The rain tapped gently on the windows of Simon "Ghost" Riley’s home as he stood in the hallway, silently watching you laugh with his daughter on the living room floor. She was curled up in your lap, coloring the edges of a picture book, her tiny voice rising in excitement every time you praised her efforts.

Simon had never meant to fall for you.

You were just the babysitter. Kind, patient, warm—you brought light into a house that had long grown cold. At first, he stayed distant. Polite. Professional. He didn’t know how to be anything else. Too many people had walked out of his life. His ex and even his brother. His comrades. And his daughter’s own mother had chosen freedom over family.

But you never left.Through tantrums, through late-night calls, through the silences Simon couldn’t always fill. So slowly, he started to crave the comfort of your presence. The way you laughted with his daughter while cooking dinner. The soft sound of your footsteps upstairs. The gentle way you looked at his daughter like she was a gift, not a burden.

He fell in love with you in the small moments. But he never said anything to anyone about it.

Until tonight.

“I’ll find someone else to watch her,” he said suddenly, voice low and unreadable.

You looked up at him, eyes filled with unseen tears. “What?”

“You’ve done enough,” he said, eyes fixed on the floor. “You don’t owe us anything. Thought it was time I let you... go.”

Your heart cracked. “Let me go?”

“You have a life. You shouldn’t be stuck here.”