Chapter 1

Isaac's POV

I was the captain of a rescue unit, and during an overseas mission, we were ambushed and surrounded.

As such, I immediately requested an emergency withdrawal from the command center. But what I got in response was a cold, emotionless order from the supreme commander, my ex-wife.

“Hold your position. Fight to the last.”

My voice came through the radio hoarse with urgency. “We’re being encircled by terrorists! If we don’t pull out now, the entire team will be wiped out!”

But her reply was icy. “Didn’t you abandon me the same way at our wedding? You left without looking back and ran off overseas. Now let’s see if what you threw everything away for was worth it. And remember, if I don’t give the order, retreating on your own counts as treason.”

I clenched my fists in despair and led my men to dig in under relentless gunfire, where every second felt like a year.

I didn’t know how much time passed before her voice came over the channel again. “I’ve seen enough. You’re permitted to withdraw now.”

For a brief moment, I thought we were saved.

Then her next words dragged me straight into hell. “But before you retreat, kneel in front of everyone. Admit your affair. Knock your head on the ground one hundred times.”

——

“Commander, I request confirmation of that order!”

Explosions roared around us, and shrapnel even screamed past my helmet.

I was practically screaming into the mic as my voice was drowning out by the nonstop blasts.

Behind me, the cries of more than a hundred rescued civilians cut into my chest like invisible ropes tightening around my heart.

My vice-captain moved closer, wiping blood and ash from her face. Her voice was low and desperate as she said, “Captain, the heavy machine gun has one belt left. Rifle ammo is under thirty rounds per person. We won’t survive another assault.”

At that moment, a cold and merciless voice came through the encrypted channel, saying, “Order confirmed. Hold the position until the last man. This is the supreme commander’s final directive.”

It was our Supreme Commander.

The title hit me like a bullet to the chest.

Back home, deep underground in a heavily fortified command center, sitting in the highest seat, was the woman I had abandoned at the altar three years ago.

She was watching us bleed through satellite feeds, utterly calm.

“Captain, what is she trying to do?” My vice-captain, Lauren Donovan, had gone pale. She was barely in her twenties, and her voice was trembling. “All civilians have been evacuated. According to protocol, we should’ve received top-level extraction support. Why are we being ordered to hold out to the end? Why?!”

I didn’t answer.

My eyes were fixed on the horizon, where enemy headlights tore through the night like a rising black tide.

I tightened my grip on the communicator, and my smoke-choked voice poured into the mic. “Diana, I’ll say this again. All civilians have been safely evacuated, and we are critically low on ammunition. I’m requesting immediate withdrawal.”

There was a two-second silence on the other end before a soft, almost amused sigh came. “A request? Five years ago, at our wedding, when I grabbed your sleeve and begged you to stay, did you listen? When you turned around and walked away, you didn’t even look back.”

I slammed my fist into the scorched earth in front of me, pain shooting through my knuckles as I tried to suppress the rage boiling inside.

This was not the time to settle old scores.

Behind me were more than a dozen brothers-in-arms and one hundred thirty-one terrified civilians. Their lives depended on the decision I made right now.

“Diana, snap out of it!” I nearly ground my molars to dust, forcing every word out through clenched teeth.