He never planned on children, never planned on purpose. Just a 57-year-old biker drifting from job to job, bar to bar, until a sound behind a dumpster carved straight through his armor. A five-year-old in a bloodstained dress clung to him like he was the last solid thing on earth, and something inside him refused to walk away.
What began as a promise in an emergency room became mornings at the door, school plays, hair-braiding tutorials, court dates, and a battle against a system that couldn’t understand why a stranger would fight this hard. He did every class, every inspection, every humiliating question, because she kept asking the same thing: “You won’t leave me, will you?” Now the papers say “father,” but the truth was sealed long before ink met page. He saved her once. She saves him every single day, simply by needing him enough to make him stay.
