Twenty Years Ago, I Played Santa for a Little Girl – This Christmas, She Came Back for Me

“How did you really find me?” I pressed.

She didn’t answer immediately. “You’ll know soon… I promise.”

We pulled up to a large two-story house wrapped in string lights.

It looked like something out of a holiday movie.

I followed her inside, my heart pounding.

Her mother lay upstairs in a softly lit room, wrapped in blankets. She was thinner at that moment.

Her hair was grayer, tied back in a loose bun.

But her eyes lit up when she saw me.

She reached out, and I took her hand, feeling how fragile it was.

Tears blurred my vision. She gestured toward her daughter, whose name I learned was Mia.

“I was broke.

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