Chapter 1

While waiting for the restaurant to finish an order, I mindlessly opened a short-video app to kill time.

Then, I heard a voice I knew all too well. I frowned and looked closer.

It was my ex-wife, Shanon Reich.

She was livestreaming with her influencer boyfriend, Tobias Hunt. Both of them were crying dramatically in front of the camera.

The stream title hit me like a punch to the gut.

[40°C Heat! My Daughter Is Trapped in a Car!]

I clicked in immediately, and there she was.

My three-year-old daughter, with Shanon, Ginny Herbert, was trapped inside the car, pounding helplessly against the window.

The inside of the vehicle looked like a furnace.

Ginny's little face was flushed bright red, sweat soaking her hair flat against her forehead.

She was crying and screaming inside the car. The desperation in her voice felt like knives twisting in my chest.

I clamped a hand over my mouth, forcing myself to stay calm.

Shanon, how dare she!

We were divorced for less than six months, yet already shacked up with that influencer. And now, she would risk her own daughter's life for views?

"Break the window! Hurry!" I typed with shaking fingers.

The comment section exploded.

"Call the police! The kid's going to get heatstroke!"

"What are you waiting for? It's 40 degrees! She's going to die!"

And Shanon's reaction? She laughed.

As the viewer count surged, she didn't smash the window, nor did she call for help.

Instead, she beamed at the camera.

"Thank you to our top fan for the moneybag gift!"

Then she added sweetly, "Send another moneybag. I'll smash the window once I get it, okay?"

Rage, despair, and terror crashed over me in waves, drowning me whole.

I called her over and over again. Once, twice, and thrice.

There was no answer.

The background of the livestream looked vaguely familiar, but I could not think. I immediately forwarded the stream into our food delivery riders' group chat.

Within moments, my coworker Richard Carrie replied.

"It's the parking lot behind Tahoma Street! Go! The kid looks like she's about to pass out!"

The second I saw the location, I ripped the delivery box off my scooter. The food spilled all over the ground.

The restaurant owner ran out, cursing.

"I'll pay you back later!" I shouted, already sprinting away.

Shanon better pray Ginny was okay.

Otherwise, I would have made sure she paid with her life.

Richard kept tagging me in the group chat.

The livestream footage was becoming harder and harder to watch.

Ginny almost stopped crying.

Her little face was turning a frightening purplish-red. Her tiny body curled up on the back seat, barely twitching.

And Shanon? She was still posing in front of the camera with her influencer boyfriend.

"Oh, we're anxious too!" she said coyly. "But the keys are locked inside the car! Don't worry, my dears! I'm her biological mother! How could I possibly let anything really happen to her?"

I ran like a madman, my heart hammering so hard it felt ready to burst out of my throat.

Tahoma Street. Damn it, why was this alley so long?

There!

I leaned on the horn and drove straight at Shanon, who was still livestreaming.

She fell to the ground from the impact, screaming in pain.

"Ahhh! Are you crazy? Do you even know how to drive?"

When she realized it was me, panic flashed across her face.

"Leomund Herbert! What are you trying to do?"

I ignored her and rushed to the car, slamming my palms against the window, shouting Ginny's name, hoping she would hear me and hold on.

Through the glass, I saw her small body collapsed across the back seat, completely motionless.