Emma shook her head.
“That doesn't make sense. I can walk.”
“I know,” Jack said. “But your father wasn't building it for you because you needed a wheelchair.”
He pointed toward the old photographs.
“He was building it because someone else did.”
Emma studied the pictures.
In one, Daniel stood beside a young girl sitting in a wheelchair.
The girl had dark hair and a wide smile.
On the back of the photograph was a name:
Maya.
Emma recognized her.
Maya had been her father's patient at the rehabilitation center where he volunteered.
Maya had lost the use of her legs after a childhood accident.
Daniel had promised her that one day she would ride with him.
He never got the chance.
His illness came first.
Before he died, he made Jack promise to finish the motorcycle.
But there was one more secret.
Maya had disappeared from town years earlier.
Jack had never found her.
Until three weeks ago.
Chapter Four — The Woman at the Rehabilitation Center
The next morning, Jack took Emma to a rehabilitation center two towns away.
A woman in her late twenties was waiting near the entrance.
She sat in a wheelchair.
When she saw Jack, she smiled.
“Mr. Mercer.”
Jack smiled back.
“Maya.”
Emma stopped walking.
Maya looked at her.
For several seconds, neither woman spoke.
Then Maya whispered, “You're Daniel's daughter.”
Emma nodded.
Maya's eyes immediately filled with tears.
“Your father talked about you all the time.”
“He did?”
“All the time.”