I came because Sophie would text, “Are you busy?” and somehow I never was.
We fed ducks at the pond.
We built a blanket fort in the living room and watched the worst movies we could find.
And every time, I caught Rebecca watching us from the doorway with an emotion I couldn’t name.
After that official wish, something shifted in me.
At first I thought she was afraid Sophie was getting too attached to me.
I was wrong.
Sophie wasn’t the one Rebecca was afraid for.
***
One evening, Sophie asked me to come upstairs alone.
She sat against her pillows, clutching an old photograph to her chest.
“Daniel,” she whispered, “I finally figured out my real wish.”
Sophie wasn’t the one Rebecca was afraid for.
I pulled the chair closer.
“Then tell me. Whatever it is, I’ll make it happen.”
But she didn’t smile.
Her eyes filled with tears.
“If I tell you, you might be angry at Mom. You might walk out and never come back.”
But she didn’t smile.
“Sophie, nothing you could say would make me do that.”
She studied me for a long moment.
“Mom cries at night. She says she did something terrible to you a long time ago.”
My blood ran cold.
“That was between me and your mom. It won’t change how I feel about you.”
“But my next wish is about Mom.” She looked up at me with fear in her eyes. “And you can’t refuse, even if she did something terrible to you. Please.”
“She says she did something terrible to you a long time ago.”
Something in the way she said it made my stomach tighten.
“What did she tell you?”
“Nothing. But I know she’s scared that you’ll go away if you know the truth.”
I should have asked more questions.
Instead, I looked at this little girl who had never asked me for anything bigger than pancakes and a car ride and made a promise I wasn’t sure I could keep.
“What did she tell you?”
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