Falling In Love with My Stepbrother

I was the legitimate daughter of the Holden family. Growing up, I loved my wise and brave stepbrother, Callum Smith, the general.

I am outgoing, but I tend to hide my feelings deep within. Unfortunately, someone with bad intentions found out and exposed my feelings towards my stepbrother to everyone.

They all accused me of being shameless and even my father scolded me, saying I disgraced our Holden Family.

My stepbrother, who used to be kind, suddenly became cold and handed me over to the army's deputy general for discipline.

Three years later, he remembered me and brought me back. He asked if I still had feelings for him and I only shook my head to deny it.

Not until he caught a glimpse of my scars and hickeys all over me did he suddenly understand that his soldiers had used me and took advantage of me out of my will.

At that moment, his eyes widened in astonishment and he started to regret everything…

Part 1

In my third year as a washerwoman in the military camp, my stepbrother, Callum Smith, sent someone to pick me up here.

"It's been three years. How has Vera learned manners? Anyway, bring her back tomorrow for mom's birthday banquet." Those were Callum's exact words.

When the servants from the Holden Family came to fetch me, I was washing clothes for a group of soldiers.

I had to endure washing all the sweat-stained clothes, batch after batch, for three days. That was quite tiring, but I had no choice. It was what I should do.

It was December, in a cold winter season and the surroundings were too cold. If I hadn't washed quickly, the water would have already frozen, so I had to immerse my hands in cold water all day long. My hands were already covered in frostbite, swollen and painful.

Even if I kept on working tirelessly all day long, the sergeant, Henry Sanders, who supervised me here, kept on cursing and yelling at me as if I was not doing anything at all.

"Who do you think you are, acting like a princess here?! You're just a condemned woman, so you better work, or else you'll suffer! You chose it!" Henry always shouted at me that way.

Three years ago, Callum had sent Henry to supervise me. He instructed him to be tough on me.

Henry was the sole sergeant to supervise my duties here in the military camp, but many times, I was so exhausted that I nearly fainted.

While I was doing all my duties, Henry just sat aside, ate snacks and lashed out at me when he was displeased.

As much as I wanted to be lazy, I also didn't want my skin to be torn apart. Well, I wasn't anxious over that. All I thought was he would just be furious and burst out his frustration on me and would also halt hitting me once he calmed down. However, he kept refusing to help with the laundry. He even didn't hesitate to use the whip, causing my skin to split open.

Everyone thought they had hit too hard and feared General Smith, my stepbrother, would punish them. However, Henry smiled scornfully, showing no fear.

Henry exclaimed, "The general confessed that he was killed because of this woman's disobedience. Come on, he won't chase after us! It will never happen!"

That was one of the reasons I worked harder all day long to avoid being hurt by them.

When someone delivered a message saying that Callum would pick me up and take me back to the Holden Mansion, all I thought was a joke from the soldiers just for me to hope to escape this hell place. Well, they used to behave like this before, so I didn't take them seriously.

They would even tear my clothes like jackals, which would only make me sob, shouting at all of them to halt, but to no avail. None of them would dare to listen to me.

"If my brother takes me back, you will all die a miserable death!" I shouted at them out of frustration.

However, they only laughed at their asses out loud, as if what I had told them was just a hilarious joke.

"You still think you're important when you return to the Holden Mansion? It will never happen. Wake up! You've been abandoned here by General Smith as a military prostitute for a long time and you still want to go back?!" one of the soldiers jeered, mocking me.

Everyone continued to tease me while starting to tear my clothes and their subordinates didn't intervene at all.

"Look at her. She's been with us already. Why hasn't her brother come and picked you up?" one of the soldiers on the side added, mocking me.