Dear Squall,

It was difficult explaining to Ellone that her parents were dead.

"They must be sweeping." She lisped during the mass burial the remaining townspeople held. "They'ww wake up, wight?"

Ellone was the only child saved from the raid. Most of the town children had been taken, and the fact Ellone had survived meant some families were bitter.

I tried to shield her from the people's bitterness, but in the end, I allowed them whatever they wanted to think.

I explained to Ellone that her parents had died in protecting her, and that I was her new guardian, and she took it with great enthusiasm.

The slow and peaceful life in Winhill resumed, as if Esthar hadn't invaded our town at all. Ellone took her time to help me with the tavern, no matter how much I discouraged her not to. Often times, she would pass through the secret passageway connecting her old home and my house. Perhaps it was her own way of connecting with her parents.

Several weeks had passed again, and Ellone pestered me to take a stroll outside. Winhill wasn't safe as it used to be. Sometimes, caterchipillars roamed the countryside and found themselves on our roads. I could kill one if I wanted to, but killing a monster in front of a child was a different story.

We were strolling by the town plaza, when Ellone suddenly looked down the river bank. She tugged the hem of my pants, calling my attention.

"Aunt Waine! Thewe's a dead body floating acwoss the wiver."

"What dead body?"

My gaze lingered at the slumped figure floating on the river, and I recognized tattered Galbadian uniform. That was the first time I saw your father, he was all bruised and wounded you could hardly recognize the pretty face.

I called for help and we brought him to my residence where we tried to clean him up. Beneath the wounds and bruises, he was a surprisingly handsome man. He wore his hair beyond his shoulders, and he looked like a pretty boy.

I looked for any identification tag, and finally learned his name- Captain Laguna Loire from Alfa Company.

We had already contacted the Galbadian Army, and it was just a matter of time before they came to retrieve your father. For the meantime, I took care of him, changing his bandages, cleaning his wounds. He was still unconscious, but that didn't stop him from making loud noises. Either he snored or he mumbled incoherent words. I couldn't understand his ramblings, but I did hear the distinct name of a woman. Perhaps a sweetheart he left behind?

I found my answers two days later.

I tended your father's wounds when I hear the door being pounded. Ellone had just fallen asleep and I didn't want a cranky five-year old crying in the middle of midnight. I rushed downstairs and opened the door, only to be greeted by a company of Galbadian soldiers.

"Good evening, Miss. Our General would like to see Captain Laguna Loire."

I looked at the men. "Please don't bring your weapons inside. There's a child in here."

The soldier looked flustered.

"It's alright." A deep voice said. "The rest will wait outside."

A man stepped forward as the men stepped aside. He was tall. Imposing, to correctly describe him and appeared to be in his middle thirties.

He couldn't hold a candle to the sleeping figure on the second floor of my father's room

"I'm General Fury Caraway." He introduced himself. "I understand you've saved one of my men. Thank you for that. I would like to see his condition now."

"It's my pleasure."

Somehow, I felt that his gratitude wasn't sincere. Truth is, I found it strange that they didn't take the Captain away, or why that comatose man merited this General's visit.

So I brought him to your father who was still sleeping in the spare guestroom. A single candle illuminated the room and against the flicking candlelight, I saw how Caraway looked at your father.

I had never seen a look filled with such hate and contempt.

"Has he regained consciousness?"

I shook my head. "He cries for a name though."

"What name?"

"Julia."

Caraway's body stiffened, his lips forming into an unpleasant line. I realized, then and there my child, that your father had done something to this man, and it had something to do with a woman named Julia. I sensed a love triangle and it was unfortunate that the General was now in a favorable disposition to eliminate his rival.

"You don't want him to wake, do you?"

"What makes you say that?" he asked, not looking surprised.

"I'm not that stupid. I know you're not on good terms with him because of a woman. Whenever we found wounded Galbadian soldiers, your army would whisk them away. But you've left this man under my care for several days now."

He chuckled. "For a woman in the middle of nowhere, you're surprisingly perceptive. Indeed, there's a particular woman I want to win over, and this man," Caraway glanced at me, before turning to face Laguna's sleeping form again. "Is in the way."

"You don't mean to kill him inside my home, do you?"

"I'm not that barbaric."

"So will you kill him elsewhere?"

He actually smiled. Despite the harshness of his features, he had a trace of charm. "Why are you so obsessed with his death?"

"Aren't you?"

"I recognize the efforts of a good man, and Laguna Loire is definitely a good man."

"So what are you planning then?"

"Hasn't anyone told you you're a nosy woman?"

"I'm not like most women."

Perhaps he was so amused with me, that he actually laughed. I found it discomforting that a man like him could have a rich deep laughter. "I've looked into your records. Orphaned at the age of seventeen, and you've lived alone until you adopted the child of your neighbors after they were killed. You're an admirable woman."

My eyes narrowed. "and?"

"I've heard there's shortage of men in Winhill."

"Thanks to the war you waged with Esthar."

"And you've never had a man in your life." He looked at me with a calculating gleam in his eyes. "Why don't you take this man for yourself?"

"And make him fall in love with me? Are you stupid or what? You can't make a person for all in love with you."

A smile slowly crept into his face. "Think about it. it's not every day that a pretty boy falls and lands on your doorstep." At least the General recognized your father's physical attributes. "Think about it, you have a little girl to raise, and all that's left is a man to complete the picture."

He was an obstinate man. I had never known or met this Julia they were fighting over. If I had known her, then I would have understood this man's desire to eliminate Laguna out of the picture. But I didn't, and I appealed to him once again. He, of course, refused to listen.

"If you don't agree, then I suppose I could take the sleeping child in the other room and hand her over to Esthar."

"You wouldn't."

"But I would." He answered smoothly.

At that moment, I had never felt helpless and a pure hatred for him. That he would use an innocent child, and he would prey on my weakness, to take advantage of the situation and use it for his own benefit.

No wonder that Julia favored the sleeping captain. This man's attitude was rotten to the core.

"Don't you believe in karma?" I asked, wondering if he cared the consequences of his actions.

He snorted. "It doesn't matter when she's finally mine." No other words were spoken after that, and he left.

I sunk to the floor, pondering over that night's event. Caraway's order was quite clear. Your father wasn't to return to Deling until he had won Julia. That General would stoop to anything just to have what he wanted, and he wanted that Julia, period.

I knew how selfish Caraway's request was, and I knew how selfish I was to accept it. I had kept telling myself I was doing it for Ellone's protection.

But in the end, my heart knew it was a different story, because I was doing it for my own selfish interest.

Looking back, I have to shamefully admit that if I didn't agree with him, your father would have left me and returned to the woman he left in Deling City. Yes, I may be a superwoman, but I'm not perfect.

I had to make your father fall in love with me.