Status Updates From Saved by the Ex-Military Me...

The feud that separated Carters and Mitchells for over a century has ended, not with dramatic confrontation but with quiet healing, with new beginnings, with a child who carries both bloodlines and knows nothing of the bitterness that once divided his family.

For so long, I've felt this emptiness inside me—a hollow space that grew after my father died, expanded with Emma's rejection, and yawned wider with each failed attempt to please my mother. But here, in this moment, that void seems smaller somehow. Not gone, but filling, like a parched garden finally receiving rain.

"Sometimes you can learn more about a person in two days than in two years," I interrupt. "Especially when the circumstances strip away the usual social masks."

"Being used to something doesn't mean it's what you want," I point out. "Or what you deserve."

"Town has a long memory for perceived slights. And some people never quite belong, no matter how long they've been here."

"Small towns are good at keeping certain stories alive and burying others."

"My grandfather used to say I got my height from the Carter side. Said we've always been tall enough to 'see trouble coming.'"

I follow her up the narrow staircase, ducking slightly to avoid the low ceiling. The cottage was built in an era when people were shorter, and at six-foot-two, I'm constantly aware of architectural limitations.

I try to imagine having a father like that, someone who built things for you instead of breaking them, who drove you places instead of driving you away. It's almost impossible to picture.

Civilian life is... messy. No clear objectives. No chain of command. And people talk so damn much without saying anything important.

I'm left sitting here with the strange, hollow feeling that comes after revealing something you've kept buried for years. My heart is racing, adrenaline surging through my system like I've just been in a firefight instead of a conversation.

There's something about Riley that makes silence feel natural, even restful.

Riley: left @ 18, military for 12 years, returned 3 years ago.

So he is 33?

personality that most people charitably describe as "reserved" and more accurately call "antisocial."

She's too young, for one thing. Must be at least a decade between us, maybe more.