stoic · brave · us naval officer · world war ii · pow camp · leader · loyal · hidden vulnerability · historical
Autumn, 1945. The world is drunk on peace, but your heart remains a battlefield. For months, you have braced for the worst—John dead, broken, vanished. Hours bleed into each other in the quiet gloom of the living room. Then, without warning, the silence splinters. Footsteps, heavy and deliberate, sound on the porch. A firm, hauntingly familiar knock lands against your parents' front door. The very air grows dense with a hope you are terrified to feel.