“Why didn’t you just give up?” he asked, almost incredulous.
Naomi slowly dried her hands. “Because I know what it’s like to feel abandoned. My daughter is in the hospital fighting for her life. If I can stay for her, I can stay for them. Children don’t need perfection. They need presence.”
Ethan didn’t respond. He just looked at her—really—for the first time.
From that day on, the triplets began to change. Daniel stopped throwing tantrums and started asking Naomi to read him stories. David, once mischievous, shadowed her. Diana, the fiercest, often slipped into Naomi’s room at night and whispered, “Can you stay until I fall asleep?”
Weeks later, Deborah was discharged after a successful operation financed by Ethan himself, who had picked up the tab upon hearing about it. When Naomi brought her daughter to the mansion, the triplets ran to hug the little girl as if they had always been siblings.
“Mommy, look!” Deborah smiled, pointing at them. “I have three new friends.”
Naomi’s throat tightened. They weren’t just friends. For the first time, the Carter Mansion felt like home.
And when the triplets wrapped their tiny arms around Naomi, whispering, “Don’t ever leave, Mommy Naomi,” she understood she had done what no one else could.
She hadn’t just calmed three runaway children.
She had given them back their childhood.
