The Admiral's Secret Wife
He allowed them to believe it. He never once said a word.
It all came to a head at the gala celebrating the successful conclusion of a joint naval exercise. One of the officers’ wives, emboldened by champagne, cornered me by the bar.
“Dr. Ross,” she said, her voice dripping with condescending pity, “everyone knows the Admiral’s fiancée is Victoria Price, the diplomat’s daughter. You should really stop embarrassing yourself.”
I looked over at Grant. He was holding his glass, his gaze as distant and cold as the deep ocean. “Audrey,” he said, his voice carrying just far enough to cut. “Stop wasting your time on me.”
In my last life, I screamed. I pulled our marriage certificate from my purse, my hands shaking, and waved it in their faces. All it earned me was a single word from him: “Preposterous.”
To protect Victoria Price’s delicate sensibilities, he had me thrown in the brig for seven days.
Later, I was deployed on a medical ship. We were attacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden. As I bled out on the deck, I managed to send a distress signal. But Grant was busy attending the opera with his fiancée. He missed the window to save us.
Only then, in my final moments, did I understand. I wasn't his secret love. I was a tool, to be discarded when no longer useful.
Now, reborn into this same moment, I looked at his familiar, indifferent face and I smiled. A real smile.
“Of course, Admiral,” I said, my voice clear and steady. “My sincerest wishes to you and Miss Price for a long and happy life together.”
I paused, letting the silence hang for a beat. “On that note, my transfer request was just approved. It’s been a pleasure.”
1
For the first time, a crack appeared in Grant Dempsey’s icy facade.
Beside him, Victoria Price’s triumphant smirk froze on her lips. She shot a panicked look at Grant. “Grant, darling, what is she…”
I didn’t give her the satisfaction of a response. I simply turned and walked away.
Last time, I had a hysterical meltdown at this gala, waving our marriage certificate like a lunatic. They all just stared. Then Grant took the red-bordered document and ripped it to shreds in front of everyone, claiming it was a forgery. I was confined to the brig for seven days and came out a ghost of myself.
This time, I didn’t even bother with the proof.
There’s no point trying to win an argument with someone who has already sentenced you.
“Audrey!” Grant’s voice echoed behind me.
I didn’t slow down.
The sound of his dress shoes grew closer, and a second later, his fingers clamped around my wrist. I stopped, but I didn’t struggle. I just turned my head to look at him, my expression placid.
His face was a mask of thunder. “What is this? Another one of your games? This transfer… who approved it?”
He’d said something so similar in my last life, when I’d grabbed his lapels and screamed, demanding to know why he’d left me to die. Audrey, what are you making a scene about now?
I pulled my thoughts back to the present and used my free hand to retrieve a folded document from my clutch.
“Admiral Dempsey,” I said, my voice clinical. “Read it carefully. It’s a direct order from Walter Reed. Your authority doesn’t extend that far.”
His pupils constricted.
I’d earned this transfer. A year ago, I’d performed a life-saving field surgery on the grandson of a very powerful man at the Pentagon. Last time, I asked for nothing in return, but the man insisted he owed me a debt he could never repay. This time, I called in the favor.
Grant snatched the paper from my hand, his eyes scanning the text. His expression shifted from shock to disbelief, and finally settled into a dark, brooding anger.
“Rescind it,” he commanded, his eyes locked on mine. “I won’t allow it.”
I laughed. A short, bitter sound. I pulled my wrist, now red and throbbing, from his grasp and took a step closer.
“On what grounds, Grant?” I tilted my head up to meet his gaze. “On the basis of our marriage certificate that you keep locked in a safe? Or the six years you let the entire base humiliate me while you stood by and said nothing?”
His jaw worked, but no words came out.
I took another step, closing the space between us.
“You mean nothing to me anymore.”
From the end of the hall, the click-clack of heels announced Victoria’s arrival. She positioned herself between us, her face a perfect mask of feigned concern.
“Dr. Ross, how can you speak to Grant like that? After everything he’s done for you… the tolerance he’s shown… you should be grateful…”
“Move,” I said, cutting her off.
“Excuse me?”
“I said, move.”
