Chapter 6 - Brody’s Last Gamble
While Linda sat locked in the federal detention center with bail officially denied due to flight risk, my stepbrother Brody was spiraling into total madness.
Deprived of his mother’s stolen money and seeing his entire life crumbling around him, Brody made the catastrophic mistake of thinking he could fight the United States military using the internet.
It was four days after the ceremony when my phone began blowing up with notifications.
I was sitting in the base USO lounge with Marcus, drinking black coffee, when Captain James Kelly, the base Public Affairs Officer, hurried over with a tablet tucked under his arm.
“Captain Vance,” Kelly said, looking exasperated. “You need to see this. Your stepbrother has gone fully unhinged on social media.”
Kelly set the tablet on the table. Brody had uploaded an eight-minute video that was already gaining rapid traction across local North Carolina news feeds and veteran forums.
In the video, Brody sat in the leather driver's seat of his leased Mercedes, weeping crocodile tears into the camera.
*“Hey everyone,”* Brody’s sniveling voice blared from the speakers. *“I never wanted to make this public, but my family is being destroyed by military corruption. My sister, Maya Vance, is an abusive, mentally unstable soldier who has been terrorizing my mother for years. My mom went to her ceremony to try and make peace, to beg Maya to stop threatening us, and Maya attacked her! The military is covering it up because Maya is sleeping with General Hayes!”*
Marcus nearly crushed his coffee mug in his bare fist. “That pathetic little worm.”
*“My mother is an elderly, fragile woman,”* Brody sobbed convincingly on the screen, dabbing his dry eyes with a sleeve. *“And right now, corrupt military police are holding her hostage in an underground cell without her heart medication! Maya used her power to frame my family because we wouldn't give her an extra cut of my father's hard-earned business! Please, share this video! Tag every news outlet! Expose Captain Maya Vance for the stolen-valor monster she really is!”*
The comment section was a cesspool of outrage, with thousands of misinformed civilians demanding that Fort Bragg release Linda and strip me of my rank.
“The video has two million views already,” Captain Kelly said, his jaw tight. “Local Raleigh news stations are parking news vans at the main gate. They’re demanding a statement from the commanding general.”
“Has General Hayes seen this?” I asked, keeping my cool. Years of combat training had taught me that when the enemy makes an emotional, chaotic move, you do not react with anger—you react with overwhelming tactical precision.
“He has,” Kelly said, a dangerous smirk suddenly breaking across his face. “And the General has authorized an immediate, unrestricted media response.”
“What’s the play?” Marcus asked, leaning in.
“At 1400 hours today,” Kelly said, “we are hosting a live press conference at the base media center. We aren't just releasing a statement. We are releasing the raw, unedited, high-definition 4K footage from the ceremony’s official three-camera broadcast system.”
A burst of grim satisfaction flared in my chest.
At 1400 hours, the media center was packed with forty journalists, their cameras flashing rapidly. I stood off to the side in my service dress uniform, my arm neatly bound in a black sling, flanked by Marcus and Agent Reed from the FBI.
General Hayes stepped up to the podium. He didn't waste a single second on diplomatic pleasantries.
“Good afternoon,” Hayes said into the battery of microphones. “Over the past twelve hours, a viral disinformation campaign has been launched by an individual named Brody Vance, alleging misconduct, abuse of authority, and assault by Captain Maya Vance, a decorated combat aviator and intelligence officer.”
Hayes clicked a remote control in his hand. Behind him, a massive projector screen illuminated.
“The military values transparency,” Hayes declared. “This is the complete, unaltered footage of the incident that occurred in the Memorial Auditorium.”
The video played on the massive screen in crystal-clear definition.
The journalists gasped collectively as the footage showed me kneeling peacefully, General Hayes pinning the Purple Heart to my chest—and then Linda charging up the stage stairs from the side aisle, raising a heavy steel chair over her head with terrifying malice, and smashing it down across my defensive arm.
The sickening CRACK echoed through the media room’s surround sound speakers.
The footage didn't stop there. It showed the zoom-in on Linda screaming her hateful insults, it caught Brody smirking in the third row, and it captured my father staring at his shoes. It clearly documented Linda swinging the chair a second time toward my head before General Hayes stepped between us.
The entire press corps sat in absolute, stunned silence.
“As you can clearly see,” General Hayes continued in a voice of chilled steel, “Mrs. Linda Vance committed premeditated, felonious aggravated assault against a Purple Heart recipient on an active military installation. Furthermore, I will now yield the floor to Special Agent Reed of the FBI.”
Agent Reed stepped to the podium, adjusting the microphones.
“At 1330 hours today,” Agent Reed announced, “federal agents arrested Brody Vance at his residence in Raleigh. He has been taken into custody and charged with making terroristic threats against federal personnel, defamation of a military officer, witness tampering, and four counts of accessory to grand wire fraud. There will be no bail.”
A journalist raised his hand frantically. “Agent Reed! What about Thomas Vance, the father?”
Agent Reed looked straight into the camera lens. “Thomas Vance has been served with a federal indictment. His assets, along with all accounts tied to Vance Logistics and Apex Horizons, have been frozen by order of the United States District Court.”
I stood tall in the wings, watching the monitors display the breaking news banners across every national network.
May you like
Brody’s viral video had indeed reached millions of people. But instead of saving his mother, he had just broadcast their crimes to the entire world, signing his own prison sentence in the process.
***
