Chapter 5 - Thomas Finally Tells Rebecca the Truth
Thomas was charged eleven months after the ceremony.
Conspiracy to commit procurement fraud.
Wire fraud.
False statements.
Conflict-of-interest related offenses.
Not bribery directly on every count.
Several Meridian executives and two former procurement officials were charged too.
Rebecca read indictment alone.
Then sat for long time.
Her father’s name looked unreal in federal caption.
He requested meeting.
Through attorneys.
Rebecca refused.
Then accepted after plea negotiations began.
Secure conference room.
Lawyers present.
No Diane.
No Brandon.
Thomas looked older.
Gray.
Weight lost.
He saw Rebecca’s uniform.
No joke.
Good.
He said.
“I’m sorry.”
Rebecca answered.
“For what?”
He looked down.
Good question.
“For hiding Meridian.”
“For telling them not to contact you.”
“For using your mother’s name to make you doubt your career.”
Rebecca’s throat tightened.
He continued.
“For sitting there when Diane hit you.”
There.
Thomas said he froze.
Not only fear.
Shame.
He realized instantly why Diane attacked.
He knew envelope likely connected investigation.
If he ran to Rebecca, cameras captured him.
He thought about himself.
Not daughter.
Rebecca stared.
“Thank you for saying it accurately.”
He nodded.
Then financial truth.
Cole Strategic began legit.
Meridian pushed boundaries.
Thomas rationalized.
Everyone in government contracting used consultants.
Introductions became favors.
Favors became gifts through third parties.
Thomas avoided details.
He knew enough.
Not every transaction.
Enough.
He admitted one email where he suggested routing travel benefits through trade association.
That was active.
Rebecca asked.
“Did you know defective equipment reached us?”
Thomas shook head.
“No.”
Investigators found no evidence he knew defects.
Rebecca believed on evidence.
Important.
Still his work reduced scrutiny.
He admitted.
“When your report came, I knew it might expose relationships.”
“Why mock my career?”
Thomas looked surprised.
Rebecca pressed.
“You did it before report.”
He thought.
“Because you became like your mother.”
Silence.
“Independent?”
“Certain.”
Rebecca almost laughed.
“I’m rarely certain.”
“You looked certain.”
Thomas hated being questioned.
Evelyn questioned.
Rebecca questioned.
He experienced professional women in medicine as judgment? Careful not broad. Specifically his wife/daughter.
He felt excluded from expertise.
So he diminished.
Ugly.
Human.
Then.
“After your mother died, I started telling myself she wanted you closer.”
“Did she?”
“No.”
Rebecca cried.
Quiet.
Thomas continued.
“I wanted you closer.”
Then he used Evelyn as authority.
Wrong.
Rebecca asked.
“Why marry Diane?”
Thomas smiled sadly.
“She agreed with me.”
That sentence explained too much.
Diane reinforced worldview.
Thomas rewarded.
Brandon learned contempt.
Family echo chamber.
He did not cause Diane’s assault.
But years of belittling Rebecca helped create permission structure.
Thomas admitted.
“I taught them your service was a joke.”
Rebecca nodded.
“Yes.”
“That made it easier for her to treat you like one.”
“Yes.”
No comfort.
The plea agreement required Thomas cooperate, surrender illicit proceeds, accept prison term.
He asked Rebecca whether she thought he should take it.
She stared.
“No.”
He flinched.
“You don’t get to make me your conscience now.”
Important.
“Ask your lawyer.”
He nodded.
Good.
Thomas accepted plea.
At sentencing, Rebecca attended.
Did not speak initially.
Then judge offered victim impact due family/intertwined professional harm.
Rebecca said.
“My father’s crimes did not create my career.”
Pause.
“My career exposed a system his choices helped sustain.”
She looked at Thomas.
“I do not need his punishment to prove my work mattered.”
Then.
“But accountability matters because public trust matters.”
No political advocacy—fictional legal process.
Thomas received prison.
Not life.
Years.
Restitution.
Asset forfeiture.
Cole Strategic dissolved.
Legitimate employees assisted through receiver.
Diane still in custody separately.
Brandon’s probation ongoing.
Family wealth shrank.
House sold eventually.
Rebecca inherited nothing from Thomas at that point.
Fine.
Thomas asked before custody.
“Will you visit?”
Rebecca answered.
“I don’t know.”
Honest.
No promise.
He nodded.
That was their relationship.
Uncertain.
Accurate.
Hayes later congratulated Rebecca on promotion to lieutenant colonel? She started Major. Could promote years later. At this point maybe selected for lieutenant colonel.
Rebecca laughed.
“Bad timing.”
Hayes said.
“Good work rarely checks family calendar.”
She accepted.
Not to spite father.
Because career hers.
That distinction freed.
Thomas’s plea negotiations revealed the most damaging financial evidence in a spreadsheet investigators called the Blue Ledger.
It listed consulting clients, referral fees, and “relationship costs.”
Thomas claimed the label referred to marketing.
Some entries did.
Others matched travel, gifts, and later consulting payments to officials connected with contract decisions.
Rebecca never saw every page.
She chose not to.
She did not need to become amateur prosecutor.
Laura summarized relevant facts.
Thomas authorized several payments knowing disclosure rules could be triggered.
He instructed staff to route some through third-party trade groups.
That crossed from careless to deliberate.
Still, investigators did not find evidence Thomas knew Meridian shipped defective equipment.
Important.
Rebecca refused relatives saying.
“He almost killed soldiers.”
Not supported.
His conduct increased corruption risk.
He helped undermine procurement integrity.
Serious enough.
No exaggeration.
At one family gathering before sentencing, an uncle said.
“Your father sold bad equipment to the Army.”
Rebecca corrected.
“No evidence he sold equipment.”
The uncle stared.
“You’re defending him?”
“No.”
“I’m being accurate.”
That became habit.
Accuracy is not defense.
It protects accountability from becoming revenge story.
Thomas’s legitimate business history also mattered.
For years Cole Strategic had helped small medical firms navigate complex government registration.
Some clients delivered excellent products.
Some employees did honest work.
When company dissolved, Rebecca worried public story would flatten them.
Receiver arranged transfers and references.
Former staff testified about pressure culture but also real services.
Again.
Institutions can be mixed.
Thomas’s crimes did not make every invoice fraudulent.
Rebecca carried same nuance into teaching later.
One unethical leader does not automatically invalidate every person beneath.
But systems must examine.
Not assume.
Her relationship with June strengthened during this period.
June had always been peripheral aunt.
Now became bridge to Evelyn’s memory.
They cooked.
Talked.
Not only case.
June told embarrassing stories.
Evelyn once lied about age to enter a medical conference.
Evelyn hated camping.
Evelyn adored cheap diner pie.
Rebecca needed ordinary mother.
She had spent years remembering hospital bed.
Then father’s version.
Now more.
One Sunday June said.
“Your mother worried you’d become too much like Thomas.”
Rebecca froze.
“In what way?”
“Winning arguments.”
Rebecca laughed.
Fair.
“She said you both could make being right exhausting.”
That hurt pleasantly.
Not saint daughter.
Real.
Rebecca noticed at work.
She sometimes used rank to end debate when impatient.
Not corruption.
Still control.
She changed.
Asked.
“Anything I’m missing?”
At first staff silent.
Then spoke.
Leadership improved.
Family crisis had taught her not only about Thomas’s failures.
About tendencies she shared.
Ambition.
Certainty.
Need to be right.
May you like
She could inherit traits without inheriting choices.
That gave her agency.
