Betrayed On My Wedding Eve Chapter 19

Betrayed On My Wedding Eve Chapter 19

We were the only two native English speakers in the camp.

Natural allies.

He was different from my first impression. About his work, Julian was serious. Meticulous. He gave me detailed data on casualties, supply shortages, conditions on the ground.

I turned those numbers and stories into reporting and sent them out.

My first piece secured nearly a thousand tons of food donations for the region.

Then Julian noticed something wrong with the HIV mortality rate.

“We’ve been distributing antiretrovirals. But they’re still dying in clusters. It doesn’t make sense. Unless they’re not actually taking the medication.”

I looked through patient records. “I’ll look into it.”

I canvassed the camp. Eventually I found it: not just the HIV drugs, nearly all the free medications being distributed were ending up on the black market. Traffickers traded a bag of moldy cornmeal for lifesaving pills. Because that bag of cornmeal could feed a family for a month.

The story broke internationally. The UN World Food Programme scrambled to redirect resources.

The day the aid convoy arrived, the camp erupted in cheers. We helped hand out rations, sweating through our clothes, and felt something close to joy.

After the last bag of potatoes went to a mother holding an infant, Julian and I collapsed against the side of the truck.

He turned to look at me.

That smile. It lit up his whole face.

“Lena. Thank you.”

“For what.”

“Before you got here, all I could do was watch people suffer and feel like I wasn’t doing enough. But now I can see what my purpose is. You made the world look at them. At us.”

My heart hammered so hard I could barely breathe.

I fussed with the hair near my ear, trying to hide how red it was.