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.
“Mr. Ethan?” the man asked, smiling gently.
“Yes?” Ethan’s voice was hoarse with anxiety. “My name is Charles. I’m a lawyer. Can I come in? I have something very important to discuss with you.”
Ethan was scared because lawyers never brought good news. Had he done something wrong? Was someone suing him?
He stepped aside to allow the man to enter, his mind contemplating all the possible disasters.
Charles sat at the small kitchen table, looking around the modest apartment with its peeling wallpaper and worn furniture. Nina peered curiously around the corner of the hallway. Ruby held Sam’s hand by the bedroom door.
“Okay, kids,” Ethan said, trying to keep his voice calm. “Go have some fun.”
They disappeared reluctantly. Charles placed the folder on the table, opened it with two quiet clicks, and took out the photo.
He slid it across the table towards Ethan.
The photo shows Ethan in the park, spreading a pile of blankets on a bench in the early morning light.
Ethan’s mouth went dry. His head was spinning. Was helping the homeless illegal? Had he been reported for littering? For trespassing?
“Ethan,” Charles said quietly, “please don’t worry. You’re not in trouble. Quite the opposite.”
Ethan stared at him with wide eyes.
Charles leaned forward, his expression warm and serious. “I think you deserve to know why I’m here.”
Ethan gripped the edge of the table, his heart pounding in his chest.
When Charles smiled at him, the worst possible scenarios flashed through his mind.
Karol calmly crossed his arms and began to speak.
“That old homeless man you helped in the park, the one with the frostbitten fingers, his name was Harold. He was my father.”
Ethan blinked, trying to process the words.
“My father wasn’t always homeless,” Charles continued, his voice thick with emotion. “He was a successful philanthropist who donated millions to shelters, hospitals, and schools. But five years ago, his caregiver betrayed him. She stole his money, his IDs, his medical records, everything. She left him with nothing, and because he suffered from early-stage dementia, he couldn’t prove who he was. The system failed him. He ended up on the streets with no way to get help.”
Ethan felt a lump in his throat. He thought of the old man’s kind eyes, of how he always nodded gratefully when Ethan left the blankets.
“My family searched for him for years,” Charles said quietly. “We hired investigators, filed police reports, and posted fliers. We never stopped searching. Until three weeks ago, the police finally found him. He had collapsed in a park, and someone called an ambulance. They were able to identify him thanks to old dental records.”
Tears welled up in Charles’s eyes. “But by the time we got to the hospital, it was too late. He died the next day.”
Ethan’s chest hurt. “I’m so sorry.”
Charles nodded, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. “When the police recovered his belongings, they found a small notebook he was carrying. It was full of stories about you. He called you ‘the mysterious, good man.’ He wrote about every blanket and meal you left him. He wrote that you made him feel human again when the world had forgotten he existed.”
Ethan couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. They rolled down his cheeks as he covered his face with his hands.
Charles reached into his briefcase and pulled out several documents, then carefully placed them one by one on the table.
“My father left very specific instructions in his will,” Charles said. “He wrote, ‘Find the man who saved me. Give him the chance at life he gave me.'”
Ethan looked at the documents through blurry eyes. The deed to a house, fully paid for, in a good neighborhood with a garden. A cashier’s check with more zeros than Ethan had ever seen in his life. Legal documents establishing a scholarship fund for Nina, Ruby, and Sam, ensuring they could attend college debt-free.
And finally, a letter written in shaky handwriting, addressed to “The Man Who Saved Me.”
Ethan read this through tears.
Continued on next page:
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