Chapter 5

Third-Person POV

Madeline's eyes widened in shock, and she staggered slightly.

For reasons she couldn't explain, her thoughts drifted back to the day Leo was born.

She had held Lucas' hand with a glowing smile as she lovingly chose their son's name.

"Let's name him Leo. All I want is for him to grow up safe and sound."

How could Leo be dead?

She had always believed in raising Leo modestly. Unlike Melvin, who had been tutored in every subject since he was little, Leo had never had any of those advantages.

How could he possibly have become the top SAT scorer?

Madeline suddenly looked at the police officer.

"Where's the victim's family?"

"The victim was raised by his father alone. The father has already hired an attorney and has refused all offers of compensation."

At that, Madeline let out a breath of relief without quite knowing why. She raised her hand and wiped the cold sweat from her brow.

The victim appeared to come from a single-parent family. It couldn't possibly be Leo.

"Maddie, Melvin's still just a kid!" Jeffrey pleaded anxiously. "He just got the second-highest SAT score in the city. He has such a bright future ahead of him. You have to save him!"

Melvin broke down in tears.

"Maddie, please… I don't want to go to jail…"

Madeline barely registered Jeffrey and Melvin's pleas.

She muttered a distracted "I'll find you a lawyer" and strode out of the hospital, driving straight home.

After the shock of the past few hours, she needed to see her family.

The shabby little apartment looked just as it always had.

But somehow, everything felt wrong.

The table was bare.

Lucas wasn't there to greet her.

And Leo, who usually came running the second she got home, was nowhere to be found.

A wave of panic hit her. She grabbed her phone and began firing off messages to Lucas.

"I'm home. Where are you and Leo?"

"Did you guys go out?"

"Send me your location. I have a surprise for both of you."

Despite sending message after message, she heard nothing back from him.

Her agitation grew, and an unsettling feeling began to gnaw at her from within.

"Lucas! Reply to me!"

She sent one last message, but it was stuck on a single gray tick.

A thought crossed her mind. Had she been blocked?

Madeline tossed her phone onto the bed in frustration.

She had only been spending extra time looking after Jeffrey and Melvin out of gratitude for Jeffrey saving her life.

She still loved Lucas—or at least, that was what she kept telling herself. How could he have just taken Leo and left over something so trivial?

In her eyes, Lucas was just being childish and petty.

She took a deep breath and returned to the office to focus on work.

She was sure Lucas would come around eventually. After all, he always had before.

He would leave to cool down, then come back home. She'd buy him a few little gifts, say a few sweet words, and everything would be fine again.

Lucas had always been so faithful, giving up everything to be a stay-at-home husband.

She believed he would never actually abandon her.

Just then, there was a knock on the office door. Her assistant, Alex Sunderland, walked in, holding a box decorated with cartoon characters.

"Mrs. Hayes, this was sent over by Leo's school. They said these were his things."

Madeline's pen froze in the middle of a word.

She reached for the box and took it.

It was worn and unassuming, containing mostly stationery, exam sheets, and neatly arranged notebooks.

She flipped through the tests idly.

Almost all of them were marked with perfect scores. His report cards showed he had been top of his grade every single year.

She couldn't believe how well Leo had actually done in school.

Madeline's heart skipped a beat. Suddenly, the headline she had glimpsed earlier came rushing back to her—"Top SAT Scorer Killed in Accident".

She tried to convince herself it wasn't true.

It couldn't be.

Then she picked up the diary and turned to the first page.

"Today was my first day of school. All the other kids were picked up by their moms and dads. Dad works multiple part-time jobs every day, and Mom works hard too. I have to be well-behaved and not make things harder for them."