"Daddy, where are we going?" Kai asks me from his car seat while I rush to get to the police station since Officer Daniels had finally contacted me and told me that he had some information on the man that tried to pick up my son. It's been a month since the incident at daycare and I've been worrying constantly and having no information made things 10 times worse. I didn't have time to drop Kai off at Kadri or my parent's house, so I just decided to bring him with me since I had my phone and some headphones for him to use so he didn't hear anything.

"We're going to the police station, buddy. Do you know what that is?" I ask him in a happy tone, so I don't scare him or anything.

"Police station is where bad people go. Are we bad?" He asks, looking confused when I glance in the rearview mirror at him. I immediately shake my head, giving him a smile to make him feel better.

"No, we're not bad people. I just have to talk with someone, okay? Then, we'll go back home and we can play whatever you want," I tell him. He seems happy with my response and doesn't ask any more questions. He kept his eyes busy by staring at all the buildings passing by as I continue to listen to where my GPS was telling me to go. I notice that Kai was holding Alfie, which is what he named his monster stuffed animal that he takes everywhere with him.

When I park in a space, I quickly get out to grab Kai from his car seat. When I see that his face had become one of concern, I stop everything I was doing and look down at him with a smile. I brush my hand over his head before securing the blanket around his body that I brought with since it was pretty cold out today. Before I could ask him what was wrong, he speaks up. "Something's wrong."

I frown at his statement because I didn't think I looked like I was scared or nervous or anything. I had tried to remain happy for him, but I guess I hadn't been doing a good enough job. I run my hand over his head again as I give him Alfie before closing the car door. "Nothing's wrong, Kai. Everything's alright."

He reaches his tiny hand up and runs it over my eyebrows that must've been furrowed. "Wrong."

I smile at his statement before pressing a kiss to his forehead. "I promise you that everything's okay. I'm going to talk to a really nice officer about the man at daycare. Do you remember him?"

"No, Daddy! I don't want to talk about the man!" He says, immediately becoming scared from me mentioning it. I hold him closer to me, not realizing that he was as scared about the incident as he was. He hadn't shown any fear about the man, even when he went back to daycare. He just acted like nothing had happened and moved on, but I guess he was too scared to even talk about it. I had talked with him about it multiple times since we had made up the safeword, so I assumed he understood that he was safe, but I guess not. I lean back against my car as I lightly rock him since he was now shivering, probably from fear instead of the cold.

"Kai, I'm meeting with the nice officer about protecting you. Remember what protect means?" I ask, making him think for a moment before his face brightens and he nods eagerly.

"Keep safe," he tells me, looking proud of himself for remembering what I had taught him.

I nod my head, giving him a smile to make him feel better. "Yes, exactly. We're going to keep you safe, but in doing so, I have to talk with the nice officer. You can watch PAW Patrol while we talk, do you want to do that?"

He gets a little smirk on his face before he smiles innocently at me. "Can I have ice cream when we get home?"

I hold in my sigh because this kid was going to be the death of me. "One scoop, that's it."

"Okay, Daddy!" He says, looking much happier now that he got his way. Maybe bribing him isn't what I was supposed to do, but I didn't have much time to dwell on it. I chuckle at my son before moving towards the front door to the police station while Kai rests his head on my shoulder. I open the door before making my way to the front desk that held a woman wearing a police uniform and a tight braid on the top of her head. When she sees me coming, her smile brightens when she sees the little bundle of joy in my arms.

"Why, hello! What's your name, little dude?" She asks in a bright voice, looking directly at Kai, who seemed to cower in on me a little bit since he had always been a little wary of strangers. I nudge him lightly, making him look up at me with concern, but when he sees my smile, he brightens up instantly. As long as I tell him it's okay to talk to a stranger, he seemed to have no problem.

"I'm Kai," he says in a small voice, just above a whisper. But the policewoman definitely heard him because her smile got even wider as she looks between him and me.

"Well, hi, Kai. It's so nice to meet you," she tells him before turning to me, her smile becoming softer. She settles her fingertips on the keyboard in front of her, prepared to type something out. "how can I help you today?"

