Lucas becomes anxious when his wife is late returning from her son’s burial. She finally gets home with a young boy in her arms and makes an unusual news that throws his life upside down. When Lucas is unable to persuade his wife to see reason, he takes desperate measures to aid her. Lucas looked out the front windows for the third time in the last hour. Natalia was late. He retrieved his phone from his pocket to call her, but then decided against it. He did not want to bother her while she was still at the graveyard.
He regretted not accompanying Natalia to her son’s funeral, but twenty-year-old Kevin had despised Lucas. So, out of respect for his departed stepson, he had avoided attending the funeral. He decided to give Natalia an extra fifteen minutes and walked outside to sweep the porch. Natalia’s car pulled into the driveway right as he was getting started. Lucas dashed over to meet her, but paused in surprise when she came out of the car with a youngster in her arms.
“Look, Kevvy, Uncle Lucas has come to meet us,” Natalia exclaimed cheerfully. She took the toddler’s hand in hers and made him wave. “Say hi to Uncle Lucas, Kevvy!” “Uh…I was just starting to worry about you,” Lucas explained as he approached his wife. “Whose child is this?” “Doesn’t he ask such silly questions?” Natalia asked the toddler before addressing Lucas. “He’s my new son; Kevin has come back to me! You should be ashamed of yourself for not recognizing your own stepchild. Look, he has the same eyes, the same nose, and a dimple in exactly the same spot.”
Lucas’s chest felt chilly and tight as he glanced at Natalia. He wanted to believe it was a cruel joke, but she was staring at the child in her arms with genuine love and admiration, which scared him. “Listen, Nat, I know it’s hard…no parent should outlive their child, but that’s not Kevin. Kevin is gone, he died in a car accident, and he isn’t coming back, my love.” Natalia smiled as she adjusted the boy in her arms. “That’s not funny, Lucas. Open your eyes! Kevvy is right here, full of life and doing great, except, if I know my little man, he’s starting to get hungry.”
“I’m going to make you some chicken nuggets with mac and cheese, your favorite meal,” Natalia said to the toddler as she walked past Lucas. “Then we’ll watch cartoons until bedtime.” Lucas battled his confusion as he watched Natalia enter their home. Something was wrong with his wife, and he needed to figure out how to cure it. He was also concerned about the child…and his true guardians…Natalia cooed over little ‘Kevvy’ over supper, while Lucas watched. It felt like being in a live-action horror film. He was hoping for some indication that Natalia understood this child wasn’t Kevin, but it never arrived.
When Kevvy began calling for his mother, Lucas took advantage of the opportunity to try to snap her out of whatever she was doing. “Maybe you should take him back to where you found him,” Lucas suggested softly as Natalia attempted to calm the wailing boy. “I’m sure his people are worried about him.” “Would you quit it already?” Natalia yelled, lifting the boy into her arms. “I know some parents think it’s very funny to joke about their children belonging to someone else when they start crying and making a fuss, but I’m not one of those people.
Now, fetch me the teething drops from the bathroom cabinet.” “There aren’t any teething drops, Natalia.” He stood up and returned to her side. “And I’m not joking, my love. This is not Kevin. He’s someone else’s little boy, and I’m certain they’re going out of their minds thinking that all kinds of bad things must’ve happened to him. Please, Nat. We have to take him back to his real mom.”
Natalia glared at him before looking down at the boy. Little Kevvy was red-faced, and tears flowed down his cheeks as he flailed his arms and wailed for his mother. “I knew you didn’t like Kevin when we got married, but now you’re taking it too far, Lucas,” Natalia sneered at him. “My God, what kind of person tries to play such mind games? You’re sick, okay? And you better stop this nonsense right now, or I’m leaving you.” Natalie wheeled and walked out of the room. Lucas dropped into a seat at the table. He assumed she’d come to her senses, that he might persuade her of the truth, but he was mistaken.
He needed to help her, but forcing her to face the truth was not helping. She required psychiatric care, but he couldn’t risk putting her in an institution. Lucas couldn’t face the idea of his sweet, delicate Natalia being locked up in a mental hospital. But it was undoubtedly where she would wind up if he didn’t figure things out. She had abducted that youngster from somewhere…God. He could still not believe Natalia had done such a thing. Nonetheless, if he could figure out where she discovered that boy, he might be able to handle this situation without making a big deal.
