Chapter 14 - The Family Fallout
While I was reviewing supply chain manifests at headquarters, the shockwave of my public revelation was tearing through my family’s social circle.
According to an encrypted text message sent late that night by a sympathetic family friend who had witnessed the disaster, the Diamond Jubilee had ended in absolute chaos twenty minutes after I left.
My father had reportedly tried to brush off my rank as a "bureaucratic fluke," only for General Sterling to publicly shut him down, noting that my command record was among the most distinguished in modern joint-forces history. Mortified and furious, my father had cut the party short, while Kevin and my mother spent the remainder of the evening making panicked excuses to angry guests and business contacts.
The illusion of the Ross family dynasty had collapsed under the weight of its own arrogance.
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They had spent decades treating me like an afterthought, assuming my silence was weakness and my privacy was a sign of failure. They never imagined that the quiet daughter was the one actually holding a real command, while they played dress-up in civilian boardrooms.
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