The carnival was discovered by accident.

One of the housekeepers mentioned it at breakfast—a traveling fair that had set up in the nearby town with rides, games, and food stalls. Lily heard the word "rides" and immediately stopped eating her toast. Kyle saw Lily stop eating and immediately knew something important was happening. Within five minutes, both of them were begging to go.

"Please, Uncle Franz? Please? There’s rides and games and I’ve never been to a carnival before. Leo hasn’t either. Kyle hasn’t either. We’re missing important life experiences."

"I’ve been to a carnival," Kyle said.

"That was a school fair. It doesn’t count. This is a real carnival."

Julian looked up from his coffee. "I don’t mind going. Could be fun."

Franz glanced at Arianne. Her belly was more pronounced now, a visible curve beneath her dress. She’d been tired the past few days, napping more than usual and letting Amanda and Aunt Estella handle the children while she rested. That morning, though, she looked better: rested and alert.

"Do you want to come with us?" he asked. "Or would you rather stay and rest?"

"I’ll come. There’s nothing else to do here anyway." She paused. "But you should change your appearance a little. I don’t want disturbances."

He nodded. Ten minutes later, he emerged from the bedroom in casual clothes—a loose shirt, worn jeans, and a baseball cap pulled low over his forehead. His hair was tied back and hidden. With the cap and the casual clothes, he looked less like Noah Hart and more like any other tired father on vacation.

The children had already grabbed their bags and were waiting by the door. Julian watched them bounce with barely contained energy and shook his head.

"How do you do it?" he asked. "Looking after them every day. It’s more tiring than a full day of work."

"It’s tiring," Franz agreed. "Lily’s questions alone drain me sometimes."

Julian laughed. "She’s going to be a scientist."

"Or a lawyer. She argues like one already."

"Uncle Fraaaaaanz." Lily’s voice floated in from the hallway. "Are you coming? The carnival won’t wait forever!"

"See?" Franz said. "Relentless."

They piled into the car with Julian driving, following the map the housekeeper had drawn. The carnival was a twenty-minute drive along the coastal road, and the children spent every minute of it discussing which ride they would try first.

The carnival was in full swing when they arrived.

It sprawled across a wide field on the edge of town with brightly colored tents, spinning rides, and food stalls that filled the air with the smell of sugar, fried dough, and grilling meat. Families crowded the pathways. Children ran laughing between the stalls. The afternoon sun was bright, and a breeze off the ocean carried the salt smell that had become familiar over the past days.

There was a line at the entrance. Lily, Leo, and Kyle pressed together, already planning.

"Bumper cars first," Lily announced. "I want to ride with Uncle Franz and Leo. Kyle, you go with your dad."

"Why do I have to go with my dad?"

"Because three people can’t fit in one car. It’s too small."

"I want to go with Uncle Franz too."

"Next time. We can take turns."

Leo tugged at Arianne’s sleeve and held up his tablet: CAN WE RIDE THE CAROUSEL? WITH YOU?

Arianne looked at the carousel in the distance with its painted horses rising and falling in a slow, gentle circle. "The carousel is fine. It’s slow. I can ride that one."

Leo’s face broke into a wide smile—the kind of smile that transformed his whole expression, the kind that had been missing for so long after the accident and was now appearing more and more often.

"All right." Arianne gathered the children’s attention. "Rules. You don’t go anywhere without an adult. You don’t talk to strangers. If you get lost, you find someone who works here and tell them to call me. Understood?"

"Understood," the children chorused.

They entered the carnival.

The afternoon passed in a blur of rides and laughter. Lily and Leo rode the bumper cars with Franz while Lily shrieked with delight every time they collided with Julian and Kyle’s car. Kyle rode a small roller coaster three times in a row until Julian said he was going to be sick. Leo and Arianne rode the carousel together with Leo on a blue horse and Arianne on the bench beside him, her hand resting on his shoulder. He didn’t stop smiling the entire time.

By evening, the carnival had transformed. Golden lights strung between the stalls flickered on as the sun set, and the whole fairground glowed like something from a storybook. The children, running on adrenaline and sugar, found a stall with a goldfish game.

