Chapter 3 The Cruelest Betrayal

I froze, staring at Preston in disbelief as he stood beside me, utterly indifferent.

When we first started dating, he often left for work and came back with injuries of all sizes.

Every time, he'd clutch my hand, the fear still lingering in his eyes. "Madeline, promise me you'll stay away from danger. Don't touch a gun. Ever."

He said guns were the most unforgiving things in the world. One careless moment could cost a person's life.

He had also made me a promise.

Guns were merciless, and the battlefield was dangerous. But as long as he was there, no gun in the world would ever be pointed at me.

Yet now, he was the one hurting me with a gun.

Before I could get another word out, several agents stepped forward and roughly seized me.

"What are you doing? Preston! You bastard! You can't punish me like this! I'm…"

I used the last of my strength trying to tell them I was pregnant and couldn't withstand the punishment.

Before I could finish, they lifted me up and threw me into a mud pit six feet deep.

Mud flooded my nose and mouth, and I couldn't stop coughing and choking.

Those sycophants kept spitting at me, taking every opportunity to kick me while I was down.

"Even if Preston has forgotten you because of his amnesia, you two aren't on the same path anymore. Even if he gets his memories back, that won't change the fact that you've grown apart."

"Preston only cares about Hailey. You're the other woman who came between them!"

Preston stood to the side, watching coldly. Even after Hailey left, he still refused to speak up for me and tell them the truth.

I wasn't the one who'd come between them.

I didn't know how much time had passed. Pain stung all over my wounds, and a cramp seized my abdomen.

The doctor who operated on me gave me the news. "I'm sorry. We couldn't save the baby."

I wasn't as upset as I'd expected. If anything, I felt a sense of release.

I asked the doctor not to tell anyone else about the miscarriage, for it would only make me sad.

He felt sorry for everything I'd been through over the past few days and readily agreed.

…

That evening, under the bright lights, Preston wore a medical mask and gently cleaned my stitched-up wounds with a cotton swab.

He was careful not to hurt me, using the lightest touch and even applying some anesthetic ointment to the swab.

Just like that, his situational amnesia had returned.

"Does it hurt?" He spoke softly, with a faint trace of guilt in his voice.

"Pain is better than death. I'm not going to die. Not yet, at the very least."

Preston stopped, the swab still in his hand. I could see the exhaustion in his eyes.

"Hailey is my colleague. We pretended to be married for work, and after my head injury, she was the only one looking after me while I had amnesia. So, whenever my mind gets foggy, she's the only person I remember. Is that really so strange?"

"It's normal. Completely normal." I stared blankly at Preston. "You couldn't help your amnesia. You had every excuse. You had no choice. It's all my fault, from start to finish. Whatever you say or do, you're always right."

He pressed his fingers to the space between his eyebrows. "Madeline, there's something wrong with my brain. Surely, you can't hold it against someone who's sick. I really don't remember what happened earlier."

"Well?" I looked up at him in silence, waiting for his next self-righteous excuse.

Preston was just about to defend himself when the tent flap suddenly lifted. A mud-covered mutt, missing both its hind legs, struggled to drag itself inside.

I glanced at the tag on its collar, and cold sweat broke out all over me. "October!"

It was the puppy Preston had brought home from a work assignment around the time we celebrated our second anniversary.

We'd adopted him in October, so I named him that.

He was like my own child.

He should have been at the hospital in Kingsford getting treatment for his eyes. Why was he here? And why were both his hind legs missing?

"October…"

Ignoring the stitches in my gunshot wound, I struggled to crawl toward the bedside. I lost my balance and fell to the floor.

"Madeline…" Preston reached out to help me, but he didn't seem to know what to do.

"Preston, do you see what's happened? October is blind. What happened?" I grabbed him, my hands trembling. "Didn't you take October to get treated? How did it end up like this?"

Before he could answer, Hailey walked in carrying an assortment of medical instruments and dozens of syringes. "Come here, sweetheart. Stop hiding. It's time for another round of drug experiments."