The Wrong Son Died
My husband, Mark, a lead negotiator for the city police, arrived on the scene. But instead of taking charge, he gestured to the young intern at his side.
The intern, Chloe, pouted, her lower lip trembling just so.
“Mark, honey, I’ve never done a real one before. I don’t know what to say.”
A fond, indulgent smile spread across my husband’s face.
“Hey, don’t worry,” he said, his voice a low murmur meant only for her. “Just talk to him. Follow your instincts. I’m right here.”
Three sentences in, the hijacker’s furious shouting had Chloe’s face burning red. Panicked, she screamed into the receiver.
“You’re a dead man! The director’s son, Leo, is on that bus! She’ll make sure you rot in prison for this!”
The hijacker, enraged, decided to make an example of someone. A child was murdered. Moments later, a police sniper took the hijacker down.
In the chaotic aftermath, I saw my husband wrapping his arms around a sobbing Chloe.
“It’s not your fault,” he whispered, stroking her hair. “No one can guarantee a negotiation will work one hundred percent of the time.”
Then, he walked over to me, placing a heavy hand on my shoulder.
“I know it’s hard,” he said, his voice flat. “Leo was unlucky. It has nothing to do with Chloe.”
He paused, leaning in closer. “Maybe you could put out a statement for her. Something about her courage and quick thinking, how she prevented more casualties.”
I stared at him, the world tilting on its axis. It took a full second for his words to register. He thought the child who died… was my son. Our son.
A cold, brittle laugh escaped my lips.
“I could write one,” I said, my voice dripping with ice. “But I don’t think you two would want to receive it.”
1
When Mark and his intern had first arrived, he’d immediately turned to her.
“Chloe, you take point on this one. It’s a valuable field experience.”
Chloe’s lip did its signature pout, her voice a saccharine drawl.
“Oh, Mark… I’m so nervous. It’s my first time, I don’t know where to even start…”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I rushed forward and grabbed Mark’s arm.
“Are you insane? There are twenty-two children on that bus. This is Chloe’s first time in the field? It’s too reckless!”
Mark violently shook my hand off.
“Audrey, what do you know about this? I’m well aware of Chloe’s professional capabilities. Stop getting in the way.”
He turned back to Chloe, his expression softening as he gave her shoulder a supportive squeeze.
“Don’t be scared. Just trust your gut and give it a try. I’m right here to back you up, no matter what.”
Watching them, so wrapped up in their own private world, a chill snaked up my spine from the concrete. The other parents, who had started to gather, were a mess of tears and frantic prayers, the scene descending into chaos.
The negotiation line connected.
Chloe took a deep breath, forcing a cloying sweetness into her voice.
“Hello, sir, my name is Chloe Hayes, I’m a crisis negotiator. I’m asking you to please remain calm, we can talk about your needs…”
She was cut off by a raw, guttural scream from the phone.
“Talk about my ass! Get me a car and cash, now, or I start killing kids!”
Chloe froze, her face flushing a deep, mottled red. Humiliated, she lost all composure and shrieked back into the phone.
“You’ll be sorry! Do you have any idea whose bus you’ve taken? The director’s son, Leo, is on that bus! You touch a hair on any of those kids’ heads, and she will make sure you never see the light of day again! The police will put a bullet in your head!”
“Chloe, shut up!” The words tore from my throat. My blood ran cold. “What are you doing? You’re going to get him enraged!”
Chloe whipped her head around, her eyes flashing with annoyance.
“Director Reed, you don’t understand negotiation tactics, so don’t interfere! I’m applying psychological pressure.”
She then turned to Mark, her eyes welling up with tears.
“Mark, do you see this? She’s… she’s interfering with my work…”
Mark’s glare was like a physical blow. “Audrey, be quiet. Chloe is a professional. I trust her judgment. Stop causing trouble.”
But on the other end of the line, the hijacker had, predictably, been pushed over the edge. His voice was a venomous roar.
“Leo? The director’s kid? Fine! Just fine! He’ll be the first to go! A warning to the rest of you!”
“Who’s Leo? Get your ass up here, now!”
The bus erupted with the terrified screams of children. Small silhouettes scrambled away from the windows, huddling together in fear. My heart seized, along with those of every parent there. Several mothers looked like they were about to collapse.
But Chloe, as if determined to prove herself, leaned into the microphone again, her voice a taunt.
“You think you’re tough? Go on, try it! You’ll never get away with it! You’ll die, too! You’re nothing but a coward who preys on children!”
I couldn’t take it anymore. I lunged towards her.
“Chloe, you don’t care about anyone else, but what about your own child? Liam is on that bus, too!”
