My husband, Colonel Elias Vance, lied to me on our anniversary. An urgent mission, he claimed.
I activated the tracker in his car the moment he left.
The signal wasn’t heading toward the base. It was en route to the city’s best OB-GYN clinic.
I hacked into the clinic’s surveillance system.
There he was, his arm wrapped around a delicate woman, his eyes holding a tenderness he’d never shown me.
“Elias, have you picked a name for the baby?” She cooed, her hand resting on her belly.
“Hope,” Elias replied. “For our love.”
A cold dread gripped me.
Then my phone rang. It was Military Command, demanding Elias’s location.
Watching the intimate scene on my screen, I put the call on speaker.
“General Thompson,” I reported, my voice cold steel. “Colonel Elias Vance appears to have deserted. I also suspect he may be compromising classified intelligence.”
One sentence. It froze General Thompson on the phone and Elias on the screen.
On my phone, General Thompson’s voice turned to ice.
“Cassandra, Say again?”
On the monitor, Elias’s phone rang too.
His face twisted at the caller ID. He hung up frantically and immediately tried calling me.
I didn’t answer.
Instead, I spoke into my phone, each word measured and clear.
“Reporting, General Thompson, Elias Vance left home today claiming an urgent mission, but he’s at the city’s OB-GYN clinic. His movements are suspicious, and he’s refusing to answer secure military calls. I suspect him of desertion.”
My voice was low, yet it hit like a bombshell.
Five seconds of dead air followed.
“Cassandra Vance, General Thompson finally said, his tone sharp and decisive. Hold your position, secure the area, and stay safe. We are en route.”
I hung up and silently watched the monitor.
On screen, Elias was in a full-blown panic.
He abandoned the woman, Willow Jenkins, frantically dialing my number as he rushed towards the clinic’s entrance.
Willow cried out pitifully behind him, “Elias, where are you going? Our baby…”
He didn’t even glance back.
The tenderness and patience in his eyes had vanished, replaced by sheer terror and volatile rage.
But it was too late.
Less than ten minutes later, several dark green military SUVs roared to a halt, completely blocking all exits of the clinic.
Heavily armed soldiers leaped from the vehicles, their movements swift and their presence intimidating.
They stormed into the lobby, pinpointing their target.
“Colonel Elias Vance, you’re coming with us!”
The black muzzles didn’t waver. Elias raised his hands, his face turning to ash.
Two soldiers forced his arms behind his back, clamped on the cuffs, and marched him out.
As he passed through the main entrance, he saw me.
I stood just outside the glass doors, watching him with cold indifference.
His pupils shrank to pinpricks, as if seeing a ghost.
“Cassandra!” The roar was pure, twisted fury. “You’re insane! What have you done?! This is a setup!”
I answered with a cold sneer.
Yes, I know its a setup.
You didn’t desert.
You were just with your mistress, naming your bastard child, while I planned our anniversary.
You were just betraying me while I was pregnant.
But why should I ever explain for you?
When you lied to me and disgraced that uniform, why didn’t you see this coming?
The soldiers didn’t give him a chance to protest further. They roughly shoved him into a vehicle.
The woman, Willow Jenkins, was also taken away under “protective custody.”
She was trembling uncontrollably. As she passed me, she suddenly lunged like a madwoman.
“It’s you! You ruined Elias! You bitch!”
Two female soldiers quickly intercepted her.
I looked at her tear-streaked face and her slightly swollen belly.
“Hope,” I whispered, just two words.
Willow’s face instantly went white.
“Commemorating your love, right?”
I smiled, a smile that brought tears to my eyes.
“What a beautiful name!”
The surrounding commotion faded into irrelevance. The world before me turned to grayscale.
Elias Vance, the game has begun.
You destroyed my love; I will destroy everything you hold dear.
I was taken back to the military base, not as a spouse, but as a “key informant.”
The one who debriefed me was General Thompson, a man nearing fifty with a naturally authoritative presence.
“Mrs. Vance, relax. Walk me through everything you observed today.”
I held the mug, my hands steady.
