“Get out! And don’t ever come back!” The store manager’s voice cracked like thunder.
A little girl stumbled into the cold, clutching her thin jacket. She was about ten years old, pale and frightened, her eyes red from crying. Her name was Emily Carter, and all she’d tried to take was a single box of milk.
Their mother had died two years earlier. Their father, once a hardworking mechanic, was lost in grief and depression, working odd jobs that barely kept a roof over their heads. The children often went to bed hungry. That evening, with nothing left in the pantry, Emily had made a desperate choice — one small box of milk to quiet her siblings’ hunger.
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