Mom Turned Suspect

Not one to give up just yet, I scanned the room of unfamiliar faces for Maddie, but she was nowhere to be found.

“Jesus! Just drop the act already!”

Seeing red, the head of security kicked me down.

Everything went black for a second as I buckled forward, smacking headfirst on the cold floor.

The head of security ran his mouth viciously. “Stay down, you filthy kidnapper!”

Fighting through the agony and dizzy spell, I cried out with all my might, “Where’s my daughter? Where’s Maddie? What did you do to my daughter?”

With her hands on her waist, Victoria looked down at me and spat near my feet. “Ptooey!

“What have we done?”

She let out a sneer. “We have one Maddie Rowe enrolled in our program.”

I was dumbstruck.

It was impossible.

“I chose this program for my child. I watched my husband take Maddie out the door to attend her first day here. You can’t treat me like an idiot just because I wasn’t here in person.”

“Tsk. You just won’t quit.”

Victoria shook her head, her expression nothing short of disdain. “Are you still keeping up with the act? You can save your stories for the police.”

Rolling her eyes, Victoria then approached the kids. “Remember this face. She’s a kidnapper.”

The kids looked at me warily.

Unable to stand the accusation, I cried out my husband’s name. “Matthew Rowe! My husband’s Matthew Rowe! He took Maddie here for her enrollment. You can check the register.”

Victoria was taken aback.

I was renewed with a glimmer of hope, thinking that Victoria had caught on to the misunderstanding. Maybe there was another child in the after-school program with the same name.

However, it didn’t take long for Victoria to squish my hope.

“Oh, you even managed to dig up Maddie’s father’s name. How did you get the kid wrong then?”

Pulling the earlier child into her arms, Victoria stared me down. “This is Mr. Rowe’s child.”

I was in disbelief.

Victoria bent over and spoke to the girl tenderly. “Maddie, tell the kidnapper who your father is.”

The girl recoiled into Victoria’s embrace, her eyes watching me timidly, before uttering, “Matthew Rowe.”

Matthew was my husband. Yet, a strange girl claimed him to be her father.

“No! You’re lying!”

Teetering on the brink of an outburst, I lunged toward the girl.

“Who are you? Who on earth are you? Why are you calling Matthew your father?”

Startled, the girl latched onto Victoria.

“Shut up!”

Victoria reprimanded, “You’re scaring her! Security! Take her away!”

“What are you doing?”

A shrill voice, belonging to a woman, pierced through the air, and before I knew it, I was slapped across the face.

The sheer blow snapped my head to the side, and my cheek swelled up.

The posh woman, looking to be in her thirties, wore flawless makeup and a tailored suit, her brand-new handbag swinging in her hand as she angrily pointed at me.

“How dare you threaten my daughter, you psycho!”

“Who the hell are you?” Taking in the blow, I glared at her.

“You have no right to hit me! Who are you to Matthew? Enlighten me!”

“Who am I?” The woman paused at my grilling.

Before long, she raised her voice. “Matthew is my husband. I’m married to him!”

Victoria stirred the pot from the sidelines. “There you are, Maddie’s Mom. The kidnapper managed to get her hands on Maddie and your husband’s information. I’m sure she’s up to no good.”

The woman, Cassandra Rowe, put on a menacing look. “You filthy kidnapper! You have some nerve to grab my daughter!”

The murmurs erupted.

“I can’t believe how manipulative the kidnapper is. She even made up a whole narrative!”

“Call the cops now! She needs to be arrested!”

“The kids are frightened. She’s a monster!”

I screamed in defense, “I’m not a kidnapper! I’m here to take my daughter home. Matthew is my husband!”

Cassandra looked at me as if I were a joke before taking out her phone to dial a number.

The call was connected right away.

“Babe!”

Cassandra, unlike her aggressive self a moment ago, sounded hurt.

“Come to Maddie’s school at once. There’s a kidnapper here, insisting that Maddie is her daughter. She even attacked me and called me a homewrecker!

“She’s trying to take Maddie, and security can’t hold her down. She’s terrifying! Come quick, babe! Maddie and I are scared…”

Once the call ended, Cassandra dropped the damsel in distress act before her tears even dried. She gave me a look of contempt.

“Just you wait, psycho. Matt will be here in no time. He’ll deal with you.”