CHAPTER 10: Chapter 10 - Home Again

Margaret covered her face with both hands and began to sob. This time, the sound was different. It was not humiliation. It was release.
Ethan pulled her into his arms. She felt smaller than he remembered, and that frightened him. For months he had imagined coming home as the son who needed comfort. Instead, he had walked into the moment his mother needed him most.
"I am sorry," she whispered against his uniform. "I should have told you."
"No," Ethan said. "You were trying to protect me. But from now on, we protect each other."
Aunt Linda wiped her eyes. "That sounds like your father."
Ethan smiled sadly. His father had been gone for twenty years, but in that moment the house felt full of him.
Later, Margaret sat on the sofa with a blanket around her shoulders. Ethan brought her tea the way she used to bring it to him after bad dreams.
She looked toward the front door. "Do you hate her?"
Ethan thought about it. "No. Hate would keep her in this house longer than she deserves. I am done giving her space here."
Margaret nodded, tears shining again, but this time she smiled.
Outside, the evening had turned dark. Inside, the old house felt quiet, wounded, but safe.
Ethan sat beside his mother and took her hand.
The reunion he had imagined was gone. The woman he planned to marry was gone. The future he had built in his head was gone.
But his mother was beside him. His home was still standing. And for the first time that day, Sergeant Ethan Walker finally felt he had returned from war.