A Single Dad Asked for a Job… She Said, ‘I Want a Daughter.’ What Happened Next Left Him in Shock.

Chapter 2

The silence that followed was deafening.

I looked down at May, at her flushed face pressed against my back, at the way her small chest rose and fell in shallow, labored breaths. I thought about Sarah, about the promise I’d made at her grave. I thought about the three hundred miles I’d walked, the blisters that had burst and bled and burst again, the nights I’d held May and wondered if she’d still be breathing come morning.

And I thought about this woman—this stranger—standing before me with grief in her eyes and an impossible offer on her lips.

“She needs medicine,” I said finally, my voice thick with emotion I couldn’t name. “Medicine and water and food. She needs—”

“I have herbs,” Clara interrupted. “Willow bark for the fever. Chamomile for the pain. Cool spring water from the well. Broth made from chicken bones. And I have a feather bed that hasn’t been slept in for a year.”