My Commander Ex Divorced Me Then I Became Out of His League Chapter 12

My Commander Ex Divorced Me Then I Became Out of His League Chapter 12

My eyes frightened her.

I saw it. Her pupils contracted. She took an involuntary step backward.

Then she forced out a scoff, spun on her heel, and left.

Her heels clacked against the concrete floor. The sound faded and faded.

I shut the door and sat back down at my desk.

My hands were trembling slightly.

Not from fear.

From satisfaction.

That feeling of finally saying everything I’d swallowed for thirty years-

It was intoxicating.

In the fall of 2021, I reached a major turning point.

Professor Harrison Shaw nominated me for a national medical exchange competition. The First National Young Surgeons’ Clinical Skills Competition, organized by the Department of Health.

Top young surgeons recommended from every province across the country would gather in Washington, D.C. for a week of theoretical testing and practical assessments.

I was the only female physician recommended by the state.

And the youngest of all the competitors.

On the train to D.C., I sat in the standard-class car and watched the open plains roll backward

outside the window.

In my last life, I’d never left Crestwood.

This life, I was going to the capital. The competition was held at a major university hospital in Washington. I scored second overall on the written exam. First overall on the practical.

The results went up. My name sat at the very top.

At the awards ceremony, a senior Health Department official personally presented my certificate.

The auditorium thundered with applause.

But it wasn’t the applause I noticed.

I noticed a man in the third row.

Uniform. Stars on the shoulder.

Gavin.

He sat there, utterly motionless, staring up at me on that stage.

His expression was complicated.

Shock. Pride. And something else, something I couldn’t quite name-

Regret, maybe.

I stood straight on that stage, and I let my gaze pass clean over the top of his head, all the way to the

far wall.

On that wall hung a single line of text: [To save lives and ease suffering-the highest calling of

medicine.]

Those words carried far more weight than Gavin’s stare.

After the ceremony, he cornered me outside the auditorium.

This time, he didn’t mention remarriage.

He just looked at me, silent for a long moment. Then he said, “Sloane. You’re… extraordinary.”

The first time he’d ever complimented me.

Never happened. Not once in my last life.

I nodded. “Thank you.”

Then I picked up my bag and walked away.

Behind me, his voice came out, a little hoarse.

“Why did you never tell me how brilliant you are?”

I stopped.

Turned my head and looked back at him.

“You never asked.”

Three words.

His face went white in a heartbeat.

I turned and left.

I didn’t look back.

After the competition, my name rippled through national medical circles.

Crestwood General fast-tracked my promotion to attending physician. Chief Hayes personally oversaw my training through a series of high-difficulty surgeries.

Professor Shaw started working on securing me an international fellowship. In that era, slots to study medicine abroad were vanishingly rare. But Professor Shaw said:

“With your ability, you’ve earned that seat.”

In the spring of 2022, I received a letter from Heidelberg University in Germany.

Cardiothoracic Surgery. Two-year clinical fellowship. Fully funded.

I sat in my dorm room for a long time, holding that letter.

Then I made my decision.

I would go.

The day before my departure, I took a trip to the military base housing complex.

Not to see Gavin Whitmore.

To see Rose Cooper.

In my last life, Rose was my only real friend in that compound. She was the wife of the battalion commander next door. Ten years older than me. Warm, straightforward, generous.

She was the one who found me collapsed on the kitchen floor the day I died.

This life, I wanted to say goodbye.

When Rose saw me, she grabbed both my hands.

“Sloane! You came! I heard you’re a doctor at Crestwood General now. And you placed first in the whole country?”

I smiled and nodded.

She looked me up and down. Her eyes went red. “Thinner. But you look so much stronger.”

She pulled me inside, sat me down, and poured me a cup of hot water.

“After you left, the gossip around here was something else. Some people felt sorry for you. Some

said you got what you deserved. But I told them all-that Sloane girl, she’s not gonna end up in a bad place.”

She wiped at her eyes.

“And you didn’t.”

I held her hand.

“Rose, I’m going abroad. To Germany. To study cardiothoracic surgery.”

“Abroad?” She stared at me, then burst into a huge grin. “That’s wonderful! That’s amazing! You should absolutely go see the world. Who wants to rot away in this lousy compound anyway?”

She laughed, and then she was crying again.

“Just… what am I supposed to do when I miss you?”

My throat tightened.

In my last life, during my hardest days, Rose brought me food so many times.

She knew Martha gave me nothing but grief, so she’d sneak over dishes from her own kitchen.

“Don’t tell anyone, Sloane. I’m not exactly flush either, but I’m not gonna let you go hungry.”

I’d carry that debt through two lifetimes.

When I left the compound, I ran into one more person at the gate.

Heading in. Martha.

She had a bag of groceries. Her face dropped the second she saw me.

“What are you doing here? I thought you said you weren’t coming back.”

“I came to see a friend. Not your family.”

I walked past her.

Behind me, she spoke. “I hear you’re going abroad.”

I didn’t turn around.

“Good. Saves you from being an eyesore around here.”

Her voice was pitched exactly loud enough for the guard at the gate and the passing military wives

to hear.

I didn’t break stride.

But I heard.

Every word.

In my last life, words like that could make my chest ache for days.

This life-

Go to hell.