Claire couldn't sleep. The television in the living room was still playing the replay of General Carter's speech, but she'd stopped listening to his words hours ago. She sat on the edge of the sofa, staring at Ethan's photograph on the screen beneath a headline that had been repeated so many times it should have started to feel real: WANTED FOR TERRORISM. Instead, something in her kept resisting it.She thought back to the first time Ethan had come into her life — awkward, stubborn, far too proud for someone who'd married into a family that never truly accepted him. For years she'd believed he was ordinary, someone who depended on her family and had nothing of his own to offer. Whenever he tried to explain himself, she'd interrupted. Whenever someone accused him of something, she'd believed them before she ever asked him what had happened.Now she couldn't stop turning over one question: if Ethan had really betrayed the military, why had he run toward danger every time instead of away

Claire followed Daniel through the abandoned hospital until they reached a small office at the end of the corridor. He unlocked the door and stepped aside. Inside, an old computer sat beneath a layer of dust, and a metal cabinet stood against the wall, its lock already broken."You kept records here?" Claire asked."Only copies.""Why?""Because I knew one day someone would come looking."Daniel switched on the computer, and the screen flickered several times before an old database appeared. Claire moved closer. A list of names filled the screen — most military personnel, some marked dead, others marked missing. Then she saw Ethan's name, and her heart stopped.*ETHAN HAYES. STATUS: PROTECTED. TRANSFER AUTHORIZED BY: COMMANDER ADRIAN HAYES.*"Protected," she said.Daniel nodded. "That's what Carter wanted erased.""Why?""Because if Ethan disappeared by choice, nobody would ask where he went.""So Adrian made everyone believe Ethan abandoned us." She paused. "Even me."Daniel didn't a