The Generals Missile

Chapter 02 - The Weight Of Silence

My blood went cold as I read the message, my heart racing with a mixture of dread and disbelief.

I looked down at Lily, sleeping peacefully in my arms, her small form rising and falling gently, then glanced again at my phone... Below the initial message, a second text appeared, chilling me to the bone:

"The threat originates from the Voss Network."

"General Voss sends his regards."

The name struck like a blow!

General Marcus Voss.

My former rival, the only man who had ever matched me on the battlefield, the man I thought had been buried in the past when I walked away from the military... He had found me.

I closed my eyes, my mother's voice echoing in my head: "Be ordinary, Ethan... Be ordinary." But ordinary men cannot protect their daughters from men like Voss, he literally drinks blood for a living!

With trembling fingers, I typed a single reply: "Acknowledged," then deleted the message, kissing Lily's forehead, and sat in the dark, my mind racing as I planned how to deal with this threat.

That night, sleep eluded me.

I remained in the chair beside Lily's bed, one hand resting on her back, feeling the reassuring rise and fall of her breathing, my eyes fixed on the door.

Old habits die hard... In the Northern Command, we called it the sentinel reflex where you never truly leave the battlefield; your body remembers even when your mind tries to forget it.

At six in the morning, my phone buzzed again, a different number but the same encryption signature.

"Commander... Lieutenant Kane reporting; Voss has activated three cells in the eastern corridor, One is mobile heading south with an estimated arrival in your city: forty-eight hours, Requesting permission to engage." The message read.

Kang was my most loyal soldier, the man who had taken a bullet meant for me during the Afghanistan operation, never once did he complain about the limp it left him with and I typed quickly:

"Negative, Hold position."

"Monitor only... Do not engage." I replied.

Three dots appeared on my screen, then:

"Understood, Commander, but respectfully, sir, if they touch your family, I will not wait for orders." Kang replied before I put the phone down, a knot tightening in my stomach, and so I went to the kitchen.

Mrs. Patterson was already there, preparing breakfast for the Harrington family, her movements brisk and efficient as always... Eggs Benedict for Madam Harrington, fresh oatmeal with brown sugar for Old Man Harrington, French toast with imported maple syrup for Derek and for me, there was a bowl of plain oatmeal and a hard-boiled egg.

"Mr. Ethan," Mrs. Patterson said, glancing at the bandage on my hand, concern etched on her face.

"You should see a doctor about that cut."

"It is fine," I replied tersely.

"It is not fine... You are always saying it is fine but nothing in this house is fine." She said concerned.

She was right, and I knew it.

But how could I tell her that the cut on my palm was the least of my problems? That somewhere out there, a man with more blood on his hands than I had was sending soldiers toward my daughter?

At seven, Lily came downstairs, still in her pajamas, dragging the one-eared rabbit behind her.

"Daddy, I am hungry," she said, her voice sweet and innocent, if only her mother cared for her.

"Sit down, sweetheart... I will make you pancakes," I replied, attempting to summon a smile despite the tension riddling my mind over her.

"You cannot use the main kitchen," Madam Harrington’s voice cut through the room like a blade as she appeared in the doorway, wearing a silk robe and a face full of contempt.

"That stove is for family meals."

"You can use the staff kitchen in the back."

I glanced at Lily, her large, dark eyes watching me, understanding more than any four-year-old should.

"Of course, Madam Harrington," I said, forcing a polite tone... "Come on, Lily." I said to my daughter.

We made our way to the staff kitchen, a dead looking room behind the laundry area, featuring a two-burner stove and a counter barely wide enough for a cutting board... But I began to make pancakes with the flour and eggs Mrs. Patterson kept stored there, while Lily perched on a plastic stool, her eyes wide with anticipation as I flipped the pancakes.

"Daddy, why does Grandma not like us?" she asked, her innocence piercing.

"She likes us, sweetheart... She is just busy," I replied, my heart heavy, obviously we're so hated to be here.

"She told Uncle Derek that we are like cockroaches... What is a cockroach?" She asked.

"She said what! to you!?" I flared as I asked before calming down with a smile at my beautiful daughter.

My hand tightened around the spatula, the word stinging, that old hag called my daughter a roach, her own grand daughter, it hurt me so much.

My child shouldn't have to face what I already face.

"My beautiful angel, a cockroach is an insect, Lily... Do not worry about what Grandma says."

"Is it a bad insect?" She asked.

"No... No! No! Cockroaches are survivors cutie pie, they can live through anything." I assured her.

Her face lit up with a smile.

"Then I want to be a cockroach." She said excited.

I placed the pancakes on her plate, watching her eat as she hummed a song from her favorite cartoon, syrup collecting on her chin... She was the most perfect thing I had ever created, and yet the world I had abandoned was coming to destroy her.

At nine o'clock, Victoria entered the staff kitchen, dressed for work, her hair pulled back tightly, her face composed into the mask she wore every day, the mask of a woman who had married the wrong man and was too proud to admit it.

"Ethan, we need to talk," she said, her tone clipped.

"About what?" I replied, my pulse quickening.

She placed a manila folder on the counter, and I didn't need to open it to recognize the logo of the law firm on the cover, Crawford and Associates, the divorce specialists.

She wants to divorce me, I smiled.

"My father had these prepared," she said, her voice firm but her eyes betraying a flicker of uncertainty.

"He wants us to sign them?" I replied.

"And do you want to sign them?" I asked, my heart racing, it seemed she already signed them or was considering to sign the divorce papers.

She hesitated, glancing at Lily, who was now drawing circles in the syrup on her plate.

"It does not matter what I want, Ethan... You know how this family works... My father decides... My mother enforces while Derek threatens, And I obey."

"You do not have to obey their decisions," I said, the desperation creeping into my voice.

"Easy for you to say, You have nothing to lose."

Nothing to lose? I almost laughed.

I had given up an empire for this woman, buried my identity, my rank, my name, my legacy.

I had endured three years of humiliation for a promise to a dead woman and a love that Victoria no longer believed existed between us.

"I am not signing those papers," I said firmly.

"Ethan..." She fired!

"I said no," I reiterated, my resolve hardening.

She stared at me, and for a moment, something flickered in her eyes...not love, not anymore, but something close to curiosity, as if she were trying to remember who I was before the Harrington family ground me into dust.

"My father will not accept that," she said finally.

"Your father can discuss it with me directly," I replied, the force of the situation hanging heavily between us as we both started at ourselves and then at Lily.

Without another word, she left, the manila folder remaining on the counter, a stark reminder of the battle ahead that I had to face and this time alone.

At noon, I noticed Lily starting to cough, and by two o'clock, the cough had turned into a wheeze.

Was she poisoned? I couldn't tell.

But by four o'clock, her skin was burning, and her lips had turned pale... "Lily!" I called her name to hear her voice but she wouldn't answer me back.