HE FIRED HER SIX YEARS AGO

Lucas Avelar had always heard the same sound in his daily routine: the echo of rolling suitcases on the floor of São Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport, mixed with the mechanical voices of boarding announcements. For a man used to living between private jets, corporate mergers, and VIP lounges, that noise was practically a soundtrack.

At 43, founder of Avelar Investments, Lucas walked fast, firm, calculated.
Nothing took him off focus.
Nothing made him stop.

“Mr. Avelar, the London team is already on the video call asking if you boarded,” said his new assistant, Gabriel, stumbling as he tried to balance three cellphones, a tablet, and a coffee that almost spilled.

“Tell them to wait,” Lucas replied, not even turning his head.

The merger with the European group would be the biggest deal of the year — 6.5 billion reais — and would secure him a definitive place in the international market.

But all of that dissolved in the air when a small voice cut through the airport noise:

“Mommy, I’m hungry…”

Lucas stopped.
He never stopped.

And then he saw her.

Sitting on one of the metal benches was Helena — curled up, hugging two small children, a boy and a girl, twins around five years old. A nearly empty pack of cookies was being shared between them.

Her coat was far too thin for winter.

Lucas’s first reaction was automatic: judge.
Poverty.
Neglect.

The second reaction hit him like a punch in the gut.

He knew that face.

The discreet, respectful face that for two years had worked in his home in Higienópolis.
The quiet employee who always did everything without complaint.
The woman who, one day, simply never returned to work.

He hadn’t seen her in six years.

“Sir?” Gabriel asked, confused by the sudden halt.

Lucas didn’t respond.
The world around him became white noise.

“Helena?” he called, almost voiceless.

She heard him and went pale.
Her entire body tensed — as if she had been caught escaping.

“Mr. Avelar…?” she murmured, pulling the children instinctively behind her.

Lucas took a step forward.

“Why are you here? You… look different.”

Helena looked away.

“We’re waiting for a flight.”

He looked at the children next.

Both had brown hair like hers.
But the eyes…

Blue.

The same deep, rare blue that Lucas was known for.

A shiver ran down his spine.

“Are these children… yours?” he asked, in the lowest — and most dangerous — tone she had ever heard from him.

“Yes,” she answered far too fast.

Lucas crouched down — something he never did — to be on their eye level.

The boy looked at him without fear.
His gaze was vibrant, curious.
Familiar. Terrifyingly familiar.

“What’s your name, champ?” Lucas asked, trying to stay composed.

The boy opened a smile full of dimples.

“My name is Little Luca!”

The air vanished.

Little Luca.
The childhood nickname only Lucas’s mother used to call him.
No one else.

He slowly lifted his face to look at Helena.

She was crying.
Not shaking, not sobbing — just letting tears fall, quiet and resigned.

And in those tears…

He understood everything.

THE TRUTH — THE PAST REVEALED

“Helena… why?” he asked, no longer the businessman, no authority — just a confused, wounded man.

She took a breath.

“I left because I had no choice.”

“You could have talked to me!”

“Talked to you about what, Mr. Avelar?” she whispered. “That I was pregnant? That the children could be yours? You fired me the day you tried… tried to kiss me in the kitchen, remember? The day I backed away and you thought I had ‘lost professional posture.’”

Lucas froze.

He remembered that.
But differently — as an uncomfortable rejection, a misunderstanding… something he chose to forget.

She continued:

“I thought that if I told you I was pregnant… you’d think I was trying to take advantage of you. And I didn’t want that. I didn’t want anything from you.”

The children watched, not understanding.

“I left because I needed to protect my babies. I thought I could raise them alone. That it would be enough.”

She lowered her eyes.

“But it’s not. I lost my job. We’re flying to my cousin’s place in Recife. I don’t have money to stay here any longer.”

Lucas felt something he hadn’t felt in years: guilt.

And fear.

Fear of losing something he never knew he had.

THE FINAL DECISION

He stood up slowly.

“Helena… are they mine?” he asked bluntly.

She hesitated… then nodded.

“They are.”

That answer broke everything that held Lucas Avelar together:
Pride.
Arrogance.
His impenetrable façade.

In front of him were his children.
Five years old.
Eyes like his.
One carrying his childhood nickname — without even knowing it.

Lucas looked at Helena, then at the kids.

“You’re not boarding any flight.”

Her eyes widened.

“Lucas, please don’t—”

“You’re coming with me. Now. I’ll take care of everything. Of you. Of their future.”
He breathed deeply.
“And… if you allow me, I want to be part of their lives. I want to fix what I did.”

Helena cried again — but this time, the tears weren’t only fear.

The boy held Lucas’s hand naturally, as if he already knew him.
The girl smiled.

And for the first time in decades…

Lucas Avelar missed a flight.

But he gained something greater.

Something money could never buy.

A family.