We'll Never Meet Again

The day the nationwide serial killer, Landis Grant, was executed, I was the one who escorted him to the death chamber. Right before the lethal injection, he turned his head and looked at me with strange, sudden pity. "You know, I only actually killed seventeen people," he whispered, his raspy voice cutting through the silent room. "I deserve to die, no question. But your hotshot lawyer wife? Her death isn't on my tab." Hearing him mention my wife, Valerie Foster, made a hot surge of rage claw up my throat. Three years ago, she was stabbed dozens of times by Landis while protecting crucial evidence. I drove through the night from out of state, only to find her body completely unrecognizable at the morgue. Grief tore through me so violently that I collapsed, coughing up blood, and spent an entire month confined to a hospital bed. For three years, I chased Landis to the absolute edge of hell, risking everything just to drag him in and avenge her. Following the address Landis had left behind, I made my way to a quiet suburban house. The second I set foot in the yard, I froze completely. Valerie was right there, wrapping her arms around her former mentor, Dylan Reed, kissing him with a tenderness that shattered my heart. A toddler, around two or three years old, was swinging back and forth on a wooden swing right beside them. My head throbbed, white noise roaring in my ears. I took a step forward, but someone grabbed my shoulder from behind. It was my chief, Noah Morgan, the man I respected more than anyone on the force. "Valerie is happy now, son," he said quietly, "Do yourself a favor and just walk away. Let it go." I shoved his hand off my shoulder. Unholstering my service weapon, I aimed into the open air and fired three warning shots. "Valerie Foster, you're under arrest for bigamy," I said, my voice dead and completely cold, "Come to the station with me." Chapter 1 My wife, Valerie Foster, stepped forward on instinct, placing herself right beside her former mentor, Dylan Reed, and shielding the child behind her back. It was a posture of complete, unwavering solidarity. Back when we worked cases side by side, she used to stand with me like that, completely second nature. Now, every bit of her fierce loyalty belonged to another man. "Owen, are you out of your mind? Do you want to throw your entire career away?" Taking advantage of my distraction, my chief, Noah Morgan, swatted the service weapon right out of my hand, his eyes filled with hurt. Hearing the commotion, the people inside the house burst through the front door. The second I recognized their faces, every drop of blood drained from my body. They were Valerie's sister, Stella Foster, and my best friend of twenty years, Mark Kingsley. Right now, they were flanking Dylan like bodyguards, glaring at me with raw hostility. In a matter of seconds, inside this warm, picture-perfect front yard, I had become the only villain. A jet of muddy water blasted straight onto my jacket. I looked down at the boy who couldn't have been older than three, his eyes and brow a perfect mirror of Valerie's. "Get out of here, bad man! Leave my mommy and daddy alone!" Valerie immediately crouched down beside him, soothing him with gentle, quiet words. "It's okay, Archer, don't be scared. Come to Mommy." Watching the tender scene between mother and son sent a sharp, agonizing needle through my chest. Years ago, Valerie and I lost a baby. If that child had survived, he would have been right about this age. The thought made a hollow, self-deprecating laugh escape my lips. "So, aren't you going to introduce me?" Valerie pressed her thin lips together, a shadow of guilt crossing her face. When she stayed silent, I turned my head, exposing the thick burn scar running down the back of my neck. "Valerie, I got this during my second year after your 'death,' fighting Landis in a burning building." I yanked my collar open to reveal the ugly bullet wound on my chest. Underneath the gauze, the fresh wound was still seeping red. "And this is from last week when I arrested him. The bullet grazed my heart. I almost didn't make it out alive." As the words left my mouth, a bitter, unstoppable wave of resentment clawed up my chest. She looked as gorgeous as she did three years ago, surrounded by her loved ones. I was the only one who had dragged himself through hell, looking neither dead nor alive. "In three years, I haven't slept a single full night. I escaped death over and over, while you were here..." "Stop it! Just stop!" Valerie cut me off, her voice cracking with desperation. "Owen, I know I owe you my life. I'll never forget what you did for me as long as I live. "Can't you just give me a few more years? Let me raise Archer until he starts elementary school, and I'll give my life back to you. Is that okay?" "The law doesn't wait." I breathed out slowly, watching her pathetic display of maternal devotion with an ice-cold stare. "You're guilty of bigamy, plain and simple. Valerie, you're coming with me." "You can't arrest her!" Dylan