Peter was a wealthy entrepreneur who gave up his true love and happiness for success and material pleasures. However, after meeting a homeless orphan in one of his houses, everything changed.
Peter was a wealthy 62-year-old entrepreneur who had spent most of his life accumulating wealth. He never had a wife or children and for a long time he focused solely on his business.
As a child, Peter was always brilliant. By the time he was 18, he had already started his first company and dropped out of his first year of college to concentrate entirely on his business.
One day Peter went to check out one of his old abandoned houses. He had several houses around town, but this one was special because he had inherited it from his grandmother.
By the time he inherited the house, he was already rich and had never felt the need to visit it, let alone live in it. However, he was planning to sell the house, so he needed to check what repairs were needed before he put it up for sale.
Truth be told, he still didn’t want to sell the house, so he decided to spend some time there to help himself make a decision. Peter and his grandmother were close, so he also wanted to spend some time remembering moments dear to him from his life there.
As he entered the house, he noticed it was far worse than he had left it. The ceilings had been severely damaged by mold, and you could whiff the dampness from the very second you stepped through the front door. It was a mess.
As he walked around the house, he remembered the various Christmases and family gatherings he had spent there with his family.
Unlike Peter, his grandmother had always been about family and was one of the biggest reasons their family managed to survive all their hardships over the years. She had a way of uniting people and bringing light out of dark circumstances.
As he stepped into her old bedroom, he noticed something that caught him by surprise. On her bed, he found an old, tattered wedding dress. As he thoroughly examined it, he suddenly heard a soft voice from the room next door:
“Who’s there?” the voice said.
Peter stepped into the corridor to find a pregnant young woman, Angie, looking up at him in dread as she held a baseball bat, ready to strike. The young woman appeared homeless; her clothes were old, dirty, and worn out.
“This is my house. What are you going here?” Peter asked.
“Oh! I’m sorry,” the young girl said, dropping the bat, feeling ashamed. She then suddenly fell to the floor, weeping.
“I’m so sorry, sir. I—I just needed a place to sleep. I thought this house was abandoned,” Angie said.
“It’s okay. I don’t live here. It was my grandmother’s place. Is that your wedding dress in her room?” Peter asked, helping her up.
“Yes. It was my mother’s,” Angie explained.
“Good. I think there should still be coffee here. How about we have a cup? Then you can explain why you were going to beat me with a baseball bat in my own house,” Peter said with a reassuring smile.
“Okay,” Angie replied, joining Peter in a fleeting, quiet laugh at the irony of their situation.
Peter and Angie sat in the kitchen drinking coffee while she recounted a recent turn of events in her life. Angie was an orphan. This dress was the only one she had and she was supposed to wear it to her wedding a month ago.
However, her rich fiancé left her when he found out she was pregnant, leaving Angie with nothing. He cheated on Angie with another woman and called off their wedding at the last minute to be with her. He kicked Angie out of their home and moved in with this woman.
When Angie told all this to Peter, Peter began to cry. “I’m very sorry, sir. Did I say something wrong?” – A confused Angie asked.
“No… No, it’s just that you remind me so much of my ex-fiancée. I was a fool too, like your ex-boyfriend. I gave up the love of my life when I started making a lot of money. I don’t know… I guess I felt like life was just beginning, you know? That I would lose my freedom,” Peter said, feeling ashamed.
“Did you know she was the love of your life at the time?” asked Angie, taking his hand to reassure him.
“No. By the time I realised, it was too late. I never found true happiness after that. My relationship never worked out after her, and I’ve never seen her since.”
“It still breaks my heart to this day,” admitted a depressed Peter.
“Don’t worry. I know I’m probably not the right person to give you this advice, but you can always find happiness. No matter how hard things have been for me lately, I still believe there is light in the darkness,” Angie said as she hugged Peter.
That evening Peter invited Angie to stay in one of his lofts in the city. Peter decided not to sell the house and decided to renovate it. After a few months, the house looked as good as new.
Peter helped Angie get back on her feet by getting her a job at one of his companies. Angie liked the work and even took a liking to one of Peter’s employees.
Peter finished renovating his house around the same time that Angie gave birth to a lovely baby boy, whom she named Peter. He thought it was a divine coincidence, as he had always intended to give her the house when the renovations were completed.
Angie was over the moon when Peter presented her with her new house. Peter was just happy to have found happiness in his life through Angie and little Peter.
Years later, Angie married a loving man who turned out to be Peter’s employee, and Peter had the honor of walking her down the aisle.
