In fact, she didn't think of them as shortcomings at all.

How could generosity and kindness be considered character faults?

Kira was glad that Helen gave up her custody.

She couldn't imagine growing up into someone like Georgina.

'After Dad's accident, I had to sell the house.'

Kira listened to Austyn's steady heartbeat.

She didn't know why she was struck by the sudden desire to bare her soul, but she decided to heed Dan Wieden's advice and 'Just do it.

When she got her admission letter from Stamford University, Leland decided to move to the city with her.

He said he could do his job anywhere.

They rented out their apartment back in Milton.

Kira sold it three months after Leland ended up in a hospital.

'But the money was only enough for another four months of Dad's treatment. The hospital granted me two extensions. They had to kick me out after Month Six. The neighbours back home organised a donation drive, but the money raised was barely a drop in the bucket. Leland had insurance, but the coverage limit of $50,000 was a pittance compared to the size of his bills.

'Did you know that I once begged for money?'

Austyn tightened his arms around her.

He had no idea.

Kai did a cursory background check on Kira before Austyn went to see her, but the brief dossier said nothing about this.

Rock Bottom Rock Bottom

'I copied those beggars I saw on TV, Kira said. 'I wrote my story on a placard and sat on the curb outside a park. I even got a bowl, you know, the oval-shaped, chipped kind, like an alms bowl. Some dropped me their spare change. Some called me a liar. The worst part was, someone called the cops on me. Did you know that begging is illegal? I didn't.'

Austyn nodded.

The city of Stamford had an ordinance against vagrancy.

Panhandlers would be hauled away by social welfare officers.

Repeated offenders would be fined or jailed for up to two years.

'Luckily, the lady officer took pity on me. Instead of arresting me, she just confiscated my bowl and asked me to go home. She even gave me the numbers for a couple of charities.

Kira had tried those numbers.

The staff on the other end of the line were sympathetic, but once they learned about her father's coma and the doctors' pessimistic prognosis, they hemmed and hawed and gave her the runaround.

Kira could understand why.

Charities were often underfunded.

They had to make the best use of their limited resources.

A patient in a persistent vegetative state was a lost cause.

'I had to take the semester off and work full-time. But not many companies wanted to hire someone who had zero experience and couldn't stay for overtime.'

Kira counted on her fingers. 'Cleaner, dishwasher, waitress, beer promoter, courier, errand girl...'

'I probably have more work experience than you,' she joked.

Austyn couldn't say a word.

He had no idea this was the kind of life she led before they met.

'There was this one time I ran into a girl on the street. She was kind of like me, only younger. She was walking up and down the street, wearing a sandwich board. But she wasn't promoting any product. She wrote her life story on the board. Both her parents passed away. Her two-year-old brother was diagnosed with leukaemia. She was at her wits' end."

Kira sighed. 'I just got my pay cheque for that week, and I gave her half of my money. Guess what happened next?'

'What happened?'

Knowing Kira's character, Austyn had an inkling.

This was not going to be a heart-warming story of one good deed deserving another.

'It turned out that she was a conman, well, I guess the correct term should be con woman. She was part of a gang, kind of like Ocean's Eleven, but much less cool. She was the scout. I just didn't know it at the time.'

Kira was still indignant whenever she thought about this. 'Less than fifteen minutes after I left her, I got mugged. Two guys just jumped out of nowhere. They each had a knife and forced me to empty my pockets. I had no choice but to do what they asked.' 'You did the right thing.' Austyn squeezed her hand.

She couldn't have overpowered two armed guys.

Discretion is the better part of valour.

'Do you know their names?' he asked.

'No. Why?'

'Nothing.'

'Are you thinking of tracking them down and punishing them?' Kira raised her head and looked him in the eye.

Austyn nodded without a word.

Kira smiled. 'Aw, that's nice. But there's no need. They were arrested. All five of them in the gang. They're probably still in jail right now.'

She wasn't their main target.

The scout was casing the joint when Kira ran into her.

That night, they broke into an electronics store and made off with tens of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise.

But they had the misfortune of running into two patrol cars right around the corner.

'Two police officers tracked me down and gave me my money back'

It was one of the reasons Kira had always had a thing for people in uniform.

The clothes and the badge didn't just make them look good.

They were a sign of trustworthiness and protection.

'But the money wasn't enough. A coworker at the restaurant gave me the number for a blood head. Do you what that is?'

Rock Bottom

Austyn shook his head, but he could guess.

'He's kind of a go-between to link up those who want to sell their blood and those who need it but can't get it from legal channels. I called him. He directed me to a clinic. A guy in a white lab coat stuck a huge needle into my arm. I think he took about five hundred millilitres. I got eight hundred bucks.

After she came out of the clinic, she almost fainted on the street.

She went back there a week later and got another eight hundred dollars.

She would have kept returning to the place, but the clinic was shut down and the blood head was arrested along with the unlicensed doctor.

When Austyn found her in the basement apartment, she was searching online for a new blood head.

Austyn couldn't bear to hear it anymore.

He had been so clueless about her past.

Of course, he knew she hadn't had it easy before they met, but he never knew all those heart-breaking details.

Kira always had such a bright smile on her face, it was hard to imagine anything could get her down.

He gripped her shoulders and drew her in for a tight hug.Material © of .

Kira sensed his agitation.

'Anyway, that's all in the past now.'

She hugged him back.

She changed the topic. 'I wonder what was your first impression of me.'

She had hit rock bottom when Austyn first met her.

Since she took the semester off, she could no longer stay at the school dormitory.

The hospital frowned on her staying in her father's room every night.

The cheapest accommodation she could find near the hospital was a basement apartment. It was converted from a warehouse and an illegal sublet.

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Hope Springs Eternal

Hope Springs Eternal

Kira didn't have a room; she had a partition.

A thin layer of cardboard separated her from her roommates.

She lived in a cramped space that was only four square metres in size.

The apartment was divided into six such box-like 'rooms.'

A clothes rack and a worn-out mattress was all the furniture she had.

The air inside was always heavy with the smell of damp clothes.

There was no window in the depressing cubicle home.

'I probably looked like a street urchin to you, huh?'

She had not washed her hair that week.

Shampoo and hot water were luxuries she could ill afford.

Austyn stared at her, unable to get a word out.

How could she talk about such a harrowing past in such a breezy voice?

How could she even be in the mood to crack a joke?

Where did her cheerful spirits come from?

Austyn realised that he had never truly understood his wife.

Her capacity for hope astounded him.