After working as a taxi driver for two years, Cleo had seen it all. She had learned to read people before they even entered her taxi, heard innumerable stories, and dried her share of tears.
Her thoughts strayed to the heartache she had experienced just five months prior. She had told her husband, Mark, about her pregnancy with great excitement. However, he left and depleted their savings, leaving Cleo to work long hours to support the infant by herself.
Only three weeks before her due date, her attention was caught by a lone figure struggling along the highway’s shoulder in the rainny day. He staggered in tattered clothes, one arm held to his chest as he dragged himself forward.
Cleo knew she should keep driving, especially at eight months pregnant, but her instincts overruled caution. Rolling down her window, she called out, “Are you okay? Need help?” The stranger, visibly shaken and bloody, pleaded, “I just need to get somewhere safe.”
He fell into the backseat as Cleo opened her doors without hesitation. Headlights flooded her mirror, and she soon understood they were being followed. She assisted a homeless man in escaping the criminals with the expertise of an experienced driver. She eventually lost the following vehicle and took her passenger to the hospital. He thanked her, but she did not think much of her nice deed and went home tired and eager for a peaceful morning.
But that morning changed everything.
Suit-clad men surrounded her house, and Cleo’s heart raced as she wondered if she had unintentionally assisted a criminal the previous evening.
He said, “You assisted their kid, Archie, last night.” Before realizing they were the Atkinsons, the tech-empowered millionaire family, Cleo did not think much of the name Atkinson. Unbeknownst to her, she had rescued Archie on the side of the road after their son was abducted three days prior.
“They transferred me last night, and I saw my opportunity to get out,” Archie remarked. But without you, I could not have survived. I owe everything to you.
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“Please, sir, this is too much,” she stammered, but Mr. Atkinson insisted, “It’s a small thank you for saving our son.”
Archie leaned forward, proposing that she lead a new community safety initiative for their family’s foundation—an effort to foster more people like her, who aren’t afraid to help.
As Cleo accepted their offer and watched the convoy leave, she felt an unfamiliar lightness, the burdens of the past few months finally lifting.