Chapter 3

Something was off. This afternoon, before Valentine went out, I'd said hello to him.

His grandmother had just given him a haircut.

But the boy in that video had hair longer than what I'd seen with my own eyes that afternoon.

And another thing. The light in Gertrude's bedroom had broken last month.

I was the one who went up to fix it for her.

After I finished, the bedroom light was bright white, not the warm yellow glowing on the screen now.

I stepped back twice, opening up the distance between me and the car.

At the same time, I flipped on my phone camera.

"Victor Fox, what are you dawdling for? My son's about to suffocate. Can't you see that?"

"I already told you, the car's broken and it's not on you. All you have to do is get in with me. You don't have to touch a thing the whole way."

【Nice words. She's only saying that because she can see you're not easy to fool.】

【Once you're in the car, she uses pepper spray to knock you out, then presses your hands to her body to leave marks.】【Then the car drives itself into the river, and she calls the police with her clothes torn up.】

Watching the lines of text appear one after another, a cold dread seeped into my bones.

"No, Ms. Summers. I really think the boy needs to be seen at a hospital."

"He doesn't. I told you, he doesn't. What I need right now is that bottle of medicine in the trunk."

She was practically screaming, her eyes shot through with red.

"Victor Fox, are you really going to just stand there and let him die? It takes nothing from you, and you still won't do it. If you get my son killed, I'll never let this go."

She hurled the accusation at me, her shrill voice echoing through the garage.

Like a vengeful ghost come to claim my life.

"Ms. Summers, I'm truly sorry, but I don't know how to drive your car at all."

"It's not that I won't help you, I honestly can't. Here's what we'll do. I'll call the police right now, and once they get here, your son will definitely..."

I didn't get to finish. She only panicked harder.

"Victor Fox, why would you call the police? Do you have to blow this out of proportion?"

"The keys are right here. All you have to do is open the door, sit in with me, and pull the car forward a little. That's it."

Looking at her outstretched hand, I still didn't move an inch.

Right then, her phone rang.

She answered the video call and shoved the screen into my face.

On the screen, her son Valentine was curled up in a ball, his lips a bluish purple.

He said weakly: "Mom, I, I can't breathe, medicine, medicine, I need my medicine..."

His small body kept struggling, and the sight of it twisted something in me.

【Don't fall for it. The moment you do, the ones who can't breathe will be you and your family.】

【Her son is fast asleep and perfectly fine right now. This video is fake.】

I stared at the screen. Still the same warm-yellow bedroom.

Valentine's hair still the length it had been before the haircut.

Gertrude was crying: "Victor Fox, do you see this? My son is dying. He's begging for help."

She choked out the words at the screen: "Val, Mommy's useless. Mommy begged Uncle Victor to move the car and save you, but he won't help."

The next second, that weak little voice came through the phone again.

With a thud, Gertrude dropped to her knees in front of me.