With trembling hands, he unpinned the silver eagles from his shoulders.

He placed them on the polished wood.

He did the same with his ribbons, the metal clinking softly against the mahogany.

Vanessa did the same, her major’s oak leaves joining his insignia on the table.

The officers led them toward the back door.

Cole did not look at me as he passed.

He kept his eyes on the floor, his shoulders hunched.

The door clicked shut behind them.

The silence returned to the room.

General Albright walked over to me.

“It is over, Eleanor,” he said softly.

“The indictment will be made public in twenty minutes.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“Your father would have been proud of your strength,” he said.

I looked at the silver insignia lying on the empty table.

“I just wanted the truth to be recorded,” I said.

I turned and walked out of the committee room.

I walked down the long carpeted hallway, past the portraits of the men who had built the system Cole had broken.

I pushed open the heavy glass doors of the Senate building.

The bright summer sun hit my face, warm and clean.

I walked down the marble steps alone, leaving the name Harrington behind me in the dust.