Chapter 1

I had been stationed at a medical outpost on the edge of the western desert for eight years.

In the eighth year, just when I thought our long-distance relationship, stretched across over a thousand miles, was finally about to end, my transfer request was rejected again.

The reason was always the same: "Key medical personnel in remote areas, transfer temporarily deferred."

With red-rimmed eyes, I dialed Ethan's number, but a little girl answered the phone.

"Are you looking for my daddy?" the little girl's voice was soft and sweet. "Daddy is blow-drying Mommy's hair. They're going out for dinner soon."

Daddy? That word hit me like a bucket of ice water, freezing me to the core.

I thought it had to be a wrong number.

After all, everyone knew how deeply Ethan loved me. He came out to the desert to see me almost every month. Even if he could only stay for one weekend, he said it was worth it.

He once said, "Sarah, when you come back, we'll get married."

Sarah POV

Through every harsh day when sandstorms raged, and through every lonely late night under a single lamp, I relied on that promise to hold on.

So how could Ethan Bennett, who had always been waiting for me to return for our wedding, possibly have built a family with another woman and had a child?

I was about to hang up when a deep, gentle voice suddenly sounded.

"Emma, stop playing with the phone. We're going out for dinner."

That male voice, so familiar it felt carved into my bones, came through the phone without warning.

It was Ethan!

In an instant, my whole body went stiff, and my mind went completely blank.

Ethan was actually married, and he even had a child?

I was just about to question him when I suddenly heard another woman's voice follow, "Ethan, I heard Sarah's approval document for her transfer back was rejected by you again?"

At those words, my breathing stopped, and my eyes widened in disbelief.

The person speaking was none other than her good friend, Mia Collins.

Over the phone, Ethan gave a faint "Mm."

His casual response was like a sharp blade stabbing fiercely into my heart.

"You can't keep rejecting her applications forever," Mia said with a sigh. "She's already twenty-eight. If she stays there any longer, she'll be past her prime. What good man with a decent background would want her in the future?"

"Let's talk about it next year," Ethan said in a cold and calm tone. "If she comes back now, with her qualifications, this year's promotion spot for attending surgeon might not be yours anymore."

Mia sounded a little hesitant. "But if you won't let her transfer back for the sake of my promotion, won't that be a little unfair to her?"

"It's fine. She's soft-hearted and won't mind," Ethan paused, then said as if it were perfectly natural, "Besides, the desert also needs good doctors. She's treating patients there too, so there's no real difference."

The call ended without warning right there.

My hand trembled uncontrollably as I held the phone, unable to believe everything I had just heard.

Treating patients there too...

What a convenient excuse. So there was no real difference.

So it turned out that the biggest thing keeping me away all these eight years was Ethan. The same man who kept saying he loved me and couldn't wait for me to come back so we could get married.

And even in the year when I had the best chance of going back, he rejected my application again, just so Mia wouldn't miss out on her promotion.

I felt as if all the blood in my body had frozen, as if my whole heart had been cut into countless pieces by a blade, and my body shook like a sieve.

I suddenly remembered that back then, when the medical team selected someone to support a remote area, the person originally chosen was Mia.

Mia was her parents' only child, and at the time, her mother happened to be seriously ill, so she nearly broke down when she learned she was about to be sent to the frontier.

I looked at my friend's pale face, then looked at Ethan, who was my boyfriend at the time. I remembered the flash of pain that crossed Ethan's eyes then.

Back then, I naively thought that the pain in Ethan's eyes was sympathy for Mia's situation.

So my heart softened, and I volunteered to stand up and say, "I'll go. I'm in good health, and I adapt well."

Ethan did not object to it, and he did not try to make me stay. He even expressed support.

He held my hand, his gaze complicated, and only after a long time did he say, "Sarah, don't worry. Once you've stayed there for a full year, I'll find a way to transfer you back. I'll let you suffer for this one year first, and I'll wait for you to return."

Mia hugged me even harder and cried until she could not speak. "Sarah, thank you. You're the best friend I'll ever have in my life! When you come back, I'll definitely be your bridesmaid!"

But now, the man who said he would wait for me to return and the woman who said she would be my bridesmaid were together!

My best friend had married the man I had spent my entire youth loving, and they even had a child!

They had kept me in the dark and deceived me for a full eight years!

How absurd, and how shameless!

After returning to my dorm, I dragged a metal box out from under the bed.

Inside were all the things Ethan had sent me over the past eight years, neatly stacked.

There was a thick pile of letters, each one written in his handwriting, and every signature at the end was always "waiting for you."

Yet now, looking at those words again and at his caring lines in the letters, I only found them painfully ironic.

There were also scarves, books, and other things he had sent me...

I had once treasured every single item like a precious gift, and they had been the warmth and motivation that supported me through this harsh environment.

But now their existence seemed to silently mock my stupidity and ridiculousness all these years.

If not for that phone call, I might still have no idea that my best friend and the man I loved most had betrayed me long ago.

My eyes were red, tears blurred my vision, and my heart felt as if it were being twisted by a knife, hurting so badly that even my breathing trembled.

I never wanted to see these things again, so I threw them all into the fire pit one by one.

I let everything I had once treasured be swallowed by the flames and burn to ashes.

Just then, the station supervisor knocked on my door, his expression grave.

"I just received news that your mother is critically ill and is being resuscitated at the hospital. They said you must go back as soon as possible no matter what!"