Blog

Chapter 1: The Seven-Day Countdown

When the director of the top-secret defense project received my application, he was completely astonished.

“Hazel, are you absolutely certain about this?” the director asked, looking deeply into my tired eyes. “If you join the Orion Directive, your civilian profile will be permanently wiped. Your family will not know where you are. From the moment you sign this document, ‘Hazel’ will cease to exist in the real world.”

I was silent for a moment. I thought about my strikingly handsome husband, Captain Liam, and the beautiful military doctor he spent all his time with. I thought about my young son, who treated me like a maid.

“They already have someone they care about by their side,” I said, my voice completely, beautifully calm. “And my country needs me more.”

Years ago, I was a brilliant mathematician at a top university. I had a glittering future. But when I married Liam, the youngest and most decorated Captain in the Special Forces, I gave up everything. I voluntarily put aside my research work to provide him with unwavering support.

When Liam was severely injured on a dangerous border mission and desperately needed a kidney transplant, I didn’t hesitate for a single second. I donated my own kidney to save his life.

But while I was lying in a cold hospital bed, suffering alone from the agonizing aftereffects of the major surgery, he was falling in love. He and Dr. Sarah, the gorgeous military physician who cared for him, developed deep, undeniable feelings for each other. They secretly made promises of eternal love in the hospital wing.

I realized then that I was just the ugly obstacle standing in the way of their “destined” romance. I was just the foolish, boring woman who gave up her body to save him.

“What about your marriage to Captain Liam?” the project director asked softly, bringing me back to reality.

“It will be automatically nullified when my identity is erased,” I replied. I picked up the pen and signed my name on the classified contract decisively. “I will report to the underground base in exactly seven days.”

I only allowed my family to have me for seven more days. I decided to live peacefully in my final moments as a civilian, becoming the perfect, quiet wife Liam always wanted.

Six days before I left, it was raining heavily. Liam left me standing on the sidewalk in the cold rain just to go pick up Dr. Sarah, claiming her car had broken down and she was afraid of the storm. I smiled, told him I understood completely, and walked home alone in the freezing rain.

Five days before I left, he casually mentioned that he wanted to give our master bedroom to Sarah, because she needed a temporary place to stay while her apartment was being renovated. I didn’t argue or cry. I quietly packed my clothes and moved into the tiny guest room to make space for her.

Today was my final day.

Chapter 2: The Perfect Family

I had disappeared all afternoon to finalize my security clearance. When I finally unlocked the front door and walked into our house, the cold winter wind chilled my skin.

But inside, the living room was dazzlingly warm. Sarah was sitting on the plush rug, playing with my son, Leo.

Leo was seven years old. He had his head bowed in concentration. He was carefully cutting out our framed family photo with scissors. I watched in silence as my son cut my face out of the picture and replaced it with a printed photo of Sarah. The piece of paper with my face on it was torn into tiny, pathetic pieces and scattered all over the floor.

“If only we could be mother and son, how wonderful that would be!” Leo exclaimed happily, hugging Sarah’s neck.

Liam sat quietly on the sofa. He was exceptionally handsome, his tall, muscular figure relaxed. His dark eyes, which were usually so cold and strict with me, looked down at Sarah and my son with a strange, beautiful gentleness. He smiled at them.

I stood holding my house key, suddenly feeling like a lost ghost who had accidentally wandered into someone else’s perfect home.

(Click ‘Next’ to continue)