I Married a Terminally Ill Single Father After He Begged Me to Raise His Little Daughter When He Was Gone – A Year Later, She Handed Me a Box and Said, 'Dad Asked Me to Give You This Today'

"Okay, baby."

She'd been quiet for days.

"I'm supposed to say something too." She took a breath. "You still have no idea why he chose you."

The hair on my arms stood up. I wiped my hands, sat down, and opened the lid.

Mr. Bunny lay in the box.

A scream tore out of me before I could stop it.

I knew him instantly.

I wiped my hands, sat down, and opened the lid.

The fur was worn thin on his belly where Josie used to squeeze him. His left ear still had the crooked stitch I'd sewn at the kitchen table one night after she went to sleep.

And there on his tag, in green marker, were her wobbly initials.

I couldn't breathe.

A scream tore out of me before I could stop it.

I pressed him to my face. He smelled like dust and cedar, and under that, so faintly, like nothing at all.

"I'm sorry!" Lily was crying. "I didn't know! I didn't open it, I promise!"

Then I saw Lily backing toward the wall, frightened by my reaction. She was six years old, crying over something she didn't understand.

"Lily. Lily, look at me. You did nothing wrong. Not one thing."

I saw Lily backing toward the wall

"Then why are you screaming?"

"Because... because I don't understand how your dad could possibly have this."

I looked into the box again, and that's when I saw the letter.

My name was written on it in Daniel's slanted handwriting.

My hands shook so badly as I started reading that the paper rattled.

"Then why are you screaming?"

He wrote that he'd been there on the day of the accident. He'd been driving nearby and stopped when he saw the wreck. He called 911 and ran to help.

My husband was already beyond help. But my daughter was still awake.

I stayed with her. I told her help was coming, but I think she knew she wouldn't make it. She was holding this toy right up until the end, when she gave it to me.

"Make sure Mr. Bunny gets home to my mommy," she said. And I promised he would, but keeping that promise became harder than I could've imagined.

I think she knew she wouldn't make it.

I read that line three times, and then I couldn't read at all. Some sound came out of me that I'd never heard before.