Chapter 4

[Time's up.]

The screen lit up one last time.

The kidnapper sent a fifteen-second video.

In the abandoned factory, a man raised his boot and kicked the blood-covered Leo into the roaring, rapid river nearby.

The water splashed.

The tiny body was instantly swallowed by the currents, disappearing completely.

I stared blankly at the screen.

At this moment, I didn't scream, and I didn't cry.

He was dead.

The little boy who held my hand every day and called me "Mommy" in his sweet, soft voice was really dead.

Seeing that I had stopped crying, Marcus sneered and adjusted his wrinkled suit.

"What? Done with your little show?"

He kicked my phone away.

"I told you, I've seen plenty of these extortion scams. Only an idiot like you would make such a fool of herself for a stray kid."

Chloe linked her arm through his, ready to leave.

As she passed me, she intentionally pressed her high heel hard onto the back of my hand.

"Evelyn, stop playing dead."

"It's good that the brat is gone. Now no one will waste the Vance family's money on medical bills, and you're finally free, right?"

I pushed myself up from the floor.

Watching their departing figures, I didn't bother to wipe the blood from my face.

"Marcus, you will regret this."

"Regret? Over your dead stray? What a joke."

Just as the words left his mouth, the private phone in his pocket began to vibrate violently.

Only a select few knew this number.

Marcus frowned and picked up.

His assistant's panicked voice blared through the receiver.

"Mr. Vance! The police just called!"

"They just pulled the body of a five-year-old boy from the river on the outskirts of the city!"

Marcus's frown deepened.

"You're calling me about this?"

"It's just the little beggar Evelyn adopted. Tell them to send him to the crematorium and bury the ashes wherever."

The assistant's voice was shaking uncontrollably.

"No... No, Mr. Vance!"

"The police found a premium jade medallion on the boy's neck with the letter 'V' engraved on the back."

"They ran his DNA against the genetic data you submitted to the database years ago..."

The assistant took a sharp breath, almost screaming the next words:

"That boy... is your biological son!"