She wanted to fall in love, marry someone who made her heart Happy, build a future filled with joy.
But now those dreams seemed impossible.
Mr. David was 60 years old.
Too old for her.
She looked at the letter again, reading the words over and over, hoping they would change.
But they didn’t.
The truth remained the same.
She was being asked to marry a man old enough to be her father.
Her chest achd.
She wanted to say no.
She wanted to run.
But then she thought about her family.
She had seen the pain in her mother’s eyes when those sacks of food arrived.
It was the first time in a long while that her mother knew they wouldn’t sleep hungry.
She had seen the tiredness on her father’s face, the way he sat in silence, too weak to speak sometimes.
And then she remembered the medical report.
She had found it a few days ago while cleaning the house.
It had been tucked between old papers in a wooden box.
She had opened it out of curiosity, only to feel her world shatter.
Her father was sick.
The report said he needed surgery.
A surgery that cost more money than they had ever seen in their lives.
He hadn’t told her.
None of them had.
They didn’t want her to worry.
But now she knew, and she could not pretend.
She thought about her brother John, about how hard he tried, how many times he was turned away just because he was poor.
He wanted a better life too, but the world did not care.
She wiped her face and took a deep breath.
If this was what it took to save her family, if this was the price she had to pay for her father to live, for her mother to stop worrying, for her brother to have a chance, then she would do it.
She walked to the small table where her parents sat.
Their hopeful eyes watched her, waiting.
She swallowed hard, then whispered, “If it means to sacrifice myself for my family, then I will do it.”
Her mother burst into tears.
Her father closed his eyes and exhaled deeply.
