Chapter 2: Warmth Feels Strange
The warmth inside the building felt unreal.
Lily stood just past the doorway, too afraid to step further, as if the heat itself might disappear if she moved too quickly.
Emily gently pulled her forward.
“It’s okay,” she said with a small smile. “You’re safe here.”
Safe.
The word felt unfamiliar.
A housekeeper rushed over with a thick blanket, wrapping it around Lily’s shoulders. Another placed a bowl of steaming soup into her trembling hands.
Lily stared at it.
Real food.
Hot food.
She hesitated… then took a sip.
Tears immediately spilled down her cheeks.
“I forgot… what this feels like,” she whispered.
Emily sat beside her, watching quietly, as if guarding the moment.
Across the room, the man stood near the window, arms crossed.
His name was Daniel Carter.
A man known in the city for his cold decisions and unshakable control.
Yet now, he found himself watching a starving child cry over soup—and feeling something shift inside him.
Later that night, he called Emily into his study.
“You shouldn’t get attached so easily,” he said.
Emily frowned.
“She’s not ‘something,’” she replied. “She’s a person.”
Daniel was silent.
“She didn’t even believe I was real when I gave her the bread,” Emily continued softly. “Do you know what that means?”
He didn’t answer.
“It means no one has ever helped her before.”
That night, Daniel didn’t sleep much.
May you like
For the first time in years—
The silence in his house felt… different.
