Chapter 7 - The New Order
My mother stayed in my office for over an hour.
We didn't magically fix twenty years of neglect and emotional abuse in sixty minutes. Healing doesn't work like that. But for the first time in my thirty-nine years of life, my mother didn't lie. She didn't try to manipulate me. She simply sat there, listened, and accepted the consequences of her choices.
I agreed to pay for her living expenses out of my own salary, provided she moved into a quiet townhouse near the coast and stopped participating in the high-society social climbing that had ruined her life.
She accepted without arguing.
As she left the office, she stopped at the door, turned around, and looked at me standing beside my father's desk.
"You really are a lieutenant colonel, aren't you?" she asked softly, a faint, genuine smile touching her lips.
"I am, Mom," I replied.
"Your father would have been so proud of you, Evelyn," she whispered, her eyes shining with true pride. "And... I am too."
She walked out, closing the door softly behind her.
Ten minutes later, General Vance walked into the office carrying two coffee cups from the shop downstairs.
"Everything alright?" he asked, handing me a cup.
"Yeah," I said, taking a warm sip. "Everything is finally where it belongs."
"Good," Vance said, leaning back against the leather sofa. "Because the Pentagon just confirmed your promotion ceremony for next month. You're officially taking command of the 412th Theater Engineer Command."
I smiled, looking out the floor-to-ceiling windows toward the harbor. "Brigadier General Hale... has a nice ring to it."
"It suits you," Vance said warmly. "And what about the company?"
"Major Chen is retiring from active duty next month," I revealed. "I'm appointing him as the Chief Operating Officer of Hale Logistics. He's going to run the day-to-day operations while I handle command duties."
May you like
Vance chuckled, shaking his head in admiration. "You really built an empire out of a war zone, didn't you, Evelyn?"
"No, General," I corrected, looking at the silver stars sitting on his shoulders, then at the photo of my twelve team members sitting on my desk. "I didn't build an empire. I just learned how to surround myself with people who don't run when the shooting starts."
