His Smokescreen Is Now the Woman He Can’t Have Chapter 02

His Smokescreen Is Now the Woman He Can’t Have Chapter 02

I went rigid.

Over Caleb’s shoulder, I saw that my storage locker had been forced open. The small combination lock lay on the floor, and the locker door hung ajar.

I understood instantly.

The combination to my locker was Caleb’s birthday: August seventeenth. I had secretly set it when I first arrived, a secret I thought was mine alone.

I never dreamed he knew, let alone that he’d use it to break into my locker.

Cold fury coiled in my gut. The rough draft of my MIT application, the one I’d hidden at the very back, was gone.

Before I could speak, Isabelle Davenport rushed out from behind Caleb. Her eyes were red as she stormed up to me.

“Elara!” Her voice was a sob, loud enough for the entire dorm to hear. “I know you’re jealous of me, but how could you contact the MIT admissions office and report me just to get my exchange program suspended?”

“What are you talking about?” The accusation was so stunning I froze. “They called me because—”

My attempt to explain was drowned out by a chorus of accusations.

“Elara, stop pretending. We all heard! Isabelle’s exchange program is on hold because of you!”

“I can’t believe you’d do something like this. Do you really think Caleb will like you for it?”

“Keep dreaming. Caleb and Isabelle are headed to EUCOM after graduation. You’re nothing.”

EUCOM. U.S. European Command.

So their future was already mapped out. And I was just an obstacle to be removed.

I saw it all at once. Something had gone wrong with Isabelle’s exchange program, and she had pinned it on me. And my call from MIT had become her Exhibit A.

I opened my mouth to explain, but Caleb cut me off.

“Enough.”

He didn’t even look at me, just shifted to shield the tearful Isabelle. Then he turned his gaze on me, his icy blue eyes filled with warning and disgust.

“Elara Vance, don’t let me find out you’ve harassed Isabelle again. Her future is not something you get to interfere with.” He paused, then added coldly, “As punishment, you’re on sanitation duty. Alone. All weekend.”

His words were a wall, blocking everything I wanted to say.

I looked at him, at the undisguised favoritism on his face, and felt my chest tighten.

After a few seconds of silence, I lowered my eyes.

“Yes, sir.”

He didn’t want to listen. Explaining would be pointless.

My compliance clearly threw him. He had probably expected me to argue, to desperately try to prove my innocence as I always had. But I did nothing. I just calmly accepted the accusation.

An unreadable emotion flickered in his eyes, but before he could process it, the assembly whistle for the graduation ceremony rehearsal blew.

After rehearsal, a crowd of cadets gathered around Caleb. It was a West Point tradition to exchange keepsakes before graduation, and naturally, something from Caleb Sterling was the most sought-after prize.

I didn’t join them.

I stood in a corner, my fingers tracing the metal badge in my pocket. It was my father’s service medal, the only thing he’d left me. Old and worn, its edges were hard in my palm.

Just then, a long, slender hand reached out in front of me.

A delicate cuff link lay in his palm, engraved with the eagle crest of the Sterling family.

I froze, then looked up at Caleb.

“This is for you,” he said in a low voice. His tone lacked its usual coldness, replaced by an awkwardness I couldn’t quite place.

“For me?” I didn’t understand.

My reaction seemed to make him even more uncomfortable. He looked away, the tips of his ears turning faintly red. “Don’t read too much into it. I’m just keeping a promise.”

A promise?

The memory came rushing back.

A few months earlier, on the anniversary of my father’s death. Getting off campus wasn’t easy at West Point, so I could only hide in a corner of the training field, staring toward the Hudson River until the tears finally came.

After training, Caleb found me.

He walked over and crouched in front of me. Seeing my red-rimmed eyes, he frowned. “Elara Vance, what is it this time?”

His words only made me cry harder.

Caleb clearly had no idea how to handle tears. He stood there, utterly at a loss, before finally blurting out, “Stop crying. I’ll grant you one request.”

I looked up at him. “Anything?”

“Anything.” At that moment, he just wanted me to stop.

I immediately asked, “Then I want to trade my most important possession for one of your cuff links.”

He had only nodded dismissively.

I had always thought he’d forgotten.

I never expected him to actually remember.

I looked down at the cuff link in my palm, the one that symbolized his family’s legacy, and didn’t notice Isabelle standing not far away. When she saw us, her expression soured.

The next second, she burst into tears.

“Elara,” she said, looking at me as if she’d suffered the world’s greatest humiliation, “fine, you win. I’ll go polish the entire company’s equipment right now.”

With that, she turned to head for the equipment room, but Caleb grabbed her wrist.

“Isabelle, what are you doing?”

Isabelle bit her lip. Her voice was soft, but just loud enough for everyone nearby to hear. “Last night… Elara insisted on making a bet with me. We bet on who you would give your graduation keepsake to today. The loser… had to clean everyone’s equipment.”

I could hardly believe my ears. “Isabelle, what are you talking about? When did I ever make that bet with you?”

Isabelle’s tears fell faster. She shrank into Caleb’s arms as if she were terrified of me. “Elara, you were the one who brought it up. How can you deny it? I didn’t want to bet, but you said if I didn’t agree, you’d tell everyone about our past… I was scared, so I had to…”

“But don’t worry. I admit I lost. I’ll go now…”

She sobbed, trying to pull free of Caleb’s hand. He held on tight.

Whatever softness had been in his eyes moments before was gone, replaced by ice.

He turned to me, his gaze frighteningly cold.

“Elara, did you arrange this?”