The diner’s front door swung shut.<\/p>\n
The man in the denim jacket kept searching.<\/p>\n
His eyes moved from table to table.<\/p>\n
Then\u2014<\/p>\n
they landed on the little girl.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere you are.\u201d<\/p>\n
He started forward.<\/p>\n
The biker slowly stood.<\/p>\n
His broad shoulders blocked the aisle.<\/p>\n
The other bikers rose from their booths without a word.<\/p>\n
The room fell silent.<\/p>\n
The man stopped.<\/p>\n
His confidence fading.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat girl belongs with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The biker’s voice was calm.<\/p>\n
Cold.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe belongs with her mother.\u201d<\/p>\n
The little girl clutched the biker’s vest tighter.<\/p>\n
Tears streamed down her face.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe lied.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told Mom you were dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
The words hit the biker like a freight train.<\/p>\n
His jaw tightened.<\/p>\n
His fists clenched.<\/p>\n
For fifteen years…<\/p>\n
Rose had believed he was gone.<\/p>\n
Slowly, the biker reached into his wallet.<\/p>\n
He pulled out a faded photograph.<\/p>\n
A younger Rose smiled beside him.<\/p>\n
On the back, written in faded ink, were the words:<\/p>\n
Forever your wolf.<\/strong><\/p>\n The little girl gasped.<\/p>\n \u201cMy mommy keeps the other half.\u201d<\/p>\n The biker’s hands began to shake.<\/p>\n \u201cShe still has it?\u201d<\/p>\n The little girl nodded through her tears.<\/p>\n \u201cShe never stopped waiting.\u201d<\/p>\n A tear rolled down the biker’s cheek.<\/p>\n He looked toward the other bikers.<\/p>\n Then back at the frightened child.<\/p>\n His voice cracked with emotion.<\/p>\n \u201cTake me to her.\u201d<\/p>\n The little girl smiled for the first time.<\/p>\n She slipped her small hand into his.<\/p>\n And suddenly\u2014<\/p>\n after fifteen years of searching\u2014<\/p>\n the road home finally had a direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The diner’s front door swung shut. The man in the denim jacket kept searching. His eyes moved from table to table. Then\u2014 they landed on the little girl. \u201cThere you are.\u201d He started forward. The biker slowly stood. His broad shoulders blocked the aisle. The other bikers rose from their booths without a word. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":8577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8575","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\/8575","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=8575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}