He’d committed financial fraud against a protected military account, bought jewels for his complicit mother with my deployment pay, and abandoned his premature children so he could drink with his mistress.

He’d crossed a legal line, and in doing so he’d given me every justification I needed — not for revenge, but for the thing my oath already demanded.

I reached beneath my pillow and closed my hand around the encrypted satellite phone I never traveled without. I dialed a scrambled, classified number.

“General Mercer,” I said, my voice steady, watching the empty doorway. “It’s Colonel Shaw.”

“Colonel. We were briefed on your medical status. Thank God you’re awake. Are you secure?” His gruff voice crackled over the line.

“I’m formally withdrawing my recusal on the Thorne Industries defense audit,” I said, my eyes on the divorce papers. “I have direct, irrefutable evidence of federal wire fraud, forgery, and unauthorized access to DoD-linked accounts by the CEO, Daniel Thorne.”