Todos los capítulos de He Rose From Street Punk to Colonel, and Lost Me Forever: Capítulo 1 - Capítulo 9

Eighteen years ago, Greyport, Massachusetts was a harbor town going quietly to seed.After the shipyard closed, most of the workers left. The ones who stayed spent their days between the bars, the repair shops, and the welfare office.Jack lived there.His mother worked the night shift at a cheap diner, and his father only turned up when he was drunk. By seventeen Jack had been in fights, had stolen cars, and had been picked up by the police for street racing.People in town said it was only a matter of time before he went to prison.The first time I saw him was at a Whitmore charity dinner.He was wearing a borrowed white shirt, hauling crates of wine in through the back door. A drunk guest knocked a tray out of his hands on purpose, then accused him in front of everyone of having sticky fingers.Everyone waited for the harbor boy to lose his temper.Jack just crouched down and picked up the broken glass.It was only when the guest turned to walk away that Jack put out a foot and sent

After Jack joined the Marines, it was harder than I had imagined.He had no family behind him and no talent for flattering his superiors. His juvenile record put him under suspicion from the first day.Sergeant Brennan, who ran the training, liked to pick out the recruits with nobody backing them. He held their mail, piled on extra drills, and pushed his own mistakes down onto the men under him.At first Jack took it.Then Brennan ordered a recruit with a sprained ankle to keep running under full pack.Jack refused the order in front of everyone.Three days later he was charged with assaulting a superior.When the news made it back to Greyport, everyone said they had seen this coming for years.I did not believe it.I started looking for the men who had trained in Jack's cycle. Most of them would not talk. Only one recruit, Mark Davis, told me that Brennan had been beating and humiliating recruits for a long time."I can't testify," he said. "My family can't afford a lawyer."I sold a

It began to snow in the cemetery as the funeral ended.Jack stood in front of the headstone in his dark blue dress uniform. The others drifted away, and he still had not moved.I watched him from across the road for a long time before I worked up the nerve to walk over."Jack."He turned around.We had not seen each other in more than a decade, and I had imagined this a thousand times.I imagined him furious. I imagined him cutting. I even imagined him pretending not to know me.Instead he said, evenly, "Miss Whitmore."Politeness hurts worse than hate."I heard you were back.""For the funeral.""I know."The silence came down between us.I wanted to tell him the truth about that year. I had rehearsed those words a thousand times in my head, but standing in front of him I understood that any explanation would sound like an excuse a broke woman had prepared for herself."About prom night, back then—""Don't.""You could at least hear me out.""Why?" Jack said, looking at me. "Because y

Jack read in his study all night.He saw my father's documents first.He saw the three bought witnesses, he saw the felony charge the family lawyer had drawn up for him, and he saw the guarantee I had signed.I promised never to contact Jack again.In exchange, they let the man who had actually done it take the blame.Jack looked at that page for a long time.Then it slipped out of his hand."It wasn't because I wasn't good enough."He said it as though confirming it with someone.I stood on the other side of the desk.No. It wasn't."Everything you said that night was a lie."Yes.Then he opened the letters that had never been sent.The first was written the day after prom."Jack, every word I said was a lie. Please don't come back yet. When I find a way to stop them from hurting you, I will come to you."The second was written while he was under investigation."I found people willing to testify. You are not going to be destroyed. I promised I would not let you become the kind of man