Chapter 5

Lucas's eyes were bloodshot. Under the bodyguards' restraint, he struggled, punching and kicking at the air.

He'd almost gone mad.

"Vanessa Turner! You'll die a terrible death! Xavier suffered enough because of you—why won't you leave him alone even after he's dead?"

Mom carefully wiped the water from her hands and said coldly.

"Don't try to scare me with talk of death. I didn't believe it at first, and I believe it even less now."

"Go back and tell Xavier that no matter what, he must go take the fall for Ethan again."

"If he keeps making trouble, after Connor finishes his SAT, I'll never let him see Connor again."

Lucas's pupils constricted. Things happened so suddenly just now.

He'd actually forgotten to go save Connor!

He knew that given Vanessa's crazed state, she'd never tell him where Connor was.

He couldn't protect Xavier's ashes. Connor was the last thing Xavier left in this world!

So Lucas practically crawled out, immediately driving to search the entire city for me.

Finally, after increasing manpower, he located the sauna room where I was just as dawn was breaking.

He collapsed on his knees in front of the iron door, picking up a rock and smashing it against the lock over and over.

"Connor! Connor! Can you hear Lucas? Please answer me! I'm begging you!"

I floated in the air, softly responding to Lucas, but he couldn't hear me.

He cried so hard his whole body shook. In desperation, he saw Mom driving up.

Mom's eyes still held sleepy haze. Seeing Lucas, she was first startled, then scoffed.

"So you really found the place."

Lucas couldn't care about anything else. He screamed at Mom.

"Open it! Connor's barely alive in there!" But his hands kept working on the lock.

Mom clicked her tongue in annoyance, looked at her watch, then strode forward, grabbed Lucas by the collar, and threw him to the ground.

"Quiet! It's not time yet! Waking Connor up this early—are you deliberately trying to make him perform badly on his SAT?"

"Let him sleep a while longer!"

Lucas froze in place, absolutely incredulous.

His hand shook as he pointed at the sauna room.

"The heat is unbearable even from outside—you locked him in there to sleep?"

"Open the door!"

Mom laughed angrily.

"This sauna room is mine. The heating system is broken. Don't you think I'd know what temperature it is?"

"I'm his real mother. How could I actually hurt him? Not like Xavier with his lies and shameless tactics."

Lucas didn't have time to argue with her. He just closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and said word by word.

"Open! The! Door!"

Seeing Lucas's man-eating glare, Mom licked her lips, smiled knowingly, and nodded.

"Fine!"

"If Connor does poorly on his SAT, it's all your fault!"

With that, she waved to the bodyguard behind her to signal him to open the door.

The next moment, the prison called again.

"Is this Xavier's wife? We finally reached you. He died tragically in custody and we need a family member to come sign an acknowledgment form again."

At the same time, the sauna room door clicked open.