Michael watched all of this from the edges of the room, unable to explain why a child who had nothing to offer materially seemed to give his daughter exactly what she needed.
One evening, after Rebecca fell asleep, Michael spoke to Jonah in the hallway.
“She listens to you,” Michael said quietly. “More than she listens to me.”
Jonah shrugged. “She’s brave,” he replied. “She just doesn’t know it yet.”
Michael swallowed hard. “What about you? Where is your family?”
Jonah looked down at his hands. “I don’t have one. Not anymore.”
The words settled heavily between them. In that moment, driven by fear and desperation rather than reason, Michael said something that would change all of their lives.
“If you help my daughter walk again,” he said slowly, “I will take you home. I will give you a family.”
Jonah looked at him, not with excitement, but with a seriousness that felt far beyond his years. “I can’t promise that,” he answered. “I’m not a doctor.”
“I know,” Michael replied. “I’m just asking you to stay.”
Jonah nodded. “That I can do.”
Recovery was not a miracle. It was slow and uneven, filled with setbacks and tears. There were days when Rebecca refused to try, when she insisted that nothing would ever change. On those days, Jonah reminded her gently that progress did not announce itself loudly.
“One step is still a step,” he told her. “Even if it’s small.”
Months passed. Rebecca learned to sit without fear. Then to stand with support. The first time she took a step, her hands gripping Jonah’s arms, her entire body trembling, Michael wept openly, no longer caring who saw.
Eventually, Rebecca walked across the therapy room on her own. She still used the wheelchair when she was tired, and some days were harder than others, but the impossible had become possible.
Michael kept his promise.
The adoption process was complicated, filled with paperwork, interviews, and long waiting periods, but Jonah moved into their home long before everything was official. He learned what it felt like to eat dinner without rushing, to sleep without listening for footsteps in the night, to leave his belongings in one place without fear they would disappear.
Rebecca introduced him as her brother before anyone told her she could.
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