After five grueling years working overseas with my fiancé, our long-awaited payday never arrived. Instead, we were greeted by the deafening roar of artillery shells from the neighboring border. While I was stressing over the extortionate, million-dollar black-market flight tickets, the company accountant looked at me with pure envy. "Maya, you are so lucky. Carter just withdrew your combined two-million-dollar salary to buy flight tickets. Even if it means draining every cent of your hard-earned savings, he’s determined to get you back to the States safely. It’s so romantic!" My heart swelled with warmth, and I immediately rushed back to our quarters to pack my bags. But after dozens of unanswered phone calls, I stayed up until midnight, only to receive a single, freezing text message. "Maya, you’ve made a lot of friends over here, you know how to survive. Elena is a widow with no man to protect her, and she’s too soft for this environment. She’d get eaten alive. I’m sending her back to the States first, and then I’ll figure out a way to come back and get you!" As the sky lit up with anti-aircraft fire, I silently blocked his number. What Carter didn't know was that I had just received a classified call from the US Embassy. Due to my status as a top-tier technological asset, I had been granted immediate access to a military extraction flight—and I was allowed to bring my family for free. Furthermore, the local airport had just been entirely commandeered by the US Armed Forces. Their commercial flight wasn't going anywhere. …… When my armored transport arrived at the airport, thousands of desperate expats were already pacing anxiously on the cracked tarmac. The vehicle crawled slowly through the chaotic crowd. Outside my tinted window, right in front of the Embassy’s emergency registration desk, I spotted them. Carter was holding Elena tightly against his chest, shielding her. The sight of them was blindingly repulsive. Sitting in the passenger seat, Agent Sterling, the embassy liaison sent to extract me, was diligently filling out a clipboard. "Dr. Vance, do you have any other family members currently in-country? Given your High-Value clearance, we have the authority to extract them with you right now." I looked at the intimately entangled pair outside the window and let out a soft sigh. Years ago, when my parents died in a tragic accident, it was Carter’s mother, Mama Hayes, who constantly invited me over for dinner and kept me company. If it weren't for her, I might have succumbed to my depression and joined my parents. For the sake of Mama Hayes’s memory, and knowing full well that Carter and Elena wouldn't be able to escape tonight, my heart wavered for a fraction of a second. I was just about to raise my hand and point to them when the embassy worker outside spoke to Carter in a hurried, anxious voice. "Sir, do you have any other family members in the country? The geopolitical situation is deteriorating by the second. Every minute they stay behind is a lethal risk. Even if you have to borrow money, you need to leave together!" Carter froze. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the black-market tickets in his hand. We both knew the truth. Our combined salary was two million, but as a middle-management executive at the multinational firm, he could easily request an emergency cash advance. Corporate wouldn't just leave an employee to die. Elena looked up at him nervously and whispered, "Carter, if we contact Maya right now, knowing her temper, she’ll definitely throw a massive fit. We might end up missing our window to leave entirely..." The hesitation in Carter’s eyes instantly vanished, replaced by a cold resolve. He closed his eyes and shook his head. "No. It's just us." Those words pierced right through the bulletproof glass and slammed ruthlessly into my heart. Amidst the smoke and distant gunfire, the two of them clung to each other, looking like a pair of tragic, star-crossed lovers. Seeing Elena’s satisfied smile, Carter lowered his voice to comfort her. "Maya is tough. She acts like a total tomboy anyway. Even if she stays behind, no one would dare mess with her. Unlike you—you're too fragile and delicate. You'd be bullied in a heartbeat." Caught up in the emotion of his own twisted heroism, he gently kissed her forehead. "Don't be afraid. As long as I'm here, I will keep you safe!" The bitter irony was that he had said those exact same words to me when he proposed. Now, he was perfectly fine abandoning me in a literal warzone, acting as if my "toughness" was a bulletproof vest that could magically deflect mortar shells. But he conveniently forgot something. Before I followed him to this desert wasteland, I was a quiet, soft-spoken academic who spent all her time in a sterile physics lab. Growing up, whenever I visited the Hayes house, Carter was always the one who looked after me. Naturally, he became the sole protagonist of my teenage daydreams. So, after Mama Hayes passed away, I threw away my brilliant career as a young, tenured physics professor back in the States to follow him overseas to strike it rich. To support his ambitions, I—one of the youngest genius physicists of my generation—worked alongside the rugged construction crews, grinding my way up from a manual laborer to a lead draftsman, all just to hear him say: "Once I save up two million dollars, I'm taking you back to the States to give you the grandest wedding imaginable! I'll make sure your parents can rest