Three Years in My Fiance's Brother's Bed Novel

Chapter 18 By the time two weeks had crawled by on the front lines , Maya had already shed the panic of her first day and slipped into the brutal rhythm of the camp . Every shift brought in a flood of casualties , from knife wounds to stray bullets to blast injuries . Some came in already dead . Most of the survivors would live with missing limbs . In the span of a single week , she watched familles say goodbye forever , lovers refuse to leave each other's side , and siblings cling to one another in the way that brother and sister had the night before .

Grief , which once gutted her , had dulled into something she could carry , because here there was no time to revisit old wounds or replay memories of bullying and betrayal . Half the time , she forgot to switch on her phone , so she had no idea what was happening back in her country . Amid so much death , what had once carved her to the bone felt trivial . Staying alive and intact was already considered fortunate . She fished a ring from her pocket and turned it under the moon until the stone flashed a soft light .

Kevin Blake's voice echoed in her head , the way it had in the minutes before he bled out . " Maya , if you make it home , please give this to my fiancee . Her name is Megan Price . She's a teacher ... The diamond glowed the same way Kevin's eyes had when he said his fiancee's name . He had arrived six months before Maya . Just days ago , he was hit in the chest by a stray round on a rescue mission . Nothing could be done to save him . He had asked Maya because every other doctor who came with him had already been killed . Maya slipped the ring back into her pocket . She wasn't afraid .

She had no one waiting on her . If the worst happened while she was doing the work she chose , at least it would have meaning . Even so , she wanted to make it back home . She wanted to give this ring to Megan . At down the next day , sirens wailed beyond the compound . An entire neighborhood had been shelled . The local clinics were overwhelmed and calling for help . Maya signed up without hesitation and rolled out with the mobile unit .

The streets were all rubble and smoke , and the air was filled with dust and crying , Civilians who could still run were sprinting the other way , while soldiers and medics pushed into the chaos . Maya noticed a group of soldiers in olive drab . They were part of a peacekeeping unit from her country . She only spared them a glance , then redirected her attention to the patient . Gunfire cracked in the distance , and mortars thumped like a second heartbeat . They worked fast and kept their heads low , always ready to dive for cover .

Suddenly , a shell landed close enough to rattle the ground under Maya's boots . Instinctively , she scooped the boy she was treating into her arms . The blast knocked her off her feet . She rolled twice and got up , her forearm burning , but the rest of her was unharmed . Genshots flew through the air behind her . She flattened out over the boy and waited for the barrage to ease , but his breaths were growing shallow , and the wound on his chest was pumping If she didn't stop the bleeding now , it would be too late . She gritted her teeth , pushed to her feet , and tore open his shirt .

She had the hemostatic powder in one hand when a stray round screamed toward her . At the last possible second , a tall figure barreled in from the side and drove her to the dirt . Maya's cheek rasped across grit , and heat bloomed along her jaw . She shoved up on her elbows , mind snapping back to the boy first . However , the boy was already gone . For a single beat , her vision dunned , then she turned to the person who had lunched her clear . It was one of the peacekeepers . He was already looking back at her . When their eyes met , both of them stopped short . " It's you ? "