The Night I Became a Colonel, My Mother-in-Law Cut My Hair While I Slept—By Morning, I Was Done Obeying Them

He smiled.

“I was waiting until it became tactically safe to comment.”

I laughed for the first time at work in weeks.

That moment mattered.

Not because my hair had returned.

Because humor had.

PART 16 — THE CHANGE OF COMMAND CEREMONY

Six months after the night everything ended, we held a formal command ceremony.

The morning was bright and cold.

Soldiers stood in formation.