The General’s Ex-Wife Is A Colonel He Can’t Have Chapter 14
I read the file, then closed it.
“I’ll go.”
General Thompson looked at me.
“Are you sure? This isn’t a routine mission. There’s a real chance you won’t come back.”
“I’m sure,” I said. “When my parents left for their last missions, they didn’t expect to come back, either.”
The night before deployment, I went to the hangar for a final inspection.
As I passed the base’s Hall of Honor, I noticed the lights were still on inside.
When I walked in, I found General Thompson standing in front of my parents’ photograph, carefully wiping down the frame.
“Uncle Thompson.”
He turned and smiled.
“Came to have a word with your parents?”
“Yes, sir.”
We stood there side by side.
In the photo, my parents were so young.
After a moment, General Thompson spoke.
“When your mother was seven months pregnant with you, she insisted on flying.”
“We all told her to stop, to wait until after the baby was born. She only said one thing—what if the front lines suddenly needed one more pilot?”
He looked at the photo, his voice steady.
“Not long after, an emergency mission came up. She was already injured, but she took off and completed it.”
“Soon after she landed, she went into labor. You were born in the base clinic.”
My eyes burned.
General Thompson turned to me.
“Celine, come back alive.”
“Your parents would want you to complete the mission, but they would also want you to come home.”
I raised my hand in a salute.
“I’ll do my best.”
“For them, and for this uniform.”