Chapter 3

After the officer left, Archie tilted his head and sized me up. A flicker of disappointment crossed his eyes when he saw that my expression remained entirely calm.

I couldn't help asking, "Why did you say those things to the officer just now?"

Archie put his hands on his hips and threw his head back before replying matter-of-factly, "Because I'm a good boy who always tells the truth! If anyone's to blame, it's you, Dad! You're the one who got mad and said I was kidnapped!"

That was the moment I knew for sure. He'd told the cop on purpose, all to punish me for the things I said in the heat of the moment yesterday.

Clenching my fists, I asked him, "What if I really did snatch you from human traffickers but kept you because your birth parents were bad people? Would you really call the cops and send me to prison?"

Archie nodded without a second's hesitation. "Yes! Like I said, Dad, I'm a good boy who tells the truth!"

My heart plunged straight to the bottom of my stomach.

Elsie had come back at some point and had been standing near the doorway for a while. Her expression was terrifyingly dark.

Still, she swallowed her distress to comfort me. "Maybe… he'll grow out of it when he gets older."

Archie perked right back up, completely oblivious to our pain.

I couldn't help wondering. If Elsie and I spent half our lives working ourselves to the bone only to raise an ingrate, why shouldn't we cut our losses before it was too late?

Yet after raising Archie all these years, I still wanted to give him one last chance.

Looking at the business card on the table, I purposely said, "Archie, actually, I really did kidnap you. The safe at home has your original records, taken right from your birth parents.

"If you keep using your honesty to hurt us, your mom and I are going to send you right back to them."

Hearing that, real fear—the kind that actually belonged to a child his age—finally broke across Archie's face.

In an urgent voice, he turned to Elsie. "Mom, is that true?"

Elsie buried her disgust and replied, "Your dad's just joking."

The panic on Archie's face melted away bit by bit, and he pouted at me. "So it's not real? I wish I actually had real parents! I hate you, Dad!"

Elsie's expression darkened even further.

Archie, however, kept his eyes glued to me.

I played along, letting a wounded look fall over my face, and only then did he break into a wide grin.

At that moment, everything became painfully clear.

Archie had always believed he was our biological son, which was why he felt so fearless in hurting me time after time.

I felt utterly disappointed.

That night, just as I was drifting off to sleep, I heard the subtle twist of my bedroom door handle.

A tiny figure slipped into the room.

A minute later, the silhouette crept back out.

From outside the bedroom door came a child's voice, carefully hushed. "Hello? Officer Randall? Actually, my dad really is a kidnapper! The proof is inside his safe. You need to come and arrest him!"