Chapter 3

"What? That's impossible!" Rachel shouted, breaking free from Edward's embrace.

She didn't care who was watching. She rushed straight over to Lucas, panic written all over her face.

"How could that be? I never helped you transfer schools," Rachel cried out.

From my seat at the back of the room, I cleared my throat, drawing everyone's attention for a moment.

"Sorry, that was me," I admitted.

Rachel went ballistic, charging at me and grabbing my collar. Then she shouted, "Who do you think you are? First, you threaten Edward with a fake divorce agreement, and now you go behind my back and transfer my son to another school?

"You're so cruel. Aren't you afraid Edward might leave you for real?"

I held the divorce agreement, gave it a casual glance, and replied coolly, "Nope."

Edward's unease grew more obvious when he heard how calm I sounded.

He rushed straight up to me, snatched the divorce agreement out of my hand, and pored over every page like his life depended on it. There it was, a real, official document, stamped with his own signature.

That was when it hit him. I wasn't joking around.

Edward lost it.

He blurted out, "You really want to divorce me?

"Our daughter is only five. How could you leave her without a father? Is it because I gave Lucas her spot at school? Is that all it takes?"

He still couldn't believe I was serious about leaving him.

Rachel was way too busy to argue with me. She was glued to her phone, double-checking everything with Lucas's teacher.

The teacher sounded genuinely shocked through the phone as she said, "Lucas has already transferred schools.

"I'm not sure myself. Yesterday, the school gave me a heads-up saying that Lucas Jones has already completed the transfer, and it's out-of-district.

"His student files have been sent to Laho Elementary, all the way out in a village. It's about nine hundred miles from Altuls."

As Rachel listened to the teacher break it all down, her complexion drained of all color, shock and dread flickering in her eyes.

Laho Elementary School was way out in a remote village. Once his records got shipped off there, it was impossible to reverse the whole process and bring him back.

Rachel's knees gave out, and she slumped to the ground, wrapping Lucas in her arms as she burst into heart-wrenching tears.

Ever since my lawyer friend told me I was Lucas's legal guardian, I thought I'd done enough to give them chance after chance.

But in the end, they still let my daughter down. They kept letting my little girl get hurt.

They probably thought everything was settled and that I was out of options. After all, Lucas was a first grader, and legally, no one could pull a kid out of school at that age.

But the law never said I couldn't transfer him to another school.

I'd already gotten all the paperwork sorted out nicely and quickly.

Then I immediately reached out to someone at the admissions office, asking them to help me transfer Lucas to a new school.

My one condition was that the school had to be as far away as possible.

If they were so desperate for Lucas to take my daughter's place and become some superstar, as his guardian, sending him out to a village to study seemed like the least I could do.

Edward looked at me, torn between guilt and frustration, and his voice lowered as he scolded, "Can you not do this anymore? I get that you're upset, but did you have to go that far and transfer Lucas to a whole different school?

"I know it's all my fault. I promise I won't get involved with them ever again. Can we please back off from this, okay?"

When Rachel heard that, her face drained of every last trace of color.

"Edward, didn't you say you'd be Lucas's father forever?" Rachel pressed.

A flicker of hesitation crossed Edward's face.

He had sworn that to her once, after all.