Monday morning came faster than Zara expected.
She sat nervously in the interview chair, her palms slightly trembling. She had been rejected so many times before that fear silently clawed at her chest. What if this was just like all the others? What if hope failed her again?
Before leaving the orphanage that morning, Sister Evelyn had held her hands and blessed her gently.
“Go, my child. This time, it has to be different.”
Zara carried those words with her like a fragile flame of hope, refusing to let it die. She hadn’t told Sister Evelyn what had happened at the park with Dante… nor how much Lilly cried afterward. She had decided to bury that pain deep inside her heart, sealing it shut, praying only that her sweet little girl would one day heal from the trauma.
So now she sat there,
