At the annual Navy ball, while I was having a panic attack, my SEAL husband abandoned me in front of hundreds of his colleagues. He left me with just one cold sentence. “I have to go. My promotion is on the line.” Then he walked away without a backward glance, straight toward his first love, Seraphina, the admiral’s daughter. It was the seventh time he had left me for his so-called “future.” It was also the final time in the cruel wager between Seraphina and me. If I lost, I would have to disappear from his world for good. I don’t know how I made it back to our quarters. All I remember is the freezing night wind slicing across my face like a knife. My gown was soaked with muddy water. My heels had rubbed my feet raw. Every step felt like walking on broken glass. Cramps tore through my abdomen, and I curled up outside my own door, nearly unconscious. A golf cart stopped in front of me. Seraphina looked down at me from on high, her voice dripping wi......
