CHAPTER 1: The Daughter Elias Lost
Seven years earlier, Elias Reed had been a man the entire city respected.
He had not been born rich. When he was young, he had done every kind of job to survive. He carried cargo at the docks, washed dishes in restaurants, and repaired watches in a small shop by the road.
But Elias had something many people did not have.
He never gave up.
From a tiny mechanical workshop, he built Reed Industries — a corporation that specialized in medical equipment.
Ironically, the man who had created thousands of wheelchairs, rehabilitation braces, and mobility devices for patients after accidents became trapped in a wheelchair himself in the final years of his life.
The accident happened on a rainy night.
Elias’s car veered off a mountain road while he was on his way to find Clara, his only daughter.
Before that, father and daughter had argued terribly.
Clara had fallen in love with a poor young man named Daniel. Elias opposed it. Not because Daniel was poor, but because he had heard too many terrible rumors about him: debts, scams, and the possibility that Daniel was using Clara to get close to the Reed fortune.
The person who brought those rumors to Elias was Victor — Elias’s nephew and the man he trusted most in the company.
Victor always appeared loyal. He stayed beside Elias after Elias’s wife died, helped him in meetings, handled documents, and called him “Uncle” in a respectful voice.
When Clara fell in love with Daniel, Victor was the first to say:
“Uncle, you have to be careful. A man like Daniel will destroy this family.”
Elias believed him.
Clara did not.
She cried in her father’s office, clutching a small bag.
“You’ve never truly met him. You only listen to what other people say.”
“I just want to protect you.”
“No. You want to control me.”
Those words wounded Elias deeply. In his anger, he said something he would regret for the rest of his life:
“If you walk out that door, don’t come back.”
Clara stared at him for a long time.
“Then I won’t come back.”
She left.
That night, Elias received a strange message on his phone.
If you want to see your daughter one last time, go to the northern mountain road.
He rushed out into the rain.
But before he could find Clara, his car was forced off the road by a truck with no license plate.
When Elias woke up in the hospital, he had lost feeling from his waist down.
Clara had disappeared.
No body.
No letters.
No phone calls.
Victor told him Clara had run away overseas with Daniel. He showed Elias a letter with handwriting that looked exactly like Clara’s:
I don’t need you anymore. Please don’t look for me.
Elias read that letter all night.
The next morning, he did not cry.
He simply locked the glass room, shut it away, and never mentioned Clara’s name again.
Seven years later, people only saw a cold old man in a wheelchair, sitting every day at the corner of the sidewalk café in front of the Reed building.
He did not go there because the coffee was good.
He went because from that seat, he could see the road Clara used to walk down whenever she came home.
He told everyone he was waiting for no one.
But there were always two pieces of cake on the table.
One for him.
One that no one was allowed to touch.
That morning, the sky was gray. Elias sat at his usual table, dressed in a perfectly tailored gray suit. His old assistant, Martin, stood a few steps away with a phone in his hand, occasionally looking around to make sure no one disturbed his employer.
Elias was cutting a slice of apple cake when he heard a commotion.
A boy of about eleven ran across the street barefoot, holding a baby wrapped in a blanket. Two other children followed behind him, panting as they ran.
The café manager immediately frowned.
“Hey! You can’t come in here! Go somewhere else!”
But the boy did not stop.
He rushed straight to Elias and dropped to his knees.
Everything happened too quickly. Martin stepped forward to pull him away, but the boy had already lifted his head and looked directly at Elias.
“Mr. Reed,” he said, his voice trembling. “Please listen to me.”
Elias frowned.
“I don’t know you.”
“But my mother knew you.”
“Are children now taught to trick old men like this?”
The cold words made the two children behind him shrink back. But the boy remained on his knees, holding the baby tightly.
“I’m not asking for money. I’m not asking for food either.”
“Then what do you want?”
The boy looked down at the sleeping baby in his arms, then said in a small but clear voice:
“This baby can heal your legs.”
Several guests laughed.
The manager let out an irritated breath.
“Enough! Don’t bring nonsense into my café.”
Martin also bent down, about to pull the boy up.
But Elias raised his hand to stop him.
Not because he believed the boy.
But because at the moment the boy spoke, Elias noticed something on the baby’s wrist: a red thread tied together with a small silver leaf charm.
That silver leaf was a private symbol his wife had once designed for Clara when she was little.
Elias narrowed his eyes.
“What’s your name?”
“Leo.”
“Who is the baby?”
The boy did not answer immediately. He only hugged the baby closer, as if afraid someone would take her away.
“Her name is Emma.”
“Where are her parents?”
Leo’s lips trembled.
“Her mother passed away.”
The air around the table suddenly became still.
Elias looked at the baby. Part of him wanted to turn away. He had lived with pain for so long that anything resembling hope felt dangerous.
“I can’t help,” he said.
Leo looked as if he could not believe what he had heard.
“You haven’t heard everything.”
“I’ve heard enough.”
“No, you haven’t!”
This time, the boy’s voice rose. He held Emma tightly, tears spilling from his eyes, but his gaze remained stubborn.
“My mother said you wouldn’t believe anyone anymore. She said you had been deceived for too long. But she also said… once Emma touched you, you would remember that you still had family.”
Elias clenched the armrest of his wheelchair.
“My family is dead.”
Leo shook his head hard.
“No, they’re not.”
Martin leaned down and whispered:
“Sir, let me call security.”
“No.” Elias looked at Leo. “Let the baby touch my knee.”
The manager’s mouth fell open.
“Mr. Reed, you don’t have to—”
“Silence.”
With just one word, the entire café held its breath.
Leo slowly rose on his thin legs. He stepped closer. Emma was still sleeping peacefully, her tiny face tucked inside the old blanket. Leo gently pulled out one of her hands.
May you like
That hand touched Elias’s knee.
And then the fork fell.
