Chapter 3 - WHAT THE FAMILY DIDN’T KNOW
Brianna suddenly laughed nervously.
“Wait. You’re telling me my sister is some kind of military hero?”
Ethan’s expression hardened.
“She isn’t some kind of hero.”
He looked around the room.
“She is the reason I’m alive.”
Nobody laughed anymore.
Ethan turned toward his teammates.
“You remember the Blizzard rescue?”
One of the officers nodded.
“Everyone in the community knows about it.”
Ethan pointed toward me.
“She was the team leader.”
My father stood frozen.
My mother covered her mouth.
Brianna stared at me.
“But she works at a government desk.”
I looked at her.
“That was the cover.”
Ethan’s voice became quiet.
“Whiteout One led the rescue operation during the worst winter storm we’d seen in years.”
He described the night.
The aircraft crash.
The freezing temperatures.
The limited visibility.
The impossible terrain.
And the decision I had made to go back for one final survivor.
Him.
“You carried me out when I couldn’t walk.”
He looked at me.
“You saved four other men that night too.”
I shook my head.
“We were a team.”
He smiled.
“You still don’t take credit.”
Brianna looked like she wanted to disappear.
Then she whispered:
“But why didn’t you tell us?”
I looked at my family.
“Because I couldn’t.”
My father finally spoke.
“We thought you were doing paperwork.”
“I was supposed to let you think that.”
“Why?”
“Because some of the missions weren’t something I could discuss.”
My mother started crying.
“You were putting your life in danger all this time?”
I nodded.
“Sometimes.”
My father walked toward me.
“I had no idea.”
“You weren’t supposed to.”
He hugged me.
And for the first time in years, I felt his arms around me without either of us pretending everything was fine.
Then Ethan turned toward Brianna.
His voice changed.
“Do you know what you called her?”
Brianna lowered her eyes.
“I was joking.”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“You weren’t.”
He looked around the room.
“You told the woman who saved my life that her work was unimpressive.”
Nobody spoke.
Ethan continued.
“You told her to hide her job because you thought it was low-class.”
Brianna began crying.
“I didn’t know.”
“That doesn’t make it better.”
He took off his formal jacket.
Underneath was the uniform she had spent weeks bragging about.
“I wear this uniform because people like Lauren are willing to walk into places I can’t.”
May you like
He looked at me.
“She’s the reason I got to come home.”
