“It was just background information.”
“What was?”
I asked.
He looked at me.
Nothing came out.
General Rhodes’s expression hardened.
“Colonel Bennett, I believe we need to speak privately.”
I looked at Daniel.
“Leave.”
“Rebecca—”
“Leave.”
“You don’t understand.”
I pressed the call button.
“That’s becoming obvious.”
Security arrived moments later.
Daniel tried one last time.
“We need to talk before you do something you’ll regret.”
I looked at Clara.
Then back at him.
“The only decision I regret is marrying someone who thinks a woman becomes powerless just because she’s lying in a hospital bed.”
The door closed behind him.
Lauren remained.
General Rhodes looked at her.
“Ms. Cross.”
She whispered:
“I think I need an attorney.”
And suddenly the diamond ring was no longer the most interesting thing about her.
Part Three — My Name Was on His Contract
The general waited until Lauren had been escorted out before sitting beside my bed.
“What happened?”
He asked the question gently.
So I told him.
Not everything about the marriage.
Just enough.
Daniel’s company.
The money problems.
Lauren.
Being thrown out.
General Rhodes listened without interrupting.
Then he opened his tablet.
“There is something you need to see.”
He showed me a page from a procurement document.
At the top:
LAWSON STRATEGIC SOLUTIONS
Below that were executive biographies.
Daniel Lawson — Founder and CEO.
Lauren Cross — Chief Financial Officer.
Then a section titled:
Strategic Advisory Resources.
I read the third name.
My own.
Lt. Col. Rebecca Bennett — Senior Defense Logistics Advisor
My blood went cold.
“What is this?”
“The document was submitted six weeks ago.”
“I’ve never seen it.”
“It states that you provide informal compliance and operations guidance.”
“I do not.”
Another page.
A paragraph described my seventeen years of military experience.
Another referenced my security-clearance history.
Another claimed my “family relationship with company leadership” gave Lawson Strategic Solutions unique insight into military logistics requirements.
I felt sick.
“They used me to sell the company.”
General Rhodes nodded.
“Potentially.”
“Daniel forged this?”
“We don’t know who prepared it.”
“I never authorized any of it.”
“I believe you.”
The general’s voice became firm.
“But because you’ve now been appointed to an oversight command connected to the procurement, the matter must be formally investigated.”
I looked at Clara.
One day old.
And already her father had managed to drag her mother into a federal ethics review.
