The aroma of freshly baked bread is a comforting one. But tonight Miguel Paes felt far from comforted. He wiped his sweaty forehead on his shirt sleeve and pedalled faster. He had been delivering bread across the village for nine long years and not once had he been this late. There were only three bread loaves leftover today. In all the rush, he had miscalculated and in addition to being late, he was bringing home less bread for dinner. He knew that his wife and daughter would be terribly hungry by now. Ever since he had started working at the Rosa Bakery, Mr. Rosa had treated him like a brother and often talked to him about his personal life. It was the Rosa’s wedding anniversary today and Mr. Rosa had insisted on telling Miguel about his plans for the evening. As usual Miguel had been half-listening. Mr. Rosa was probably with his wife on the deck of a fancy cruise ship by now, giving her the special surprise gift he had been gushing about. And here Miguel couldn’t even give his wife a decent meal. He swerved shakily to the right as his front tyre hit a stone. He stuck out his right leg just in time and managed to keep the cycle from toppling over. But the lid of his bread rack came loose and the three bread loaves now lay covered in dirt at the side of the road. Cursing, he placed his cycle on its stand and picked up the loaves. He was going to put them back in the rack when he realized that one of the loaves was lumpy. Miguel was slightly surprised because he knew that Mr. Rosa was a stickler for perfection and inspected each and every loaf before sending it off for delivery. As he dusted the loaf, he felt something hard beneath the lumps. Curious, he tore the loaf apart and then gasped. Nestled inside the doughy fluffiness of the bread was a beautiful necklace made of white gold with a stunning key-shaped diamond pendant. Mrs. Rosa did not get her special surprise gift that night and Miguel’s wife got much more than a decent meal.