in peace!" Last year, when our salaries finally got bumped up to the executive tier, I thought I could finally catch my breath. Instead, he flew his newly widowed sister-in-law over, claiming she was sweet, docile, and was getting bullied by her extended family back home. He told me to "take good care of her." Elena hadn't worked a day in her life. One minute she was complaining that the desert dust made it hard to breathe, the next she was whining about the heat making her dizzy. From that day on, I—the woman who wasn't even legally married into the family yet—had to bake in the scorching sun at the construction site, only to come back to the barracks and play maid for my future sister-in-law. When the rough local contractors disrespected her for being overly dramatic, I was the one who stood in the doorway, hands on my hips, screaming back at them in their native language to protect her. I thought my sacrifices would earn Carter’s gratitude and devotion. Instead, I got nothing but disgust and betrayal. I let out a bitter, self-deprecating laugh, lowered my hand, and turned to Agent Sterling, who was still waiting for my answer. Mimicking Carter's exact tone, I said: "No. It's just me." Sterling nodded sympathetically. The armored SUV finally broke through the crowds and pulled up right in front of the main terminal. While Sterling went inside to expedite my clearance, I grabbed my bags from the trunk. Before I could take a step, two furious figures blocked my path. Carter’s eyes were ice-cold. "Didn't I text you? You're already used to living out here, waiting a little longer won't kill you. Why are you shamelessly stalking us? Are you trying to guilt-trip me and force me into a difficult choice?" I glanced at the visibly nervous Elena and let out a dry, exasperated laugh. "I never thought you were torn about your choice for a single second." Carter’s face stiffened, and he guiltily looked away. Elena hurriedly jumped in. "Maya, please don't misunderstand! Carter only did this because he knows my health is terrible, and I'm not as thick-skinned and resilient as you are. That's why he decided to take me first. But I completely understand why you're angry. After all, I'm just a widow—I don't deserve to have a million dollars spent to save my life. Just let Carter take you. I'll stay here and wait to join my late husband..." Her performance was flawless—weeping like a fragile flower, acting as if I had inflicted some massive, unbearable injustice upon her. The guilt on Carter’s face instantly evaporated, replaced by blazing anger as he glared at me. "You know perfectly well that Elena is physically weak and can't handle emotional stress! Did you specifically follow us here just to throw a tantrum and make her cry?!" He spoke as if I were somehow immune to bullets and emotional trauma. Hearing the artillery fire creeping closer, I had zero desire to entangle myself with them any further. I grabbed my suitcase and said coldly: "Since you don't want to see me, get out of my way. From now on, whether I live or die has absolutely nothing to do with you!" Seeing me turn and walk straight toward the embassy staff who had just registered them, Carter panicked. He grabbed my arm, his eyes filled with utter contempt. "Maya Vance, I never thought five years in this country would turn you into such a toxic, vicious bitch! You're actually going to the Embassy to report us? Is this because you're mad I used your half of the salary to buy Elena a ticket?! In your eyes, is money seriously more important than family?!" It hit me then. He was terrified I was going to expose his embezzlement, which could stop them from boarding their flight. Elena instantly caught on to his panic and amplified her performance. Her eyes red, she took off the luxury watch David had given her for their wedding and tried to shove it into my hand. "Maya, I don't have your luck. I don't have an amazing man like Carter to protect me. This is the only valuable thing I own—the last thing my husband left me. I'll use it to pay you back right now. Please, just don't make things difficult for Carter, okay?" Absolutely disgusted, I slapped her hand away. "If you like spending other people's blood money, be my guest. But I won't take yours!" I barely even brushed her arm, but Elena dramatically threw herself onto the tarmac, bursting into pathetic tears. "Maya, please don't hit me! I know everyone on the construction site calls you the crazy psycho lady! I'm scared!" Hearing the commotion, the surrounding passengers crowded in. A few American expats who recognized us looked at me with blatant disgust. "Isn't that the notorious shrew from the Sector 4 site? Now she's assaulting people in public? She's an embarrassment to Americans everywhere!" "That's her own sister-in-law, and she actually hit her! People like her deserve to be left behind to let the bombs teach them a lesson!" "Hanging around groups of sweaty male laborers all day, she's either a complete slut or totally uncultured. How does trash like this even have the nerve to show up at the airport and mingle with people of our class? Just looking at her makes me feel dirty!" I recognized them instantly. They were the same entitled managers from our project site who used to bully Elena, the ones I had screamed at to protect her. But Elena pretended she didn't know them. She pathetically tugged at Carter’s sleeve. "My future sister-in-law has offended so many people, and with the way she usually