed.

Adrian froze.

Tears finally fell down my face.

Not because I wanted him back.

Because the last lie had finally died.

Nathan took my suitcase.

I walked toward the door.

Adrian caught my arm.

“Isabel, please.”

I looked at his hand.

He released me.

Then he whispered:

“Where will you go?”

I took the silver ring from my pocket.

Nathan watched silently as I slipped it onto my finger.

“Somewhere nobody has to be ordered to come back for me.”

I stepped outside.

Nathan followed.

But before we reached his car, headlights flooded the courtyard.

Three military vehicles entered the compound.

Officers climbed out.

One carried a sealed folder.

Adrian appeared behind us.

His expression changed immediately.

The senior officer walked directly toward him.

“Colonel Walker.”

Adrian straightened automatically.

The officer held out the document.

“You are temporarily relieved of command pending investigation into the landslide rescue operation.”

Adrian stared at Nathan.

“You did this.”

Nathan shook his head.

“No.”

Then the officer turned toward me.

“Mrs. Walker, we need your statement.”

I swallowed.

“Why?”

He opened the folder.

Inside was another photograph.

A photograph taken before the landslide.

It showed Elena standing beside a military vehicle.

Beside her was a man I recognized immediately.

Daniel Moore.

Her supposedly dead husband.

Alive.

And staring directly into the camera.

The officer’s next sentence made even Adrian step backward.

“Mrs. Walker, we have reason to believe the landslide wasn’t an accident.”

“And Daniel Moore may never have died at all.”