“Today was my and Elias’s third wedding anniversary. This morning, he said his unit had an urgent mission and rushed out. I immediately felt something was off.”
“What felt off?” General Thompson pressed.
“He wasn’t in uniform, and he was driving his private car. Also, as he left, I saw a crumpled piece of paper fall from his pocket. It was an appointment slip from the local OB-GYN clinic.”
I pulled a crumpled slip of paper from my pocket.
Of course, this slip wasn’t his. I’d found it in the trash can in his study.
He thought he’d disposed of it cleanly.
But he didn’t know that from the day my sense of smell became unusually acute after I got pregnant, I’d noticed a perfume scent on him that wasn’t mine.
From that day on, I ceased to be myself and became a hunter.
General Thompson took the slip, his expression growing grimmer.
“Why did you suspect him of desertion?”
This was the core of it all.
I let my gaze drop, injecting a carefully measured tremor into my voice.
“His behavior has been erratic. Taking encrypted calls late at night, using a separate laptop in his study. When I asked, he said it was for classified intelligence.”
“I know the rules. I shouldn’t ask what I’m not supposed to. But today… he lied about a mission to take another woman to her OB-GYN appointment.
“General, if he would lie to the service, what wouldn’t he do?”
It was a masterful blend of truth and lies.
He did have another laptop, but he used it to play games with his mistress.
He did take calls in the middle of the night, but those were his mistress calling to complain about pregnancy sickness.
I’d seen all of this clearly through the surveillance cameras at home.
But I couldn’t say that.
General Thompson’s brows furrowed.
“Do you know that woman?”
“No,” I shook my head. “But I accessed the clinic’s system. Her name is Willow Jenkins.”
“You hacked their system?” General Thompson seemed surprised.
“Cybersecurity was my major.” I replied, my tone even.
This was my ace in the hole.
Not only could I hack into the clinic’s system, but I could also recover all deleted files and chat logs from his “gaming laptop.”
General Thompson fell silent.
A Special Forces Major, acting clandestinely, deceiving the service, and having a close relationship with an unknown woman.
And his wife, a cybersecurity expert, reported him herself.
Every element was startling.
“Mrs. Vance, the information you’ve provided is highly critical. We will launch an immediate investigation. In the meantime, for your safety, you’ll need to stay at the military guest house.”
“I understand. I have only one request.”
“I want a divorce.”
My tone held no hesitation.
“Regardless of the investigation’s outcome, this marriage is over.”
General Thompson looked at me, his eyes complex.
“Alright, the service will support your reasonable request.”
Stepping out of the office, the sun was shining brightly.
But I only felt cold.
My phone vibrated. It was a text from an unknown number.
“Cassandra, you bitch! If you dare to ruin Elias, my mom won’t let you get away with it!”
It was Elias’s sister, Sierra Vance.
I deleted the text with a blank expression and blocked the number.
This was only the beginning.
Immediately after, a call came in. It was my mother-in-law.
As soon as I answered, a barrage of curses erupted.
“Cassandra! What’s wrong with you?! What has Elias ever done to you to deserve this?! You jinx, I should never have agreed to your marriage!”
I listened quietly. When she finally ran out of breath, I spoke calmly.
“Mom, don’t rush to curse me. You should be more concerned about your unborn grandchild.”
The other end of the line went completely silent.
“You… what do you mean?”
“Colonel Vance was at the clinic with his mistress for her prenatal checkup. The baby’s already three months along. Oh, and they’ve even picked out a name: Hope.”
“To commemorate their love.”
With every word, I could imagine the blood draining from my proud mother-in-law’s face on the other end of the phone.
“You’re lying! Impossible! My son isn’t that kind of man!” she shrieked.
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
I hung up, letting out a long sigh.
The knot of resentment in my chest seemed to loosen a little.
Elias, you thought your family was your backing?
Soon, they’ll become yet another straw to break your back.
3.
I settled into the military guest house.
Though called a guest house, its security level was high, with sentries guarding the entrance twenty-four hours a day.
I understood. This was both protection and surveillance.
