My mother slapped me twice at my own engagement party and threatened to expose my secrets—then a general called me “Captain,” federal agents seized my sister’s phone, and a message from my father who’d been dead for six years appeared on the screen.

Chapter 2

She hit me again.

Harder, across the jaw, and this time I didn’t step back. Blood was running down my chin now, and I could feel the heat coming off my own skin, and through it all — I smiled.

Because my mother had made the mistake of looking only at me. I had been looking, all evening, at everything else.

Brigadier General Owen Marsh had been holding a glass of sparkling water near the ice sculpture. I saw him set it down. I saw his hand go to the cuff of his dress blues, the way a man touches his own uniform when he’s about to remember what it’s for.