Zoe closed the book on her lap before she noticed that Lilly had fallen asleep with Mr. Jones, her stuffed monkey under her arms. Zoe remained seated on the bed staring at the exhausted little girl. She couldn't believe how fast she was growing and how fast time was going. She took a quick glance at the red heart shaped picture frame on the night stand next to the bed feeling the sadness form behind her eyes and looked back at Lilly. "I am so sorry Lilly" Zoe whispered and gently the girl's head fighting the tears in her eyes resting her head on Lilly's. For a second she closed her eyes while a tear rolled down her left cheek thinking back to that dark winter day it all happened...

           ...TWO YEARS EARLIER

"Zoe?" Nina whispered giving all the strength she got left in her body to speak. Nina reached out her hand to Zoe's that rested on the blueish cover of the hospital bed. "Can you please do something for me?" Nina whispered looking at her best friend for eighteen years with the dark grey circles under her eyes. Trying to remain the tough girl she always was, Zoe swallowed her tears and did not want to see her best friend give up the battle she’s been fighting for so long. "You're not going to die, you're going to be okay. You will get better. You have to" Zoe convinced herself and her best friend Nina with a crack in her voice. Zoe knew it was a dead end, but she couldn't accept it. Not now, not here, not today. "Zoe please, can you hear me?" Nina mumbled as she closed her eyes and slowly opened them again squeezing her hand. "I want you to do something for me and listen to me carefully". Zoe shook her head fighting her tears but lost the battle. "I don't want to hear it Nina, I don't! You can't leave us" she sobbed. "What about Lilly? She needs her mom! You can't leave her, please don't!" Zoe pleaded while tears rolled down her cheeks causing Nina to cry with her. "We both know it is coming" Nina whispered in between her cries. "But I won't go until I told you what I need to know" she continued pulling Zoe's hands in hers. "I want you to promise me something. Can you do that?"  Zoe blinked her eyes "Anything! You know that" and wiped the tear drops hanging at the tip of her nose with a napkin.

"Please take care of my Lilly? I know she's in good hands with you. I don't want her anywhere else. Please promise me you will look after her for me?" Nina cried squeezing Zoe's hands more tightly. She shook her head looking down at her best friend's hands "She needs you Nina" and looked up with her red puffy eyes. "I will always be with her" Nina whispered while she pressed a pink satin notebook with a set of keys into Zoe's hands. "Give this to my baby when she turns sixteen okay? I want her to have this. And these keys, they're the key to my safe at home with my will in there. Please look after her. She's all I have" she pleaded begging her best friend to fulfill her last wish. Unwanted Zoe nodded her head "I will, I promise. Don't worry about her". A slight smile appeared on Nina's face happy knowing her only daughter was going to be looked after. "Tell her I love her very much" she added slowly closing her eyes again, but this time she didn't open them anymore.  Zoe could feel Nina's grip around her hands loosen and looked down at her hands and back at her face, she knew her best friend was gone now. "Nina, nooooo!" she screamed digging her face into her best friend's lap holding her lifeless hands between hers. "Why? Why?" she pleaded breaking down in hurt she never experienced before. Eighteen long and beautiful years, all gone as if it only lasted a second. How was she going to tell Lilly that mommy is gone? How do you tell an 18 month old? Zoe knew she had a promise to keep and was going to no matter what it took. She didn't know how she was going to manage raising a child with the full time job she had, but she knew she had to find a way one way or another.

          ...TODAY

Today, exactly two years ago, life changed drastically. Not only for Lilly, but for Zoe too. She made a promise after all, not an easy one, but she knew that if it was her, Nina would have done the same thing. Zoe opened her eyes again and removed the tears from her cheeks with the back of her hand. Carefully she slid of the bed trying not wake up the little girl. She put the book down on the shelf next to the bed and Lilly's head once more after pulling the blankets up to her shoulders. "Good night sweetie" and kissed her head switching the light of in her bedroom before she walked out leaving the door open a few inches. As tired and exhausted as she was, Zoe stumbled into her own bedroom next to the guestroom that was now Lilly's pulling the ponytail out of her hair as she sat down at the bed end. She let herself fall backwards on the bed staring at the ceiling for a few minute