Skip to content 
Her head was shaved completely to the pale skin, with small inflamed cuts scattered across it.
The vibrant woman he had spent four years dreaming about was standing in front of him trying desperately to disappear.
At that moment, his mother Patricia stepped onto the wooden deck.
She wore fine silk clothing and heavy gold jewelry, looking like a wealthy matriarch who had enjoyed every luxury the house provided. Brenda followed closely, scrolling through a new high-end smartphone while carrying an expensive designer purse.
Neither of them looked happy to see Austin standing there.
They only appeared annoyed that Chloe’s condition had suddenly been exposed.
“She did this terrible thing entirely to herself, Austin,” Patricia had said without a single trace of guilt or hesitation.
According to Patricia’s elaborate story, Chloe had destroyed her hair using cheap chemicals and later developed a strange obsession with losing weight to gain sympathy.
Brenda laughed meanly, adding that Chloe constantly wasted family resources while trying to make everyone in town feel sorry for her.
But none of it made sense to Austin’s trained mind.
He had spent four years learning to analyze complicated situations under intense emotional pressure.
In the military, emotion could never replace careful observation.
Words were cheap, but actions revealed the truth.
Chloe was visibly malnourished, weak, and terrified.
Patricia and Brenda were well-fed, dressed in luxury, and completely comfortable.
Chloe was trying to hide her pain, while the other two were eager to provide rehearsed explanations.
The biggest question in Austin’s mind was simple.
Why had neither his mother nor his sister expressed one word of genuine concern for a woman who looked like she was dying?
Then he noticed another critical detail as Chloe raised her thin arm.
A thick medical bandage was wrapped near her elbow, and beside it sat the unmistakable purple discoloration of a recent IV line.