Chapter 4

Three days later, my family was home, with Will bringing Wanda a plate of scrumptious food. "Have a taste. It's my own cooking!"

"You're the best, Will," Wanda said, smiling and nodding.

She then glanced at the empty seat at the table and growled, "So? Where has that rotten apple gone to now? Did he come back?"

"Who cares, Mom?" Josie groaned, sipping her soup nonchalantly. "He was only wearing one shoe when he left—probably waiting for us to pick him up from under a bridge. He has always liked playing hard to get like that, so he'll crawl back to us on his own if we just ignore him."

Harry looked a little uncomfortable. "It's been three days, and it's always pouring out there. And he didn't have money…"

"You're such a softie as always, sir," Will said, smiling as he assured Harry, "He's smart—he can definitely take good care of himself. Maybe he just went looking for his unseemly friends…"

That was when the doorbell rang urgently, and Josie burst out laughing. "See? Speak of the devil—it must have been hard outside, so he came back to apologize."

She went to answer the door, gloating as she did. "Oh, Joseph Lars. Weren't you going on a brave adventure out there? Back so soon—"

She stopped abruptly, because there were two stern-faced police officers standing outside instead of me.

The older officer was clearly in charge and flashed his badge. "Is this the residence of Wanda Hilton?"

My parents rushed over, with Wanda saying, "Yes, I'm Wanda, officer. What happened?"

Both officers entered, looking troubled as they noticed the happy mood in the house and the scrumptious breakfast.

The older officer then pulled out a tablet computer, tapped into a security footage, and said, "We've caught this on camera while we were monitoring a gang of human traffickers. Is the person in this video your son?"

It was a grainy video taken in the rain.

The video showed a lightly-dressed boy, wearing just one shoe and soaked through as he stood still like a mannequin by the road.

A woman soon took him into her van, and he never resisted—if anything, he looked obedient.

"It's Jojo!" Harry cried. "W-What's he doing, getting into that van?"

On the other hand, Wanda was at once furious, pointing at the screen and snapping, "That little rat! I knew he never straightened out. Now look what he's doing—hooking up with some other woman in the middle of the street! Doesn't he feel ashamed? Well, he's certainly shamed us!"

Josie promptly joined in too. "Like I said, he's just pretending! And see? He's already running off with some broad! And Dad was actually worried about him!"

Bang!

The old officer had slammed his palm on the table, his face white with rage as he glared at Wanda, snarling through gritted teeth, "Hooking up?! Do you even know what you're talking about?!

"That woman is a professional human trafficker they call Black Dog! Over a dozen are dead because of her, and we last saw her van heading deep into the quietest parts of Cold Hills!"

Then, pointing at how stiffly I was moving, he bellowed, "And you call that hooking up?! Just look at the boy—he completely lacks the sense of a normal human being! He was told to get in, so he did! He doesn't even understand fear now!

"So my question is—what has he been put through? Why was he hurt all over his head?! Or why wasn't he wearing any shoes?!

"And do you know what happens to the victims of human trafficking?! Once they reach the mountains, the victims will be locked in the basement, chained, and made to work like livestock, never to see the sun again until they die!"

Harry's face turned pale as he wobbled before falling backward stiffly.

Wanda and Josie froze up too, thunderstruck.