Chapter 5 - Linda’s Real Reason
Linda was held in a security room behind the auditorium.
She demanded to call the governor.
She claimed the general had staged the ceremony to humiliate her family.
Military Police photographed the chair and took statements from witnesses.
A medic examined Evelyn’s arm.
No fracture was immediately visible, but the impact had aggravated old nerve damage.
She would need imaging.
Evelyn refused to leave until she understood everything.
General Hayes sat beside her.
“I should have told you sooner.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“The mission was sealed. The investigation was compromised. Every accusation I made disappeared into another office.”
“Because of my father?”
“Because of people protecting contracts worth hundreds of millions.”
Evelyn looked toward the front row.
Thomas and Derek remained seated under guard.
“What did Linda mean when she said I ruined Derek’s future?”
Hayes glanced at the folded report.
“Your recovered evidence did more than expose faulty equipment.”
Porter Aeronautics had applied for a major Pentagon contract.
The component substitution would have disqualified the company.
Derek had personally approved the purchase.
If Evelyn’s report became public, he could face fraud charges.
Thomas could lose control of the company.
Linda had spent years insisting Evelyn was unstable, jealous, and bitter.
She told relatives Evelyn fabricated military stories for attention.
She convinced Thomas that Evelyn’s medals threatened Derek.
At family gatherings, Linda called her service “a phase.”
She hid invitations to military events.
She told Evelyn her mother would be ashamed of her.
The chair was not a sudden outburst.
It was the final act of a campaign.
Linda had seen General Hayes preparing to reveal the report.
She tried to stop the ceremony before he could speak.
Evelyn looked at her father.
“You let her do this.”
Thomas finally looked at his daughter.
“I was trying to hold the family together.”
General Hayes’s jaw tightened.
“By breaking the one person who told the truth.”
Thomas stood.
“You don’t understand what was at stake.”
Evelyn’s voice was quiet.
“I was.”
He looked confused.
May you like
“I was what was at stake.”
For the first time, Thomas had no answer.
