Chapter 3 - Why My Father Knew Colonel Pierce
I didn't sleep.
At 9:40 the next morning, I arrived at Harrison.
Colonel Pierce's assistant led me inside precisely at ten.
Pierce stood behind his desk.
“You opened it.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Your father?”
“He knows.”
Pierce nodded.
I placed the photograph down.
“He served?”
“Yes.”
“Why did he lie?”
Pierce leaned back.
“Your father was one of the most promising officers I ever trained.”
Nothing about that sentence fit the man who had mocked my uniform.
Pierce explained carefully.
Richard Whitaker had attended Harrison.
He had excelled.
He had intended to make the military his career.
Then something happened during his final year.
An investigation.
A training accident.
A cadet seriously injured.
Dad left shortly afterward.
“What does that have to do with me?”
Pierce's eyes settled on mine.
“Everything.”
He opened a drawer.
Another file appeared.
WHITAKER, EMMA R.
My name.
“I've been following your progress since your first year.”
“Why?”
“Your instructors recommended you.”
“That isn't the whole answer.”
A faint smile.
“No.”
He opened the file.
Inside were evaluations going back four years.
Notes.
Recommendations.
Even copies of awards my parents had never bothered reading.
Pierce had read all of them.
“Your father asked me something nineteen years ago.”
“What?”
Pierce paused.
“If his daughter ever chose this path on her own, he wanted me to make sure nobody stopped her because of his past.”
I couldn't speak.
“That doesn't make sense. He has spent years insulting everything I do.”
“Fear rarely makes people consistent.”
I thought about Dad's face when Pierce appeared on television.
“What is he afraid of?”
Pierce looked toward the window.
“The truth about why he left.”
My phone vibrated.
Tyler.
I ignored it.
It vibrated again.
TYLER: Emma, Dad is tearing through the garage.
Another message.
TYLER: He's looking for a box.
Then:
TYLER: Mom says it doesn't exist.
I showed Pierce.
His expression changed.
“What box?”
“I don't know.”
Pierce did.
I could see it.
“Sir.”
He stood.
“Go home.”
“What am I looking for?”
“Your father's academy records.”
“Why?”
Pierce's jaw tightened.
“Because if he destroys them, you'll never know who actually ended his career.”
I drove home.
Tyler met me outside.
For once, he wasn't joking.
“Dad left.”
“Where?”
“No idea.”
“Mom?”
“Kitchen.”
I walked past him.
Mom sat alone.
She looked twenty years older than yesterday.
“You knew he served.”
“Yes.”
“You let him mock me anyway.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“I thought he was protecting you.”
“From what?”
She couldn't answer.
Tyler entered carrying something.
A metal box.
“Found it.”
Mom stood.
“Tyler!”
He looked at her.
“You guys lied to both of us.”
That silenced her.
We opened the box.
Military photographs.
Certificates.
A Harrison ring.
Dad's old uniform insignia.
Then a disciplinary report.
CADET RICHARD WHITAKER.
Incident date: April 17, 2007.
The final page was missing.
But beneath the report lay another photograph.
Dad.
Pierce.
And a third cadet.
Someone had scratched the third man's face with a knife.
Tyler turned it over.
A name remained on the back.
Mom saw it.
She went pale.
“Where did you find that?”
“Who is he?” I asked.
She shook her head.
“Emma, put it away.”
“Who is he?”
Before she could answer, the doorbell rang.
Tyler looked toward the hallway.
I opened the door.
Colonel Pierce stood outside.
But he wasn't alone.
May you like
An older man stood beside him.
The same man whose face had been scratched from the photograph.