My voice was quiet, but something in it made her take an involuntary step back. She bit her lip, her eyes welling up with practiced tears. “Dr. Ross, I never wanted to be your enemy. I just love Grant. Is that so wrong?”
“No,” I conceded. “But standing in my way is.”
With that, I brushed past her.
“Audrey!” she called after me. “Without Grant’s protection, you’re just a common surgeon! You’re nothing!”
I stopped and looked back at her over my shoulder.
“Is that so? Well, then I guess I’m just making room for you.”
Victoria’s face contorted with rage. She lunged, her hand raised to strike me, but an arm shot out and caught her wrist. Grant had moved silently behind her, his expression grim.
“Victoria, that’s enough,” he said.
Her tears spilled over instantly. “Grant, did you see that? Did you see how she spoke to me? She has no respect for you at all.”
Grant didn’t answer her. His gaze was fixed on me.
“Admiral,” I said with a small, final nod. “I wish you and Miss Price all the happiness you deserve.”
And then I walked away without looking back.
2
My transfer was blocked.
The official reason was beautifully crafted. The base was launching a new, top-secret medical research initiative, and as a core member of the team, I was restricted from leaving my post.
I stared at the notice and almost laughed out loud.
I was a surgeon. I hadn’t touched a research protocol since my residency. I wasn’t a core member of anything except the local gossip circuit.
I knew it was Grant’s doing. He was a man accustomed to control, to a world that bent to his will.
The phone rang while I was organizing patient files. It was his mother, her voice carrying its usual tone of aristocratic condescension.
“Audrey, I hear you’ve been… restless lately.”
I said nothing.
“I understand that young people can be temperamental,” she continued, “but you need to be sensible. The Dempsey family is not a ladder for a girl of your background to climb. And it’s certainly not something you can just walk away from. Come back, apologize to Grant, and we can all pretend this never happened.”
My fingers tightened on the receiver, then relaxed. “Ma’am, I think I’ll leave that particular blessing for you to enjoy.”
I hung up.
The retaliation was swift. The next day, the rumors started. They said I was corrupt, that I used my position to harass a superior officer, that I was a shameless gold-digger trying to claw my way into a powerful family. The stories were viciously detailed, woven with just enough truth to be believable.
In the mess hall, I heard the whispers behind me as I got my food.
“They say she’s been some admiral’s secret mistress for six years. Now she’s trying to force his hand.”
“So pathetic. The man’s engaged and she still won’t give up.”
I carried my tray over to their table and sat down. They immediately fell silent.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out the Dempseys were behind this campaign. They wanted to ruin my reputation, to make my life in the Navy so unbearable that I would come crawling back to them, begging for mercy.
Too bad for them. A person who’s already died once doesn’t scare so easily.
Three days later, the base hosted a delegation of foreign military attachés. As a diplomat’s daughter, Victoria was there, of course, playing the charming hostess. As the on-duty physician, my job was to remain in the clinic, on standby.
In the afternoon, chaos erupted. One of the attachés collapsed, gasping for air, his face turning a terrifying shade of blue. Anaphylactic shock.
Someone burst into the clinic, screaming for a doctor.
I sprinted to the scene, took one look, and yelled, “Get me a crash cart! I need epinephrine, now!”
A corpsman ripped open the emergency kit, then froze. “Doctor… there’s no epi in the kit.”
My blood ran cold.
How was that possible? I had personally inspected that kit yesterday. Every single medication was accounted for.
The attaché’s breathing grew fainter. The people around me started to panic, their fear turning to accusation.
“What do you mean there’s no epinephrine? What kind of clinic are you running?”
“If he dies, it’s on you!”
“Get a chopper ready for emergency evac to the nearest hospital, now!” I commanded, trying to keep my voice steady. “Get him on oxygen, keep his airway clear.” I knelt on the floor and began chest compressions.
The meds arrived just in the nick of time. The attaché was stabilized and airlifted out. He would live.
The investigation report placed the blame squarely on me.
The logbook clearly showed my signature from the day before, confirming the kit was fully stocked. But now, that page was missing. In its place was a forged entry, dated three days prior, suggesting the kit hadn’t been inspected at all.
