His Betrayal Killed Me Once , Never Again

My sister was the village doctor, specializing in fertility treatments.

She always said she worried I'd end up married to some lousy man and spend my life lonely.

So every time I started seeing someone, she'd cling to him like a parasite.

After she'd slept with them, she'd show up at my door still wearing the evidence.

"I tested him out for you. No consideration at all. I told him to stop and he wouldn't let me go. You definitely don't want a man like that."

I broke down every single time.

Eventually I cut her off completely and moved away.

Then I met Ezra Mason, the youngest captain at the military outpost. Steady, sharp, handsome.

On our wedding day, the outpost cafeteria hosted a banquet.

But there in the crowd, I spotted my sister.

She'd reinvented herself as Ezra's personal medic, attending my wedding as part of his detail.

"Sweet little sister, you have to let me test him for you first. I wouldn't feel right letting you marry a man I haven't checked."

She drugged me unconscious and slipped into the bridal suite in the dark.

I woke up, brought people, and burst through the door. The commotion shook the entire village and the outpost.

She was hauled away on the spot as a criminal who'd tried to wreck a marriage, sentenced right then and there.

On our son's first birthday, Ezra said he had a surprise for me. Instead, he led me into an abandoned minefield.

The moment the ordnance detonated underfoot, I dropped to my knees, sobbing, begging him to at least get our child out.

Ezra just watched me, his face empty of anything human:

"Denise only wanted to give herself to me before the wedding. Something to remember her by."

"But you turned her into a criminal. She was sentenced to death. When she died, she was carrying my child."

"You and this bastard deserve to die for what you did to her and our baby."

That was the moment I understood.

He had been in love with my sister all along.

My son and I were blown apart. There wasn't enough left of us to piece together.

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day my sister appeared at my wedding.

……

A slap cracked across my face. I pressed my hand to my cheek and stood there, stunned, before it finally registered: I had been reborn on my wedding day.

A tearing pain ripped across my scalp.

Mrs. Abbott's contorted face filled my vision, and just behind her stood Denise Galloway, wearing that coy half-smile that never quite reached her eyes.

This was exactly how it had happened before. Denise had waved a forged medical report in front of my mother-in-law and wound her up like a toy.

She'd nearly destroyed my reputation and my wedding.

Mrs. Abbott spat at my feet.

"Shameless little tramp! You almost set foot in my family! I'll beat you dead first!"

Denise put on her concerned act, voice dripping with false sympathy:

"I know the report looks bad, but what if Miss Galloway caught those infections by accident? A dirty towel at a public bath, maybe..."

Mrs. Abbott's voice pitched higher, furious:

"Stop defending her! That medical report says she's had over a dozen abortions! You think THAT was an accident?!"

The aunts and neighbors who'd come to help with my bridal preparations heard every word.

Their gazes slid toward me, thick with disgust and contempt:

"Good lord! The outpost requires a physical before marriage, and it turns out the Galloway girl is THAT kind of woman!"

"Thank God his medic got here in time, or poor Ezra would've actually married that filthy thing."

In my previous life, despair had swallowed me whole. I'd thrown myself at Denise, clawing at her clothes, screaming:

"Why are you doing this to me?! Why do you have to destroy everything I have?!"

Our fight drew Ezra and his commanding officers.

Denise crumpled into Ezra's arms, the picture of wounded innocence:

"Captain Mason, I was just delivering the premarital exam results. She seemed so nervous, I made a little joke to lighten the mood. I never imagined your wife would get angry enough to hit me!"

I begged Ezra through my tears, trying to explain how she'd slandered me, fabricated diseases out of thin air.

All of it to tear us apart and ruin the only happiness I'd ever managed to find.