Chapter 2

The clerk saw my face go pale and asked quietly.

"Ma'am, are... are you alright?"

"There's a child in that car..." My voice was hoarse as I pointed outside. "You can't just ignore this!"

The clerk's face showed a flicker of hesitation, but she still shook her head.

"Ma'am, I... we can't leak guest information. Why don't you try contacting them again?"

Cindy had just blocked me. How was I supposed to contact them!

I quickly scanned the motel layout and pretended I needed the bathroom.

"Where's the restroom?"

The clerk pointed in a direction.

I turned and headed that way, then quietly slipped upstairs.

The moment I reached the second-floor landing, Cindy's moaning drifted from the end of the hallway.

I held my breath and inched forward, step by step.

Muffled voices came from inside the room. Sean's voice.

"Damn, you're exhausting. I need to sleep..."

"Sean, what about Leo..." Cindy's voice.

"Tch, why do you keep bringing him up?"

"We'll deal with it after I get some sleep. He's not gonna die anytime soon anyway."

Even though I knew Leo was safe at home right now, Sean's words were like poisoned seeds taking root in my mind.

I couldn't control the vision that forced itself into my head—I "saw" my Leo being shoved into that dark, suffocating trunk.

His little hands pounding until they turned red, his cries going from loud to hoarse, finally reduced to weak whimpering.

Cold. Dark. No oxygen.

His tiny body curled up, slowly going still.

Every detail felt so real, as if it were happening right before my eyes.

Even though logic told me it was a hallucination, it was fake.

But that imagined despair squeezed my heart and choked my breath.

Without thinking, I raised my foot and kicked the door with all my strength!

"BANG!"

The door flew open.

Inside, Sean was naked, wrapped around an equally naked Cindy.

His face twisted with shock and rage as he looked up. Cindy shrieked and grabbed the blanket to cover herself.

"Alice Miller?! Are you fucking insane!" He grabbed his clothes, his face turned grim.

My eyes swept the room quickly.

Clothes and used condoms scattered across the floor. The air reeked of something nauseating.

Cindy's damn cat was curled up at the corner of the bed, lazily licking its paw.

I ignored his piercing shouts, my gaze sharp as a blade cutting straight through him.

"Give me the car keys. I'm opening that trunk!"

Sean's face flashed with confusion, then greater fury.

"I just put Leo in the trunk—did you really drive hundreds of miles to chase me down? He's not dead!"

"Give me the keys!" I repeated, extending my hand. "Now!"

"Psycho! You're a complete psycho!"

Sean cursed furiously, grabbed the car keys from the nightstand, and hurled them at me.

The keys flew through the air and smacked into the cat at the corner of the bed.

"MEOW!! REOWWW!!!" The cat's fur stood on end as it leaped up.

"Whiskers!" Cindy, wrapped in the blanket, lunged forward and clutched the cat to her chest.

"Baby, are you okay? Does it hurt?"

Her eyes reddened with concern as she held the cat up to Sean's face.

"Sean, look—Whiskers is terrified!"

Sean immediately bent down, gently stroking the cat's back.

"Whiskers, don't be scared, Daddy will make it better."

"That's right, Mommy and Daddy are here. Whiskers is so brave."

The two of them cooed over the cat like they were comforting a precious child who'd suffered the world's greatest injustice.

I watched this absurd, grotesque scene and let out a bitter laugh.

"Ha... how touching."

My gaze moved from them to the whimpering cat, finally landing on the car outside the window.

"So in your eyes, is the child in that trunk worth less than a single hair on this animal?"