"I'm here to see Officer Daniels," I tell her, lightly rocking Kai in my arms as he settles his head on my shoulder again. He was hugging Alfie pretty tightly while a blush spreads across his cheeks, telling me he was a little embarrassed about talking to the woman. But it was good that he was able to introduce himself. I've been slowly getting him out of his shell lately, so I take the little victories very seriously and this was definitely a good thing. As long as he was being safe about who he talked to, I was happy.

I kiss his head, making him giggle lightly and the policewoman smiles at me. She picks up the phone on her desk before clicking one number and listening to it ring. After a few moments, someone picks up before she starts to talk. "There's a man at the front desk here for you with a child," she says before mumbling something else that I couldn't hear. She lets the person respond, who I'm assuming is the officer I was looking for, and then she hangs up the phone. She smiles up at me. "he'll be out in a few moments."

"Thank you," I tell her politely before taking a step back from her desk as she starts to type on her computer again. Kai nudges my shoulder, making me look down at him before realizing that he was staring at a woman that was cuffed to a desk with a police officer sitting next to her. Kai looked a bit scared at the sight, so I grab his chin to make him look up at me. I lower my voice so only he could hear me because I didn't want anyone else to listen in on what I was saying. "remember what I told you? Police officers are protectors, which means that while we're here, they'll do anything to make sure you're safe. No one's going to hurt you."

"Ever?" He asks in a soft voice, looking unsure of what I was saying.

I could literally feel my heart breaking at the question because I wish I could just say 'yes, no one will ever hurt you!', but unfortunately, I didn't know that. Not only was this Beckett guy obviously trying to get to my son, but there were other people in this world that were bad. I didn't know what would happen in the future, so I saw no reason to lie to my son. "I'm going to try my best to make sure that no one hurts you, ever."

He didn't seem too sure by my response, but he smiles anyway, tucking his head against my shoulder. I look up to see Officer Daniels approaching me, smiling when he sees who I was with. He holds his hand out to me, which I gladly shake with a smile. "Hi, Mr. Whitehouse, nice to see you again. You can follow me back to my office."

I nod my head before holding Kai's head against my shoulder, so he couldn't look around the police station. I didn't want him seeing anything too bad or scary that would terrify him anymore. He didn't seem to care that I wasn't allowing him to look since he was content to keep his face hidden against me. We walk for a little while before I'm escorted into an empty office that seems to actually be a storage room. I'm assuming he didn't want Kai sitting out in the station, so he decided to bring us in here to talk.

"So, I can find one of the other officers to stay with Malakai while we talk or-" Officer Daniels starts to say, but Kai lifts his head as soon as he hears that and shakes his head with fear in his eyes. He looks up at me, his lip quivering slightly and my chest aches at the sight. I start to bounce lightly, knowing that that should calm him down at least a little.

"I wanna stay with you, Daddy," he whispers, clutching my shirt tightly in his hands like he was terrified that we would be forced apart or something.

I nod my head, completely agreeing with him. "You're going to be staying with me, don't worry."

I look up at Officer Daniels to see him nodding with a small smile on his face. He leaves the room for a few moments before coming in with two chairs in hand. He sets them up before motioning for me to sit while he leaves once more and coming back with a laptop and a clipboard in hand. I get comfortable in the chair before pulling out headphones and my phone from my backpack. I make sure Kai's comfortable on my lap before putting the headphones on him and starting the show. Once I see that he's engaged and know that he won't be listening to us, I look up at Officer Daniels with a small smile.

"So, first off, I just want to apologize for not getting in contact with you for the past month. It's been a whirlwind around here and I've just been so preoccupied, but I have been looking at your case. So as soon as I got the time, I looked up the name Beckett Strickland and nothing came up pertaining to the man in the video," he tells me, making me deflate a bit because of course, it wouldn't just be that easy.

"Okay," I say, urging him to continue.

"I tried to do facial recognition, but the image was blurry on the CCTV footage, so we didn't get anywhere that way. Then," he said before glancing at me and letting out a sigh. "I looked up Amelia Cohen."

My heart drops into my stomach as my body immediately starts sweating when her name is brought up. I absolutely do not want to hear that this had anything to do with Kai's mother. I don't want that. I don't need that. I don't ever want to see her again or have any contact with her, but I guess that wasn't going to happen. I glance down at Kai to see that he's still engaged with his show before kissing his head, taking a moment for myself before he tells me the news. Once I felt okay enough to continue hearing what was going on, I nod my head at him. "Tell me."

