Chapter 3
I wiped away my tears and headed to the kitchen to prepare some ribs for a good meal for myself.
My phone buzzed with a notification about an impending thunderstorm.
Sure enough, a fierce wind soon blew outside, and large raindrops began pounding the ground.
Gareth Baxton called me. After a moment’s hesitation, I answered, “Lovelyn Jones, the rain is pouring hard outside. I can’t drive. Can you bring an umbrella and pick up my son and me?”
Feigning ignorance, I asked, “Isn’t your son at a friend’s house?”
Chapter 3
He hemmed and hawed, brushing it off, “We just ran into each other.”
Gareth Baxton sounded unusually patient, “Come on, Lyn, I get that you’re upset, but you can’t joke around with my son and me. Please come.”
Then he hung up and sent me an address at a nearby mall.
Recalling how lightly dressed his son was when he headed out, I resigned myself to grabbing an umbrella to fetch them.
The moment I stepped outside, I regretted it. The rain was pounding heavily against the umbrella, making my heart race with every drop.
Hugging my arms, I trudged toward the mall,
2/7
Chapter 3
the water pooling at my feet and gradually rising over my shoes.
I finally reached the mall, but among the crowd by the entrance, Gareth Baxton and his son were nowhere to be seen.
Panicking, worried something might have happened to them, I pulled out my phone to call Gareth Baxton.
The call went unanswered, so I tried his son’s smartwatch–still no answer.
Holding several umbrellas, I circled the mall several times but couldn’t find them.
The cold seeped in, with water now up to my calves, and a shiver ran down my spine.
Noticing the dwindling crowd, I instinctively reached for my phone to contact
59 317
Chapter 3
Morgan.
But my phone had died.
Sneezing, I thought about heading home but the rain was now knee–deep.
Each step brought a sharp pain as the icy rain pierced my knees.
With no choice, I retreated to the mall’s entrance, thankfully sheltered by a huge billboard overhead out of the rain.
After a while, the surrounding crowd dispersed completely, leaving only me standing there with the umbrellas like a fool.
The rain finally eased up after midnight, and the water slowly drained away.
As dawn broke, the water had receded
4/7
Chapter 3
enough that I painstakingly made my way home, clutching my frozen self.
After a shower, I felt feverish, my body burning up as I drifted in and out of consciousness.
Yet, there was no sign of Gareth Baxton or his son at home. My heart sank, fearing something had happened to them.
Weakly, I charged my phone and quickly called Gareth Baxton. Just before the call would have been cut off, he picked up.
Hearing his voice, I realized he was fine- better than me. I calmly asked, “Where are you?”
Half asleep, he mumbled, “I’m at Daisy’s with my son. I wanted to tell you yesterday, but your phone was off.”
5/7
Chapter 3
I gritted my teeth, “You asked me to pick you up. I went, and when you couldn’t reach me, weren’t you worried something
happened to me?”
“ave
Gareth Baxton impatiently replied, “Oh come on, what could happen? You’re fine, aren’t you? I think you’re just bored.”
My heart trembled, my fevered body feeling ice–cold.
Just as I was about to respond, Daisy Morgan’s voice came through the phone, sweet and gentle, “Gareth, you need to get up or you’ll be late for work.”
Gareth Baxton replied and curtly addressed me again, “Alright, enough nonsense. Bring me lunch at noon.”