snapped, taking a step toward me with a furious glare. "Valerie didn't commit bigamy, because she..." "Dylan, shut up!" Valerie silenced him with a harsh whisper, then turned back to me, her eyes rimmed red as she practically begged. "Please, Owen, I'm asking you. Don't dig into this. If you keep digging, it's only going to hurt you more." Right then, Stella stormed out from the crowd and pointed her finger directly at my nose. "Why can't he know? Owen Hudson, stop acting like you own the place! My sister and Dylan are the ones with a real, legally binding marriage certificate! "Back then, if you hadn't used our family's adoption debt to guilt-trip her into marrying you, why would she have ever faked a marriage just to appease you? The two of you were never legally married in the first place!" Chapter 2 A loud roar hit my ears, and my mind instantly went completely blank, the world around me fading into distant, muffled static. A fake marriage? Valerie's parents died when she was young. It was my parents who brought her and her sister home, raising them as their own flesh and blood. The three of us grew up together. On her eighteenth birthday, Valerie bought a pack of sparklers, ducking into my arms against the cold ocean breeze. "Owen, let me stand by your side for the rest of our lives." I truly believed we would hold each other up until we were old and gray. My best friend, Mark Kingsley, joined in, trying to reason with me. "You can't force love. Your family took her in, yeah, but you can't expect her to pay off a lifelong debt with her own happiness. That's just selfish." I stared at him in utter disbelief, my gaze slowly sweeping over every face in front of me. Every single one of them was someone I loved dearly. Yet right now, I was standing completely alone, pitted against them all. "Valerie, do you think I'm forcing you too?" She avoided my eyes, sinking into a long, suffocating silence. When she finally looked up, her gaze held nothing but bone-deep exhaustion and a brutal, merciless honesty. "Owen, I do feel grateful to you. I respect you, and... I loved you once. But standing next to you, I slowly started to suffocate. "You're too good. You have to win at everything, be first in everything. Over time, I couldn't tell anymore if I just admired you or if I actually loved you." She pointed at Dylan behind her, her expression instantly softening. "But Dylan is different. He's not as capable as you. He can't even cut vegetables without cutting his own fingers." "Every time I see how clumsy and sweet he is, all I think about is wanting to protect him and stay by his side forever." My mind went completely numb for a second, floating back to that night on the beach. It turned out a vow like that could be given to me, and then given to someone else just as easily. An agonizing, hollow ache twisted inside my chest, and I took an instinctive step toward her. "Stay away from us!" Seeing me step closer, Valerie reacted like a cornered animal, violently shoving me back. She used every ounce of her strength. Caught completely off guard, I stumbled backward, my back slamming hard against the iron gate. The gunshot wound on my chest burst open. Blood spurted out, instantly staining my white shirt crimson. Cold sweat broke out across my forehead from the blinding pain. My legs gave out, and I collapsed onto the pavement, warm blood dripping slowly through my fingers. Dylan let out a faint gasp, his knees buckling as he fell backward. "Dylan!" Valerie's face turned deathly pale. She pulled his head into her lap, frantically covering his eyes with her hand. "Don't look at him! "Don't you know Dylan faints at the sight of blood? He just recovered from a serious illness. What if the sight triggers a relapse?" I watched with wide, lifeless eyes as Valerie screamed at me for the sake of another man. Suddenly, compared to the agony tearing through my soul, the physical wounds didn't hurt as much anymore. Stella rushed over too, spitting on the ground right in front of me with pure disgust. "Look at you, all muscle and violence, fighting and killing every single day. You're terrifying to look at. No wonder my sister couldn't take it anymore! "Who would want to marry a brute who pulls a gun at any second?" Archer ran over as well, aiming his water gun straight at my gushing wound and squeezing the trigger repeatedly. Cold water mixed with my warm blood, streaming down my chest and pooling onto the dirt. "Archer, sweetie, come back. Don't touch him, he's dirty." Mark scooped the toddler up with rare tenderness, looking down at me with a heavy sigh. "Owen, know when to stop. Do you really have to drag this out until it gets this ugly? Valerie doesn't owe you a thing anymore. You're the one clinging on, and it's pathetic." I opened my mouth, but no words came out. For the first time in my life, he felt like a total stranger. We had known each other since grade school. When Mark got bullied, I was the one who raised my fists and fought off the thugs for him. From that day on, we had each