The Billionaire's Ex-Wife Returns!
Chapter 52: Helpless Boy

Chapter 52: Helpless Boy

His eyes were drawn to her phone, looking at it as if he had just found a device that made him curious, wondering what she was holding in her hand.

It would be strange for a young boy his age not to know what a phone is, considering that almost all humans in the world have one. But Lucy looked at the boy again, noticing the sincere curiosity that gathered in his eyes, and came up with a chilling and horrible thought.

Was he locked up somewhere?

Lucy felt a chill in her spine at her guess, wanting to dispel it from her mind. Yet the nagging feeling that she was so close to the truth made her eyes stay on the little boy, who hadn’t noticed her staring.

Now that they sat so close, she was able to see the boy’s face up close. His hair was long and his eyes were covered by his bangs, but the gaps between it peeked a pair of dark eyes. Lowering her gaze, she also took note of the boy’s tall, but small nose and pale, dry lips. Without a doubt, he would grow up into a handsome-looking young man in several years.

But right now, Lucy was bothered by his sunken cheeks and the cuts that had already scabbed on his face.

Just as Lucy was about to question the boy about what had happened to him, the sound of a siren rang again.

The officers dispatched by the police headquarters came quickly. They were fast to find Lucy. When they saw the two police officers who had come earlier and the boy’s parent, a doubtful glaze appeared in their eyes.

Lucy stepped out of her house and greeted them, "Good morning, officers."

The newly arrived police officers stepped forward and nodded at her.

"What seems to be wrong here, Miss Grey?" one of them moved his gaze at each one of the people in the corridor, frowning deeper as he still couldn’t understand the situation.

The police officer on cahoots with the boy’s parents spoke before Lucy could say anything, "Sorry about this. We were just fixing the problem here. There’s no need to trouble the headquarters with this matter."

He immediately acted by showing his police ID before telling them the situation, omitting the part where Lucy had made a report first, and tried to paint her as the bad guy who took the poor man and woman’s child hostage.

He must be thinking that it was better for him to strike first and make their story believable. Then, Lucy would once again become a villain in their eyes.

While speaking, the man couldn’t help but glance at Lucy, waiting for her to react badly so he could indict her further.

But, contrary to what he was expecting, Lucy was calm and relaxed. A smile was even hanging on the corners of her lips, seemingly watching him fool himself in front of her.

The man grew suspicious of Lucy, wondering what she was thinking. But he was confident the cops from the headquarters would believe him since he was also a police officer.

The cops from the headquarters looked at each other, taking note of his words. But they didn’t act rashly and proceeded to go through the process first.

"Miss Grey, you said you were being threatened by people with weapons... are you talking about these men?" one of the cops asked. He paused for a second when Lucy nodded, and asked again, "Can you please tell us what happened?"

Lucy nodded.

She recounted what happened when the boy knocked on her door, the report she made first, the arrival of local police officers, and their act of forcing their way in through verbal threats.

"I wouldn’t have made the call if I didn’t feel threatened. Who knows what would happen if I still didn’t let them in? But, officers, it isn’t right for men to enter a woman’s house without permission, cops or not."

"This is an urgent matter and you are obviously keeping the child in your house!" the local police officers shouted angrily.

"Keeping? How?" Lucy raised her eyebrows. "The door’s open and I didn’t tie the boy either. He can walk out of my house anytime he wants. You can see for yourself."

The headquarters police officers looked through the door as Lucy stepped aside. From their point of view, the living room was just in front of them, and the little boy was sitting obediently on the sofa. He wasn’t tied up or chained.

"Tha—that’s because he’s afraid to go out! He’s just scared of you!" the woman accused and pointed her finger at Lucy. "Officers, look at my son! He’s trembling over there. How scared he must be for a stranger to take him inside their house!"

Even now, the woman continued to spray dirty water on Lucy.

But Lucy didn’t panic.

Even when the headquarters police said, "Can we enter your house and check the boy?"

Lucy nodded, letting them walk inside. But when the four people wanted to step in, she blocked them again and smiled.

"I didn’t say you can come in."

After saying this, she turned around and closed the door behind her before anyone could react.

Inside the living room, the boy was still sitting on the single-seater sofa. But he was no longer shaking as much as he did earlier. His attention was centered on the phone Lucy placed on top of the coffee table.

"Hello, boy. We’re the police from the headquarters. We’re here to check on you."

One of them opened his mouth in a friendly and gentle way, but as soon as he mentioned the ’police’, the boy suddenly flinched and lowered his head further to his chest.

His reaction was so big that the officers glanced at Lucy with a doubtful gaze, but she only shrugged her shoulders. She didn’t do anything to him. He also acted like that when the two police officers came earlier.

"Miss Grey, can you please leave the room so we can talk to the boy?" one of the cops suddenly said. It wasn’t too obvious, but Lucy could tell that one of them was about to believe the claim about her being the bad guy.

She didn’t care, though. She didn’t do anything wrong.

"Alright."

Lucy turned around and was about to walk towards her bedroom when the boy suddenly jumped from his seat and grabbed her clothes from the back, making her stop from walking.

Turning her head slightly, Lucy looked down to see the top of the boy’s head. He still did not dare look at her straight in the eyes. But the grip in his hand when pulling her was strong.

The boy’s strange movement certainly caught the cops’ attention and everyone looked at her.

Lucy raised both her hands with a helpless look on her face that said ’I didn’t do anything’.

The cop who told Lucy to leave the room walked towards them, wanting to pull the boy away from her. But once he moved, the boy hid behind Lucy.

"This..."

He was speechless.

Lucy snorted silently. "I think you should stand over there, officer. This boy seemed to be afraid of the police. Though, I don’t know why..."

There was a subtle deeper meaning in her words, but even Lucy didn’t know why the boy was afraid of the police. Could it be because of the two police officers with his parents?

That might be it. But it doesn’t make sense for him to be afraid in front of them. After all, they didn’t come from the local police.

As much as Lucy wanted to be done with everything, it didn’t seem like this matter would be finished with just words alone.

So, under the gaze of the cops, Lucy crouched down beside the boy and said, "Hey, sweetie, there’s no need to be scared of. They’re good guys who came to help, not like the bad guys outside."

The boy didn’t answer, but he shook his head.

He had never said a word, but somehow, Lucy could understand what he was saying. Being a mother helped her understand what a child wanted without it having to be said.

"It’s okay, you don’t need to trust them. Just trust me, okay?" she softly said. The boy must have experienced a terrifying thing for him not to trust anyone. Fortunately, though, he seemed more open to her.

When the boy still didn’t want to look at the cops and wanted to hide from them, he heard Lucy speak in front of him.

"What about this? If they try to do anything bad to you, Auntie will punish them for you. I’ll stand here beside you when they ask you questions. You don’t have to force yourself to answer if you don’t want to."

The cop from earlier wanted to object to her suggestion, but his senior pulled him back and shook his head.

"That’s right, boy. You don’t have to say anything you don’t want to say. Don’t be afraid of anyone."

After a long while of coaxing the boy, the round of questioning from the cops finally happened.

But unsurprisingly, the boy did not answer. No. He did answer their questions bravely, but he had never uttered a word, only nodding and shaking his head.

Following the questions the cops asked and the answers the boy gave them by nodding and shaking his head, they finally understood what was happening.

As expected, the man and woman outside were abusing him. And this wasn’t the first time. They had been doing this for quite a while now.