I caught a baby falling from a fifth-floor window and everyone called me a hero. A week later, the parents sued me for $2 million, accusing me of a “reckless rescue.” In court, they tearfully blamed me — until a young woman on crutches burst in with a video that changed everything.

I saved a child’s life and became a villain in the eyes of their parents.

It was a Tuesday, the kind of forgettable afternoon that usually fades into the background noise of life. I was walking home from my office in downtown Chicago, my tie loosened, my mind already on dinner. As I rounded the corner onto my street, a shrill yell from directly above me cut through the city’s hum. It was followed by a sight so surreal, so horrifying, that my brain struggled to process it: a baby, no more than a year old, falling out of a window five stories high.