Holly had put twenty-six candles on the birthday cake.

The sight of it stirred Noah’s heart.

He thought that Holly would forget all about her mother when enough time passed. To his surprise, the little girl kept asking about her mother. She’d ask him where her mother had gone off to and when she was going to come back.

After that, time flew by like an arrow. Days, months, even years slipped away.

On Gwynn’s twenty-seventh birthday, he took Holly to Silvercrest for a leisure trip.

On Gw