“Hannah, darling,” Linda said.

Her voice had the same rehearsed sweetness she had used in the hospital room fifteen years ago.

She reached out as if to touch my arm.

I didn’t move an inch.

Her hand dropped back to her side.

“We had no idea you’d transferred to a military program,” Richard said.

He looked at the bars on my shoulders, then at the rows of ribbons on my chest.

He scanned the room, watching the generals and politicians shaking hands with cadets.