Chapter 2

The truck climbed the east mountain road.

The floating comments flickered wildly:

[No way — Santiago changed course!]

[What's going on? Can he actually see our messages?]

[Yes! Sori's going to make it!]

[Go, Santiago! Sori's running out of time!]

I gripped the wheel so hard my knuckles ached. But the voice in my earpiece was getting more and more frantic:

"Santiago, are you on your way?"

I hesitated. "Yeah."

"You're sure it's the west road? Sori's vitals are almost gone — there's no room for any mistakes here!"

I faltered.

Elise picked up on it immediately from the other end of the line:

"Did you take the wrong road?"

"I..."

"Santiago, Sori doesn't have much time!"

"If you went the wrong way, turn around now! There's still a chance! Any longer and Sori is really going to die!!"

Elise never panicked. Not once.

But right now, her voice was on the verge of tears.

"Santiago... please. Save Sori. He's all we have."

I wavered.

Sori was a miracle we'd fought hard for.

Elise had devoted herself to him in ways I couldn't match. She'd insisted on breastfeeding, hired a nutritionist to plan every meal after he was weaned, and had already set up a trust fund for when he turned eighteen.

Suddenly I felt ridiculous.

How had I, in that one split second, chosen to trust a stream of mysterious floating comments over the woman I'd spent ten years of my life with?

I took a deep breath and jerked the wheel back.

[Are you insane?!]

[If you do this, Sori is gone for good!]

[Keep going straight — there's still time to save him!]

[Wait, did Elise say something to him?]

[Don't let her get in your head! She will do anything for Renato's kid. Anything.]

[Even throw her own son away!]

[He's done. The main character's going to take the blame and jump off a building.]

[You don't even know Elise has been putting money away for Renato's kid this whole time.]

I slammed on the brakes.

Elise had been putting money away for Renato's kid?

The comments kept pouring in:

[He doesn't know that the day Sori had a fever, Elise didn't have an emergency. She was with Renato — a widower who needed a shoulder to cry on.]

[It's almost funny. Renato dumped her back then, she swore she was done with him. Then he showed up holding his kid and crying on his knees, and she just... melted.]

[She breastfed that kid. Hired a nutritionist for him. Set up an eighteen-year trust fund for him.]

[Poor guy has no idea. The leftovers Elise brought home for Sori were actually that other kid's leftovers. He thought she'd prepared it specially for their son.]