His Brother in Arms

Alyssa Hayes has always lived a quiet, steady life. At twenty-five, she's married to her college sweetheart, Ethan - the man she's loved for six years and built her future around. They've been married for two years and they've spent over a year trying to start a family, but his constant deployments and her fertility struggles have kept that dream out of reach. Still, Alyssa stays hopeful. Ethan is due home in just one month. One month until they can focus on what she wants. A child. One she's longed for.

But everything shatters the moment she opens her door to two uniformed officers. Ethan is gone. Killed on the frontlines. And the future she held onto with both hands disappears with him.

Drowning in grief, strained by her in-laws' blame and cruelty, Alyssa retreats into herself - until Rafael Carter comes home from service. Ethan's best friend. Alyssa's once-closest confidant. Someone who knew Ethan better than anyone alive. The man who enlisted with Ethan.

Seeing him again brings a comfort she didn't expect. A reminder that she isn't completely alone.

But after a vicious encounter with her in-laws, Alyssa makes a desperate, unthinkable request - one born from heartbreak, longing, and the last fragile piece of a dream she refuses to let die.

She asks Rafael for the one thing she and Ethan never got to have:
a child.

What will he say?
What consequences will unfold?
Can something born from grief ever lead to healing - or something deeper?

There's only one way to find out. Read.

Updates on Saturday and Tuesday.