I could hear his steady voice clearly in my head, telling me that reckless people always expose their own flaws if you refuse to rise to their bait.

If I signed the court-martial referral, Evan Carter’s military career was over today.

He’d do six months in a naval brig, lose every dollar of the pay he’d built up, and go home with a bad-conduct discharge.

It would satisfy my anger in the moment.

It would answer his public disrespect with one sharp blow that no one could ever second-guess.

But total destruction wasn’t leadership.