Patricia’s face paled, her smug composure dissolving into panic as the steel cuffs clicked around her wrists.

“This is a mistake!” she shrieked, kicking at the floor. “Daniel, do something!”

Daniel sat in the corner, his head in his hands, weeping.

I walked over to the MP and took Emma into my arms, her small thumb tucked into her mouth as she drifted back to sleep.

“Daniel helped his mother transfer the stolen military funds into offshore accounts,” Hayes told me, looking down at my husband.

“Is this true, Daniel?” I asked.

Daniel looked up, his eyes bloodshot and swollen. “She said we needed the money, Morgan. I didn’t know she was stealing from the government.”

“You signed the forged DNA documents to discredit a military officer,” Hayes said. “That makes you a co-conspirator.”

Every joint account we shared had been frozen by federal order, leaving Daniel entirely broke and facing years in federal prison.

The marshals led Patricia out into the freezing night, her protests fading into the wind.

Daniel was escorted out next, his head bowed, his hands bound in front of him.

I stood in the quiet room with General Hayes, holding my daughter close.

“Thank you, Sir,” I said.

“You did your duty, Captain,” Hayes replied. “Now go home.”

I walked out of the cabin into the clean, cold night air, ready to rebuild my life with Emma.