Chapter 19 — Peace Mattered More

At the next anniversary gathering, I stood under the same blue lights.

There was no burn beneath my sleeve this time, and no ring on my hand.

The applause when I spoke was warm, genuine, easy — the applause of people who worked for someone they trusted now, rather than someone they feared.

It was a good sound.

But I will tell you honestly that the applause was not the thing I had come for, and it was not the thing that had changed my life.