Chapter 2

"What makes you think a worthless piece of shit like you can demand Alicia come out to see you? Stop deluding yourself. You're just a loser who doesn't know his place!" Steven growled as he kicked me two more times.

With one leg crippled, I couldn't even fight back.

The other soldiers looked at me with open contempt, their expressions menacing.

"Get lost already. Stop embarrassing yourself and sullying the army base!"

"Count yourself lucky, pal. If this had been any other day, I would've made sure you'd be leaving on a stretcher! Now scram, before I change my mind and decide to teach you a proper lesson!" Steven bellowed.

He stood there with his arms crossed, eyeing me as if I were a pile of trash.

But I couldn't leave. I had to see Alicia today and get to the bottom of things.

"I want to see Alicia Connor!" I shouted at the top of my lungs.

Steven's expression darkened. "You're really asking for it, you bastard. Fine. I'll let you find out what happens when you offend someone you can never afford to offend!"

With a flick of his hand, several soldiers lunged at me. Their expressions flashed with cruel amusement as they began kicking me in the legs repeatedly.

No matter how hard I struggled, I couldn't crawl back on my feet. My wounds stung from the attacks.

Steven leisurely strolled over and stomped on my back. It felt as if my spine were about to snap and my organs were being crushed.

"Still being stubborn, huh?" His voice came from above.

He grabbed me by the hair and shoved my head into the muddy puddle beside us.

I struggled desperately, trying to shout, but that only seemed to spur him on. "How dare a shameless piece of trash like you set your sights on Alicia? She's a queen among women. Today, I'll teach you the price of running your mouth."

Muddy water rushed into my nose and mouth. I fought hard just to breathe, but my throat was clogged up with dirt.

The instant the mud flooded into my nostrils, I could hear the explosion that happened three years ago ringing in my ears again.

That day, Alicia had been captured by a drug syndicate due to her own negligence. To avoid alerting them, the squad decided that the fewer people involved in the rescue, the better.

Using the GPS tracker, I set off solo to the warehouse where Alicia was being held. When I kicked open the metal door, I found her bound and unconscious, lying on top of a pile of explosives.

I tried to take her away, only to realize there were people lying in wait to ambush me.

The instant the metal rack collapsed, I lunged forward and braced my back against the falling beam, shielding Alicia. A steel rod pierced straight through my right kneecap.

"Run!" I signaled to the rest of the squad stationed outside.

To this day, I could still remember clearly how I dragged my broken leg across 100 feet of iron scrap. I could recall how I used a tactical knife to gouge out the shards of glass that had been embedded in my cheek.

But just when I was about to cut the wires of the explosives, a falling steel bar from the ceiling pierced my skull.

Surging with adrenaline, I carried Alicia out with the last of my strength. The moment I saw the rest of the squad, I blacked out.

Even as I lay on the operating table, I had a slim chance of survival. There were 12 pieces of shrapnel lodged in my body, and the blast had shattered the nerves in my right leg.

Before I slipped into a coma, I felt Alicia holding my injured hand and heard her say, "When you wake up, we'll redo our wedding ceremony."

I ended up regaining consciousness three years later.

Now, the titanium support in my knee was crushed beneath Steven's boot. The pain I felt from the bone fragments stabbing into the rest of my flesh and blood vessels was exactly the same as what I'd felt back then.

He ground his boot against the raised bump of the nail in my right leg. The pain of the metal boring into my flesh made me grit my teeth.

Suddenly, one of the recruits mumbled, "I heard the commander's coming for an inspection today."

Steven pressed down even harder with his boot. I heard the sound of my bone cracking.

"What's there to be afraid of? The commander is a family friend of Alicia's. He was the one who approved the exceptional promotion to make her a major," Steven declared.

That was when I remembered the news broadcast I'd seen on television back at the hospital this morning. Abraham Lawson, commander of the Southern Command, had finished inspecting the army bases at the border and was on his way back to the capital.

When the portrait of Grandpa in his army uniform appeared on the screen, the nurse even remarked jokingly that I shared a striking resemblance to him.

No one knew about our relationship. When I left home to join the army, I wanted to rise through the ranks on my own merit. I didn't want to rely on my family connections.

Therefore, I never told anyone about my family background, not even Alicia.

Steven grabbed my hair and slammed my head against the barbed wire nearby. "The commander won't arrive until this afternoon anyway. That's enough time for us to get rid of this lowlife."

The instant my forehead struck the jagged barbs, a clear voice cut through the air. "Hold it!"

When I heard that voice, I felt as if I'd been saved.

It was Alicia. She'd finally come.

I lifted my head to call out to her. Despite everything else, we were still husband and wife. Even if she didn't love me anymore, I had saved her life.

I was certain she wouldn't let these people treat me like this.

Alicia strode over from the training grounds. "What's going on here?"

"Alicia! This lunatic here is pretending to be your husband," Steven immediately reported to her.

I struggled to lift my head higher. After spitting out half of a broken tooth, I cried out, "It's me, Alicia!"

Alicia stopped in front of me and frowned.

"It's me—Peter Lawson, your husband!"