Melody Summers went downstairs and found that Winnie Summers and Colin Summers were already home, but her aunt, Grace Sutton, had yet to return.
Grace had mentioned she would be working overtime at the clothing factory for a couple of days to meet a deadline. She said she might be late and that they shouldn’t wait for her to eat dinner.
But the Summers family wanted to eat together, so they sat in the living room, watching TV and waiting for Grace to come home.
By a little after 8:00 PM, Grace still hadn’t returned, and everyone was starting to worry.
Just as Colin Summers was about to call her, they heard the sound of the front door opening.
Colin hurried to the door. "Honey, you’re finally back..."
But the words caught in his throat.
Grace Sutton wasn’t alone. She was flanked by two people: Joanna Dunn on one side, and, to his astonishment, Officer Roman Rhodes on the other.
Colin froze on the spot. "Wh-what’s going on?" he asked, completely stunned.
Supported by Roman and Joanna, Grace limped through the door. "Don’t even ask," she grumbled. "On the way home, we ran into some sons of bitches trying to stage a roadside kidnapping."
Colin rushed forward to help his wife, his heart aching as he guided her into the living room.
The rest of the Summers family was startled as the group entered. "Officer Rhodes? Miss Joanna? Why are you all here?" Melody asked in surprise.
Colin and Joanna helped Grace sit down on the sofa. Seeing her limp, their grandmother jumped in alarm. "Grace, dear, what happened to you?" she asked quickly.
Before Grace could answer, Officer Rhodes explained, "They encountered roadside kidnappers on their way home. It’s a group that uses the cover of darkness to commit their crimes. But you can rest assured, after tonight’s incident, all of them have been apprehended."
With that, Officer Rhodes excused himself. He had to get back to his patrol; he had only been dropping Joanna and Grace off on his route and couldn’t stay.
After Officer Rhodes left, Joanna looked guilt-ridden. "I’m so sorry," she said. "When it comes down to it, this is all my fault... It was my foolish kindness that caused all this trouble for everyone..."
Grace immediately grabbed Joanna’s hand to comfort her. "How could you possibly blame yourself? You were just trying to be kind. Who could’ve known they were a bunch of bastards?"
Melody and the others were completely in the dark and pressed them for details about what had happened.
As Grace and Joanna recounted the tale, the family pieced together the sequence of events.
Apparently, Joanna had picked up Grace from work as usual. On the drive home, they saw a woman with a child blocking the road, seemingly trying to get their help.
The driver was about to steer around them and keep going, but the woman suddenly dropped to her knees in the middle of the road.
Joanna had a soft heart. ’I have a driver and two bodyguards with me,’ she thought. ’Out there, it’s just a woman and a child. It should be safe enough to stop and see what’s wrong.’
So, despite Grace’s warnings, she rolled down the window to ask if they needed help.
Unexpectedly, the woman scooped up her child and yelled into the car, "Please, save my child!"
The child was covered in blood, a horrifying sight in the car’s headlights.
Fearing for the child’s life, Joanna quickly got out of the car with one of her bodyguards to take a look.
The moment they stepped out, a van pulled up. Four men jumped out and tried to drag Joanna and the bodyguard into their vehicle.
It was pitch black on a road with no streetlights; Grace and the others hadn’t seen the van at all before it pulled up.
The other bodyguard and the driver immediately jumped out of the car and began to scuffle with the four men.
Just then, the woman who had been on the ground suddenly pulled out a knife, scrambled to her feet, and lunged at Joanna.
Grace had already hit the panic button. Seeing the new threat, she rushed out of the car, pulled out a stun gun, and zapped the knife-wielding woman from behind.
The woman convulsed from the shock and collapsed.
In the struggle, she managed to slash Grace’s calf with the knife.

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