Chapter 10 - Aaron’s Letter
James sat at the kitchen table while General Cole opened the metal box.
Inside were a flight badge, an old photograph, and a sealed letter.
The envelope had yellowed with age.
Nathan explained that Aaron wrote letters before every dangerous mission.
Most were delivered after his death.
This one was not.
It had been stored with his private flight log.
James’s hands shook as he opened it.
Jim,
If this mission goes wrong, do not spend the rest of your life carrying me.
I know the risks.
I also know why we are flying.
There are children in that hospital.
You gave us the option to refuse.
None of us did.
That is leadership.
If I do not come back, tell Nathan I was where I chose to be.
And do not let men in safe rooms rewrite what happened in the sky.
James stopped reading.
His shoulders folded.
For the first time, Maisie saw her father cry without hiding his face.
General Cole moved beside him.
“My brother never blamed you.”
James pressed the letter against his chest.
“I should have read this years ago.”
“Yes.”
“Your family should hate me.”
Nathan shook his head.
“My mother called you every Christmas for six years.”
James looked up.
“I changed my number.”
“She knew.”
“Why did she stop?”
“She died.”
James closed his eyes.
Another regret.
Another person he had denied the chance to forgive him.
Maisie knelt beside his chair.
“You survived the mission,” she whispered. “But you never let yourself come home.”
James looked at his daughter.
“No.”
She rested her head against his shoulder.
“Then come home now.”
The letter changed something inside him.
Not all at once.
But enough.
James agreed to attend the Washington ceremony.
Only under one condition.
Every surviving member of his unit would be honored too.
General Cole smiled.
“That has already been arranged.”
Outside, a news van stopped near the road.
Maisie looked through the window.
Tristan stepped out.
He was alone.
May you like
And he carried a folder of his own.
👉 Tristan claimed he had evidence that could save the Caldwell family—but only if Maisie agreed to speak with him.
