Inside, Emily leaned into him, Joshua hugged Max, and for the first time in years, Daniel felt peace. There would still be struggles but the worst was over.

That night, he tucked his children into bed and muttered, “We’re a family now. No one will ever break us again.”

Max lay beside them, watchful and loyal.

And in that quiet Virginia home, Daniel Hayes understood that though he had returned from one war, another had awaited him but this one, he would win, for the only mission that mattered: his children.