Lady Warrior's Warth on Divorce Day novel Chapter 162

Zoya hurried over to the military base.

The drone Oscar had flown five years back still had its SD card, and on it were his old work logs.

Seeing the footage Oscar had captured, and then hearing Oscar’s voice echo from the recording, Zoya couldn’t hold it in. Tears flooded her eyes and spilled down her cheeks.

It had been five years. It was Oscar’s voice, the sound she’d missed every single day.

“Some footage related to Oscar’s mission can’t be shown to you because of regulations. I hope you can understand,” the officer explained.

“Yeah, I understand,” Zoya said, her voice trembling with emotion.

“But the information we’ve recovered confirms that Oscar’s last mission was indeed tied to the border wildfire five years ago. He ran into the fire during the mission, then the drone lost control and crashed. Oscar has been missing since then,” the officer continued.

Zoya pressed her lips together, fists clenched tight at her sides, her whole body tense with emotion.

‘I knew it. Oscar really did disappear because of that border wildfire,‘ Zoya thought to herself. ‘If only that fire never happened… Maybe Oscar wouldn’t be missing.‘

“The military will head back to Austeville to verify the records of those who were wounded… or killed back then,” the officer said, his voice hesitant.

After all, since Oscar went missing in that wildfire five years ago and hadn’t been seen since, it was very likely that he perished in the wildfire.

That fire had taken so many lives and swept across such a massive area. Some victims might have been overlooked.

Zoya gritted her teeth, swallowing back everything she wanted to say.

There was no way she was going to accept that Oscar was just gone. She refused to believe it.

‘Oscar was the toughest guy I’d ever known,‘ she thought. ‘He had survived hailstorms of bullets and chaos. How could a wildfire be the thing that finished him off? No way. Oscar must still be alive!‘

Seeing Zoya remain silent, the officer understood she couldn’t bring herself to accept the possibility of her brother’s death.

“I want to know the last recorded location of my brother from the drone,” Zoya burst out.

“Sure,” the officer replied.

“And I’d like to rewatch those clips I just saw,” Zoya added. The military had carefully screened the contents before approving her to see them.

“Of course,” the officer replied, and had his team replay the videos on the computer.

Zoya scrutinized the footage intently, which was captured by the drone before the fire broke out.

Suddenly, Zoya’s expression stiffened. One of the frames showed the exact ignition point of the fire.

That was the same place where everyone believed the whole disaster had started, all because Ryan, the co- pilot from Cloud Airlines, had lit a cigarette there.

‘If the drone really caught that exact spot, does this mean there’s more to uncover here?‘ Zoya wondered.

“Play it again!” Zoya demanded of the staff member operating the video.

The staff member did as asked. The moment the frame showing the fire’s ignition came up, Zoya shouted, “Pause it right there!”

The staff member hit pause.

“Could you please zoom in on that section?” Zoya urged.

The staff member kept enlarging the image, and finally, a shadowy figure appeared in the blurry shot, but it was still too fuzzy to see exactly who it was.

“It’s been five years, after all. The footage can’t get any clearer than this,” the staff member explained.

Zoya paused, quietly considering before turning to the officer, “Can you send me this video clip? I want to see if I can make the image any clearer.”

“This one’s fine, but the others are tied to military missions, so I really can’t give them to you,” the officer replied.

“I understand,” Zoya said.

When Zoya left the military base, she gripped the USB drive containing the military’s video footage so tightly that her hands trembled.

‘Maybe the truth behind the wildfire is right here in this video, Zoya thought to herself.

It was that wildfire that took Oscar from her, and Zoya refused to accept that her brother was truly gone from this world.

She drove back to her apartment. Wren was already there, sitting on the couch, flipping through a stack of files. The moment he saw her walk in, he put the papers down and stood up right away.

“You’re back!” Wren called out.

Zoya walked over, her gaze settling on him.

Wren paused, then spotted the redness in Zoya’s eyes. He asked gently, “What happened? Did you cry—”

Before he could finish, Zoya suddenly hugged him tightly, pressing her face against his chest.

“1

Wren blinked in surprise.

To him, Zoya had always been the strong one. No matter how much pain she was in, she never let herself cry easily.

But just now, her eyes clearly showed she had been crying, and she must have shed quite a few tears.

‘Did someone do something to hurt her? Or did she suffer out there?‘ Wren wondered, worry gnawing at him.

He’d always tried so hard to protect her, just wanting her to be happy and at peace.

But now, she’d returned with tears in her eyes.

“Who was it? Who made you cry? Tell me!” Wren’s voice carried rare anger.

He usually couldn’t care less about everyone and everything around him.

But the sight of Zoya’s tear–swollen eyes was enough to set him off.

“It’s not what you think,” Zoya replied, her voice rough and muffled as she kept her face buried in Wren’s chest.

She’d broken down at the military base after hearing Oscar’s voice and seeing the footage he’d recorded with that drone. For a split second, it was like those five long years apart had never existed at all.

But when she opened the door and saw Wren sitting there waiting for her, out of nowhere, her nose suddenly stung with emotion.

Ever since Oscar went missing and her parents passed away, she’d been adrift, with no real home to call her

own.

She used to think Nicolas could give her that sense of home she’d always wanted, but in the end, it just wasn’t

So.

Even during the three years she was married to Nicolas, his family never truly accepted her as one of their

own.

But now, walking through that apartment door, for the first time in forever, she actually felt like she was finally home.

“Wren, just let me hold you for a little while, okay?” Zoya whispered,

“Alright,” Wren answered softly, his arms hanging at his sides while he let Zoya hold onto him for as long as she needed.

After a long while, Zoya finally loosened her grip and looked up.

Her eyes were even redder now, watery and glazed, like she could burst into tears any second.

“What happened? Don’t cry,” Wren said softly, his hand gently touching her face, fingertips brushing away at the corners of her eyes. “Whatever it is, no matter how bad things get, I’ll help you through it.”

Zoya only felt the sting in her nose intensify, but she couldn’t help the smile that crept onto her lips. “Wren, with you treating me like this, how could I possibly not love you?”

“What?” Wren was utterly stunned, staring at her as if he couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. “Wait, did you just say… You love me?”

His usually cool, collected voice wavered as he spoke, the final words coming out shaky and nearly breaking.

Zoya blinked fiercely, forcing away the haze in her eyes, then, her voice unwavering and full of resolve, declared. “Yes, I love you, Wren. I love you!”

In that moment, before he could stop it, a single tear slid down from the corner of his eye, catching him completely off guard.