“Don’t take my dog, please.” He’s everything I need. I’m not here to take him.
On Christmas Eve, a single dad who was also a CEO spotted a little girl and her dog resting on trash. He was stunned by the truth.
It snowed a lot that Christmas Eve, burying New York’s frigid streets in white quiet. But there was a little girl sleeping on the frozen ground in an alley outside a posh restaurant, cuddling a brown dog that was trembling.
She put her small arms around him like he was her only blanket in the world. And that’s how millionaire CEO Daniel Carter, who is infamous for firing people without thinking twice, found her. He had just come from a charity gala where he gave $500,000. But he couldn’t even look himself in the eye. Three Christmases ago, his son Adam died. Money couldn’t bring him back.
No amount of money could fill the silence that awaited him in his penthouse.
“Sir,” his driver murmured gently as he slowed down the car, “you need to see this.”
Daniel stared out the tinted window and stopped. There was a little girl, no older than seven, sleeping on trash between the dumpsters. Her small hand was stuck in the fur of her shivering dog. Daniel merely stared for a moment. Then something inside him, which had been asleep for a long time, woke up.
“Stop
The girl moved and glanced at him, scared. Her lips were crimson and her face was pallid, yet she begged, “Please don’t take my dog.” He is all I have.
Daniel
He whispered softly, “I’m not here to take him.” “I’m here to help.”
Lily was her name. Max was her dog. They had been living on the streets for two weeks, ever since her mother went to the hospital and fell asleep without waking up. She didn’t cry; she just held Max tighter, like he was all she had left.
Daniel took her coat and brought her to the car. Max cried and begged not to be left behind. Daniel said, “He comes too.”
He wrapped her in blankets, prepared her hot cocoa, and let her sleep by the fire with Max next to her at home. He didn’t use his laptop that night. He didn’t pick up the phone. He just sat there and watched her breathe.
She woke up in the morning with a smile on her face because she could smell pancakes. Daniel had not cooked in a long time. He burned the first batch, and Lily laughed and said, “You’re worse than Mama.” Daniel laughed for the first time in years. It was real, raw, and healing.
She spotted a picture of his dead wife and son on the fireplace later and got quiet.
“Is that your family?” she inquired.
Daniel nodded, and pain flashed in his eyes. “Yes, they were.”
Lily took his hand softly. “Maybe that’s why God sent me and Max—to make you happy again.” She didn’t know how much her remarks hurt him.
Daniel couldn’t sleep that night. Something made him want to know more about her mother. Hours later, the truth came out: Emma Harper, her mother, used to work for him. She was a single mother who worked extra hours until Daniel’s firm let her go because they were cutting costs. The termination letter has his signature on it.
Daniel’s world turned. His triumph ruined a woman’s life and left her daughter sleeping in trash.
He sat by the fire and watched Lily sleep happily next to her puppy. His heart broke. The man who used to think that winning equaled success discovered that it didn’t mean anything if it left a youngster like her out in the cold.
He made his choice the next morning.
He knelt down next to her and murmured softly, “Lily, you’re not going back out there.” You and Max are home now.
Her eyes got bigger. “You want us to stay, right?”
He grinned even though he was crying. “I don’t want you to stay.” I need you to stay.
She put her arms around his neck. Max barked and wagged his tail like crazy. Daniel felt something he thought he’d lost forever for the first time in years: tranquility.
Daniel Carter became renowned as the CEO who created shelters for homeless families and rescue homes for pets that had been left behind. Whenever someone asked him what inspired him, he usually responded with this:
“It all started when I spotted a little girl and her puppy sleeping on rubbish one night. They didn’t want my money. They needed my love.
