Maybe twenty-three.
Mercer looked almost the same age.Support Veterans
They stood outside a military hangar.
Her mother wasn’t wearing civilian clothes.
She was wearing a flight suit.
Elena’s eyes narrowed.
“My mother was a nurse.”
Mercer’s jaw tightened.
“No.”
Elena looked up sharply.
“What?”
“She became a nurse later.”Military memorabilia
Mercer pointed toward the photograph.
“When that picture was taken, Lieutenant Sarah Brooks was an Army intelligence officer attached to an aviation unit.”
Elena almost laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because the statement was impossible.
“My mother never served.”
“She did.”
“There would be records.”
“There were.”Photo restoration services
“Were?”
Mercer said nothing.
Elena stepped toward him.
“You have about ten seconds before I walk into headquarters and start asking questions.”
Mercer’s expression changed.
Not anger.
Fear.
“Elena, please.”
She froze.
Nobody outside her family called her Elena while she wore the uniform.Life insurance
Especially not a three-star general.
“Don’t call me that.”
Mercer nodded slowly.
“Captain Brooks.”
“Tell me the truth.”
Mercer looked toward the emptying training field.
Then he said the last thing Elena expected.
“I was told you died with her.”
Silence.
Even Ryan looked stunned.Family history research
Elena felt cold despite the afternoon heat.
“What did you say?”
“The official report said Sarah’s vehicle went off a mountain road during a storm.”
“That’s how my mother died.”
“That’s what you were told.”
Elena’s grip tightened around the photograph.
“You’re saying it wasn’t an accident?”
Mercer’s eyes met hers.
“I’m saying the report I received listed two fatalities.”
Elena could barely hear herself speak.Military history books
“Two?”
“Sarah Brooks.”
Mercer paused.
“And her six-year-old daughter.”
The photograph slipped from Elena’s fingers.
Mercer caught it before it hit the dirt.
For several seconds, nobody moved.
Elena remembered rain.
Headlights.
Her mother shouting.Military memorabilia
A shattered window.
Then waking in a hospital with her aunt beside her.
She had always believed the memories were fragments from the crash.
“What exactly happened that night?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s a lie.”
“I swear to you, I don’t.”
“You knew she served.”
“Yes.”
“You knew about the crash.”Military leadership courses
“Yes.”
“You somehow knew I existed.”
Mercer lowered his voice.
“I knew much more than that.”
Elena stared at him.
He reached into his coat again.
Ryan instinctively straightened.