"What makes you think a worthless piece of shit like you can demand Alicia come out to see you? Stop deluding yourself. You're just a loser who doesn't know his place!" Steven growled as he kicked me two more times.

With one leg crippled, I couldn't even fight back.

The other soldiers looked at me with open contempt, their expressions menacing.

"Get lost already. Stop embarrassing yourself and sullying the army base!"

"Count yourself lucky, pal. If this had been any other day, I would've made sure you'd be leaving on a stretcher! Now scram, before I change my mind and decide to teach you a proper lesson!" Steven bellowed.

He stood there with his arms crossed, eyeing me as if I were a pile of trash.

But I couldn't leave. I had to see Alicia today and get to the bottom of things.

"I want to see Alicia Connor!" I shouted at the top of my lungs.

Steven's expression darkened. "You're really asking for it, you bastard. Fine. I'll let you find out what happens when you offend someone you can never afford to offend!"

With a flick of his hand, several soldiers lunged at me. Their expressions flashed with cruel amusement as they began kicking me in the legs repeatedly.

No matter how hard I struggled, I couldn't crawl back on my feet. My wounds stung from the attacks.

Steven leisurely strolled over and stomped on my back. It felt as if my spine were about to snap and my organs were being crushed.

"Still being stubborn, huh?" His voice came from above.

He grabbed me by the hair and shoved my head into the muddy puddle beside us.

I struggled desperately, trying to shout, but that only seemed to spur him on. "How dare a shameless piece of trash like you set your sights on Alicia? She's a queen among women. Today, I'll teach you the price of running your mouth."

Muddy water rushed into my nose and mouth. I fought hard just to breathe, but my throat was clogged up with dirt.

The instant the mud flooded into my nostrils, I could hear the explosion that happened three years ago ringing in my ears again.

That day, Alicia had been captured by a drug syndicate due to her own negligence. To avoid alerting them, the squad decided that the fewer people involved in the rescue, the better.

Using the GPS tracker, I set off solo to the warehouse where Alicia was being held. When I kicked open the metal door, I found her bound and unconscious, lying on top of a pile of explosives.

I tried to take her away, only to realize there were people lying in wait to ambush me.

The instant the metal rack collapsed, I lunged forward and braced my back against the falling beam, shielding Alicia. A steel rod pierced straight through my right kneecap.

"Run!" I signaled to the rest of the squad stationed outside.

To this day, I could still remember clearly how I dragged my broken leg across 100 feet of iron scrap. I could recall how I used a tactical knife to gouge out the shards of glass that had been embedded in my cheek.

But just when I was about to cut the wires of the explosives, a falling steel bar from the ceiling pierced my skull.

Surging with adrenaline, I carried Alicia out with the last of my strength. The moment I saw the rest of the squad, I blacked out.

Even as I lay on the operating table, I had a slim chance of survival. There were 12 pieces of shrapnel lodged in my body, and the blast had shattered the nerves in my right leg.

Before I slipped into a coma, I felt Alicia holding my injured hand and heard her say, "When you wake up, we'll redo our wedding ceremony."

I ended up regaining consciousness three years later.

Now, the titanium support in my knee was crushed beneath Steven's boot. The pain I felt from the bone fragments stabbing into the rest of my flesh and blood vessels was exactly the same as what I'd felt back then.

He ground his boot against the raised bump of the nail in my right leg. The pain of the metal boring into my flesh made me grit my teeth.

Suddenly, one of the recruits mumbled, "I heard the commander's coming for an inspection today."

Steven pressed down even harder with his boot. I heard the sound of my bone cracking.

"What's there to be afraid of? The commander is a family friend of Alicia's. He was the one who approved the exceptional promotion to make her a major," Steven declared.

That was when I remembered the news broadcast I'd seen on television back at the hospital this morning. Abraham Lawson, commander of the Southern Command, had finished inspecting the army bases at the border and was on his way back to the capital.

When the portrait of Grandpa in his army uniform appeared on the screen, the nurse even remarked jokingly that I shared a striking resemblance to him.

No one knew about our relationship. When I left home to join the army, I wanted to rise through the ranks on my own merit. I didn't want to rely on my family connections.

Therefore, I never told anyone about my family background, not even Alicia.

Steven grabbed my hair and slammed my head against the barbed wire nearby. "The commander won't arrive until this afternoon anyway. That's enough time for us to get rid of this lowlife."

The instant my forehead struck the jagged barbs, a clear voice cut through the air. "Hold it!"

When I heard that voice, I felt as if I'd been saved.

It was Alicia. She'd finally come.

I lifted my head to call out to her. Despite everything else, we were still husband and wife. Even if she didn't love me anymore, I had saved her life.

I was certain she wouldn't let these people treat me like this.

Alicia strode over from the training grounds. "What's going on here?"

"Alicia! This lunatic here is pretending to be your husband," Steven immediately reported to her.

I struggled to lift my head higher. After spitting out half of a broken tooth, I cried out, "It's me, Alicia!"

Alicia stopped in front of me and frowned.

"It's me—Peter Lawson, your husband!"