A flicker of surprise crossed her face, quickly replaced by a cold sneer.
“Audrey, what are you talking about? My son doesn’t even go to your preschool. He’s at his grandmother’s today. How could he possibly be on that bus?”
She turned back to Mark, her voice dripping with manufactured sweetness.
“Mark, see? She just has it out for me. She’s trying to throw me off my game…”
Mark’s face was a thundercloud. He grabbed my arm and pulled me back roughly.
“Audrey, I told you to back off, didn’t you hear me? You interfere with this investigation again, and I’ll have an officer remove you. Forcibly.”
In the instant we were arguing, a corner of the bus curtain was ripped aside.
The hijacker’s eyes locked onto a small figure huddled in a corner seat. On the back of the child’s backpack, a name was clearly embroidered.
He snatched the child, dragging him to the window and screaming hysterically at the crowd outside.
“I’ve got him! The director’s son, Leo! Now all of you back the hell off! You surround me, and I’ll kill him right now!”
2
The hijacker pressed the child’s back flat against the windowpane, the glint of a knife blade pressed against his small neck.
“Back off! All of you, get back! Get me a car, or he dies right now!”
Captain Miller, the on-site commander, his face ashen, spoke low into his radio.
“All units, confirm sniper is in position. Wait for a clean shot. Negotiation team, try to de-escalate, buy us some time…”
“No!”
Mark’s voice cut through the tension.
“Captain, give Chloe another chance. The subject is agitated, but Chloe is getting through to him. Changing negotiators or going tactical now will only provoke him. Chloe, quickly, talk to him. Stabilize the situation.”
Chloe took a shaky breath and raised the bullhorn again, her voice now filled with a bizarre, self-righteous fury.
“To the perpetrator inside! We will not surrender to evil!”
“Your only way out is to release the hostages and drop your weapon now!”
“Preying on the weak doesn’t make you strong! Go ahead and kill him, but know this: the full weight of the law will come down on you. You’ll get the death penalty!”
The parents and I stared, dumbfounded.
“What is she saying?”
“Is she insane? She’s not even trying to save the child!”
As expected, the hijacker was completely enraged.
“Fine! Fine! You pushed me to this! You all did!”
His broken, desperate roar echoed from inside the bus.
Then, a sudden, horrifying spray of crimson splattered across the window.
“Ah!”
Chloe, standing closest, witnessed the gruesome act firsthand.
She let out a piercing shriek and collapsed to the pavement with a thud, her cell phone shattering beside her. She just lay there, sobbing incoherently.
The hijacker’s crazed voice started again.
“You see that? Now if you don’t back…”
CRACK.
A single, clean gunshot echoed through the street.
The hijacker’s voice stopped. He crumpled to the floor, a bullet hole in his forehead.
The scene exploded into motion.
Police officers swarmed the bus, carrying out crying children and handing them over to their weeping parents.
I stood frozen, my eyes fixed on that blood-stained window, a glacial cold spreading through my body.
Just then, Mark rushed past me, straight to the collapsed form of Chloe.
He gathered her into his arms, holding her tight, one hand gently patting her back.
“Chloe, it’s over, it’s okay…”
“It wasn’t your fault. This is how it goes sometimes. No one can guarantee a hundred percent success rate. The guy was a monster. It wasn’t your fault.”
Chloe, as if finding her anchor, buried her face in his chest, her sobs becoming more theatrical, more tragic.
“Mark… it was… it was so scary…”
After comforting her for a long moment, Mark helped her to her feet.
Then he turned to me, standing there like a statue, and patted my shoulder.
“Audrey, I know you’re in pain.”
“Our son is gone. He was unlucky. But this has nothing to do with Chloe, so… don’t take it out on her.”
He paused, lowering his voice, a clear warning in his tone.
“The department is going to take statements, conduct interviews. When they ask, you know there are things you should say, and things you shouldn’t. Right?”
“Chloe’s been through a severe psychological trauma. I need to get her to a counselor. The… arrangements for the child, I’ll have to trust you to handle that for now.”
I snapped my head up, looking at him in utter disbelief.
Our son? Unlucky?
And then it hit me.
From the very beginning, they both assumed—they were certain—that the child the hijacker killed, the one he mistook for “Leo,” was my son.
3
An absurd, soul-deep chill spread from my heart to my fingertips.
A father, believing his son had just been brutally murdered, and his first instinct wasn’t to collapse in grief, not to see his child one last time, but to comfort another woman and coach me on what to say to the police?
I took a deep breath, my voice dangerously level.
“Mark, you’re mistaken. The boy who died… it wasn’t Leo.”
