When the plate was clean, Evans leaned in. “Where’s your family?”
Her answer arrived in pieces: a father lost to a fall, a mother long vanished, and a grandmother recently gone. Silence settled over the table. Evans gripped his water glass, the ghosts of his own past pressing close.
Then he stood and took out his wallet—not for a handout, but for something more.
“Would you like to come home with me?” he asked.
Emily blinked. “What do you mean?”Continue reading…