She showed him how to sort scrap metal, bargain at the flea market, and tell when tomatoes were ready to pick.
“You’re terrible at gardening,” she teased.
Daniel laughed—and discovered that laughing came easier around that little girl.
He also saw something that changed him forever.
The way Emily cared for her grandmother. Reminding her to take medicine. Tucking a blanket around her. Pretending she wasn’t hungry so Rose could eat more.
And the way Rose, despite her illness, fought for the girl with everything she had.
“You two are millionaires,” Daniel told them one evening.
Emily burst out laughing.
“Millionaires have swimming pools!”
Daniel shook his head gently.
“No. Real millionaires have someone who truly loves them.”
But danger never fully disappeared.
One day a neighbor warned them that well-dressed men had been asking around for a missing man wearing a gold watch.
Rose turned pale.
“If they were family, they’d go to the police,” she said quietly. “Those men aren’t here to save him.”
Soon Daniel began having flashes of memory.
A glass skyscraper.
A bitter drink.
An argument.
The name Marcus Hale.
A beautiful woman with a cold smile.
Then the truth exploded back into his mind.