My Sister Framed Me, I Joined The Army

Chapter 4

After I came back from the asylum, I burned with fever the entire night.

The wound at my temple had gone septic, my knees were too swollen to bend, and the cuts on my palms split open at the slightest touch. I lay in bed without even the strength to roll over.

Even so, the door was kicked open.

Liana rushed in sobbing, clutching a stiff white bundle to her chest. It was her dog. Tristan followed close behind her, his face dark and terrible.

"Selene." His voice was cold as a blade. "You can't even tolerate a dog?"

I opened my eyes, my throat parched and aching. "I never touched it."

Liana's tears poured down her face. "Selene, the treats were left right outside your bedroom door. Biscuit ate them and died on the spot. You can hate me all you want, but my dog was innocent."

The disgust in Tristan's eyes only deepened. He didn't even ask for proof. Just like the night of the engagement party, just like that day at the asylum. As long as Liana cried, he was certain I was guilty.

I let out a small laugh, one that sent pain through my chest. "Tristan, do you trust her so much you've thrown your own brain away?"

He took a step forward and seized my chin. "And you still won't repent?"

Liana suddenly choked out, "Tristan, I want Selene to bury Biscuit."

My heart sank like a stone. She lifted her tear-soaked eyes, and her voice came soft and venomous. "Bury him right between her parents' graves. If their spirits are watching from the other side, maybe they can soothe my poor Biscuit's grievance."

In that instant, I couldn't hear a thing. My parents' graves were the last clean place I had left.

I lunged off the bed, hit the floor hard, the pain in my knees ripping through me. Still, I dragged myself up and slapped Liana across the face with my last bit of strength.

"Don't you dare!"

Liana stumbled back into Tristan's arms, sobbing and shaking. Tristan's rage detonated in an instant. He twisted my wrist, forced me down to my knees, and the impact of the cold tiles on my bone made my vision go black. But I held his eyes and forced each word out from between my teeth, "Tristan, you can grind me into the dirt. But if you so much as touch my parents' graves, I will make sure you don't die a peaceful death!"

The look in my eyes seemed to startle him for a moment. Then his anger swallowed that flicker of hesitation whole.

"You dare threaten me?"

He raised his hand. Someone behind him passed him a wooden box. The instant the lid lifted, my whole body went rigid. Inside lay a severed pinky finger, slick with fresh blood.

The breath was choked clean out of me.

Tristan leaned down, his voice low and merciless. "Selene, the next time you don't behave, what they send over will be Daisy's leg."

I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. That was Daisy's finger. As a child, she had loved nothing more than tugging on the hem of my clothes, lisping out the word "sister". I had promised our parents I would protect her. But I couldn't protect anyone. Or anything.

Liana stood off to the side, cradling the dead dog, her white dress glaringly clean. "Selene, let's go. Don't keep Biscuit waiting."

A length of white cloth was draped over my shoulders, like mourning robes. Step by step, they marched me to the cemetery. Every step felt like walking on my own bones.

When we reached my parents' graves, the workers were already standing there with shovels. I finally broke. I threw myself forward and wrapped my arms around the headstone.

"Don't touch them. Please, don't touch them."

Tristan stood behind me, his voice hard and cold. "If you'd obeyed earlier, it wouldn't have come to this."

A second before the shovel could fall, the sky filled with a roar.

A helicopter came down low and circled overhead. Several military vehicles tore into the cemetery, doors flying open as fully armed personnel sealed off the area in seconds.

Liana's face went white. "Tristan, who are they?"

The man at the front wore black combat fatigues, his features cold and stern. He walked straight up to me and dropped to one knee.

"Selene. Caleb Mercer, Section 9, Strike Team Special Operations. I've come to bring you back."

Tristan frowned. "This is a private matter of the Locke family."

Caleb didn't even look at him. He simply shifted to shield me from the night wind. "Major General Locke, as of this moment, she is no longer your private matter. She is a state-level priority protected asset."

The dead dog slipped from Liana's arms and hit the ground with a dull thud. Her voice trembled. "That's impossible. She's nothing but a useless..."

Caleb finally lifted his eyes, and his gaze was bone-cold. "Useless? At ten years old, she caught bullets with her bare hands. At twelve, she predicted a border explosion. By fifteen, her file was sealed under top-level classification. If her parents hadn't pinned her, none of you would've even been worthy of kneeling before her."

The blood drained from Tristan's face inch by inch. "That's not possible. She's just an orphan. How could she...?"

Several agents pinned him in place behind me. The famed Major General Tristan Locke, who once commanded armies, hung in their grip like a dead dog, unable to lift a finger in resistance.

I knelt before my parents' graves and lifted my face, streaked with blood and tears. I did not cry. I only said softly, "Pull the pins. Now."