Howard’s life had been solitary until a knock at his door changed everything. He opened it to find Kira, his first love, holding a worn red box. “I was supposed to give this to you years ago,” she said. Inside was a secret that would both break and heal his heart.
He hadn’t expected it to be her. Kira, older and changed, stood on his porch after decades. “I found you after two years of searching,” she said.
Their past flooded back—prom night, their dreams of a future together. But Kira had left suddenly, to Germany, breaking Howard’s heart. They’d promised to stay in touch, but the letters never came.
Now, Kira had returned. She handed him the red box containing a letter and a positive pregnancy test. Kira had been pregnant with his child when she left, but her mother had hidden the box, preventing him from ever knowing.
“I raised our son alone,” she said, tearfully explaining she thought he had abandoned them. “He’s here,” she added, nodding to a car outside.
A man in his 40s stepped out, and Howard’s heart stopped. The man approached, saying, “Hi, Dad.” The son he’d never known was now a teacher with a family of his own.
Kira invited him to Portland to meet his family. Howard, overwhelmed, agreed. For the first time in decades, he was no longer alone, standing between the woman he loved and the son he had lost. Love, he realized, had found a way back to him.
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