The Daughter He Found

Ellie Williams was supposed to be cargo.

One mouthy fourteen-year-old girl, one impossible bite, and one job Joel Miller never wanted. All he had to do was get her to the Fireflies, hand her over, and walk away before she became another thing the world could take from him.

But Ellie has never been easy to ignore.

She talks too much, argues too hard, breaks rules just to see if he'll notice, and hides fear behind sarcasm sharp enough to cut. She is stubborn, reckless, funny, furious, and far too young to be carrying the weight everyone keeps placing on her.

Joel tells himself she is just a job.

Then he starts noticing when she is cold. When she is quiet. When her jokes come too fast. When her hands shake after danger. His care comes out rough at first - a firm hand on her arm, a low warning to stay behind him, a tired command to watch her mouth before she gets herself killed.

Ellie hates being told what to do.

But somewhere between ruined cities, infected-filled streets, winter storms, motel rooms, bad jokes, and every argument they swear they are done having, Joel stops seeing cargo.

He sees a kid.

His kid.

And Ellie, who has spent her whole life expecting people to leave, finds herself stuck with a man who stays.

She was supposed to be the cure.
She was supposed to be cargo.

But to Joel Miller, she becomes something far more dangerous to lose.

She becomes the daughter he found.