“J-Jamal?” Her voice cracked, trembling with fear and hope all at once, the words barely escaping her lips.

“Baby, where are you?” Her heart raced faster, pounding in her ears so loud it almost drowned out her own voice. Her pulse thrummed, the anxiety climbing higher with each second, her chest tightening as if the air itself were suffocating her.

A silence followed, stretching unbearably long, and Rachael's mind spiraled in a thousand directions at once. What if something's wrong? What if he's hurt?

Then, finally, a sound—small, a hitch in Jamal’s breath that shattered her heart. “I… I don’t know, Mum,” he whispered, his voice small, scared. It hit...