THE LAST RIDE HOME

Everyone in the city knew Elias Kane as a man who never smiled. He was thirty-eight years old, tall and heavily built, with broad shoulders, muscular arms, a sharp jawline, short black hair, dark brown eyes, and a thin scar running from the outer corner of his right eyebrow toward his temple. He wore an old black leather jacket, dark jeans, heavy boots, and black gloves almost every day. His matte-black motorcycle was just as intimidating as he was. Whenever Elias rode through the city at night, people instinctively moved aside. Nobody knew where he came from, what he had been through, or why he always seemed to be alone.

People made up stories about him. Some believed he had once been part of a criminal gang. Others said he had spent years in prison. A few even claimed they had seen him fighting three men at once outside a nightclub. Elias never corrected them. He had learned that people were comfortable being afraid of things they didn't understand, and he had no interest in convincing them otherwise.

The truth was that Elias had once been one of the gentlest people in the city. He had grown up with his younger sister, Lily, in a small apartment above an old mechanic's shop. Their father had disappeared when they were children, leaving their mother to raise them alone. Elias had started working as soon as he was old enough, while Lily dreamed of becoming a nurse. She was the kind of person who couldn't walk past an injured animal without stopping. She remembered everyone's birthday, carried extra food for homeless people, and once spent an entire afternoon helping an old woman carry groceries home.

Lily was also the reason Elias loved motorcycles. When they were teenagers, he bought an old second-hand bike with almost all the money he had saved. Lily thought it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. She would sit behind him with her arms around his waist while they rode along the countryside on weekends. She always told him that one day they would leave the city, find a little house near the ocean, and start over somewhere nobody knew them.

They never got that chance.

When Lily was twenty-one, she began experiencing severe chest pain. At first, she insisted it was nothing. She was young, she said. She was tired from studying. She would be fine. But one evening, she collapsed in the kitchen. Elias rushed her to the hospital, and the doctors discovered that she had a serious heart condition. She needed an expensive operation.

Elias promised her she would get it.

He sold his motorcycle. He worked during the day at a repair shop and drove deliveries at night. He stopped buying anything for himself. He slept four hours whenever he was lucky. Every paycheck went toward Lily's treatment. Whenever she apologized for what she was costing him, he would tell her she was his sister and that there was nothing in the world he wouldn't give her.

For a while, they believed they had enough.

Then Lily's condition suddenly worsened.

The operation was delayed.

Her body couldn't wait.

She died before Elias could get her into the operating room.

He never recovered from it.

For years afterward, Elias blamed himself. He believed that if he had been richer, faster, smarter, or stronger, Lily would still be alive. He couldn't accept that sometimes there was simply nothing a person could do. So instead of allowing himself to grieve, he turned his grief into something else.

He started helping strangers.

He quietly paid hospital bills for people who couldn't afford them. He repaired motorcycles for young riders who had no money. He delivered medicine to elderly patients. He once spent an entire night driving through a storm because a little boy needed to get to the hospital.

He never told anyone why.

He never accepted praise.

And he never allowed himself to become close to anyone again.

Then, twelve years after Lily's death, Elias saw a little girl sitting alone outside the emergency entrance of a hospital.

It was raining heavily.

The girl was tiny, maybe nine years old, and she was hugging a stuffed rabbit with one ear missing. Her yellow raincoat was soaked through, and her shoes were covered in mud. She kept staring at the hospital doors as if she were waiting for someone to come back out.

Elias slowed his motorcycle.

He parked a few meters away.

He removed his helmet.

"Where's your mother?"

The girl looked up at him.

"Inside."

Elias glanced toward the emergency entrance.

"What's wrong with her?"

The girl hugged the rabbit tighter.

"Her heart."

Elias froze.

For a moment, the hospital disappeared.

He was twenty-six again.

He was standing beside Lily.

He could hear her voice.

He could see the same fear in her eyes.

He forced himself back into the present.

"What's your name?"

"Sophie."

"Where's your father?"

Sophie looked down.

"He left."

Elias's jaw tightened.

"How long have you been here?"

"I don't know."

He looked at the hospital doors.

"Has anyone come for you?"

She shook her head.

"They said my mom needs surgery."

"Does she have insurance?"

"No."

Elias understood immediately.

He walked into the hospital with Sophie beside him.