Lucas grumbled and headed upstairs. He apologized to Natalia for his remarks about Kevvy and volunteered to look after him for the remainder of the evening so she could sleep early. Natalia appeared relieved by this and went to bed. When she left the room, Lucas searched the child’s clothes for a name or other kind of identification, but found nothing. Early the next morning, Lucas heard an incessant knocking at the front door and went to see who it was. His breath froze in his throat when he noticed two police policemen standing on the front porch.
“Good morning, sir.” One of the police officers approached. “I’m Officer Jones and I need to speak to your wife, Natalia, about an urgent matter. Could you call her, please?” “My wife?” Lucas’s heart raced as he battled a surge of panic. “She’s not here right now, Officer. Maybe I can help you?” “A two-year-old boy went missing during his grandmother’s funeral at the Oakwood Cemetery yesterday. We suspect he was abducted,” said Officer Jones. “Abducted?” Lucas’ voice faltered, and he cleared his throat to appear less suspicious. “Are you sure? The kid might’ve just wandered off.”
“The boy’s cousin reported seeing a dark-haired woman carrying a child away from the group gathered around the grave. She provided us with some basic identifying information.” Officer Jones peeked inside the home over Lucas’ shoulder. “Are you certain your wife isn’t home right now?” “She went to the store.” Lucas moved his weight to obscure the officer’s view of the inside of his home. Natalia was currently out back with Kevvy. If she walked in right now, they’d both be in big trouble.
“The records show she was attending a funeral at the same cemetery at roughly the same time that the boy was abducted,” Officer Jones went on. “We really need to speak to her. We’re interviewing everybody who was there at the time in case somebody saw something that could help us. Did your wife mention seeing anything suspicious?” “No, I don’t believe she did.” Lucas attempted a smile. “But I’ll ask her when she gets home.” “Ask her to call me,” said Officer Jones, holding out his business card. “We really do need to question her as soon as possible. A little boy’s life is on the line here, sir.”
“Of course.” Lucas placed the card in his pocket. “I’ll tell her the moment she gets home.” Lucas said farewell, closed the door, and leaned against the wall. Everything was sliding out of control quicker than Lucas could handle. At least he understood where the boy came from, but he wanted to protect his wife first. Lucas had spent the previous night researching online and concluded that Natalia was suffering from a type of grief-induced psychosis. Although it was an uncommon disease, it was the only thing that made sense.
He’d spent the most of the night looking for ways to aid her, but the solution came to him in a flash of brilliance. He quickly searched his phone, made a phone call, and ran upstairs to pack. He had just finished dragging the last of his and Natalia’s baggage to the front entrance when his wife entered from the backyard with Kevvy. The boy clung to the fluffy, orange bear in his arms as if it were life support, hiding his face in its chest. Lucas’ heart bled to see the youngster so sad and agitated, but all he could do was pray that his plan worked.
“That’s a great bear, Kevvy!” Lucas exclaimed with a large, phony smile. “I’m sure he’s going to love the surprise holiday I’ve planned for all of us.” “What surprise holiday?” Natalia inquired, frowning. “I rented a cabin at a beautiful, rustic resort just outside the city. Our argument yesterday really got me thinking, Nat, and I decided that it would do all three of us a world of good to spend some time together as a family. Don’t you agree?” “That’s a wonderful idea, don’t you agree, Kevvy?”
Natalia smiled at the youngster, but it wasn’t the beautiful grin Lucas recognized. There was an obliviousness to it that sent shivers down his spine. It was as if someone had taken all he knew and loved about his wife and replaced her with a strange, detached doppelganger. Lucas brought their suitcases out to the car, and they drove to the cabin he had leased. Natalie happily chatted with Kevvy about how much fun they would have together, but the child remained silent and withdrawn. When they arrived at the cabin, Natalia set Kevvy on the sofa to watch cartoons while Lucas and her unpacked.
Even the cartoon dog on TV couldn’t make the youngster happy. He cuddled up with his bear and did not even look at the screen. “Someone’s got a bad case of the grumps!” Natalia leaned in to tickle Kevvy’s toes. “This just won’t do, little man. I’m going to take you down to the lake, that ought to cheer you up.” Ntalia grabbed Kevvy into her arms, and he started wailing. He didn’t respond to her soothing efforts and was still crying when Natalia departed with him. The frightening aspect was that Natalia didn’t appear to notice how distraught the child was. She bounced him up and down on her hip as she walked down the path to the lake, while Kevvy screamed blue murder.