treats me... I'm so scared!" Feeling his ego bruised, Carter shoved me violently to the ground. "Look at your own reputation! This just proves that whenever I wasn't looking, you were bullying Elena! I was completely blind when it came to you! You love money so much? Fine, here! Take it and get the hell back to the barracks! Stop making us sick!" He pulled a few crumpled bills from his pocket and threw them at my face like he was tossing change to a beggar. The sharp edges of the paper sliced across my cheek, leaving several bleeding paper cuts. I never expected that my first physical injury in an active warzone wouldn't come from enemy shrapnel, but from my own fiancé. I was just about to snap back when an artillery shell slammed into a building just a few miles away. The massive shockwave forced everyone to hit the deck and cover their heads. The embassy staff sprinted off to assess the perimeter breach. In the distance, I saw Agent Sterling waving at me, signaling that my clearance was ready. I didn't have time to waste on this toxic pair. I stood up, my expression icy. "Don't worry. I have zero expectations of you taking me anywhere, and I don't give a damn about your filthy money." Seeing me nod in Sterling's direction, Carter’s face turned pitch black. "So this is what it's all about! To save your own pathetic life, you actually seduced another man?! Did you forget that you're engaged to ME?!" The crowd around us suddenly looked at me with dawn realization and deep revulsion. "No wonder she had the nerve to show up here. She sold her body for a plane ticket! How is she any different from the cheap hookers in the red-light district?" "Don't let dirty trash like her onto our commercial flight! It's disgusting!" "She acted so high and mighty at the construction site, but the second she needs to flee, she throws her dignity in the trash!" Seeing them swarm around to block my path, I raised my voice to defend myself. "I didn't! I am a Defense Specialist! I have the security clearance to board—" "Stop lying through your teeth!" A resounding, vicious slap trapped the rest of my words in my throat. Carter grabbed me aggressively by the collar. "High-level executives like us had to spend a million dollars on the black market just to secure a civilian seat! You think the United States Government is going to dispatch a dedicated flight to save a construction draftsman?! Do you think we're all fucking idiots?!" Elena couldn't hide the smug smirk playing on her lips, but she put on a mask of deep pity. "Maya, even I have my dignity. As weak as I am, I would never stoop to doing something so filthy just to survive. Grabbing a random man to sleep with just to escape? Don't you think that's a bit reckless? You haven't even officially married into our family yet, and you've already dragged the Hayes name through the mud. If Mama Hayes knew about this, she'd be rolling in her grave!" Seeing me cornered by the mob from afar, Agent Sterling assumed I was saying goodbye to friends. To help me leave faster, he shouted across the tarmac. "I'm going to finalize the aircraft coordinates! Grab your gear, I'll come pick you up in a minute!" He jogged off before I could even shout his name. Carter erupted in absolute rage. "The guy you're fucking just admitted it! What else is there to deny?! Selling yourself to elope, and you have the audacity to call yourself an 'expert'?! How could you betray everything I've done to take care of you over here?!" In his eyes, my face—tanned, weathered, and covered in dust from the harsh desert winds—no longer resembled the soft-spoken, easily blushing scientist he once knew. But if it weren't for a grown man dropping to his knees, sobbing and begging me because he was terrified a long-distance relationship would cause another man to steal me away... If he hadn't relentlessly begged me to come to this desolate, arid wasteland... how could I have ever ended up looking like this? I was burning with an uncontrollable fury. I pointed at the scar on my forehead from a falling brick, the burn marks on my hands from cooking for Elena, and the jagged knife scar on my leg from defending her from local thugs. My eyes were bloodshot as I screamed: "THIS is how you took care of me?!" I pulled out my phone and pulled up the urgent email he had sent to corporate that very morning. "Is this how you take care of me?! Leaving me to die in a warzone and dragging another woman to safety?!" His eyes darted nervously, and he turned his face away. "Whatever. Our flight is about to board, and I don't want to argue anymore. You're on your own..." Sensing his hesitation, Elena instantly fired up her toxic, tearful routine. "It's all my fault. Because my husband died early, and my health is so poor, it made Carter pity me. I'll just die right here! I won't get in the way of you two reconciling..." She turned and acted like she was going to sprint directly toward the active mortar fire. Carter panicked, yanking her back and pulling her tightly into his arms. When he looked back at me, all the guilt was completely gone. "Elena, the person who deserves to be blown up by artillery fire is this cheating slut!" Holding the trembling, sobbing Elena in his arms, his face turned dark and sinister as he glared at me. "Get on your knees and apologize to Elena right now! If she doesn't feel emotionally stable, you and your new lover aren't getting on any plane today!" I was shaking with