The Betrayal at West Point

The suffocating darkness of the barracks was my constant companion, a heavy blanket of dread thick with the smell of sweat and fear.

Every whispered threat, every sneer from Caleb Blakely, my squad leader, was a reminder of the impossible secret I carried.

I wasn't "Matthew Johns," a plebe at West Point; I was Molly, a woman masquerading as my injured brother, desperately clinging to his scholarship to save my family from financial ruin.

Then came the night in the communal showers. A broken water main meant no privacy, nowhere to hide my true identity from fifty other men.