He gives me a soft smile that held his sympathy before looking down at his clipboard. "Amelia is married to a man named Beckett Klein, who looks like he could be the man that went to the daycare center. We don't know the reasoning why he wants to get to Kai or to you, but for right now, we can't do anything."

I freeze because did I hear him right? Did he just tell me that he couldn't do anything? "Excuse me, what? He threatened my child. He threatened me. He tried to take my kid and you can't do anything?"

Officer Daniel nods his head. "I'm so sorry, Mr. Whitehouse, but the only way he threatened you is by saying he will find you one way or another and that doesn't give us probable cause to find him. He didn't say what he was going to do or give us any clue of what he wanted with you. I'm so sorry, but my hands are tied. Unless he comes back to the daycare center or hurts you in any way, there isn't a single thing I could do."

I immediately stand up from the chair I was sitting in because I was seething with anger at this point. "Then what's the point for calling me down here? Why did you do that? If there is nothing you can do, then you could've simply just said that in a phone call."

Officer Daniels stands with me, shaking his head while looking disappointed. "I'm sorry, Mr. Whitehouse, but I felt like you deserved to be told in person and gave you more information to prepare you. I wish there was something else I could do, but, unfortunately-"

"No, I got it. Thank you," I snap at him before securing my arms around Kai and making my way out of the police station. I walk as fast as I possibly could so no one could stop me or even look at me. When we get outside and over to the car, I feel a tiny hand rest on my cheek and I look down to see my son giving me a worried expression. He continues to wipe my cheek for a few moments while looking a bit confused.

"You're crying," he states and I realize that he was absolutely right. I guess I just got so mad and didn't realize what my other emotions were. I sigh before wiping my eyes and giving a soft smile to Kai to try and reassure him. There was no reason to frighten him when I couldn't possibly explain to him what was going on without scarring him for life. A man trying to get to you with the police not doing a damn thing about it? Yeah, I couldn't explain that to a three-year-old.

"I'm okay," I whisper before opening the car door and settling him into his seat. He keeps his eyes on me with a worried expression, so I reach over and ruffle his hair. "everything's okay, buddy. I just got a little mad, but it's alright."

He furrows his eyebrows before motioning between the two of us, giving me another worried expression. "Safe?"

"Yes, we're safe," I tell him, leaning down and placing a kiss to his cheek. I make sure he's all secure before going around to the driver's seat. I don't even think about what I was doing, I just call Kadri because I needed to tell someone what just happened.

"Hello?" Kadri's voice says through the phone, sounding a bit closed-off like she was focusing on other things. She must be writing or something and was busy.

"She's back," is all I state because my best friend would definitely understand what that meant. She would know that that bitch, that horrible human being was back in my life. I wish I could get rid of her once and for all, but she was like a pest that always found a way back.

Kadri's silent for a few moments before she clears her throat. "Do you need me to come over?"

I glance in the rearview mirror to see that Kai was mumbling something to Alfie while pulling on his stuffed arms to make him seem like he was dancing around. I smile before nodding my head, not that the person on the phone could see me. "If you can, yes."

"I'll be right over," she says before hanging up. I let out a small sigh and start the car before making the trip back home. I look back at Kai every few minutes to make sure he was okay and happy playing with his stuffed animal. When we get to the apartment building, Kai immediately starts to try and get himself out of his seat, but I rush out of the car and around to him. When I open the car door, he gives me an innocent smile before continuing to pull on the seatbelt buckles.

"You know you're not supposed to do this yourself," I tease him before unbuckling him and pulling him out of the car. I grab his stuffed animal and blanket before walking to the building. After the small walk, I use my keys to unlock the place and step inside. I set Kai onto the ground and he instantly runs over to the toy box since he was so full of energy from the car ride.

When I see that he's occupied with his toys, I pull out my phone and go to Aria's contact. Ever since we started dating, we have been texting nonstop. I found out that he's even more confident over text, so he's said some pretty amusing things. Whenever I can, I usually go to the bar he works at for my lunch break, so we could talk. It's not busy at that time during the week, so he could usually stay by me and keep me company. I found out that he has night classes most of the time, so he usually works during the day. But since he's on winter break now, he's been working so much more, so we usually spend time texting as much as he can.

