The nanny was taken aback by their change of attitude and she scolded, "How dare you backtrack on the promise?! We made a deal of bringing the kid out only for a while to threaten the family head, but you guys ended up forcing me into the helicopter and bringing me to an isolated place!"
The water might be clear, but it was deep too. A grown-up like her would drown in such depth, let alone a three-year-old kid like Scott.
The men stared back at her with gloomy expressions. "Hand over the boy or throw him into the river by yourself. There's no time to waste!"
"I won't do either! Help! Anybody, help! Someone's trying to kidnap a child!" The nanny didn't wait any longer to turn around with Scott in her arms and shouted for help as she ran away from them.
The men followed her with unhurried steps and one of the men persuaded, "Stop wasting your energy. People aren't going to pass by, so nobody would come to your rescue even if you scream at the top of your lungs. Just do as I say and throw him into the river right now, or else your family won't survive the night."
His threat was a great distraction as the nanny paused for a second at his words. The men seized the opportunity and caught up to her.
…
Meanwhile, Kendall was trying her best to reach the destination on the bicycle as she prayed, God, I need your favor again. Please grant me the luck to save Scott in time.
Even though she might not be able to make acquaintance with the Ford Family, she was content to save a child's life.
She couldn't save her baby in her previous life, so she wanted to put her reincarnation to good use by saving Scott. She was hoping that her good deeds could help her baby reincarnate into a happy family, in which the parents were getting along well and would treat the baby with care in this life.
As she was heading straight to the location of the incident that she always had kept in her memory, the riverside came into her view not long after.
At first, Kendall saw three people on the riverbank from a distance. Why are there three people? Forget it. I need to get closer and see if the nanny's also there.
Counting on her combat skills, she wasn't afraid of the risk as she rode onto the riverbank.
Seeing her approaching, the men warned the nanny, "Think about your family. Don't do anything stupid and act natural. "
The nanny tightened her arms around Scott as thoughts ran wild in her mind. Her family would survive if she threw Scott into the river to drown him. However, the boy was innocent. Besides, she had grown fond of him over the past year. As she stared back at his clear eyes, she couldn't make up her mind to hurt him.
As Kendall came closer, the three stepped aside without a word to make space for her to pass.
She slowed down to observe the boy in the woman's arms. Even if she paid attention to this event in her previous life, she had never known what he looked like.
Moreover, Kendall knew she couldn't snatch the kid from them without a plan, so she eventually slowed down the bike and stopped before them.
The men exchanged glances and silently agreed on getting rid of Kendall if she brought variability to their plan.
Kendall parked her bicycle on the side while pretending to grab her fishing kits as she turned to them with a casual tone. "Are you here for fishing too? Or are you here to enjoy the beautiful view in the rural area?"
"We planned to fish, but ended up finding out we forgot to bring the bait here." One of the men lied through a calm façade.
"Oh? Is that so? I have many of them. Do you need some? There's a lot of fish in the river, so many people come here to fish every day, especially on the weekends." She feigned ignorance as she talked to them with enthusiasm.
"Thank you for your kindness. Maybe next time, though. The kid can't wait to go home, so we'll come back next time." The man, who had been doing the talking, extended his arms toward the nanny to grab Scott. To his surprise, Scott pushed his hands away and struggled to get out of the nanny's hold.
The nanny had no choice but to release Scott from her arms and helped him to the ground. She wouldn't want to drag an outsider's attention to their business and had her suspect them.
"Pretty Lady." Scott managed to dodge the man's arms, which were reaching out again for him, and strode in Kendall's direction before wrapping his arms around her leg. Lifting his adorable face at her, the boy pleaded, "Pretty Lady, please give me a hug."
Kendall did as told without a trace of hesitation and straightened up.
"Come on, son. Follow me. We're leaving." The man took a step forward, trying to take the boy away.
Scott put his arms around Kendall's neck and shouted, "Lady, he's not my father! I don't know him at all! They are bad guys that want to throw me into the river! Call the police on them!"
The boy couldn't understand what was happening to him until he heard the adults' argument. His nanny and the men weren't thinking of taking the argument somewhere else, so he heard them clearly that they were drowning him in the river.
Even though Scott was only three years old, he was already studying in kindergarten. The teacher taught him to seek help from the police when encountered danger.
His intuition told him that Kendall, the pretty lady, was a good person. Therefore, Scott struggled out of his nanny's grip and ran over to Kendall. It was only until he was safe in her arms that he could finally reveal the truth.
Kendall stepped away to avoid the man's outstretched arms with Scott in her embrace. "You are not his family?"
"Come on, son. Stop causing any trouble. Miss, my son likes to cause mischief. He's only lying to mess with you."
"Lady, I'm not lying! Call the police on them! They're the bad guys!"
Holding Scott in her arms, Kendall stepped to the side a few times and avoided several attempts of the man to get hold of them. When the men saw her trying to use her free hand to grab her phone, they gave up on their friendly demeanor and chose violence as they lunged at her at the same time, attempting to grab Scott.
Kendall landed a kick right on a man's stomach as she struck back. They weren't expecting this and she caught them off guard.
As the pain spread through him, the man took a few steps back as he was covering the injured spot and grimacing in pain.
Another man was raging as he took a glance and found his companion in his condition. Just as he was about to attack, another punch struck him in the nose and he bled immediately.
He was lucky that he was still conscious as Kendall had to hold Scott in her arms, so she couldn't fight him with all of her might.
Kendall succeeded to earn herself a few seconds with the element of surprise. However, she didn't dwell on the fight as Scott's safety was her main priority.
Holding Scott in her arms, she started running from them. The men followed right after her and Scott once they came back to their senses.
Knowing she would eventually exhaust herself and get caught by running away without a plan, Kendall put Scott on the ground and reminded him, "Little One, you should run. Look for a place with thickets and bushes, and hide there. I'll go get you once I deal with the bad guys."
"Alright." The boy was aware of the dire situation, so he agreed with her without a hint of hesitation. Once she finished her words, Scott took it as a cue as he turned on his heels and began to run.
Kendall turned around and faced their pursuers once Scott got out of her view to hide.
As soon as she exchanged blows with them, she was affirmed that her opponents were trained fighters. She only managed to land a blow on them a few moments ago because the men weren't expecting a woman would take the initiative to fight back.
The nanny was standing at the riverbank, not bothering to help nor look for Scott. As if she was possessed, she stood there for a while before she walked toward the water.
Noticing her moving toward the river, Kendall shouted at her, "Hey! Don't jump!"
The nanny did not stop at Kendall's words.
As Kendall was struggling to fight against two men, she did not have the capacity to stop the nanny from jumping into the river. She couldn't retreat from the men and save the nanny, or else they would leave to search for Scott and kill him.
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