Chapter 2

I shook my head, unable to answer.

When I first met Lucas, I didn’t know he had an adopted sister.

He was wounded while clearing mines on the Northern Front, a piece of shrapnel lodged just two millimeters from his heart.

I was in surgery for fourteen hours in the field hospital for fourteen hours, pulling him back from the edge.

On the third day after he woke up, he sent his orderly to find me.

Through the oxygen mask, he smiled. His voice came out raspy.

“Dr. Brooks, you saved my life. This life is yours now.”

I thought it was just a soldier’s impulsive gratitude.

But he did pursue me for a full year, securing the best medical equipment the military had for my field hospital.

He knew I often missed meals, so he’d wait outside the infirmary with coffee and sandwiches whenever he got back from drills.

It was hard not to fall for him, but I didn’t dare.

Until three years ago, when a dishonorably discharged veteran stormed into the infirmary with a knife.

Lucas threw himself in front of me, took a knife to the shoulder and another to the arm.

The day he got his stitches removed, I said yes to him.

For three years, everything was perfect.

Until he didn’t show up to our engagement ceremony.

Three days later, he showed up with Vivian, saying only that he’d forgotten.

Lucas asked me to look after Vivian, and I did my best.

Three days ago, Vivian came to me with complaints of lower abdominal pain.

She begged me not to tell her brother.

Thinking she was simply shy, I examined her and prescribed anti-inflammatories.

But when I saw the lab report, I froze. It was positive.

Before I could figure out how to tell her, Lucas stormed in with his orderlies, Vivian behind him, eyes red.

At his command, they shattered my right hand with a disciplinary baton.

Curled up on the floor in agony, I asked him why.

He looked down at me, cold.

“I thought you were different. Didn’t realize you were this vicious.”

“Because I missed one engagement, you gave Vivian bad medicine? Gave her that disease?”

“She’s only twenty-one!”

“You don’t deserve to wear this uniform. Crippling your writing hand—that’s the lesson.”

Vivian burst into tears, pointing at the lab report on my desk.

“Evelyn, you planned this! You infected me, then forged the results!”

“Do you hate me that much? Then I should just die!”

“Did you spread this around already? What’s the point of living anymore!”

She lunged at the wall, but Lucas caught her before she could hit it.

He turned to me, eyes icy.

“Are you trying to drive my sister to suicide over an engagement party, Evelyn?”

“Apologize. Publicly. Admit you intentionally harmed a solider out of personal grudge and falsified medical records.”

I shook my head, tears streaming down my face. “Lucas, that will ruin everything I have!”

“I didn’t do it. I will never admit to it.”

But no matter how much I pleaded, begged him to test the ointment, he wouldn’t listen.

He signaled the MPs to hold my head down in front of the entire medical staff.

He forced me to slam my forehead against the floor—a hundred times in apology.

Blood dripped down as onlookers pulled out their phones.

I finally couldn’t take it and passed out.