Until Elias Vance’s suspicions were cleared, I, as the “primary informant,” couldn’t move freely either.
This suited me perfectly.
I needed an absolutely safe and quiet environment to prepare my next move.
The investigation team came to see me the next day.
This time, in addition to General Thompson, there were two sharp-looking middle-aged men I didn’t recognize, dressed in plain clothes.
They were from internal security, specifically responsible for internal reviews.
“Mrs. Vance, we’ve reviewed the clinic surveillance and conducted preliminary interrogations of Colonel Vance and Willow Jenkins. Colonel Vance insists it was merely a personal conduct issue, and he felt guilty, which is why he panicked.”
One of the men spoke, his tone even, but his eyes, like a hawk’s, bore into me.
“Willow Jenkins also claims she and Colonel Vance had merely a simple romantic relationship and that she knew nothing about his work.”
“Really?” I raised an eyebrow slightly. “A ‘simple romantic relationship’?”
I took a USB drive from my bag and placed it on the table.
“This contains all the data I recovered from Colonel Vance’s ‘gaming laptop’.”
“Including his chat logs with Willow from when they first met until now, every payment he made to her, and even… records of his irregular actions, like using his position to apply for ‘temporary military dependent housing’ for her.”
The faces of the three men at the table instantly changed.
General Thompson’s expression was one of shock and anger.
The two men from internal security showed unconcealed gravity.
A personal conduct issue was entirely different from using one’s authority to gain undue benefits for a lover.
The former was personal moral decay; the latter was a severe disciplinary violation, a stain on the uniform!
“In the chat logs, Willow repeatedly complained to Elias that she didn’t feel safe living alone, and she envied me living on the military base.”
I stated calmly, as if narrating someone else’s story.
“To placate her, Elias promised her a ‘special talent dependent’ housing slot, claiming she could soon move into a community near the base.”
My eyes locked on the General. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but that community is exclusively for families of personnel with exceptional service records?”
General Thompson’s lips were tightly pursed, and he remained silent, but a vein pulsed visibly on his forehead.
The internal security officers immediately collected the drive.
“We will verify this immediately.”
After they left, only General Thompson and I remained in the office.
“Mrs. Vance…” he sighed, his voice full of weariness. “You… you’ve been through a lot.”
I shook my head. “Compared to what I’ve endured, I’m more concerned about the honor of the uniform he wore.”
I spoke these words with genuine sincerity.
I married Elias not only because I loved him, but also because I admired him.
I admired him as a steadfast soldier, a hero defending our nation.
But now, he had personally shattered all my reverence.
“The service will not tolerate any misconduct and will never wrong a good person,” General Thompson assured me.
I nodded and rose to leave.
Just as I reached the door, I paused, as if something had suddenly occurred to me, and turned back.
My face held a hint of hesitation and uncertainty.
“General, there’s something… I’m not sure if I should say it.”
“Speak your mind.”
“That woman, Willow Jenkins. When I checked her information, I found she has a brother named Brandon Jenkins.”
“This Brandon… he appears to have an overseas background. He’s not a local. And the chat logs show Willow telling Elias that her brother was persistently curious about his job. He wasn’t just asking; he was probing for operational details such as training methods, equipment specs.”
I chose my words carefully, making myself appear like an ordinary person who had inadvertently stumbled upon a clue but was afraid of saying the wrong thing.
“At the time, I thought it might just be family curiosity, and I didn’t pay much attention. But thinking about it now, it feels a bit off.”
“I’m afraid… I’m afraid Elias might have been exploited by this woman…”
My voice grew softer and softer, finally trailing off with a hint of a sob.
This sob was half feigned, half genuine.
For my dead love, and for my husband, whom I was about to personally push into the abyss.
General Thompson shot up from his chair.
The last trace of warmth vanished from his eyes, replaced by an unprecedented vigilance and sharpness.
“Name and nationality of the brother. Now!”
The shift in the room was instantaneous and absolute. This was no longer about misconduct. It wasn’t even about gross abuse of authority.
This was now a potential national security breach.
A grim smile touched my lips.?Checkmate, Elias.
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