rage. I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt—which, I noticed, had a faint lipstick stain on it. "She is the one who needs to apologize! Last night, the moment the bombing started, you instantly grabbed her and ran straight for the underground bunker! But you forced ME to run to the office building to salvage the critical project blueprints! Spending the whole night alone together in that bunker listening to the bombs... I'm sure you two found ways to keep yourselves entertained, didn't you?!" Exposed and humiliated, Carter snapped. He violently shoved me back, knocking me to the ground. "Slandering me is one thing, but how dare you ruin Elena’s innocence?! I sent you to get the blueprints to give you a chance to earn credit! In the end, weren't you the one commended for it?!" "Really?" I let out a bitter, heartbroken laugh. I pulled up the corporate report he had submitted this morning after seeing me run into the bunker, covered in soot, clutching the crucial documents. At the bottom of the report, under the section detailing the "heroes" who secured the critical assets, the primary name listed was Elena Hayes. "In your eyes... I have to act as her personal maid at home, I have to pave the way for her career at work, and I even have to hand over my fiancé on a silver platter! Who are the ones actually acting without an ounce of shame, sleeping together behind my back?!" Seeing the surrounding crowd begin to look at him with suspicion, cold sweat beaded on Carter’s forehead. He knew that if his illicit affair with his sister-in-law reached corporate HR, even if he survived and made it back to the States, he would be fired and blacklisted. He crouched down, his face twisting into an ugly sneer, and gripped my jaw fiercely. "I'll say this one last time. Stay here and be a good girl! Stop fighting with Elena! Once I get back to the States and get hailed as a corporate hero, I will personally arrange to bring you home. If you keep making a scene and we all go down together, you won't survive this either!" "Who the hell needs you to bring me anywhere?" Having finalized the flight coordinates, Agent Sterling rushed back over, furious. He violently shoved Carter away. "We are here on classified orders to extract a top-tier US asset! If you disrespect her again, you're going to end up in a federal black site!" Seeing Sterling, Carter's rage exploded. He sneered at him. "Still trying to use these pathetic excuses to cover up your affair?! Do I really need to remind everyone what kind of cheap trash she actually is?" The crowd, finally shifting their attention to Sterling, chimed in with relentless mockery. "Everyone here knows she's just a construction site draftsman. Did she suddenly become a 'top-tier asset' in your bed?" "This so-called 'expert' probably bought her plane ticket while she was on her back!" "With the war raging outside, how many nights did she have to service you for a single seat?" Sterling was left utterly speechless by their vile ignorance. He quickly pulled out his federal credentials. "Are you people insane? I represent the US State Department, and I am here to extract Dr. Vance! How dare you slander a federal operation?!" The next second, an angry mob member snatched his badge without even looking at it and tore it to shreds. "Trying to impersonate a federal agent to protect this whore?! You're an embarrassment to our country!" Furious, Sterling reached for his satellite phone to call for tactical support, but Carter slapped it out of his hand, smashing it against the concrete. "Degenerate scum like you two don't deserve to sit on our civilian evacuation flight!" Suddenly, another mortar shell shrieked through the air, detonating incredibly close to our position. Carter instantly shoved me—the person closest to him—aside, throwing his body over Elena to shield her. Caught completely off guard by his violent shove, I had no time to find cover. I was hit by the blast wave and thrown heavily onto the jagged asphalt. As the dust settled and people began scrambling frantically toward the commercial airliners, Carter staggered to his feet, pulling Elena up with him. As he walked past me—bleeding profusely from the impact—he hesitated for a split second, before finally crouching down next to me. I thought his conscience had finally kicked in. I reached out and grabbed the hem of his pants. "Get a medic... hurry..." But instead of helping me, he pried my bleeding fingers off his leg, one by one. He picked up my scattered passport and ID from the ground and tossed them directly into a nearby debris fire ignited by the mortar shell. He let out a heavy sigh. "Maya, I'm sorry. If you keep these documents today, you will forever be a threat to Elena's safety. I've already taken care of you enough since we were kids, but Elena was never as lucky as you. As for the wedding... I'll make it up to you in the next life." Agent Sterling, who had only suffered minor scrapes from the blast, saw the horrific state I was in. His eyes went red with sheer fury. He lunged forward and grabbed Carter, who was about to run away. "Help me carry her to our plane! Right now! If you save her, I guarantee you can fly out with us! Otherwise, once the military lockdown initiates, none of you are leaving this airport!" Carter violently shook him off. "Still trying to scam me?! Spit! We paid a million dollars for commercial tickets! I'd like to see who's going to stop us from leaving!"
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