I held his gaze. “It was Liam. The names are similar. The hijacker must have misheard.”
The air crackled with a sudden, tense silence.
Chloe stared for a second, then let out a scoffing laugh.
“What are you even talking about? Audrey, just because your son is dead, you’re going to curse someone else’s child?”
Her expression shifted to one of wounded innocence.
“Are you doing this just to get back at me? Blaming me because the negotiation didn’t go perfectly?”
Mark’s face darkened, his eyes filling with disappointment and accusation as he looked at me.
“Audrey, all the other children were rescued. The only one missing from the roster is Leo. That’s a fact.”
“Instead of cooperating with the police and making arrangements for Leo, you’re standing here saying these… these vicious things. What kind of mother are you?”
Seeing his performance of righteous indignation, I almost wanted to laugh.
“I’m not a good mother?”
“And what about you, Mark? You thought Leo was dead. So why weren’t you sad? Why wasn’t there a single tear in your eye? Why aren’t your eyes even red?”
My question stopped him cold. A flash of panic crossed his face before it was replaced by anger.
“I was on the job! I have to maintain my professional composure! Unlike you. You’re the director of that preschool, and you couldn’t even protect your own students. You let a maniac get on that bus and cause this tragedy. After this, I doubt your preschool will even be allowed to stay open.”
His words were cold, cruel.
I looked at the face I once knew, now twisted into the mask of a stranger, and my heart sank to the bottom of a cold, dark well.
Chloe, feigning distress, tugged on Mark’s sleeve, tears instantly appearing in her eyes.
“Mark, honey, don’t fight because of me. It’s my fault. If I just had more field experience, maybe… maybe Leo would still be alive…”
Mark pulled her into a protective embrace.
“Chloe, don’t you dare blame yourself. It’s okay. Don’t cry.”
He turned back to glare at me.
“Audrey, that’s enough. Do you think losing a son gives you a free pass to bully people?”
“I’m letting it go this time. You need to go home and think about what you’ve done.”
Seeing that I was no longer speaking, Mark assumed he had silenced me. He didn’t give me another glance, turning all his tenderness to Chloe.
“Chloe, don’t pay any attention to her. Come on, I’ll take you to the hospital to get checked out.”
They turned and walked away, never once looking back at the blood-stained school bus.
The police tried to contact Liam’s family several times, but Chloe’s phone went unanswered.
Liam’s information wasn’t in my preschool’s official records, so as the director, I had no authority to sign off on any paperwork.
During my official debriefing, I recounted the entire incident in meticulous detail, including every word of Chloe’s negotiation.
4
The moment I walked through the front door, Mark stormed towards me, his face radiating fury. He slammed a file folder down on the table in front of me.
“Audrey, look at what you’ve done!”
His face was contorted, his voice tight with rage.
“What the hell did you say in your statement? Why did you have to emphasize that it was Chloe’s first negotiation? Do you have any idea what you’ve done? You’ve completely destroyed her career!”
I slowly lifted my head.
“I told the truth. You didn’t think she did anything wrong, did you? So how could the truth possibly destroy her?”
“You…!”
Mark’s finger trembled as he pointed at me.
“What good does the truth do now? If Chloe has a child’s death on her record from her very first field case, her career is over before it even started! And I, as her supervising mentor, will face a severe reprimand! Don’t you understand that?”
He took a deep breath, his tone shifting to one of command.
“You are going back to the station right now, and you’re going to tell them you were in shock, that you misremembered. You’re going to say Chloe was brave and did everything she could to de-escalate.”
“And furthermore, as Leo’s mother, you are going to issue a formal letter of understanding. You’ll also give her a public commendation, stating that you understand and appreciate her efforts… That’s the only way to make this go away.”
I looked at him as if he were a complete stranger.
To protect Chloe, he was asking me to lie, to rewrite reality.
I slowly shook my head, my voice firm.
“I can’t issue a letter of understanding. I don’t have the right.”
“If you don’t have the right, who does?” Mark roared, his patience completely gone. “You won’t write it? Fine! I’ll write it! I’m still Leo’s legal father. I have that right!”
I stared straight into his eyes, a chilling disbelief washing over me.
“Mark, you would go this far for her? Don’t you realize you’d be falsifying a report? That’s illegal!”
Mark let out a bitter laugh.
“Do you know how hard Chloe has worked to change careers? She’s a single mother, busting her ass at the department, trying to get a foothold. So a small accident happens, and we should help her out. Why is your mind so twisted? Can’t you stand to see anyone else succeed?”
Just then, his phone rang.
Chloe’s hysterical sobs poured through the speaker.
