Chapter 1

I am the captain of the Night Owl female special ops unit.

During an overseas rescue mission, my team was ambushed and completely surrounded.

I urgently requested a retreat from the command center—but the order I received came from the commander himself.

My ex-husband.

"Hold your position. Fight to death."

Over the radio, my voice was hoarse with urgency. "The enemy is closing in! If we don't withdraw now, the entire unit will be wiped out!"

His reply was ice-cold.

"Didn't you do the same to me back then—leave me alone at our wedding and run off overseas without looking back?"

"Now you can experience it for yourself. Let's see whether the moon abroad is really round enough to be worth cheating for."

"Remember this: without my order, any unauthorized retreat counts as treason."

I clenched my fists in despair.

I led my team to dig in under a storm of bullets and artillery fire, every second stretching into an eternity.

I didn't know how long time had passed before his voice finally came through again.

"I've seen enough. You are now permitted to retreat."

I thought we were saved.

But his next words dragged me straight into the abyss.

"Before you retreat, kneel in front of everyone you rescued. Admit that you cheated. Kowtow one hundred times."

——

"Command Center, I request confirmation of that order!"

The roar of explosions drowned the battlefield.

Shrapnel screamed past my helmet.

I was practically screaming into the mic, my voice swallowed by relentless detonations.

Behind me, the cries of more than a hundred rescued civilians wrapped around my heart like invisible ropes, tightening with every sob.

My deputy captain moved closer, wiping blood and soot from her face. Her lowered voice trembled with despair.

"Captain... the heavy machine gun has only one belt left. Rifle ammo is under thirty rounds per person. We won't survive the next wave..."

At that moment, the encrypted channel crackled to life with that utterly heartless voice.

"Order confirmed. Hold your position until the last man standing. This is the commander's final directive."

Commander...

The word hit my chest like a bullet.

In a heavily guarded underground command center back home, sitting in the highest seat of authority, was the man I had abandoned at our wedding three years ago—my ex-husband.

Right now, he was watching us bleed through satellite feeds, his voice devoid of the slightest emotion.

"Captain Lewis... w-what is he trying to do?"

Charlie Herrera, my deputy, had gone deathly pale. The twenty-something-year-old's voice was shaking.

"All hostages have been rescued. According to protocol, we should've received top-tier evacuation support! Why are we being ordered to hold until the very end?! Why?!"

I didn't answer.

My gaze was locked on the distant horizon. Enemy headlights tore through the darkness, flickering like a black tide rolling in.

I tightened my grip on the communicator, my scorched throat forcing words through smoke and gunpowder.

"Noah, I'll say it again. All civilians have been evacuated. My unit is nearly out of ammunition. I request immediate withdrawal!"

There was a two-second silence on the other end.

Then came a soft sigh—almost amused. "A request?"

"Five years ago, at the wedding, when I grabbed your sleeve and begged you to stay—did you listen?"

"When you turned around and left me behind... you didn't even look back."

I slammed my fist into the scorched earth in front of me, pain flaring through my knuckles as I tried to crush the rage boiling inside.

This was not the time to dredge up the past.

Behind me were my sisters-in-arms—and one hundred and thirty-one terrified faces. Their lives depended on the choice I made at this very moment.

"Noah, get a grip!" I ground my molars, forcing every word out through clenched teeth.