Faking His Death Chapter 09

Faking His Death Chapter 09

Command had Brooke and my mother-in-law brought in and interviewed separately.

Ethan stood there looking smug and leaned toward me like he’d already won.

“Lena,” he said, eyes sharp with spite, “now I see what you really are. Once I get my identity back, I’m divorcing you immediately.”

I didn’t bother reacting.

I just waited for the interviews to end.

A few minutes later, Brooke came out first.

The second she saw Ethan, she clung to him and called, “Babe.”

Ethan jerked his arm back so fast it was almost funny.

“Who are you calling that?” he snapped. “I’m Ethan. I’m not your husband.”

Brooke curled her lip. “What are you talking about?”

“I just worked my ass off convincing them we’re married,” she hissed under her breath.

Ethan stiffened like his spine had turned to ice.

Before he could say anything, my mother-in-law shuffled out, shaking her head, and pulled Ethan in close like she was sharing a secret.

“Don’t worry,” she whispered. “I covered it. They won’t suspect for a second that you’re impersonating Owen.”

I let out a small, cold smile.

Ethan had been so sure someone “knowing” would save him, and instead Brooke and his mother doubled down on the lie and looked proud of themselves for it.

Sure enough, the duty officer came out last and spoke with a hard, official calm.

“Owen,” he said, “your discipline order will be finalized in two days and formally posted.”

“As for your job at the plant,” he added, “whether they keep you is up to them.”

He didn’t say the obvious out loud, but everyone understood.

That job was gone.

Ethan exploded.

He whipped toward them and shouted, “Why did you lie? Why didn’t you tell the truth?”

Brooke flinched, her face crumpling into outrage.

“What do you mean?” she cried. “I’m carrying your baby, and you’re still thinking about another woman?”

I ignored her glare and looked straight at Ethan.

“Even if you tried to impersonate Ethan again, it wouldn’t help,” I said calmly. “His name has already been struck from the Army rolls, and he isn’t a colonel anymore.”

In fact, the moment Ethan “died,” his position was filled.

There had never been a way back.

Ethan stared at me as if he finally understood the size of what he’d lost.

Then his eyes went bloodshot with fury.

“It was you,” he said hoarsely. “You did this.”

“How dare you close out my service record?” he snarled.

I shook my head with a quiet sigh.

“You should go home,” I told him. “And stop pretending you’re Ethan.”

They dragged him out, and he was still yelling that he was a colonel and no one had the right to discipline him.

Ryan told me they’d tighten security and make sure Ethan and his family couldn’t corner me again.

For the next few months, I didn’t hear a single thing about Ethan.

Then Brooke went into labor.

My mother-in-law had been clinging to an old wives’ tale, swearing Brooke’s cravings meant she had to be carrying a boy.

Even when the delivery turned dangerous, she kept insisting the baby should be saved first.

After all that screaming and chaos, Brooke delivered a frail baby girl.

Brooke survived, but she was left unable to have more children.

I didn’t learn any of it until Ethan burst into my office and started acting like time had erased everything he’d done.

“Lena,” he said, voice pleading, “it’s been long enough. You should forgive me.”

“Come back with me and let’s live properly,” he pressed. “Give Nora a baby brother.”

“Otherwise, with just you raising her, she won’t even be able to get married someday,” he added, shameless and ugly.

Rage surged up my throat, and I was about to speak.

Nora flew in from the hallway first and shoved him with all the strength her small body had.

“Bad man,” she yelled. “You’re not my dad. I only want my mom. Get out!”

My mother-in-law stood behind him, and ever since Brooke had delivered a girl, she’d been swallowing her pride and trying to lure me back.

Now she rolled her eyes so hard it looked like they hurt.

“Ungrateful ingrates,” she snapped. “Who needs you?”

She grabbed Ethan’s arm. “Come on. There are plenty of women out there. Lena can’t even give a family a son anyway.”

The military police escorted them out, and only then did I start paying attention to what was happening to Ethan.

After he was laid off, he couldn’t find steady work again.

They burned through what little they had, living off savings until there was nothing left.

And Brooke’s relationship with my mother-in-law rotted fast.

My mother-in-law resented Brooke for “only” producing a daughter.

Brooke hated how my mother-in-law dismissed the baby like she didn’t matter.

Before the baby was even a month old, she died because of my mother-in-law’s negligence.

People said it was suffocation.

Brooke went feral with grief and screamed that my mother-in-law owed her a life.

They shoved each other, stumbled, and fell.

My mother-in-law was older, and she hit her head and died right there.

Brooke never expected it to actually happen.

She was scared out of her mind.

Ethan took hit after hit and started to look hollow and worn.

He turned on Brooke and began telling everyone he was Ethan and Brooke was not his wife.

Not long after that, Brooke was found drowned.

People whispered she’d lost her grip on reality.

After that, Ethan went even more unhinged.

The locals started saying madness was contagious and kept their distance, treating him like he was cursed.

No one believed a word he said.

They just muttered that his whole family was gone, and misfortune clung to him like a shadow.

Then I received transfer orders.

Nora and I moved up north for better opportunities, and I never looked back.

I stopped paying attention to them.

My future was already unfolding, bright and wide, one steady step at a time.