𝗕𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗔𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗹

FIFTY-ONE

1 YEAR LATER: REINER'S POV

Goosebumps spread throughout my arms. I look down at the various selections and scratch my head.

Pink?

Purple?

Should I just do rainbow?

A woman approaches me from behind the counter. "Can I help you, Sir?"

"I uhh..." I give her a weak smile when a nervous chuckle escapes my lips. "I don't know what cake I should get my d- my niece."

She smiles. "What's her favorite color?"

I don't know her favorite color.

I frown realizing I don't know much of any of her favorites. "I don't know."

The woman points to cake on the top shelf. "This one is our most popular for girls." She points to a small round cake with a mixture of pastel colors.

I nod. "I'll take that one."

I place the cake in my lap as I sit in the passenger seat. I make sure it's secure before closing the door.

"It's the little one's birthday?" Bertholdt ask as he starts the car.

"Yeah." I say.

Last year when he and Karina revealed themselves not dead, I have been stuck working with him for Kitada.

He told me everything that happened. Starting from the day he was announced "dead" at the war in Paradis Island. It was a war we had to fight alongside each other years ago for our small hometown. The war isn't talked about much in the U.S but I'll never forget it.

Karina and I decided to join the military together. We wanted to continue our families legacy of service. After I introduced her to Bertholdt, they grew distant. They were hiding something from me and I couldn't find out what it was.

Bertholdt told me they had planned on meeting this guy in the U.S, Masamichi Kitada. Karina heard of him through the commanders during conference hours and found her way to him. Kitada was known as the auctioning millionaire. He sold prized possessions and ancient ones worth the prices of cities. Though soon, he became bankrupt and began to sell women.

Karina and Bertholdt wanted that lifestyle. They wanted the wealth and luxury of having anything they wanted, whenever they wanted; because they didn't have that growing up. We were poor and unhappy. They got sick of it.

The only way out of the military was death or serve time. You would either have to finish the time assigned on your contract or be dead and sent to a crematorium in Pennsylvania because we didn't have one in our small town.

They could've just burned bodies in a fire or dumped them in the ocean, but sending them to Pennsylvania was the only way the Commanders could earn money from the death gratuity the government provided. They were greedy.

Months after the two found this out, Karina was moved to a base in Kentucky. She was ecstatic. Back then I thought it was because she was finally getting to view a place beyond our small town. But it was only because she was leaning closer towards her goal for fortune.

The next battle we had was when Bertholdt faked his death. He didn't tell me how he did it, but he admitted he had help from others who did die in that battle.

When they found each other in America, they worked together to find Kitada. Karina was in love with Kitada and became pregnant a year after they met. I wanted to be there to see the baby but my contract didn't end until the baby would turn 6.