Chapter 3

She stood there in her pajamas, her long hair thrown into a messy knot.

Her eyes were red and swollen, and there was a child in her arms.

She really did look pitiful.

If I hadn't seen the warnings.

I would have gone soft and helped her, no question.

The neighbor woman beside her chimed in.

"Come on, honey, just help her out. She stood outside your door calling for you for ages and you wouldn't even open up!"

"You can't be that cold-hearted."

They all looked at me with disgust.

As if I really had refused to open the door on purpose.

I pretended to rub my eyes, playing dazed.

"Sorry, I've been in a bad mood today. I had some wine and fell asleep."

"What did you say?"

"What happened to your son?"

The second I mentioned wine, Nora's crying caught in her throat.

She stared at me blankly. "What did you say?"

I said, "I wasn't in a great mood today, so I had some wine. Why?"

The neighbor who'd just been scolding me went quiet.

Building security pulled Nora up off the ground.

"I told you she had to be sleeping, and you kept saying that was impossible!"

"She's been drinking now, she can't drive! Hurry up and call 911, or something's really going to happen to that kid!"

Someone had already pulled out a phone and dialed.

Nora lunged forward to grab my hand, and I raised my arm and dodged her.

Her eyes were bloodshot, locked on me.

"You've been drinking? Why would you drink?"

"You never drink!"

"Janet, are you doing this on purpose? Drinking on purpose, just so you don't have to take my son to the hospital?!"

"You are so cold. My son is only five! How can you be this cruel!"

"If my son doesn't get treatment in time because of you, I will never let you off!"

The neighbor woman stepped in and pulled her back from me.

"I know you're worried about your boy, but you can't talk to her like that!"

"So a young person has a bad day and drinks a little. What's wrong with that?"

Nora backed up two steps, still glaring at me.

She said through gritted teeth, "She never drinks. She's doing this on purpose today!"

She only grew more certain. "She's doing it on purpose!"

"Janet, you actually drank on purpose so you wouldn't have to save my son. You are heartless!"

I tilted my head and looked at her. "How do you know I never drink?"

She wasn't listening to a word I said.

She just kept repeating it. "You did this on purpose! If anything happens to my son, you're a murderer!"

"She needs your permission to have a drink now?"

"That's enough, stop going at each other, the ambulance is almost here!"

Someone asked Nora, "The child, how is the child?"

The neighbor woman reached out to look at Nora's child, and Nora jerked away.

Then she turned back to me.

"Janet, hold him for me a second. I'll run inside and grab my ID and papers. We'll need them at the hospital."

She said it so casually.

As if she hadn't just been screaming her lungs out at me a moment ago, telling me I'd pay for her son's life.

The warnings appeared again.

【Don't touch the child. Once you touch him, you'll never be able to explain your way out of it!】

I quickly stepped back. "I smell like wine. He's already running a fever, he can't be around alcohol."

"It's fine." Nora blurted it out. "Just for a second, nothing's going to happen."

She'd been frantic a moment ago, and now suddenly it was fine.

"Let me take him. She's just a girl, what would she know about holding a child!"

The neighbor woman reached out to take the child, but Nora ignored her completely.

"Holding a baby is easy, just cradle him like this."

She shoved the child toward my arms, and I kept backing away.

Nora's eyes went wet again.

"Janet, you won't even do this one little thing for me? We're neighbors!"

"Besides, with all these people watching, it's not like I could pull a scam on you."

The warnings: 【She's got it exactly right. Scamming you is exactly what she's doing.】

【Do not, under any circumstances, hold that child.】

【Cover your mouth, pretend you're about to throw up.】

I clapped a hand over my mouth and heaved twice.

Nora's face went completely dark.

"Janet, what's that supposed to mean?"

"You think my son's beneath you?"

I ran into the apartment with my hand over my mouth, dropped down over the toilet, and actually threw up.

I'd just gulped down two big mouthfuls of red wine, and earlier that evening I'd had spicy soup and ice cream.

On top of everything I'd just been through.

My stomach had given out long ago.

The figures outside went quiet.

I heard the woman say, "She's been drinking, she's obviously not well. Let me hold the baby."

Nora turned her down coldly. "Never mind."