Chapter 2 - The Orders My Dead Husband Left Behind
I forgot how to breathe.
Marcus’s handwriting was unmistakable.
Elena only.
Open after extraction begins.
My thumb traced the letters.
Victoria came closer.
“What is going on?”
A soldier immediately stepped between us.
“Ma’am, please remain back.”
Victoria stared at him.
“Do you know who I am?”
“No, ma’am.”
I almost laughed.
Raymond didn’t.
He was staring at me as though pregnancy had suddenly become a disguise.
“You’re a major?”
I ignored him.
Colonel Nathan Cole introduced himself as the officer assigned to execute my extraction orders.
My orders were legitimate.
But unusual.
I was being transferred that morning to a secure military residence outside Washington pending review of Marcus’s final operation.
“Why?” I asked.
Cole glanced toward my family.
“Not here.”
That answer frightened me.
I turned toward the house.
“This property belongs to me.”
Raymond scoffed.
“Technically, your parents have been maintaining—”
“Stop.”
One word.
He did.
The transformation on their faces would have been satisfying under different circumstances.
But I didn’t feel powerful.
I felt tired.
Marcus was dead.
My child would never know his voice outside recordings.
Nothing happening in that driveway fixed that.
I finally opened his envelope.
Inside was no goodbye letter.
There was a key.
A small brass key taped beneath one sentence:
If they put you out of our room, don’t fight them. Let them enter it.
My blood went cold.
They.
Not anyone.
They.
I looked toward the upstairs window.
Our bedroom.
Victoria was watching me.
“What does it say?”
“Nothing.”
The lie came automatically.
Colonel Cole noticed.
He said nothing.
Then Raymond’s phone rang.
He stepped away.
“Yeah?”
His posture changed.
“What do you mean frozen?”
A pause.
“No. Try the secondary account.”
Another pause.
His face drained.
He looked directly at me.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
“That’s impossible.”
Victoria rushed toward him.
“What happened?”
Raymond lowered his voice, but I heard enough.
Investment account.
Compliance hold.
Federal review.
My father immediately blamed me.
“You have the Army freezing his money?”
“No.”
For once, that was completely true.
Then Colonel Cole received a message.
He read it.
His expression hardened.
“Major, we need to leave.”
“Why?”
“One of Captain Ward’s classified posthumous security protocols was triggered at 5:41.”
Marcus had been a captain to them.
Interesting.
He had told me something else about his final promotion.
Before I could ask, a soldier emerged from upstairs carrying a black equipment case.
“Colonel?”
Cole turned.
“We found this under the floorboards in Major Ward’s bedroom.”
Raymond went perfectly still.
Not surprised.
Terrified.
And suddenly I understood Marcus’s message.
May you like
He hadn't wanted me to stop my family from entering our bedroom.
He wanted to see which one of them knew what was hidden there.
