The Lie He Called Love

p-secret project. He promised to return in three years, and

s calls and his entire hazard pay stipend had been diverted

. But a chance encounter at her grave turned violent. Jake shoved me, a

Britney just watched, callously

fell over me. It was my husband, Davion Carpent

pte

odriguez had promised just a week before he vanished into a top-secret government

ch other since college. He was brilliant, a software engineer with eyes that sparkled with ambition, and I, Alena Koch, was ready to be his wife. We' d pi

d conversations, and suddenly, Jake was gone. He said it was patriotism, a once-in-a-lifetime cha

ck up right where we left off. I promise. Our future is waiting." He left me standing on the porch, clu

a silent prayer for his safe return. I believed him. I poured all my energy into b

t more often than not, the line would click, and a monotone voice would say, "Jake Rodriguez' s personal time has already be

hat ate away at her strength, at our savings, at my hope. The hospital bills pile

ything, I needed his government stipend, the hazard pay he was surely earning. I c

. Utilized? Again? When my mother was fighting for her life? I heard the words, but they didn' t compute. All his cal

ned from the phone booth, the fluorescent lights of the facility b

skipped past me, a security guard smiling warmly at her, waving her through a restricted door I couldn't even approach. The guard' s smile faded when he

up? I told you not to worry." Upset about her breakup. While my mother was losing hers. A surge of desperate energy pulsed through me.

invisible wall between me and the man who was supposed to be my future. He must have seen the utter devastation in my eyes, the way my shoulders slumped. He leaned i

rt. My mother, wasting away, and Jake' s money, o

hisper of my name, the medical bills a silent, crushing weight around my heart. I blamed myself. If I had just been stronger, smarter, more re

my heart, I made a choice. No more waiting. No more Alena, the patient, d

My husband. And now, we were trying for a baby, a new life blooming from the ashes of my old one. Our journey to parenthood led me back to a familiar city, to a specialist renowned

ht streaming through the arched windows. My breath caught, a cold knot forming in my stomach. And next to him, laughing, her hand possessively tucked into

a confident, self-satisfied smile on his face. He hadn't just returned; he' d returned a hero. The project director, a distinguished man I vaguely recognized from Jake's old company photos, clapp

myself against a large potted plant, willing myself to be invisible. He didn't see me, not truly, not the woman I had become. Britney, sensing his distraction, leaned into him, her head resting on his shoulder. "Oh, Davion, you' re always te

ck me like a physical blow, a reminder of the life