When he finally spoke, his voice carried the rasp of genuine exhaustion. He acknowledged a truth that many in his position attempt to mask until the very end: the exorbitant cost that a life in the arena exacts on those held most dear. For Pence, the years of political warfare—marked by the unprecedented pressures of the 2020 election, the harrowing events of January 6, and the subsequent fracture of his own party—had taken a visible toll. He spoke not as a candidate eyeing the next primary, but as a husband and father who had realized that while power is fleeting, the “Endothelial Lining” of a family’s trust is the only thing that truly sustains a life.