Hailey fled down the hill in tears, her steps unsteady, her fragile frame swallowed by the shadows of the trees.
Her sobs lingered long after she disappeared from sight—sharp, brittle, cutting straight through Issac’s heart.
Issac sank down beside the tombstone, leaning his back against its cold stone surface.
He lit a cigarette with trembling fingers.
The flame momentarily illuminated his exhausted features.
He exhaled slowly.
The smoke drifted upward, curling around the engraved face of Levi Monroe, stern and dignified even in death.
Issac stared at that face for a long time.
A battlefield commander…
a warrior who once stood unshakable…
reduced to a secret grave on a desolate hillside.
Issac felt a tightness in his chest, a pressure that made it hard to breathe.
He had unpara
