The Texas sun was already blazing at 6 AM when Master Gunnery Sergeant Solomon Dryden loaded his overnight bag into the back of his wife’s Dodge Charger. The car still smelled faintly of her perfume—vanilla and jasmine—even though she’d been gone for two years. He could have flown from Temple to Elmridge in ninety minutes, but the eight-hour drive gave him time to think, to remember, and to prepare himself for a moment he’d been anticipating since Tyran was old enough to understand what graduation meant.
At forty-five, Solomon carried himself with the kind of quiet authority that came from twenty-five years in the Marine Corps, the last twelve as a Special Operations reconnaissance specialist. His service record included three tours in Afghanistan, two in Iraq, and countless classified missions that had tested every aspect of his training and character. But today wasn’t about his service—it was about being a father to the son who had grown up largely without him, raised by a woman who had been strong enough to handle military deployments and devoted enough to never let Tyran doubt his father’s love.
…The story doesn’t end here, it continues on the next page 👇