Lucas knew Natalia would never try to hurt a child, but she wasn’t thinking clearly, and it wasn’t fair to the boy to let this go on any longer. Lucas had to return the youngster to his parents. He hurriedly went to his luggage and took out the sleeping tablets he had taken with him. He crushed a handful and placed them on the counter in the little kitchenette. Lucas then made lunch for everyone and placed crushed sleeping tablets into the ketchup on Natalia’s hotdog. “Please forgive me, my love,” he muttered as he finished preparing the food.
Lucas followed the sound of Kevvy sobbing and discovered him and Natalia standing on the rocky shore. “Lunch is ready!”Lucas announced with a big grin. They strolled back to the cabin together, and Lucas watched as Natalia ate every mouthful of her lunch. After that, they sat on the sofa, watching TV, while Kevvy snuggled up with his teddy. It seemed to take forever before Natalia slumped over against the armrest. Lucas slipped one of the scatter cushions under Natalia’s head and gently kissed her forehead before turning to Kevvy and gently placing his hand on the boy’s shoulder.
“It’s time to go back to your real mama,” Lucas murmured, lifting Kevvy into his arms. “We interrupt our scheduled TV programming for an urgent broadcast.” When Lucas heard the announcement, he turned back at the TV screen, which showed a young couple standing outside a suburban house with a reporter. “Mama!” Kevvy reached out toward the screen. “All we want is for our darling guy to return home safely!” The woman on television was saying. “So we’re offering a 100,000 dollar reward to the person who returns Brody to us, no questions asked.” A photo of tiny Kevvy came on the screen, along with a phone number, which Lucas instantly typed into his phone.
“One hundred thousand dollars!”” Lucas gazed down at Kevvy, who had gone quiet again now that the woman, his mother, was no longer on the screen. “Your mama must be wealthy if she can throw out that much reward money…” Lucas was now confronted with a difficult decision: he had planned to take the kid to the cemetery and then phone the cops with an anonymous tip about his whereabouts, but now that the boy’s parents were offering a lucrative prize, everything changed. “Mama,” Kevvy wailed as he held his bear.
“Settle down, champ,” Lucas reassured the youngster. “You’re fine, and everything will be fine.” Uncle Lucas simply needs to think a little.” He carried Kevvy back to the sofa and sat down, the woman’s phone number now scrolling across the bottom of the screen, along with the offer for the reward. Oh, the things he could do with that much money…and she was just giving it away. Lucas ignored the guilt gnawing at the back of his mind as he drove to the local petrol station, where he bought a prepaid SIM card and dialed the number he’d seen on television.
“I’ve got your son,” Lucas said when the woman responded. “Leave the $100,000 reward in a bag beneath the bench by the duck pond in Oak Street Park on Monday at 9:55 a.m.” “He’ll then be safely returned to you.” “I’ll give you whatever you want as long as my son returns safely!” the woman cried.Lucas felt bad about his actions, but that $100,000 would alter his life! He could inform his jerk of a boss that he was leaving and then create his own restaurant, exactly like he’d always dreamt of. He could pay some fancy psychiatrist to heal Natalia discretely.
With that amount of money, they could relocate to a different country and pretend any of this ever happened. Besides, it wasn’t like anything awful had occurred to the kid since Natalia took him. Sure, he was a little upset, but he was young, and he’d get over it. At least this way, something positive could emerge from this ordeal. It didn’t make sense to hand over the boy for free when he could benefit from his good deed. There was one more thing Lucas needed to do to ensure his plan worked: he went through the numbers on his phone until he found one for a popular fast-food restaurant.
“Hi, I need you to deliver 25 burgers to Oak Street Park on Monday,” Lucas said, “but I have a special request for the delivery…” That Monday, Lucas drove into town, rented a bicycle and a delivery guy uniform, and went to the park. He arrived early and watched as Kevvy’s real mom approached the bench with a full backpack, set it down, and quickly walked away.
It was time. Lucas pulled up his cycling mask to cover the lower half of his face, cycled toward the bench, and lifted the backpack. He peeked inside, and an adrenaline rush coursed through him at the sight of all the money inside. He quickly stuffed the backpack into the delivery bag he’d rented with the uniform, and cycled away. While he rode away, he noticed several people watching him closely as they rose from the other benches scattered around the park.
