The Radio Secret – My Sister In Love with My Fiance Chapter 09
I thanked Nathan gratefully, ducking into my tent to set up the signal equipment. After several failed dial attempts, I finally got through to Calista’s phone.
“Rosie?” Her voice crackled over the static, disbelieving, before she burst into messy sobs. “Is that really you? Are you okay?”
I gave her a quick summary of the war zone conditions -signal cut in and out, so I kept every sentence brief.
“Calista… how are you holding up?”
“I’m fine, Rosie. Did Logan fly out there to find you?”
Silence hung heavy on my end, no easy answer to give.
Calista sniffled softly through the line. “Rosie… I’m so sorry.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but she cut me off before I could say a word.
“Let me get this all out. I’m sorry I stole your fiancé.
I’m sorry I ruined your wedding day.”
“I lost my mind back then. I was so terrified that once you married Logan, you’d leave me behind for good. That’s why I refused to let you two tie the knot, why I cut my wrists the night before the ceremony. I’m so sorry.”
“You’ve loved and cared for me my whole life, and all I did was break your heart. I know how cruel and
ungrateful I was. I truly understand how wrong I acted.”
Listening to her tearful repentance twisted my chest into knots.
I’d hated Calista once. We’d survived every hardship side by side; I’d poured every ounce of love into raising her, only to be stabbed in the back by the person I’d protected above all else.
Yet hearing her cry, I flashed back to the tiny girl who’d sworn she’d always protect me, even though she barely reached my waist back then.
“Calista… I think both of us needed to walk through this pain to heal. Right now, I have far more important work to finish here. I can’t come home yet. Maybe when I’m back home, forgiveness will find its own time.”
Calista nodded quietly on the other end of the line. “I understand. You’re out there as a Doctors Without
Borders medic now. Don’t worry about me—I won’t ever try to hurt myself again.”
“I’ll wait for you to come home. I’ll wait until the day you forgive me.”
I hung up the phone. I could hear the genuine shift in Calista’s voice–she wasn’t the same lost, desperate girl anymore.
Maybe neither Logan nor I had ever truly understood her at all.
We’d called her fragile, but fragility was never weakness–it was just a different kind of endurance.
Our medical unit rotated constantly between combat zones after that call.
Logan never tried speaking to me again after our brutal confrontation that night. Still, he refused to leave the camp, quietly following our team and volunteering for every small labor task he could manage.
His gaze found me across camp–not with longing, but with the weight of a debt he couldn’t repay.
Nathan handed me a mug of steaming hot water. “Our rotation’s wrapping up in one month. The first wave medics will fly home.”
I wrapped my cold palms around the warm ceramic cup. Time slipped away faster than I’d realized–three full years had vanished out here.
I’d witnessed every shade of life and death imaginable in this war zone: fragile, fleeting lives, and spirits that
refused to break no matter how much suffering they endured.
I’d learned how unpredictable existence could be, cherish every happy moment, to live without lingering regrets. These years would stay etched into my soul forever.
“Will you come back?” Nathan asked me softly.
“Maybe someday, but not right now,” I smiled faintly. “I ran away to this country to escape my heartbreak. Now I’m ready to go home and face everything I left behind.”
“I’m proud of how far you’ve grown,” Nathan said, lightly tapping the top of my head.
We stood beneath a sky glittering with stars as a meteor streaked across the black expanse–then a deafening artillery blast split the quiet night air.
“Incoming shells! Evacuate immediately!” Nathan shouted, rushing to organize our team’s retreat.
Logan stumbled through the chaos until he found me. During every airstrike, he’d always position himself between me and the blast danger.
We slung our backpacks over our shoulders and fled. This barrage was far deadlier than any we’d endured before, shells exploding yards away from our running forms.
“Rosie, watch out!”
Nathan called my name, but he was too far across the evacuation line to reach me in time.
A violent shockwave threw me flat to the dirt. Blood filled my mouth, copper–thick and warm. Then the world went dark–not fading, but snapping shut.