CHAPTER 1 — The Wish No Child Should Ever Have
Snow covered every rooftop in the quiet neighborhood, turning the town into something that looked straight out of a Christmas postcard. Inside one small apartment, warm lights glowed behind frosted windows, but no amount of decoration could hide the sadness living there.
Seven-year-old Lily stood on the balcony, watching families laugh in the streets below. Children pulled sleds. Fathers carried Christmas trees. Mothers held steaming cups of cocoa.
She smiled... until she realized they were all together.
Behind her, her mother, Emma, carefully wrapped an empty gift box with old newspaper. She didn't have money for presents this year, but she refused to let Lily wake up to nothing on Christmas morning.
"What are you wishing for this year?" Emma asked softly.
Lily stayed quiet.
She looked toward the stars before whispering, "I don't want toys anymore."
Emma forced a smile.
"Then what do you want?"
The little girl turned around with tears already filling her eyes.
"I just want my dad to remember that I exist."
Silence swallowed the room.
Emma nearly dropped the gift box.
Lily had never spoken about him before.
Her father, Daniel Carter, had disappeared six years earlier after becoming one of the youngest tech millionaires in Nashville. Newspapers called him brilliant. Investors called him a genius.
But Lily only knew him as the man who never came home.
Emma had spent years protecting her daughter from the truth. She claimed Daniel had gone overseas for work.
The lie had finally shattered.
That night, after Lily fell asleep holding an old family photo, Emma opened a dusty wooden box hidden beneath her bed.
Inside was a stack of unopened letters.
Every single one was addressed to Lily.
Every single one had Daniel's handwriting.
Emma's hands trembled.
She had never allowed her daughter to read them.
Not because Daniel never cared...
But because the last letter contained a secret that could destroy everything Lily believed about her family.
Emma whispered to herself,
"If she ever finds out why he really disappeared... she'll never forgive me."
She slowly unfolded the final letter.
A photograph slipped onto the floor.
May you like
On the back, someone had written only five chilling words.
"She was never supposed to know."
