The colonel seemed to understand what crossed my face. His voice softened. “Daniel would be proud of you.”
That sentence shattered what little control I still had left. Not loudly. Not completely. But my eyes filled instantly.
And behind me, my family was now watching something they had never truly seen before. My grief had created something enormous while they had treated it like an inconvenience.
Ryan was the first to find his voice. Men like him always are. They smell money before they sense danger.
“Wait… you’re the CTO now?”
I slowly turned my head toward him. His arrogance was gone. Completely gone. In its place was the nervous greed of someone realizing too late that he had insulted the wrong person.
The colonel answered for me. “Mrs. Carter now oversees Stratix’s advanced tactical communications under a priority federal contract.”
Chloe stepped down another stair. “But… you were sleeping in the garage…”
I looked at her for a long moment. Then I answered softly, “Yes.”
The silence after that single word was nearly unbearable. Because everyone in the driveway now understood what it truly meant.
