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“Dad… she won’t wake up.” I was at a business lunch when my six-year-old’s whispered phone call made my blood run absolutely cold. / Chapter 1 / 3

Part 1

“Dad… Cami won’t open her eyes.”

My six-year-old son’s voice was barely a whisper, so quiet I honestly thought I was having a nightmare. I was sitting right in the middle of a loud, expensive business lunch downtown, surrounded by clients and clinking glasses, when his words made my blood run completely cold.

“Leo? Where are you? Why are you calling from that number?” I demanded, pressing the phone against my ear.

The silence on the other end felt heavy, suffocating.

Then, my little boy whispered the words that will haunt me for the rest of my life: “Mom didn’t come back. Cami is really hot. We’re out of milk. We don’t have anything left.”

My chair crashed backward as I stood up. The whole table stared, but I didn’t care. “Don’t hang up, buddy. I’m coming,” I choked out, already sprinting for the exit.

Maya and I had been separated for nine months. She stayed with the kids in her cramped apartment across town. Just three days ago, she shot me a quick text saying she was heading out of town with her cousin to “clear her head” and told me not to bother calling. I figured it was just another one of her impulsive, selfish moves. But I never imagined she was capable of leaving a six-year-old and a three-year-old completely alone.

I gripped the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white, fighting through gridlocked city traffic that felt like a cruel joke. “Leo, what did you guys eat today?” I asked, my voice shaking.

“A piece of hard bread,” he said, sounding so small. “But Cami threw it up.”

When I finally got to her building, the front gate was wide open. I took the stairs three at a time. The apartment door was unlocked, slightly cracked. I shoved it open. The smell of spoiled food and damp clothes hit me like a physical punch to the gut.

“Leo!”

He was sitting by the couch, wearing a stained shirt, his eyes huge and terrified. He didn’t even run to me. He just stared, like he wasn’t sure he could trust anyone anymore.

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