I Promise.

"Where did you see this?" he asked.

"In a dream," Amelia answered and turned to him, her eyebrows were frowning, in a look of resentment, "Do you love her, right? You'll get married, give birth to a child, and you will no longer come to visit us, right?"

With every sentence thrown at him, Marcus's mind lost the logical thread of the conversation, "Where did you get such thoughts?! Polina is my old friend, I treasure her, but we are not going to get married. I really want you to make friends with her. Polina is a good person and I told her a lot about you."

"But in my dream, I saw another girl! She called you dad! And you told me that you hate me, and also there was fire everywhere, and it was so scary!" tears appeared in Amelia's eyes, she did not understand what was happening, but her dreams were so realistic and scary as if all this was happening in reality.

Marcus pressed the girl to him and began gently stroking her head, reassuring, "Shhh, don't be afraid, it's just a dream. Everything will be fine. I will always be there and I will not go anywhere," and although he said that these were just dreams, the man himself understood that this was only the beginning.

Marcus's visions of the future were blurred, he knew about the most basic fragments, like episodes taken out of the general context of history, but he could not accurately tell from A to Z what should happen and in what sequence. And that scared him.

The more he became attached to this girl, the more he was afraid of the possible future that awaited them.

He saw that the girl calmed down a bit and said, "Sorry I didn't have time for your birthday. I brought you a present from Austria, but I left it in the luggage, so I can give it to you a little later."

"And what is this?"

"A huge dollhouse, as you requested," answered Marcus with a satisfied smile, but his words did not cause the girl the expected reaction.

"Only little girls play such things."

"What are you, big? You are only five years old."

"Yes, I'm already big, I'm five years old. So I want an adult present, and I will give the house to Polina, as an apology for bad behavior."

Marcus shook his head, this stubborn little girl was growing up faster than he would have liked. Too fast.

He sat her on the bed, knelt down in front of the girl and began to put warm socks on her legs, "Okie, now we'll go down to the kitchen and you will eat well, and then you'll tell me what an adult present I should give you, okay?"

"I want this," Amelia pointed at the man's neck, where a chain could be seen from under the collar of his shirt.

Marcus looked at the girl in surprise, he expected any demands from her, but not that. This chain was the only thing that was dear to him, and which the man protected as the apple of his eye. And if he had to give this chain to another person, then Amelia was the first and only person to give it to.

The man unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt, removed the chain from his neck and took the girl by the hand, "This thing belonged to my mother, that's all I have left of her, so I hope that you will keep this gift."

Amelia looked at the chain in her palm, the girl did not imagine that her spontaneous request would turn into such an important gift. Marcus unfastened the chain lock, wrapped it around the child's neck twice so that it fit Amelia in length, and left the chain around the girl's neck.

"Happy Birthday, Amelia."

"Thank you," the girl whispered, and touched the metal leaning against her skin. It still had the warmth of Marcus's body on it, she realized that wherever he was, with this chain on her neck, he would always be with her.

"Next year I will give you some beautiful pendant that you can hang on it."

"I already have a pendant. Mom gave it to me, she said that this is an important thing, so I can not wear it yet. I must grow up first," Amelia remembered the pendant that her mother got from her grandmother. As Lucia said, this was the only thing she had from her mother.

Marcus's chain and Amelia's new pendant fit perfectly together.

"Promise that you will always be there and you will never leave me," the girl held out her hand to Marcus with her little finger outstretched.

"And you? Do you promise you won't leave me too?" the man asked in a joking voice, but the girl's serious look removed the smile from his face.

"I promise," Amelia said with complete confidence in her words.

The man looked at her outstretched hand, traces of light sadness flickered in his eyes. He threw away from his thoughts in which there was no sense. He will think about them later.

Now he wanted to promise this girl what he himself wanted with all his heart.

Marcus extended his little finger, grabbed Amelia's little finger with his, and whispered, "I promise."