Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Rhodes had been my battalion commander at Fort Gordon. He was also, that weekend, my direct contact for the assignment that had brought me to Georgia.

He had no idea Wendell was my mother’s boyfriend. Wendell had met him at a VFW hall three weeks earlier, and the invitation had landed on Rhodes’s calendar like any other.

My phone buzzed on the counter.

PART 3: A Message That Changed the Dinner

The message was from Rhodes. Are you at your mother’s place tonight?

Strange coincidence: dinner invitation on Oak Hollow Drive.

Host says he’s retired Army. Let me know if this is the same house.

I stared at the screen. Then I typed back: Same house.

I’m in the kitchen.

No issue with my assignment. Please don’t discuss work here. Three dots appeared, vanished, then returned. Understood. Are you safe?

It was a simple question, but it pierced me in a place I hadn’t realized was exposed.

Anthony knew me as a competent officer who could calmly manage a crisis while everyone else was arguing about whose fault it was.

He didn’t know the woman at the sink tonight was the daughter of a mother who seemed afraid to move a chair without asking permission.

I glanced toward the dining room.