CHAPTER 2 — THE PROMISE SHE MADE
No one moved.
The ballroom remained silent except for the little girl's trembling breaths.
Her father slowly walked forward.
His eyes never left his daughter.
"You... you're standing."
His voice broke before the sentence ended.
The little girl smiled through tears.
"I am, Daddy."
Then her knees weakened again.
Before anyone could panic, the barefoot boy gently helped her sit back into the wheelchair.
"I told you not to force yourself," he whispered.
She laughed softly.
"I wanted my daddy to see."
Her father dropped to his knees in front of them.
"Who are you?"
The boy looked embarrassed.
"My name is Noah."
"How do you know my daughter?"
Noah hesitated.
Then he reached into his oversized pocket and unfolded a small paper crane.
The girl's face lit up.
"You kept it."
"I promised I would."
The father stared at the paper.
His daughter spoke quietly.
"We met at the children's rehabilitation center."
His heart skipped.
Two years earlier.
During months of painful therapy.
There had been another child.
A poor orphan who always encouraged the other children even though he never received treatment himself.
The father suddenly remembered.
The little boy who disappeared before anyone even learned his last name.
Noah smiled.
"She cried because she thought she'd never walk."
"So I made her promise."
The father whispered,
"What promise?"
The little girl squeezed Noah's hand.
"That the first time I stood..."
"...he had to be there with me."
The father closed his eyes.
She had never forgotten.
Neither had Noah.