The Day I Finally Let You Go

“Alright! I’ll make the arrangements right away.”

After hanging up, Mason, who had just finished receiving the lashes, happened to be helped past the communications room by his aide.

When he saw the tear stains still on Evelyn’s face, a trace of panic flashed in his eyes that he couldn’t quite hide.

“Evelyn, when did you get here?”

Evelyn wiped away her tears and forced down the surge of emotions inside her.

“Just now, when you were being punished.”

Mason let out a quiet breath of relief, almost imperceptible.

Filled with guilt, he took her hand, his voice heavy with frustration.

“I’m sorry. The marriage approval didn’t go through again this year. Evelyn, can you wait for me one more year? Next year, I’ll definitely get the approval and marry you.”

Next year?

“Even if the approval comes through next year, you’ll just change it to rejected again, won’t you?” Evelyn thought.

Her nails nearly dug into her palm hard enough to draw blood before she managed to stop the question that was about to burst from her lips.

In the end, she said nothing.

Ninety-nine lashes was no small punishment.

The wounds on Mason’s back kept bleeding, and he had to go to the base infirmary.

The moment they got into the car, Mason leaned most of his weight against Evelyn, his tone carrying the familiar hint of boyish pleading.

“Evelyn, my back really hurts. Can you help put medicine on it later?”

When they were children, every time he got hurt, he would come to her like this, showing a fragile side that no one else ever saw just to earn her concern.

And every time, she would tear up in worry while carefully tending to his wounds.

But now, as she looked at his blood-soaked back, all she felt was bitter irony.

The aide driving the car caught the scene in the rearview mirror and spoke in a half-joking tone.

“Colonel Hart, you’d better work hard to bring Miss Ward home as your wife. No one waits forever. If one day Miss Ward decides she’s had enough, the rest of us won’t get to attend your wedding.”

Evelyn knew the aide couldn’t bear to see their childhood relationship end like this and was trying to persuade him through humor.

But Mason didn’t take the hint at all. His voice carried absolute confidence.

“How could that happen? Evelyn only loves me. She’ll definitely wait for the day I get the marriage approval and marry me.”

Hearing that, Evelyn curled her lips into a faint smile.

“No, Mason. You’re wrong,” Evelyn thought.

She had her own pride and would never love a man whose heart held another woman.

She would never marry someone who couldn’t remain faithful.

At the base infirmary, the doctor examined Mason and arranged for him to be admitted.

Inside the ward, Evelyn had just finished applying the medicine to his wounds and was about to stand when he suddenly grabbed her wrist and pulled her into his arms.

“Evelyn, my wounds are already taken care of. Let me kiss you, alright? When I was being punished, you were all I could think about. As long as you’re here, I don’t feel any pain at all.”

As he spoke, the man’s warm breath drew closer.

Just as Evelyn was about to find an excuse to avoid him, the ward door suddenly slammed open with a loud bang.

It was Anna.

The moment she saw the bandages covering Mason’s back, her eyes instantly turned red.

She pointed at Evelyn and shouted at him hysterically.

“The marriage request hasn’t been approved for four years straight. That proves you and her aren’t meant to be together. Why can’t you give up marrying her?

“Do you have any idea how much it hurts me every time I see you injured?”

Tears swirled in her eyes as Anna spoke again, her voice almost pleading.

“Can’t you be with someone else instead? Even if that person isn’t me. I just don’t want to see you get hurt anymore.”

Mason’s expression darkened immediately, his voice turning icy.

“Anna Shaw, you’re only my aide now. Who gave you the right to interfere in my private life?

“Besides, I already told you back in high school that the only person I love is Evelyn. She’s the only woman I’ll ever marry.

“Not just four years. Even if it takes six or ten, I’ll keep submitting the marriage request until the day I marry her.”

Anna’s face turned pale. She staggered back a few steps, her voice trembling.

“Fine. So, worrying about your injuries was just me being foolish.”

With that, she ran out of the room, her eyes red.

Mason lowered his head to look at Evelyn in his arms, his expression softening with tenderness.

“Evelyn, don’t take what she said to heart. I only love you. I would never give up marrying you like she claimed.”

Evelyn seized the chance to pull free from his arms.

She lowered her head and looked at her wrist.

A clear red mark circled the skin.

Mason probably hadn’t even realized it himself. While he had been speaking those cold words to Anna, the hand gripping Evelyn’s wrist had unconsciously tightened.

In the past, he had treated her as if she were something precious in the palm of his hand, never allowing her to suffer the slightest harm, not even a faint red mark.

Her eyes stung with rising tears, but she forced her voice to remain steady.

“Anna is your aide? Since when?”

Mason stiffened for a moment but quickly replied in a tone of clear irritation.

“Since last month. I didn’t pay attention to the aide selection process, and the unit happened to choose her. I can’t just transfer her out without a reason. That would make the other soldiers uneasy.”

Hearing such a clumsy lie, Evelyn curled her lips faintly.

Mason had always been strict when it came to choosing people under him, let alone an aide—a position that stayed by his side almost twenty-four hours a day.

Without his approval, the unit would never have finalized the appointment on its own.

Noticing her silence, Mason quickly added, “But don’t worry. If she makes even a small mistake, I’ll transfer her out immediately and make her disappear. I’ve been fed up with her ever since high school.”

Listening to lie after lie, Evelyn felt as if her heart had been plunged into icy water, cold to the bone.

How ridiculous.

He claimed he loved only her and wanted to marry her, yet he altered the marriage approval again and again.

He said he was sick of Anna, yet he did everything he could to keep her by his side.