Chapter 1

Everyone in the Westbridge Military Base knew that Mason Hart had suffered harsh punishment every year in order to marry Evelyn Ward.

The Hart family had served in the military for three generations, and the regulations clearly stated that anyone from the Hart family had to obtain approval from the Commander-in-Chief before they could marry.

Yet for three consecutive years, Mason submitted a marriage request, only to have it denied each time.

In the first year, he knelt on the training field for three days and three nights without a drop of water, eventually collapsing and being carried to the infirmary.

In the second year, he endured fifty lashes under military discipline, his back split open and bleeding.

In the third year, burning with a high fever, he knelt in the freezing snow until his legs were nearly ruined.

Yet every year, it still ended the same way—the rules of the military could not be broken.

By the fourth year, Evelyn decided that if their marriage approval was denied again, she would stand beside Mason and accept the punishment with him, pleading with military headquarters to grant them a special exception so they could finally marry.

When she hurried to base headquarters, Mason had just received a message from the Commander-in-Chief.

As he unfolded it, the words “Marriage Approved” were clearly visible to Evelyn standing outside the door.

But before she could cry out in surprise, she saw Mason pick up a pen and add the word “Not.”

Then he handed the message to the aide beside him, his low voice echoing through the quiet hall.

“Make it known publicly that this year’s marriage request was denied again.”

…

Evelyn froze where she stood, her mind completely blank.

Why would Mason alter the result of the application?

The aide took the telegram, his expression complicated as he looked at Mason.

“Colonel Hart, I remember you always saying you wanted to marry Miss Ward as soon as possible and bring her home as your rightful wife.

“Now that you finally can, why do you keep delaying it? This is already the fourth time you’ve changed the result of the application.”

Every word struck Evelyn’s ears clearly, shaking her so badly she nearly lost her footing.

The fourth time changing the result…

So, the marriage requests from the previous three years had also been approved!

Inside the hall, Mason’s voice carried a trace of helplessness.

“My desire to marry Evelyn has never changed. But during the four years she went to university in Grandbridge, Anna was the one who stayed by my side.

“She gave up her own dreams for me, stayed in Westbridge, and enrolled in the same military academy as I did.

“After graduation, she even joined the military and worked her way up from an ordinary soldier to become my personal aide.

“Once, when she was drunk, she held onto me and cried, saying that the day I got married would be the darkest day of her life.

“Even though I don’t love her, I’m still human. After eight years by my side, I simply can’t bear to hurt her.”

“And what about Miss Ward? You keep changing the approval to delay the wedding again and again. Aren’t you afraid of hurting her?” the aide asked, clearly confused.

Mason fell silent for a moment, then took out the riding crop and handed it to the aide.

“That’s why Evelyn must never know about this. I’ll treat the punishment I suffer every year as atonement to her. This year… make it ninety-nine lashes.”

Soon, the muffled groans of a man holding back pain echoed through the room.

Outside the door, Evelyn’s vision had already blurred.

She pressed a hand tightly over her mouth, struggling to stop the sobs from escaping.

So, the reason Mason changed the approval for four consecutive years was because of Anna Shaw, the woman she had never once taken seriously.

She and Mason had grown up together since childhood. From the very beginning, Mason had been fiercely possessive of her.

From kindergarten to high school, they had always been in the same class, inseparable, a couple everyone knew about.

In their second year of high school, a transfer student joined the class.

She was Anna.

On her very first day, she publicly confessed to Mason, saying she had fallen in love with him at first sight.

Without hesitation, Mason rejected her coldly and pulled Evelyn into his arms, announcing that he already had a fiancée.

But Anna never gave up and kept pursuing him relentlessly.

Yet every time, she was met with Mason’s cold indifference.

Evelyn had never once considered Anna a rival, because she believed Mason loved only her until the year she took her college entrance exams and performed badly, her score falling short of the Westbridge University.

After weighing her options several times, Evelyn decided to follow her parents’ advice and applied to a university in Grandbridge.

She thought the distance would only be temporary and wouldn’t affect what she had with Mason.

What she hadn’t expected was that Anna would apply to the same university as him.

What she had never imagined was that in just four short years, the man who once promised to marry her the moment they graduated would keep postponing their wedding for Anna’s sake.

The cruel truth was like a blade, cutting Evelyn’s heart until it was torn and bleeding.

She bit down hard on her lip to keep herself from collapsing under the overwhelming pain.

At that moment, a guard hurried over to say there was a phone call for her.

Evelyn forced the tears back into her eyes and walked toward the communications room.

The call was from her mother.

“Evelyn, how did the marriage request turn out this year? Can you and Mason finally get married?”

Evelyn’s grip on the phone tightened until her knuckles turned white, as though a lump of cotton had lodged in her throat, leaving her unable to speak.

Her silence told her mother everything.

On the other end of the line, her mother sighed and spoke earnestly.

“You’ve been unable to marry for four years. That only proves he never truly intended to marry you. Listen to me and come to Southport.

“I carefully chose the Caldwell family for you. If you marry into that family, you won’t be mistreated. I only want you to be happy.”

Six years earlier, Evelyn’s father had been transferred to Southport, and the Ward family had moved there with him.

After graduating from university in Grandbridge, she thought she and Mason would marry soon, so she returned to Westbridge alone.

She never expected to waste another four years waiting.

Her mother had long been dissatisfied with the delayed wedding and had urged her again and again to come to Southport and marry there.

But Evelyn had always believed their marriage was only a matter of time.

Now it seemed the problem had never been time at all.

It was that Mason never truly wanted to marry her.

The image of his scarred back surfaced in her mind, and a dense ache spread through her chest.

“Mom, I’ll marry into the Caldwell family.”