Callie’s hands tightened around the handlebars.
She heard their words…
But she also heard something else—
Her mother’s voice.
“If you can help someone, Callie… you must. Even when it costs you.”
Callie blinked back tears.
This was the moment that decided what kind of person she was going to be.
Save her job… or save his life.
She made her choice.
Callie leapt off her bike.
“Please—someone help me lift him!” she shouted.
No one budged.
So she lifted him alone—this fragile man twice her size—and somehow managed to slide him onto her delivery motorcycle.
And then she sped away, weaving through traffic like a storm, leaving behind the job she’d likely just lost.
Twelve Hours Earlier
Before sunrise, in a rundown one-room apartment, Callie had already made breakfast, ironed uniforms, and braided her sisters’ hair while standing.
Her younger twin sisters—Molly and Maya, age 11—were the only family she had left.
One year earlier, masked intruders had broken into their home, stole everything, and murdered their parents in cold blood.
The killers were never caught.
At seventeen, Callie became the girls’ guardian.
She dropped out of school and took the only job she could get: delivery rider.