The Comments Said My Dead Officer Husband Had Returned Chapter 05

The Comments Said My Dead Officer Husband Had Returned Chapter 05

I froze on the spot.

Bright morning sunlight streamed through the window, glaring harshly enough to sting the eyes.

He stood bathed in the light, dark circles heavy under his eyes and his lips chapped dry, looking as if he

hadn’t slept a wink all night.

His expression wasn’t accusatory. It was genuine confusion.

I stared at him for a few seconds. “Elias, have you lost your mind?”

He handed over a piece of paper, folded and yellowed.

I took it. When my fingers touched his, he flinched.

The paper was old. The creases were so deep they were almost worn through.

I opened it. On it was written: [Elias, I can’t go on living like this anymore. I lost the babies, and I don’t want to wait. I’m marrying someone else. Don’t look for me. Madeline.]

I gazed at those lines for a long while, until he broke the silence first, “Did you write this?”

His voice was soft, as though he feared sounding too harsh.

I didn’t answer. I turned the paper over and pointed at the signature. “Madeline? I always sign my full name. Madeline Wellington. You don’t even remember that?”

His pupils contracted.

[She didn’t sign her full name? Something’s wrong with this letter.]

“Who gave you this letter?”

“Your mother.” His throat bobbed when he said the words. “Three years ago, a woman in her forties came to the base looking for me. Said she was your mother. Said you didn’t want to be with me anymore, that you lost the babies. She handed me the letter herself.”

[Didn’t Madeline say she was an orphan? Where did a mother come from?]

“My mother died when I was eight.” My voice was flat. So flat it sounded strange to me. “I only have a

stepmother.”

His mouth opened. No sound came out.

I didn’t give him a chance to speak. “You believed her lie that I lost the babies? You took it as truth that I wanted to marry someone else? Three whole years, Elias, how could you not even bother to verify any of it?”

[Elias is way too gullible.]

He looked at me. His lips moved a few times. Then he said something that made me even angrier “I did check. I went all the way to your hometown.”

I froze.

“But I couldn’t find you,” he went on. “Your house was empty. The neighbors told me you’d left and married

someone far away.”

[Elias went looking? He really thought Madeline abandoned him?]

Neighbors. Married someone else. Empty house.

One person flashed through my mind. Brenda Hayes, my stepmother.

“When did you go?”

“After I got the letter. Around… the fall, three years ago.”

[The timeline matches. The stepmother got rid of Madeline, then told the neighbors to lie.]

Fall. I had just given birth then, lying in the hospital, barely surviving.

I suffered severe hemorrhage and needed surgery. When the nurse asked who my family member was to sign the consent form, I simply replied that I had none.

I wanted to tell him all of this. But the words got stuck in my throat.

Footsteps echoed from the end of the hall.

Celeste walked over with her mug in hand.

Morning light fell on her face, her smile warm.

“Colonel Wellington, Madeline, what are you two doing standing here? Ava’s awake. She’s looking for her

mommy.”

I clutched the letter in my hand, didn’t look at her, and walked past Elias. “Got it. I’m going back.”

A few steps away, Celeste’s voice came from behind. “…Madeline is alone with two kids. She must be exhausted. Colonel Wellington, you should be more understanding. Don’t be too hard on her.”

I gritted mt teeth. But I didn’t look back.

Right now, I needed to think.

A few small things happened while Ava was in the hospital.

First thing.

The next morning, I went back to the hotel room to get a change of clothes.

I pushed open the door and saw a bag of formula, a packet of candies, and a bag of apples on the table

The formula was new, unopened. The candies was loose, wrapped in newspaper. The date on the paper was

yesterday’s.

[Elias bought these? I thought he was staying in the barracks? When did he come by?]

Jayden was behind me. He stood on his tiptoes to look, then reached out and lined up the apples one by one.

When he was done, he said, “Mommy, that gentleman knows Ava likes apples.”

I didn’t answer.

At noon, I went back to the hospital.

When I got to the room, the door was slightly open.

Through the crack, I saw Elias sitting by the bed. Ava was asleep on the mattress. Jayden lay across his lap.

Elias had his head down. He was cutting Jayden’s nails. His movements were slow, like he was afraid of

cutting skin.

He’d finish one, blow on it, then move to the next.

Jayden wasn’t asleep. He wasn’t talking either. He just watched Elias cut.

When he was done, Jayden turned over and offered his other hand.

Elias took it and kept cutting.

I didn’t go in. I leaned against the hallway wall and stood there for a long time.

In the afternoon, I headed to the water room to fetch water and overheard two nurses chatting around the

corridor corner.

“Did Celeste go deliver medicine to Colonel Wellington again today?”

“She did. But Colonel Wellington didn’t take it. Celeste stood in the stairwell for a while before she left.”

“Really? I thought he always took it?”

“That’s just what Celeste said. Who actually saw her deliver anything?”

[The “delivering medicine” thing Celeste talked about was fake? She’s been lying this whole time?]

In the middle of the night, Ava’s fever spiked again.

I got up and found a hot water bottle by the bed.

It wasn’t new. It was an old military canteen that had been modified, wrapped in an old towel that had been washed so many times it was threadbare. The bottle was warm. I didn’t know who had put it there or when.

I looked at the door.

It was closed. No footsteps in the hallway. But light came through the crack at the bottom. Someone was standing outside.

I stared at the motionless shadow for a long time.

On the day Ava was discharged from the hospital, I found a note tucked under the pillow while packing.

There was only one line on the paper, written messily, like a kid’s handwriting.

[Formula in the cabinet. Candies on the table. Towel around the hot water bottle so it won’t burn.]

No signature. No greeting.

But I knew the handwriting.

He wrote me one letter the year we got married. Just one. His handwriting was just as ugly then.

[Elias wrote this note? He’s never good at expressing himself, so he put his feelings down in writing instead?]

[The handwriting is so bad… but it’s kind of sweet.]

Jayden came over and looked at it. “Mommy, who wrote this?”

“I don’t know.”

“It was definitely him.” Jayden pointed at the word “formula” on the paper. “He wrote this word lots of times. You can see where he erased.”

[Jayden is like Sherlock Holmes?]

[Elias wrote multiple versions before he got it right? How nervous was he?]

I folded the note and put it in my pocket.

There was already the fake letter and the death notice in there.

Three pieces of paper. Three different feelings.

In the hallway, Elias was holding Ava. Jayden was holding his hand. They were waiting by the door.

Morning light came through the window, still bright white. Same as that first morning.

But something felt different.

I finished packing, walked up to him, and said, “Let’s go.”

He looked at me and nodded.

A few steps later, I spoke, “Was that your hot water bottle?”

He paused. “No.”

[Liar’ That was totally his!]

I didn’t push it.

When we got to the hotel entrance, he spoke again, “The formula is almost gone.”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll buy more tomorrow.”

I didn’t answer.