other's backs through thick and thin for twenty whole years. The pain in my chest slowly turned to a dull, numb throbbing. I forced myself to stand using the gate for support. Suddenly, sirens wailed outside the yard. Two police cruisers screeched to a halt outside the gate, and several uniformed officers rushed inside. Chapter 3 "What happened here? We received a call about shots fired." I opened my mouth, about to speak. "I called it in." Noah, who had been silent all this time, stepped forward and pointed at me with a heartbroken expression. "Owen has been under extreme pressure from his cases lately, and his mental state is completely unstable. Just now, he discharged his firearm without authorization to threaten innocent civilians." My eyes widened in utter disbelief as I stared at the man I had respected most my entire life. "Confiscate his sidearm first, bring him back to the station, and suspend him pending investigation." Noah never met my eyes. He reached down and unclipped my holster. The sudden weightlessness at my hip felt as if every drop of blood I had shed, every life I had fought to protect all these years, was being stripped away at once. "Owen..." My colleagues exchanged uneasy glances. They looked at the fresh blood soaking through my shirt, then at Valerie, who stood nearby with an icy, detached expression. In the end, they pulled out a pair of handcuffs. The cold steel clicked around my wrists. Valerie stopped in her tracks as she passed me, Dylan in her arms. "Owen, as long as you stop hounding us, I won't press charges for the unauthorized firearm discharge. I'll sign a waiver for you." A sudden laugh burst from my chest, painful and hollow. How absurd. I had poured my entire life into serving as a police officer, only for my lover and my mentor to put handcuffs on me in the end. When they escorted me back to the station, muffled whispers invaded my ears like needles. "Man, Owen is actually kind of tragic." "Tragic? Whatever the case, pulling a gun was totally out of line. Besides, Valerie has a happy family now. He's insisting on dragging this out, so isn't he just playing the bad guy?" I stopped dead in my tracks, staring wide-eyed at the officers who had once walked through life and death with me. "So... Even you guys knew all along?" The few officers I was staring at avoided my eyes. After a long pause, an auxiliary officer spoke up with a guilty conscience. "Captain Hudson, when Valerie and Dylan got married back then, they invited half the department. "She gave every one of us a massive cash gift and practically begged us not to slip up. She said your mental state was unstable and was afraid of triggering you..." I stood frozen in place, a memory from five years ago flashing vividly in my mind. After Valerie and I picked up that "marriage license," we didn't even hold a proper ceremony. Back then, she had wrapped her arms around me, her eyes overflowing with devotion. "Owen, neither of us is financially stable right now, so let's not be wasteful. Once things settle down, it won't be too late to have our wedding." Looking back now, those were probably just excuses. She was simply feeling guilty. In the infirmary, after my wound was crudely stitched up, the door swung open before I could even catch my breath. Dylan walked in, holding the signed waiver. Without Valerie present, the gentle mask slipped entirely off his face, replaced by a victor's mocking smirk. "The first time I met Valerie, I swore I'd make her mine. Turns out, it wasn't even that hard." Dylan looked down at me, his eyes filled with pure contempt. "I used to worry about how tough you'd be to handle as head of Homicide. But then I realized you don't even know a thing about pleasing a woman. "Every time Valerie saw those scars on your body from your cases, she felt sick to her stomach. You turned her off completely." My body went rigid as I glared at him. Dylan thoroughly enjoyed my suffering, letting out a heavy sigh with mock pity. "Oh, and by the way... Did you really think her faked death three years ago was because she ran into actual danger? "To tell you the truth, she was already pregnant with Archer back then. She was terrified that Landis would target her and endanger the baby, so she took advantage of the situation to stage her death and slip away. "As for you... We originally planned to keep you around as a human shield to draw the heat off the three of us. Who knew you'd be tough enough to survive Landis and actually end up catching the guy?" Footsteps sounded outside the door. Dylan's face shifted in an instant. He struck himself hard across the jaw, his expression suddenly twisting into pitiful remorse. "Owen, I'm so sorry, I truly am..." A second later, Valerie stormed into the room, her eyes burning with rage. Chapter 4 Valerie looked at Dylan's swollen, flushed cheek, then turned her angry gaze straight onto me. Seeing the look in her eyes, my heart dropped. She was known for her calm, gentle demeanor. It was rare to ever see her express hatred so openly. Yet