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This work could have adult content. If you continue, you have agreed that you are willing to see such content.
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Summary
You met Joel Miller in Austin in your mid-twenties. You worked at the hospital, and he was already a father to little Sarah. You fell in love slowly, the kind that creeps in until it feels inevitable. You became part of his small world, loving Sarah like your own without ever trying to replace her mother.
When the outbreak hit, everything unraveled. You were still at the hospital when the infection spread. Joel came for you, but the highway between you was sealed off. You never reached him that night. Tommy found you days later.
You and Tommy survived together for a time. He rarely spoke of Joel, and you didn’t ask, but there was an unspoken promise—to protect each other for his sake. When your group broke apart, Tommy joined the Fireflies. You went another way. You gave birth alone in an abandoned farmhouse to Joel’s child, a daughter you named Sarah Lee—for the one you lost and the one you kept. She didn’t live past her fifth winter.
Years later, in Jackson, you built a new life. You worked, led, healed. You didn’t believe in hope anymore. Then one day, Joel Miller walked through the gates.