I looked up and saw Victoria standing in the doorway of my office. She was holding a cup of coffee, a gentle smile playing on her lips.
“Dr. Ross, I hope you’re not thinking of doing anything rash,” she said sweetly. “After such a monumental failure, I can’t imagine how you must be feeling.”
I got to my feet and walked toward her. “You think this is going to destroy me?”
“Destroy you?” She laughed, a sound like ice cubes clinking in a glass. “Oh, Audrey, you give yourself far too much credit. You’re just a mistake Grant made, a stain he needs to erase. I’m just helping him clean up the mess a little sooner.” She leaned in, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. “Have you considered what would have happened if that attaché had died? Malpractice? Manslaughter? An international incident? You would have been court-martialed before the sun went down.”
I stared at her. This woman, in her obsession to marry Grant, had gone completely insane.
That evening, I received my official orders.
Suspended from duty, pending further investigation.
3
The heavy steel door of the brig slammed shut behind me.
Grant came on the third day.
“Admit it was negligence,” he said from the other side of the bars. “If you do, I’ll step in. I’ll make sure you’re protected.”
He paused, letting the offer sink in. “You’ll get a formal reprimand, a demotion, but you’ll get to stay in the Navy. It’s the best you can hope for.”
I didn’t move.
“Audrey, don’t be stubborn,” he pressed on. “You can’t win against my family, and you certainly can’t win against the Prices.”
“Just admit you made a mistake, and this will all be over.”
He was offering me a lifeline, on the condition that I get on my knees and confess to a crime I didn’t commit. Confess that I was a bad doctor, that I was incompetent, that I was unworthy of the uniform I wore.
A strange laugh escaped my lips. I couldn’t believe I had ever loved this man.
I was fresh out of med school, an intern at the naval hospital, when I first met him. He was a SEAL commander back then. A training exercise went wrong—an IED explosion—and he was brought in with shrapnel in his chest, bleeding out and unconscious. On a makeshift operating table, I was the one who pulled three pieces of metal from his thoracic cavity.
When he woke up, the first thing he asked was my name.
After that, he pursued me with a clumsy, almost boyish intensity. I thought his cold exterior was just a shield. I was wrong. The coldness wasn’t a shield; it was who he was.
“What if I told you it was Victoria?” I asked, my voice calm as I met his eyes.
His brow furrowed instantly, a flash of irritation crossing his face. “Audrey, don't be ridiculous. Don't drag innocent people into this.”
“I know Victoria,” he continued, his tone final. “She would never do something like that.”
In his world, Victoria was forever the innocent princess, and I was forever the one making scenes, telling lies, making excuses.
“You know her?” I stood up and walked to the bars separating us. “Grant, what do you really know about her?”
I stared into his eyes. “You know that I would never shirk my duty. You know that in six years as a naval surgeon, I have a flawless record. You know how much my honor as an officer means to me. And yet, you choose to believe her, not me.”
“The evidence is against you,” he said, his voice turning colder still. “You were responsible for the emergency kit. You managed the inventory. How am I supposed to believe you?”
I laughed until my eyes burned.
“What if I told you the kit was tampered with the night before the delegation arrived? What if I told you Victoria knew about the attaché’s severe peanut allergy? What if I told you she specifically requested the catering include snacks made with peanut flour?”
His expression didn’t flicker. “Do you have proof?”
My heart stopped for a beat. He didn’t care about the truth. All he wanted was my submission.
“No,” I said, letting all emotion drain from my voice. “But I will find it.”
“Audrey,” he said, his voice dangerously low. “Stop fighting this. It’s pointless. Admit your mistake, accept the punishment. It’s better for both of us.”
I took a step back from the bars. “Grant, when have you ever once considered what was better for me?”
He fell silent.
I looked at the man who had once made my heart race, and all I felt was a profound sense of pity.
“Mark my words, Grant,” I said softly. “The day will come when you will beg me for help. Remember that. You will come begging to me.”
He stared at me for a second, then a look of pure contempt crossed his face. “It seems seven days in the brig isn’t enough for you,” he sneered, turning to leave. “Keep dreaming, Audrey.”
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