today, more than once, she had looked at me with that exact same disgust for the sake of another man. "Owen, you're completely beyond saving! Since you're so determined to make trouble for Dylan, don't blame me for showing no mercy." Valerie yanked me out of the infirmary without a trace of hesitation, dragging me all the way down the hall and into an interrogation room. Right in front of my face, she tore the waiver to pieces, then slapped another document onto the table with a cold expression. It was a Consent for Psychiatric Evaluation and Medical Release. There, in stark black and white, it stated that due to extreme job-related stress, I was suffering from mental instability, delusions, and severe emotional outbursts, and was voluntarily requesting to step down from active duty. "Sign it, swear you'll never show your face in front of us again, and I'll send you off to a quiet town in the countryside where you can live out the rest of your life in peace." I looked up at her in absolute disbelief. "Valerie, you want me to pretend to be insane and ruin my entire career? Are you really that terrified that I'll touch your precious lover?" "You brought this on yourself!" Valerie cut me off, her words cut into my chest like knives. "I know you too well. You're stubborn, and you won't just let this go. If you don't want to sign it, fine. I'll make this as loud and public as possible! "I doubt you want your father's lifelong reputation in this department ruined because of you." Having my weakest spot gripped so viciously, my entire body shook with fury. Dylan stood outside the doorway, putting on a worried expression. Valerie quickly stepped outside, her voice immediately softening as she comforted him. "Don't worry, I won't let him ruin our family." I stared blankly at the two of them until the tip of my pen soaked a dark ink spot onto the paper. The last time I signed a document like this, it was our marriage application. I signed the consent form agonizingly slowly. I threw the pen down and walked out of the precinct, feeling completely hollowed out. The moment I stepped out the front doors, a swarm of reporters ambushed me, blocking every escape. "Captain Hudson! We heard you're suffering from a severe mental breakdown. Have you been working on active cases in this state?" "Did you arrest Landis by mistake? Was drawing your weapon on innocent civilians a manic episode?" Someone in the crowd started shouting, and a second later, a barrage of rotten eggs pelted against my body. Foul, sticky egg yolk dripped down my forehead, running right into my eyes. In the middle of the chaotic shoving, a hand grabbed my arm, yanking me through the side door and into the underground garage. It was Valerie. I was gasping for air, about to shove her hand away, when several gunshots shattered the silence, blowing out the overhead lights one after another. A crew of masked men carrying heavy machetes dropped out from behind the support pillars. The leader stared at me, a dark, sinister grin spreading across his face. "Captain Hudson. Since you personally escorted our boss to his death, the boys came out today to give you a personal escort of your own!" Landis actually had accomplices active on the outside! Valerie instantly dropped my arm, spinning around to run toward the exit. "Owen, I'll go get backup and take Dylan somewhere safe! You have a weapon, hold them off here first!" I watched her sprinting away without a single second of hesitation, letting out a bitter, lifeless laugh. Valerie seemed to have completely forgotten that my service weapon had already been confiscated by the department, and the gunshot wound on my chest still hadn't fully healed. Completely empty-handed, what was I supposed to hold them off with? The men closed in, step by step. I took a deep breath and wiped the blood and egg yolk from my face. The oath I took as an officer still flowed through my veins. With fixed determination, I dropped into a textbook tactical fighting stance. "Come get some!" … Valerie climbed into the back of a police cruiser with Dylan, intending to escort him home first. Suddenly, a panicked voice blared through the radio on the dashboard. "Calling all units! Calling all units! Suspects have forced Captain Hudson into a van! The vehicle drove straight into the river, looks like a suicide hit..." The officer in the driver's seat glanced back at Valerie, hesitating before he spoke. “Valerie... To be honest, Captain Hudson is really tragic. When you 'died' three years ago, he was so heartbroken that he collapsed and spent a full month in a hospital bed. “From that day on, he turned into a machine. Every time he went head-to-head with Landis, he fought like a man with a death wish, all to avenge you." Midway through his sentence, the officer froze completely, listening to the static crackling through his earpiece. "Command just confirmed... On that vehicle... There are likely no survivors." Valerie's entire body violently shuddered, her mind going completely, utterly blank. "What did he just say?!"