A month passed. Winter enveloped the city like an icy blanket, bringing temperatures that turned breath to fog and fingers to numbness.
Ethan continued his quiet morning trips to the park, leaving as much as he could.
He left them blankets, food, hand warmers, and even a small teddy bear for a homeless woman who cried when she found it.
One morning, something strange happened. The blankets Ethan had left the night before were gone, but in their place was a folded piece of paper, weighted down with a smooth, gray stone.
With trembling hands, Ethan picked it up and read the words written on it.
“Thank you, whoever you are. You’re a lifesaver.”
His eyes suddenly stung with tears.
He hadn’t heard words like that in years. No one thanked him for working three jobs and holding his family together with duct tape and hope. No one noticed the sacrifices he made every day.
But someone noticed it.
Yet life continued to crush him. Two days later, his landlord, a man as compassionate as a concrete block, taped an eviction notice to Ethan’s apartment door. The tape creaked as Ethan peeled it off, and his hands trembled as he read the bold letters.
You’re two months behind on your rent. You have a week to pay it in full or leave.” A week. Seven days to come up with the $2,000 he didn’t have.
That night, Ethan sat at the kitchen table after the kids had gone to bed, staring at the eviction notice until his words began to blur. He prayed for a miracle, but miracles are for other people. Miracles don’t happen to exhausted single fathers who work their asses off and still fail.
Exactly seven days later, on the morning of the day the eviction was to take place, someone knocked on the door.
Ethan felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. He assumed the landlord was trying to evict them.
He slowly opened the door, already mentally apologizing and asking for more time.
But it wasn’t the owner.
A distinguished-looking older man in an elegant gray suit and carrying a leather briefcase stood on the porch. He had gentle eyes and gray hair neatly combed to the side.
