The man’s fingers closed around the broken watch.

For a moment, he couldn’t speak.

The manager tried to step between them.

“Sir, we’ll remove her.”

The wealthy man looked up with tears in his eyes.

“Touch her again, and you’ll regret it.”

The room went silent.

The little girl hugged the plastic bag to her chest, confused by the way this stranger was crying over something she had carried for years.

The man turned the watch over.

There was a tiny scratch near the clasp.

He remembered making it himself with a pocketknife the night he gave it to the woman he loved.

His voice broke.

“What is your mother’s name?”

The girl whispered, “Maya.”

The watch nearly fell from his hand.

Maya.

The woman his family said had taken money and left.

The woman he had searched for until everyone convinced him she didn’t want to be found.

The girl wiped her cheek with her sleeve.

“She keeps it under her pillow. Today she gave it to me and said, ‘Sell this before you sell your heart.’”

The man covered his mouth.

“Where is she?”

“In the alley behind the bus station,” the girl said. “She got sick after the fire. She said not to come here, but I saw the lights and thought maybe rich people don’t let moms starve.”

The words broke the whole restaurant.

The man slowly reached for her hand.

“What’s your name?”

“Lina.”

His eyes filled harder.

That was the name he and Maya had chosen for their daughter years ago.

He pulled off his expensive coat and wrapped it around the little girl’s shoulders.

“I’m your father.”

Lina stared at him, shaking.

“No. Mom said my dad was gone.”

He held up the broken watch.

“No, sweetheart. I was lied to.”

Then he stood, still holding her hand, and looked at the manager.

“Bring food. Call a doctor. And clear my car.”

Lina’s voice trembled.

“For my mom?”

He knelt again and touched her soot-covered cheek.

“For your mother,” he whispered. “And for every year I should have been there.”