Chapter 2

I had barely submitted the application when my stepmother called.

She sounded delighted. "Ronan, I forgot to tell you. We're at the Interstellar Hotel. Your father says you already paid for the reception, so there's no point in letting the venue go to waste. Declan and Sienna can use it for their ceremony. If you have any decency left, come join us. Then we can put all this behind us."

I was so furious I laughed.

They'd stolen my girlfriend, and now they wanted to use the wedding venue I'd worked so hard to pay for.

Normally, I would've blocked her on the spot.

But I was leaving for the front. Even if I had to flip every table in that hall, I wasn't letting that shameless pair waste my money and walk all over me.

I ended the call and took a hover car straight to the Interstellar Hotel.

The banquet hall was packed, and the lights were almost blinding.

Sienna stood in a white wedding gown, leaning against Declan's chest as their guests congratulated them.

I'd given her that gown as a graduation present. The Empire's most famous designer had made it just for her.

I'd told her I hoped she'd wear it when she married me.

Now she was wearing it to marry someone else.

The hall went silent when I walked in.

Declan spotted me at once. His eyes flickered before he grabbed two glasses of red wine and walked over with Sienna.

He stopped in front of me and offered me a glass with a fake smile.

"Thank you for coming. Sienna and I would like you to join us in a toast. Think of it as wishing me a safe return from the front."

Sienna frowned at me from beside him, silently warning me not to make a scene. "Ronan, you're here now, so drink it. Just play along and get this over with. That's what you want too, isn't it?"

Seeing them play the happy couple and expect me to go along with it snapped the last thread of my patience.

I didn't take the glass. I stared coldly at Declan and knocked it from his hand.

Crash!

The glass shattered on the floor. Red wine splashed across Declan and the white hem of Sienna's gown.

Declan flinched and stumbled back, clutching his chest. His eyes immediately filled with tears.

"Ronan, what was that for? Even if you can't wish us well, you don't have to humiliate us in front of everyone."

The room erupted.

My stepmother stormed over and pointed a finger at me.

"Ronan, you'd better get over yourself. You always act like you're better than everyone else. Sienna's had enough. Declan is gentle with her. He doesn't pressure her like you do. You're always using your achievements to control her. What have you ever actually given her?"

Her words brought back memories I'd tried to forget.

Declan had wanted everything I had since we were children.

I spent three months building a starship model. He threw a tantrum until my stepmother made me give it to him.

I won the academy combat trophy. Jealous, he told my father I'd been using my training to bully him.

Every time, my father believed them.

I ignored my stepmother and looked at Sienna.

All I saw on her face was annoyance and blame.

"Ronan, do you have to make this ugly? It's just a ceremony. Can't you stop acting like you're better than everyone else and always right?"

My expression hardened, but Sienna simply raised her voice.

"Is she wrong? You're too stubborn. You always decide everything on your own. And every time I'm with you, your achievements remind me how much you've sacrificed just to be with me. I can't breathe around you! Declan is different. He looks up to me. Whenever something goes wrong, he turns to me. With him, I actually feel needed!"

I looked at her and felt like I was staring at a stranger.

"The future I planned for us is just a ceremony you can give to someone else whenever you feel like it?"

To prove myself worthy of someone from a military family, I'd studied until I dropped, turned down every invitation, and spent every credit I earned on the best psychic stabilizers for her.

Yet somehow, every sacrifice I'd made had become proof that I was controlling her.

"How can you think that?" She frowned like I was the unreasonable one.

"Declan has nothing. He only has me. You're different. You have a bright future and S-class psychic power. Why can't you just let this go? After today, I'll come back to you. Everything will be like it was before. Okay?"

Her self-righteous tone made me laugh.

"Sienna, I think you've misunderstood why I'm here."

I looked at her, my voice flat and cold.

"I came to see for myself how blind I've been these past four years. Now I know."

Her eyes widened.

"What do you mean? What are you—"

I pulled away from her in disgust and walked out.

The moment I left the hotel, I contacted Expeditionary Command.

"How soon can you activate my orders for K-7?"

The answer came quickly. "If you're willing to waive the standard transition period, we can deploy you immediately."

"I'm willing."

I ended the call and was about to leave when Sienna came running after me.