For the code of Promise

The Man I Married

Cassie’s POV

When he put the ring on my finger, I couldn’t believe my dream was finally happening. I smiled because I knew no one was going to stop us. We were finally free. My daughter looked extraordinary in her lavender dress, flashing endless smiles. It was the best moment of my life, and it made me feel alive. I trusted Jaxon’s love, and I knew we were going to live happily.

We had struggled to find freedom in Gwanda, but it never came. It felt like we were always chasing freedom just beyond our reach. Jaxon had fought many battles since high school just to be with me. He had many enemies—some of them his own friends. My brother, Mathew, was also involved in plotting to kill him. They all wanted him dead because of his fighting skills. They feared he would stop their drug control, as he had once tried. That led my brother to send a bomb to destroy everything on the night of the attack. My brother was heartless. He was willing to kill the father of my daughter. That made me hate him even more. I wished he could die, but it was difficult since he was under the protection of drug dealers.

When we arrived in Tanzania, I felt as if I was starting life afresh. The shiny ring on my finger filled me with happiness. Jaxon was supposed to feel the same way, so that he could forget everything, but his ego wouldn’t allow him to accept defeat. He wanted to go back to Gwanda and kill all his enemies at once. When Killer told him about Jane’s death, he couldn’t handle it. He wished he could drop bombs on his enemies all at once. They had taken so much of his happiness by killing Jane. Worse still, they were responsible for the deaths of his best friend, Linx, and his mother.

I watched him as if he were absorbing demons from hell. Worried, I nodded my head. He wasn’t supposed to punish himself like that. He wasn’t a loser, as he thought he was, and he wasn’t a bad man at all. He only needed help. I wanted to change him—to stand as his pillar when he needed support and be his pillow when he longed for comfort.

I tried to talk to him, but he said it was hard for him to forget everything. Every night, he talked in his sleep about the night of the attack. He rarely went a night without murmuring Jane’s name. It became even harder for me. The only thing I could do was pray to the heavens for my Jaxon. I didn’t believe it was luck that saved him from the bomb; it was fate. He was meant to survive so that we could live happier lives afterward.

Nothing changed, and as time passed, we began looking for jobs. Jaxon couldn’t find one, but I managed to secure employment with his former employers at a tree-cutting company. I worked for a few months before deciding to resign. I needed to spend more time with Jaxon and help him adjust to his new life. My Cathy was always cheerful, and her father always returned her smiles. He never showed his sorrow to her.

My restaurant in Zimbabwe provided us with enough money to support ourselves and pay Cathy’s school fees. Mary managed the restaurant, and she did her job very well. She was the only person we stayed in contact with from Gwanda, since people there believed we were dead after the bomb attack. She regularly updated us about my mother’s health, which was continuously deteriorating. I wished my mother were with me, but it was impossible.

As time went on, Killer and Amanda came to live with us after Jaxon and I discussed it. Their life had become very difficult. They were both unemployed, so we accommodated them in our large house. Amanda was already pregnant. When they moved in, I noticed Jaxon beginning to change. We started touring the jungles of Tanzania and going on many picnics. Tanzania was a beautiful place. We also visited parks so Cathy could see animals, as she was very fond of them. We lived together as a family, and it was beautiful.

As the year progressed, Killer and Jaxon began waking up early every morning to exercise. At first, it seemed normal, but over time, it stopped being simple exercise. They were training as if preparing for war. I asked what motivated their training, and Jaxon said it was only for self-defense. They invited Amanda and me to join them, and we did at first, but eventually, we quit. It was too intense and far from normal training. Killer and Jaxon were planning for war, even though we were happy.

Amanda and I tried many ways to distract them, but nothing worked. They trained in the garden behind the house, and I asked them to change their training location because I wanted to plant flowers there. I hoped they would lose motivation and stop training, but instead, I was shocked to see them move their training to nearby rivers. Amanda and I became certain that they were planning to return and attack in Gwanda.

I told Jaxon to stop whatever he was thinking about and move on, but he didn’t listen. I stood up and went to the bedroom. He didn’t even look at me. I returned holding a letter sent by his father and burned it in front of him. I knew the letter was important, and he had never read it. He watched it burn to ashes without saying a word.

“What do you want, Cassie?” he finally asked.

“I want your attention, and I want you to stop looking for trouble,” I said, staring into his eyes.

“You know very well I have no intention of hurting you,” he said, holding my hands. “So what causes this behavior?”

“I want us to live the dream we planned. I don’t want to see you as a soldier in this house. You should be a husband, a father, and the man of this house,” I said, pressing myself against his chest.

He sighed. I felt his heartbeat. He remained calm, as if burning the letter hadn’t affected him.

“What if my enemies are planning to hurt innocent people? What if my father didn’t take Billy to his family? What if they find us one day? What if Mathew plans to hurt Mary or your mother? Will you live with that? Will we be able to protect ourselves?” He paused, placed his cold hands on my cheeks, and continued, “I don’t know, Cassie… just thoughts. I started this, so I should end it.”

I had no answers to his questions. His intentions weren’t evil, but they were going to get him killed. Living without him was a nightmare I never wanted to face.

“I just don’t want to see you training ever again,” I said, and walked into the bedroom.

I knew he wouldn’t listen, but I intended to keep pushing him until he changed his mind.

After a few weeks, I found him a job at the University of Dodoma. He became a tutor and delivered excellent results, and the university admired him. Still, Jaxon and Killer remained stubborn. They continued deceiving us by going for training. Whenever they left the house, they claimed they were going for walks or light exercise, but I could tell they were lying. Their boots were always muddy, revealing that they had been training by the rivers.

Amanda and I planned a final move—one that would stop them completely. We decided to pretend we were leaving for several days, leaving them alone with the children. They would be forced to quit training because they couldn’t stand spending the entire day with kids. Besides, Killer’s son was still very young.