The biker’s eyes widened.<\/p>\n
His breathing became ragged as he stared at Avery.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you know that name?\u201d he whispered.<\/p>\n
Avery tilted her head.<\/p>\n
Like she was listening to someone standing just behind him.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe says you still carry her picture,\u201d Avery replied softly. \u201cIn the inside pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n
The man’s face drained of color.<\/p>\n
Nearby, Avery’s mother rushed down the muddy slope.<\/p>\n
\u201cAvery, get away from him!\u201d<\/p>\n
But neither of them seemed to hear her.<\/p>\n
With shaking hands, the biker reached inside his leather vest.<\/p>\n
Exactly where Avery had said.<\/p>\n
He pulled out a worn photograph sealed in cracked plastic.<\/p>\n
A little girl smiled back from the picture.<\/p>\n
Brown curls.<\/p>\n
Bright eyes.<\/p>\n
A pink princess costume.<\/p>\n
The biker stared between the photo and Avery, his entire body trembling.<\/p>\n
Tears filled his eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cLily,\u201d he whispered.<\/p>\n
Avery nodded gently.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe says you weren’t supposed to blame yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
The man’s breath caught.<\/p>\n
For years, he had carried the guilt of the accident that took his daughter.<\/p>\n
For years, he had believed her last words were fear.<\/p>\n
Now this stranger stood before him repeating something no one else could possibly know.<\/p>\n
The distant sirens grew louder.<\/p>\n
Then Avery smiled toward the empty woods behind him.<\/p>\n
A sad, knowing smile.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe says you kept your promise,\u201d she whispered.<\/p>\n
The biker followed her gaze.<\/p>\n
But there was nobody there.<\/p>\n
Only trees swaying in the wind.<\/p>\n
Yet tears rolled freely down his face.<\/p>\n
Because for the first time since Lily died\u2014<\/p>\n
the weight he’d been carrying felt just a little lighter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The biker’s eyes widened. His breathing became ragged as he stared at Avery. \u201cHow do you know that name?\u201d he whispered. Avery tilted her head. Like she was listening to someone standing just behind him. \u201cShe says you still carry her picture,\u201d Avery replied softly. \u201cIn the inside pocket.\u201d The man’s face drained of color. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}