After telling Alicia my name, I did my best to wipe the mud off my face so that she could recognize me. But the instant she heard my name, her expression stiffened.

"Don't worry, Alicia. I'll take care of this. I won't let this shithead tarnish your reputation," Steven said, sliding an arm around her waist.

I was furious, but Alicia didn't bother avoiding his show of intimacy. Her polished army boots paused in front of me as she scrutinized me from above.

"Peter Lawson, huh? The Peter Lawson I know is nothing but a rapist!" Alicia abruptly stomped down on my already battered hand. "What right do you have to call yourself my husband?"

Her tone was icy. The heel of her boot ground against the calluses on my hand, the ones formed from years of handling a gun. Her expression remained completely impassive.

I couldn't believe it. Eyes wide, I stared at her and asked, "Don't you recognize me anymore? You said you'd wait until I woke up again!"

"What a bunch of nonsense!" Alicia pressed down harder, cutting me off.

I saw none of the affection she once had when she looked at me. The disgust in her eyes was unmistakable.

Lying on the ground, I was in such agony that I couldn't even speak. Sneering, she crouched down and muttered, "What a shame. Why didn't you just die on the operating table, huh? I'm a major now. How can a major spend the rest of her life with a cripple? However…"

Her lips curled into a sinister smile. "Today, you'll vanish without a trace. I won't let you stand in the way of Steven's future and mine."

"But you said…" I murmured hoarsely, unable to believe that the vicious woman before me now was the wife I had once shielded from an explosion with my own body.

"That was when you could still run five miles while carrying me on your back!" Alicia abruptly kicked me in the ribs, the splintered bones stabbing into my flesh. "Now, you can't even crawl into the shooting range."

Chuckling, she added, "It's unfortunate, and you can only blame yourself for coming from a lowly background. Your parents are dead. Your family has no power and no influence. If I stay with you, I'll have to suffer for the rest of my life!

"You were a pretty exceptional soldier back then. I could've at least benefited from your glory and achievements, but now…"

She eyed me like I was some sewer rat and clicked her tongue. "Steven is young and healthy. He has a bright future in the army ahead of him. And I have the commander's favor.

"If you had the slightest shred of self-awareness, Peter, you would've died long ago. Why bother staying alive when you're just a useless cripple?"

So that was it. Alicia thought that I was just a crippled man with no support. That was why she brazenly fabricated lies about me and allowed these people to humiliate me.

Only now did I finally see her true colors.

But what would she do if she found out who my grandpa was?

Alas, they didn't give me the chance to speak. The soldiers snickered as they dragged me toward a muddy pit.

I watched as Alicia looped her arm through Steven's and said, "The commander is inspecting the army base today. You sure you want to kill someone right now?"

"Hah! As long as I get rid of you now, how would anyone find out what happened? Who would ever know?" Alicia retorted.

She looked away and began adjusting Steven's collar. "Steven is about to be made the operations officer next week. What does trash like you know about having good career prospects anyway?"

Immediately after that, Steven's belt buckle smashed into my forehead. Blood streamed down over my eyes.

He dragged me across the ground by my hair. The gravel and shards of broken glass drove deep into my wounds.

The butt of a rifle slammed into my flesh, which was already torn from a bullet wound. I howled in agony.

Arms still crossed, Alicia laughed. "Peter, just like that crippled leg of yours, you should've been taken out years ago."

While speaking, she pressed her boot into my knee.

Four soldiers pinned my limbs in place. Steven's belt lashed against the steel rods in my spine. Each strike shot excruciating pain through my body. The more I screamed, the harder they laughed.

Just then, several military vehicles began approaching from a distance.

Alicia's expression stiffened, and the other soldiers were stupefied. Wasn't the inspection supposed to happen this afternoon? Why was the convoy here ahead of time?

Steven grabbed a tactical vest and a gun from one of the soldiers. As he stuffed both on me, he said, "Commander Lawson hates deserters. We'll just say that you—"

His words died out when I bit down hard on his wrist. The taste of blood filled my mouth, and the back of my head slammed against the concrete.

"You bastard!" Steven grabbed a shovel and swung it at my uninjured left leg.

My bones split with a loud crack, and my consciousness grew hazy.

"Soldiers, attention!"

Following the thunderous command, a gray-haired old man in an army uniform strode forward.

"Permission to report, sir!" Alicia spoke up in a solemn voice. "We're dealing with a rapist who is impersonating a military officer."

Steven forced himself to remain calm and stepped forward. "Commander Lawson, this man is a rapist. He's been impersonating Major Connor's husband and came here to cause a scene.

"We're simply doing our duty to maintain order here at the army base. We couldn't turn a blind eye to his evil deeds, so we decided to teach him a lesson."

"Who dares to violate the law like that?" Grandpa's voice boomed furiously. "I'd like to see who's the bastard that had the nerve to impersonate a soldier!"

As he came over to me, the other soldiers continued to insult and slander me.

But it wasn't long before Grandpa saw my face. His eyes widened in horror. "It's you!"

With the last of my strength, I lifted my head and opened my eyes, which were now crusted with mud and blood. I called out weakly, "Grandpa."