CHAPTER 3 â The General Everyone Trusted
The black SUV idled silently across the street.
Inside, three men watched the house through tinted windows.
"Target confirmed," one of them whispered into his radio.
"The Ghost has returned."
Across town...
General Richard Hawthorne stood before hundreds of cameras, smiling as he unveiled a new memorial honoring fallen soldiers.
People applauded.
Reporters praised him as a national hero.
Not one of them knew the man they admired had signed a death warrant twelve years earlier.
His phone vibrated.
He glanced at the screen.
HE'S ALIVE.
For the first time in years...
The General's smile disappeared.
"...Impossible."
He walked away from the cameras without another word.
Back inside the house...
Noah couldn't stop staring at Ethan.
His mind refused to believe what his eyes were seeing.
"If you're really my father..."
"Where were you?"
Ethan took a slow breath.
"They captured my entire unit."
"They wanted military intelligence."
"When I refused..."
"They made sure every day felt like hell."
He quietly rolled up his sleeve.
Deep scars covered both arms.
Burn marks.
Old fractures.
Evidence of years of torture.
Emma burst into tears.
"Oh my God..."
"I thought you died."
"I never stopped loving you."
Her husband, Daniel, looked down silently.
"I can't compete with a ghost."
"I only loved your family because I believed you were gone."
Ethan walked toward him.
Instead of anger...
He extended his hand.
"Thank you..."
"For raising my son."
Daniel looked stunned.
"You don't hate me?"
"You gave Noah the childhood I couldn't."
"I owe you."
Even Noah couldn't hold back anymore.
His voice cracked.
"Are..."
"Are you really my dad?"
Ethan slowly reached into his backpack.
Inside was an old baseball glove.
Dirty.
Cracked.
Barely holding together.
"You left this in my truck before deployment."
"You cried because I promised we'd finish teaching you to throw a curveball."
Noah's knees nearly gave out.
He remembered.
Not the words...
But the glove.
His mother had searched everywhere for it.
Only his father could have had it.
Slowly...
Noah stepped forward.
"Dad?"
Ethan nodded.
The boy threw himself into Ethan's arms.
For twelve years...
One dream had kept Ethan alive.
At that moment...
It finally came true.
But outside...
The men inside the SUV loaded silencers onto their pistols.
May you like
One of them smiled.
"The reunion's over."
