I opened the door with my heart in my throat.

“Are you Mrs. Collins?” the officer asked.

“Yes…”

“I’m Officer Daniels. I need to speak with your son about last night.”

Every worst-case scenario flashed through my mind.

Did we do something wrong?

Was Jax in trouble for taking the baby?

I turned. “Jax!”

He came down the stairs slowly, still in his hoodie, hair a mess, eyes tired.

“What’s up?” he muttered.

The officer looked at him for a long moment.

Then his expression… changed.

Not anger.

Not suspicion.

Something softer.

“You’re the one who found the baby?” he asked.

Jax shrugged. “Yeah.”

“You stayed with him until we arrived?”

“Obviously.”

The officer nodded slowly.

Then he did something I never expected.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded paper.

“This came in this morning,” he said, handing it to me.

“It was found near where the baby was left.”

My hands trembled as I opened it.

A note.

Messy handwriting.

Desperate.

“Please… I can’t take care of him.

I’ve been sleeping outside for weeks. I haven’t eaten properly. He deserves more than this.

I saw the boy with the pink hair sitting here every night. He looks tough, but he’s kind. I thought… maybe he would help.

Please don’t hate me.

His name is Eli.”

My vision blurred.

I looked up at Jax.

He was staring at the floor.

Silent.

The officer cleared his throat.

“The baby is alive because of you,” he said.

“If you hadn’t wrapped him up and stayed with him… he wouldn’t have made it through the night.”

The room went completely still.

“For what it’s worth,” the officer added quietly, “we don’t see that kind of instinct very often.”

Jax shifted awkwardly. “I just… didn’t want him to die.”

Later that day, the hospital called.

They said Eli was stable.

Safe.

And then they asked something I wasn’t prepared for.

“Would your family be open to fostering him… temporarily?”

I looked at Jax.

Really looked at him.

The kid everyone judged.

The one I worried about.

The one I thought was lost half the time.

He didn’t say anything.

Just nodded once.

And in that moment…

I realized something.

People saw a punk kid with a bad attitude.

But I saw what they couldn’t.

A boy who sat in the cold… waiting.

So that someone smaller than him wouldn’t have to.