A nurse moved to my side.
“Colonel Whitmore, breathe with me.”
I tried, but the tears came anyway. I cried quietly, one hand over my mouth so I would not wake my daughter. I cried for the marriage I had tried to save long after it started sinking. I cried for the woman I had been the night before, still hoping Mark might remember who he used to be.
General Hayes waited until the nurses checked my vitals and placed a warm blanket around my shoulders.
Then he spoke softly.
“Anna.”
Not Colonel Whitmore.
Anna.
That nearly broke me again.
I had known him for six years. He had been my mentor, recommended me for assignments that changed my career, and defended me in rooms where I was not present.
He was not sentimental.
Seeing concern in his eyes made the last of my strength waver.
“I’m sorry this happened here,” he said.
“It didn’t happen because of you, sir.”
“No,” he said. “But I suspect it did not happen by accident either.”
I looked toward Elise.
She stood near the window, composed but pale.
General Hayes followed my gaze.
“Captain Warren, you will remain available for questioning.”
“Yes, sir.”
Her voice was too controlled.
I studied her ring. Large. Elegant. New enough to catch the late-afternoon light.
“Were you really wearing that for him?” I asked.
Elise’s mask cracked.
“I can explain.”
I almost laughed.
“That seems to be going around today.”
My daughter stirred, and every adult in the room went still. When the nurse placed her in my arms, all the noise inside me softened.
She was tiny, warm, and impossibly real.
For months, I had imagined this moment differently: Mark beside me, his hand around mine, maybe tears in his eyes.
Instead, my daughter opened her eyes for half a second, dark and unfocused, and I understood she did not need the story I had imagined.
She needed the mother who had survived the real one.
“What’s her name?” General Hayes asked.
Mark and I had argued over names. He wanted something fashionable. I wanted Grace, after my grandmother.
He dismissed it as old-fashioned.
But Mark was not here.
“Grace,” I said. “Grace Eleanor Whitmore.”
General Hayes smiled faintly.
“A strong name.”
Elise turned toward the window.
I noticed.
So did the general.
Part 4: The Leak
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