Natalie.
“This was left with me years ago,” she said. “Your mother asked me to give it to you when you graduated from a military academy or turned twenty-five, whichever came first.”
I could not look away.
“She knew I would come here?”
“She hoped. She said you had her stubbornness and your own kind of courage.”
“Why didn’t she leave it with my father?”
Dr. Vale was silent too long.
“There were things your mother wanted protected,” she said at last. “Her work. Her records. And you.”
A chill moved through me.
“Protected from what?”
Before she could answer, General Ellison entered, controlled but serious.
Behind him stood my father.
His eyes went straight to the envelope in my hand.
“Where did you get that?” he asked.
Dr. Vale stood slowly.
“Hello, Richard.”
My father looked at her like he had seen a ghost.
“You had no right to come here.”
