“I’m not afraid of dying. I’m afraid of leaving Grace alone.”
Daniel’s throat tightened.
“Is there no family who can take care of her?”
Rachel shook her head.
“No one. When I’m gone, she’ll go into the foster system. And she deserves more than that.”
Daniel hesitated.
“So why me?”
Rachel met his gaze steadily.
“Because I worked for you,” she said. “I saw the kind of person you are. I know you lost your wife five years ago. And I thought… maybe you might consider taking care of Grace.”
The request stunned him.
Rachel was asking him to adopt her daughter.
“I know it’s a huge thing to ask,” she said through tears. “But when I imagined someone raising my daughter with kindness and integrity, I thought of you.”
Grace looked at him quietly.
“I’d be good,” she said softly. “I promise I won’t cause trouble.”
Daniel’s carefully ordered world suddenly shifted.
He thought about his empty apartment and the years since his wife Emily died in a car accident. He had buried himself in work to avoid the loneliness.
Now this brave little girl sat before him, trusting him completely.
“What do you want to be when you grow up, Grace?” he asked gently.
“A teacher,” she said. “Like my preschool teacher, Miss Alvarez.”