Inside a sleek black car, Ethan Cole, a billionaire known for his ruthless precision in business, barely noticed the world outside. His mind was still tangled in numbers, contracts, and decisions worth millions. The city blurred past him—until a small knock broke through the glass.
Tap. Tap.
He frowned slightly and turned his head.
A little girl stood beside the car.
She couldn’t have been older than eight. Her clothes were worn thin, damp from the rain, and in her small hands she held a bundle of wilting flowers—roses, their petals beginning to curl at the edges.
“Sir… would you like to buy one?” she asked softly.
Ethan almost looked away.
He had seen children like her before—at intersections, outside cafés, on sidewalks where life moved too fast to stop. Normally, he would have signaled the driver to ignore it.
But something made him hesitate.
The driver lowered the window just slightly.
The girl stepped closer, careful, as if afraid of crossing an invisible line.
“Please… they’re fresh,” she said, though both of them knew they weren’t.
Ethan reached into his coat and pulled out a bill—far more than the flowers were worth. He handed it to her without thinking.