I want to just sleep forever and ignore the entire world, I text him, probably sounding super depressing. But I just felt so down and so upset about everything going on, but I had to stay happy for Kai as much as I can. He already saw me cry once today, he couldn't see anything more because I didn't need him worrying about things he couldn't understand. My phone vibrates on the coffee table and I smile, knowing that Aria was probably hiding his phone under the bar to respond to me.

What happened? Are you okay, he texts me. I smile, feeling warm and fuzzy that he actually cared about what's going on.

I went to the police station and found out that the guy that went to the daycare is Amelia's husband, I text him and immediately feel guilty because this shouldn't be on him. I shouldn't be putting this stuff on him. This has nothing to do with Aria and I just feel like if I keep dumping all my problems on him, then he's going to get discouraged and leave. I'm scared and-

My phone starts ringing. I look down to see that Aria was calling me and instantly get nervous. Did I really worry him that much? I shoot off the couch and turn on the TV to one of the kid's channels before going over to where Kai was sitting on the ground, watching me rush around the apartment. "Hey, buddy, how about you watch some TV while I answer a phone call and then we can make lunch together and then-"

"Have ice cream after?" He asks, looking so excited that all I can do is agree with him.

"Yes, you can have ice cream after," I tell him with a huge smile. He immediately gets off the ground with his stuffed animal in his arms before plopping down on the couch and watching the TV. I make sure he was situated and looks happy before going into the kitchen since the room isn't too far away from the living room. I would be able to hear everything he's doing from in here, so I felt good to leave him alone for a few minutes. I take a deep breath before answering the phone that was probably about to disconnect. "hello?"

"Hey," his sweet voice says through the phone. He sounds a bit out of breath, so I was curious as to what he was doing, but he answers for me. "I can't talk for long. I convinced my coworker to let me take my break now, but what's going on? Are you okay?"

I could feel my heart growing 10 sizes because he sounded so concerned and so worried that it made me feel... special? I don't know. He just made me feel really good that he cared so much. "Uh, I don't know. Apparently, the police can't do anything because he barely threatened me, so they just said that if something else happens, then they'll be able to actually do something, but for right now, there's nothing they can do. I just... I'm scared."

Aria lets out a deep sigh before I hear rustling on the phone like he was moving around. "I know you are and you have every right to be. This is a tough, terrifying situation you're going through and I can't even imagine what it's like to be doing all this, especially with a kid. But, you have people there for you, right? You have Kadri and Ximena and you even told me your parents are great, so you're not alone."

I smile, not that he could see it or anything. He really did listen to me when I talked and retained that information in his brain. "Yeah, I do."

"And you have me," he says in a softer voice like he was nervous to say it. To be honest, my heart stopped. Yeah, he's my boyfriend and everything, but I definitely didn't expect this. But at the same time, it is Aria and he is a pure and kind soul and I should've expected this. "sure, I can't be there through everything because of Kai, which I completely understand, but I'm one phone call away. That's all it takes and I'll be right there for you, okay? All I'm saying is, you're not alone, Levi, and it's okay to be vulnerable around us. It's okay."

"I know," I whisper, wiping at my eyes since I was getting a bit teary-eyed at his confession. "thank you."

"Of course," he says and I can hear the smile clear in his voice.

I hear the door open in the living room and I walk out of the kitchen to see Kadri walking in. I give her a motion to tell her that I would be one minute before going back into the kitchen. I let out a sigh before wiping my eyes. "I should probably go. I... thank you, Aria. Seriously, thank you."

"Always," he whispers. "I'll see you on Monday? You'll come visit me on your lunch break."

I smile, loving the times we were having together because even if it's not the easiest thing to be doing, the sneaking around and all, it was fun and I liked it. It made me feel good to have someone genuinely be interested in me and my life and even want to know things about my son. It felt really great. "Wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Okay, see you then," he says to me before hanging up. I let out a sigh before leaning back against the counter, holding my phone against my chest. Even though things were a bit tough, I wasn't alone. Aria reminded me of that because not only do I have my best friends and my parents, but I have him. I have my boyfriend.