*** Five years later ***
The morning light spilled softly through the kitchen window as I folded the last flap of Daisy’s lunch box. “Daisy!” I called, my voice carrying just enough urgency to cut through the quiet house. “Come out, baby. We need to go. Drop the iPad now, you can play again when you get home from school.”
The scrape of little feet on the hard marble floor answered me, and I set the lunch box down carefully on the counter. I glanced at the clock, Damn, I thought. We were running late, again.
Life had been a wild ride, full of twists and turns I never expected. But these last five years… they had brought me something I didn’t think I would ever have again: hope. A spark I thought I had lost forever had started glowing bright again, all because of her.
Five years ago, wit
