Chapter 18 - The Archives of the PastIn early 2028, a final administrative envelope arrived from the Department of the Army’s legal records office in Washington, D.C.
I sat at my desk in the home office, breaking the paper seal on the official packet.
Inside were the final, certified closing documents regarding the military court-martial of former Captain Thomas Vance. Having exhausted all appeals, Vance's dishonorable discharge was formally recorded, and his five-year sentence at the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth was cemented without further review.
Attached to the packet was a secondary notice from the North Carolina State Department of Corrections: Daniel Westbrook's six-year prison term was proceeding without parole eligibility due to the severity of the financial fraud charges.
I held the documents in my hands for a long moment.
Two years ago, those names—Vance, Westbrook, Natalie—had represented a web of deceit that threatened to destroy my family, steal my home, and strip me of my life's work. Today, seeing their names printed on administrative closure forms, they felt like nothing more than cold, lifeless case files stored in a federal cabinet.
I pulled open the bottom drawer of my desk, dropped the packet inside a manila folder labeled Closed Proceedings, and slid the drawer shut.
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The lock clicked into place with a sharp, definitive sound.
I stood up, walked out of the office, and closed the heavy oak door behind me.