Lucas sped up the pace, rushing down the immaculate walkways that crisscrossed the park, and as he approached the main entry gates, he observed several people running to block his way out. He swerved onto the grass to avoid a man who had jumped onto the path in front of him, but he didn’t stop or look back. People began shouting behind him, but he didn’t stop or look back. The only thing that mattered now was escaping this park! A man jumped onto the path in front of Lucas, but he didn’t stop or look back. Sirens sounded in the distance, but just then, Lucas saw the second part of his plan in action: a guy on a bicycle wearing a very
Lucas laughed as he heard the puzzled cries behind him. His specific request with his delivery was that each burger be brought separately. As a result, the park was now crowded of delivery people on bicycles that looked quite similar to him, making the perfect smokescreen. Lucas easily slipped out of the park, rode two blocks to where he’d parked his car, changed out of his delivery suit, and ditched it in an alley with the bicycle he’d rented.
As Lucas drove back to the cabin, he couldn’t help but smile; he’d cleverly avoided the cops and escaped, and best of all, he was now $100,000 richer! Lucas considered his next move as he drove back to the cabin; he still needed to return the child, and he’d have to move quickly to avoid causing Natalia any more trauma. By the time he parked outside the cabin, Lucas had decided that the simplest solution would be to travel to Canada and try to get help for Natalia there; everything he’d read on the internet suggested that her delusional state would soon pass, and once she was better, they could go wherever they wanted and start anew.
Lucas was happy as he exited the car and proceeded up the tiny walkway to the cabin, so caught up in his future fantasies that he didn’t know the repercussions of his actions were closing in on him right then. He thought the rustle he heard in the bushes was a deer or a raccoon until a man came out onto the path ahead and aimed a rifle at him. “FBI! Get on your knees and raise your hands in the air. You’ve been arrested for abduction.” Lucas couldn’t flee with a gun fixed on him, so he did what the agent asked, hanging his head as another agent rushed up behind him and snapped shackles around his wrists.
“Where is the boy?””the first FBI agent demanded. “He is in the cabin; please do not hurt my wife. “She has no idea what’s going on,” he argued. But the agent was already running up to the cabin, and Lucas watched in terror as Natalia jumped out of the front door, carrying Kevvy, and dashed into the woods. The agent yelled at her to halt, and when she didn’t, he barked commands into his radio and set off after her. Lucas craned his neck to see the pursuit, but Natalia and the FBI agent vanished into the tall trees quickly.
“Please do not let them hurt her!”” Lucas turned to look at the agent standing guard over him. “She thinks he’s her son, she doesn’t understand…” But the agent just ignored him. He frogmarched Lucas to a waiting car and forced him inside. He twisted and turned in his seat, hoping for a glimpse of Natalia as the law enforcement officer behind the wheel drove away with him. They left Lucas alone in a jail cell for hours before finally escorting him to an interrogation room.
So he told the police everything because there was no point in withholding any information now that he’d been caught. He still didn’t understand how the police and FBI had found him, but at the time, all he cared about was Natalia. “Please, you have to understand that she wasn’t in her right mind,” he concluded. “The loss of her son…it broke something inside her. She honestly felt that kid was her son, and that he had somehow returned to her. “It is not her fault.”
If she awakens from her coma, she will be taken to a psychiatric institute for a thorough examination, according to the officer. “Coma?” Lucas leaned forward. “Why is she comatose? What happened?” “Your wife was injured while attempting to evade custody,” the officer told him across the table. “She fell through a poorly maintained bridge and was swept away with the river.” “She fought hard to keep the boy’s head above water and readily handed him over when the agent entered the river to attempt a rescue,” the cop stated.
“But, the current took her over some rapids. She sustained some heavy bruising, broke her arm against one of the rocks, and almost drowned. It’s unclear if she’ll come round.” Lucas moaned and put his head in his hands; Natalia was battling for her life, and it was all because of him! God, what had he done? His choice to blackmail Kevvy’s parents tortured him now, reminding him of one crucial question that remained unanswered. “Officer, how did you locate me? I thought the fast food delivery ploy would be enough to avoid capture, but it appears that you were waiting for me at the cabin…how is that possible?”
“The takeaway delivery certainly was a clever trick, one that would’ve worked a couple of years back, but not these days.” The cop got up and approached the door. “We caught you because of one small thing…a GPS tracker we hid in the bag with the ransom money.” Lucas bowed his head and looked down at the handcuffs around his wrists. It just took one small mistake to ruin everything, and it wasn’t that he hadn’t realized the bag might be followed; it was that he succumbed to his greed and tried to profit off young Kevvy’s anguish. If only he’d followed his instincts and returned the child when he first planned to.