Lily and Leo knelt by the shallow pool with paper nets in their hands, trying to scoop up the tiny orange fish. Leo managed to catch two before his net broke. Lily caught one, then accidentally dropped it back in the water. Kyle didn’t catch any but didn’t seem to mind.

At the next stall, Kyle spotted a wall of stuffed toys and immediately tugged Julian’s sleeve. "Dad! Can you win me one? You have to shoot the targets!"

The game was simple—a toy rifle, a row of targets, and prizes for those who could hit them. Julian paid for his turns and took the rifle. He missed the first shot, missed the second, and on the fourth try he finally hit the target and won Kyle a small stuffed dinosaur.

"YES!" Kyle grabbed the dinosaur and held it up like a trophy. "It’s a new one for my team!"

Lily watched this and turned to Franz with wide, pleading eyes. "Uncle Franz. Can you win me one too? Please?"

Franz paid for his turns and took the rifle. He missed, then missed again. On his fifth attempt, the target finally fell, but the stall owner shook his head: that one didn’t count because the rifle had been tilted. Franz handed over more coins and missed again.

"I don’t have enough change," he admitted, emptying his pockets.

Arianne stepped forward. Her hand brushed his arm as she reached for the rifle. "Let me try."

Franz blinked. "You want to—"

"I’ll try." She handed coins to the stall owner and took the toy rifle, her fingers wrapping around the stock with a practiced, steady grip that made Julian’s eyebrows go up.

She fired once. Target down. The stall owner blinked. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

She fired again. Second target down.

Lily shrieked. "MOMMY ARIA WON! SHE WON TWO!"

The stall owner handed over the prizes: the doll Lily had been eyeing, a plush cat with wide green eyes and a small stuffed starfish that Leo pointed at. Arianne handed the cat to Lily and the starfish to Leo. Both children clutched their prizes like treasure.

Franz was staring at her. She caught his look and one corner of her mouth lifted before she turned back to the stall.

"That was so cool," Kyle said. "My dad had to try a lot of times. You did it on the first try."

"Two tries," Lily corrected. "She did two and won two. That’s one hundred percent."

Julian rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "I don’t practice enough. We used to play paintball in high school. Arianne and Alex were always paired. They were terrifying."

"Why were they terrifying?" Lily asked.

"Because they never lost."

"Can we play paintball?"

"It hurts when you get hit. You might hurt yourself. Maybe when you’re older."

"How much older?"

"A lot older. Teenager older."

Lily sighed. "Everything is when I’m older."

The children got hungry after that and dragged Julian from stall to stall while Franz and Arianne followed at a slower pace. Cotton candy. Ice cream. Popcorn. Kyle ate so much barbecue that his face was smeared with sauce, and Julian had to wipe him down with napkins while Kyle squirmed and protested.

Franz stayed with Arianne, watching the chaos from some distance. The air was thick with the smell of cooking food: sugar, grease, and spices all mixed together.

"Are the smells bothering you?" he asked.

"A little. There’s a lot of them at once."

He stepped away and returned with plain popcorn and a bottle of water. "No sugar. No strong smells. Just salt."

She took the popcorn. "Thank you."

They sat on a bench near the food stalls, eating popcorn and watching the carnival spin around them. The children returned eventually, full of sugar and excitement with their faces glowing in the carnival lights.

"Uncle Franz! We’re going on the Ferris wheel! Dad’s taking us!" Kyle was already pulling Julian toward the towering wheel of lights. "Come on, Dad! Faster!"

Julian shot Franz a look of tired desperation as the children dragged him away. Franz waved sympathetically.

The Ferris wheel turned against the dark sky, its cars rising and falling in a gentle circle. Franz and Arianne stayed on the bench, watching it from below.

"Are you enjoying yourself?" he asked.

She said nothing for a beat. The carnival lights reflected in her eyes. "Yes. I am." She paused. "Here, we’re not the CEO and the celebrity. We’re just a family. Trying things. Eating popcorn. No one’s looking at us."

"No one recognizes me with the hat?"

"You look like a tired father."

"I am a tired father."

"You’re a good tired father."

He smiled and reached over to take her hand. Above them, the Ferris wheel carried the children into the sky. Around them, the carnival hummed with life. And for a little while, in this town where no one knew their names, they were ordinary.

Just a family at the fair.