The night the city tried to drown itself, Ava Johnson was running through it. I was late for work. Again.

Caleb, his boss, had been very clear: one more delay and he was out. But as he ran through the storm, a sharp sound cut through the noise of the rain. A child’s cry. It stopped dead in its tracks. A few meters ahead, a black car had its rear door wide open. The rain was pouring into the vehicle.

There was no one driving. There were no parents. Ava approached with her heart in her throat. Looking inside, she froze.

Three little girls, triplets, were huddled together in the back seat. They were soaked, trembling, and crying uncontrollably. His phone vibrated in his pocket.

It was Caleb. If he answered, maybe he’d save his job. Otherwise, I would lose everything.

She looked at the girls. One of them reached out her little hand towards her.

Ava didn’t think twice. She put away her phone, wrapped the little girls in her apron, and took them out of there. “Everything’s going to be alright,” she whispered to them, running towards a shelter. Minutes later, a man appeared running through the rain, his face contorted with panic. “My daughters!” he shouted when he saw them, falling to his knees. He explained that he had only been gone for two minutes. Ava handed them over, relieved but trembling.

The man left, grateful, disappearing into the night. Then Ava’s phone vibrated again. A text message: “Don’t come back. You’re fired.” He had saved three lives, but had just ruined his own. However, when he got home, he put his hand in his pocket and found something strange. A small sketchbook that one of the girls must have accidentally dropped. On the first page, there was a name written in elegant handwriting: Madison Vance. Out of curiosity, he looked up the name on his phone. The screen showed a picture of a perfect woman, smiling on the arm of the same man who had lost the girls. The headline read: “The perfect fiancée of the widowed millionaire.” But Ava felt a chill. He remembered the terror in the girls’ eyes. He remembered that the car door was open, not forced. That had not been an accident. Someone had deliberately left that door open. And now, Ava had the only clue that could uncover a terrifying truth.