“Mark, I can’t do this anymore. Everyone at work is whispering, they’re saying I killed that child… I can’t stay here… I just… I can’t go on living…”
Mark’s face instantly flooded with panic. He rushed to soothe her.
“Chloe, calm down, don’t do anything stupid! I’m on my way! Just wait for me!”
He hung up and shot me a venomous look.
“Audrey, I’m telling you, if anything happens to Chloe today, I will never forgive you.”
Looking at his cold, determined face, the last shred of affection I held for our marriage evaporated.
“Mark, I want a divorce.”
He stopped dead in his tracks, his body rigid.
“Are you crazy? Our son just died. I’m grieving too. The killer has been shot, what more do you want? Is this really the time to be talking about a divorce?”
His tone was dripping with annoyance, as if I were being completely irrational.
“If you want a child that badly, once this all blows over, we can just… we can adopt Liam. He’s about the same age as Leo. Once you get to know him, you’ll grow to love him.”
He didn’t wait for a response. He yanked open the door and was gone.
I stood there, frozen.
So that’s how he saw it. A son was just a piece that could be easily replaced.
Fine. Just fine.
In that case, I didn’t need to show him any mercy at all.
I found myself almost looking forward to the moment he discovered the truth.
5
Facing intense public scrutiny, Mark quickly organized a press conference.
“As a family member of the deceased,” he began, his voice heavy with performative grief, “I believe that Ms. Chloe Hayes acted with tremendous courage. The external criticism comes from those who do not understand the difficult nature of our work.”
A murmur went through the crowd of reporters. If the family had forgiven her, what else was there to say?
Chloe, seated beside him, dabbed at the corner of her eye, her shoulders trembling slightly, the picture of a fragile victim.
A reporter raised her hand.
“Mr. Reed, in your opinion, does the preschool—that is, your wife, Director Audrey Reed—bear any responsibility in this incident?”
Mark let out a deep sigh, his face a mask of solemn, familial duty.
“Although she is my wife, I cannot let personal feelings cloud my professional judgment. Objectively speaking, there were clear security lapses at the preschool that allowed the perpetrator to board the bus. That is an undeniable failure.”
His words sent a shockwave through the room.
Reporters scribbled furiously. The tide of public opinion turned on me in an instant. Online, headlines screaming “Director’s Negligence” and “Shut Down Bright Beginnings” began to spread like wildfire.
It was then that I stood up from my seat in the back of the room.
Mark and Chloe saw me, and the color drained from their faces.
I took the microphone offered to me, my voice calm and clear.
“Mr. Reed, Ms. Hayes, by your account, this incident resulted in only one casualty. Does that mean that in the eyes of professional negotiators, this can be defined as a ‘successful’ rescue operation?”
The question was as sharp as a scalpel.
Mark’s expression hardened, his brow furrowing.
I turned my gaze to Chloe.
“Ms. Hayes, a hypothetical question for you. If you had known that your son, Liam, was on that bus, would you have employed the same aggressive and provocative negotiation tactics?”
A flash of panic lit Chloe’s eyes, but she quickly masked it with an air of righteous indignation.
“Director Reed, I understand your grief, but please do not profane my professional ethics with such a question!”
“It wouldn’t matter whose child was on that bus. I would always adhere to my principles! My conscience is clear!”
A cold smile touched my lips. I held her gaze.
“So even if it was your child who died, you believe there were no problems with how this case was handled?”
Chloe bit her lip, her voice ringing with conviction.
“If my child had died on that bus, I would only feel pride. He would have died for a worthy cause!”
Mark frowned, cutting in. “Audrey, stop this. Go home.”
“I know you’re scared of the online backlash, scared of being held accountable, and that’s why you’re making a scene. Don’t worry. I will face it with you.”
He gave a slight nod to the security guards, signaling for them to escort me out. The room buzzed with chatter, the crowd’s eyes on me filled with contempt and anger.
I pushed away the guard’s arm and began to clap slowly, a small, chilling smile on my face.
“Excellent. Truly excellent. I hope you both remember what you said today. Because you can’t… ever… take it back.”
My attitude seemed to infuriate Chloe. She lifted her chin, adopting a posture of untouchable integrity.
“Of course I won’t take it back. I, Chloe Hayes, have always acted with a clear conscience!”
At that exact moment, the main doors at the back of the conference hall swung open.
An old woman walked in, holding the hand of a small boy.
First, search for and download the MotoNovel app from Google. Then, open the app and use the code "255088" to read the entire book.
MotoNovel
Novellia
Bookworm« Previous Post
My Always and Forever
Next Post »
My Unborn Son's Secret