Was he okay? Did he have anyone?
The next morning, I was halfway through my first cup of coffee when someone knocked on the door.
Not a light knock. Firm. Official.
My stomach tightened.
I opened it to find a uniformed police officer.
He looked tired—eyes red, jaw set.
“Are you Mrs. Collins?” he asked.
“Yes,” I replied cautiously.
“I’m Officer Daniels,” he said, showing his badge. “I need to speak with your son about last night.”
My mind immediately jumped to the worst possibilities.
“Is he in trouble?” I asked.
“No,” Daniels said. “Nothing like that.”
I called upstairs.
“Jax! Come down for a second!”He came down wearing sweats and socks, his pink hair a messy fluff, a smudge of toothpaste still on his chin.
He spotted the officer and froze.
“I didn’t do anything,” he blurted out.
Daniels’ lips twitched slightly.
“I know,” he said. “You did something good.”
Jax narrowed his eyes. “Okay…” he replied.
Daniels took a steady breath.
“What you did last night,” he said, meeting Jax’s gaze, “you saved my baby.”
The room fell silent.
“Your baby?” I asked.
He nodded.
“That newborn the EMTs took… he’s my son.”
Jax’s eyes widened.
“Wait,” he said. “Why was he even out there?”
Daniels swallowed hard.
“My wife passed away three weeks ago,” he said quietly. “There were complications after the birth. It’s just me and him now.”
My grip tightened on the doorframe.
“I had to return to work,” he continued. “I left him with my neighbor. She’s reliable. But her teenage daughter was watching him while she stepped out.”
His expression tightened.
“He started crying. She panicked,” he said. “She took him outside to ‘show a friend.’ It was colder than she realized. He kept crying, and she got scared. She left him on that bench and ran home to get her mom.”
“She left him?” I whispered. “Out there?”
“She’s 14,” he said. “It was a terrible, reckless mistake. My neighbor realized immediately, but by the time they got back… he was gone.”
He looked at Jax again.
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