His Smokescreen Is Now the Woman He Can’t Have Chapter 04

His Smokescreen Is Now the Woman He Can’t Have Chapter 04

The moment Isabelle spoke, every gaze in the vicinity turned toward us. Their eyes, a mixture of contempt and curiosity, made my skin crawl.

I couldn’t even be bothered to look at her. I just wanted to walk past them and be done with it. But a hand suddenly seized my wrist, the grip so strong it hurt.

It was Caleb.

I looked up and met his cold blue eyes.

“To get out of here,” he said, biting off each word, “you’d do anything, wouldn’t you?”

That hurt more than Isabelle’s slander.

In his eyes, Isabelle’s lies were an innocence that needed protection. As for me, my every breath seemed to be a calculation.

That morning, because of one vague accusation from Isabelle, he had silenced every doubt on the forum for her.

Now, because of one malicious guess from her, he was convicting me without a single question.

An old wound in my heart tore open.

But the pain lasted only a moment.

I calmed myself and looked steadily at the man I had once believed was my only anchor. Softly, I said, “If that’s what you want to think, then think it.”

Caleb’s grip on my wrist tightened. Through gritted teeth, he said, “Elara Vance, don’t you have anything to explain?”

“Explain?” I looked at him and almost laughed. “If I explain, will you formally report this to the Honor Committee?”

Caleb froze.

Of course he wouldn’t. He wasn’t sure himself, and he didn’t want to escalate this into an official matter. My question left him momentarily speechless.

Just then, the car door behind me opened. Dr. Peterson hurried out, holding a thick architecture atlas.

“Elara, you left this.” He hadn’t noticed the tense atmosphere as he tucked the book into my arms. “All the notes you prepared for your MIT application are in here. It would be a shame to lose it.”

MIT?

Application?

The surrounding area went utterly silent. Caleb’s hand dropped from my wrist as if he’d been burned.

Isabelle’s face turned ugly. After the professor smiled, said his goodbyes, and drove off, she forced out a sneer, deliberately raising her voice.

“Elara, with grades like yours, you want to transfer to MIT? Don’t embarrass West Point.”

The people beside her immediately chimed in.

“Exactly. You were lucky to get into West Point, and now you’re aiming for MIT?”

“The Vances really know how to dream.”

I had heard words like that too many times.

I didn’t spare them a glance. Clutching the heavy architecture atlas, I turned and walked straight toward the dormitories.

The eyes boring into my back could no longer touch me.

…

That afternoon was high-angle rope descent training.

In front of a simulated rock wall hundreds of feet high, cadets rappelled down one by one. I was in the middle of the line, mechanically checking my safety buckle and main rope.

Once I confirmed everything was secure, I leaned back, my body leaving the wall. I braced my feet against the surface and began my descent.

Wind rushed past my ears, the sound of rope sliding through metal a steady rhythm.

Suddenly, there was a soft click.

Before I could react, the safety buckle at my waist gave way. My entire body plunged into a free fall.

The feeling of weightlessness was instantaneous.

“Grab on!”

Through the chaos, I heard someone shout from above. It was Caleb.

The next second, I saw him do something every instructor had explicitly forbidden. He unclipped his own main safety rope.

Using astonishing core strength, he swung through the air, launching himself toward me.

Wind, screams, and the furious shouts of the instructors all blurred together.

Just before I fell completely, a pair of arms seized me.

The massive impact sent both of us crashing into the safety net below.

The world spun. The last thing I saw was Caleb’s face, inches from mine. That face, usually so cold, was filled with pure panic.

Then everything went black.