ANASTASIA


    "Amie has been abducted."


    Those were words I had never thought I''d hear in my entire life. Even as I searched for Amie in panic before Dennis'' arrival, it never ured to me that she could have been kidnapped. All I thought was that she walked off, lost her way and was somewhere, scared, cold


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    Turned out my Anie has been taken.


    "Why?" I cried in Dennis'' arms, my tears now a heavy unstoppable downpour.


    "Why will anyone take my daughter, Dennis, why?"


    "I don''t know, babe. You need to calm down." He held me as he walked to one of the security.


    How can I be calm when someone callous with cold hands and scary eyes has taken my daughter to who knows where? How can I be calm?


    He exchanged a very short pleasantry with the two security men.


    "I suspect that my daughter has just been kidnapped," he began, "Please, can we have ess to your footage?" He then nced around, "I believe there is CCTV around, yeah?"


    "Yes sir," one of them answered. "And yes, you can have ess,e with me, sir."


    We followed them into a room at the back of the store. And even as we walked through the store, I kept ncing, hoping that Dennis and ra were wrong.


    The team there were quick to bring up the footage around the time I told them I didn''t see Amie by my side again.


    I wiped the tears that blurred my eyes as I watched the footage of Amie and I talking about Justin not being able to take sweets. Then, I was making the call with Dennis.


    As I asked the sales rep about the milk, Amie picked up a cookie bag and frowned at it, then she walked back to the end of the aisle where she picked up another cookie andpared them or something. She looked toward me, about to call out to me when a woman suddenly appeared from behind her and tapped her on the shoulder.


    Amie turned to the woman who was now squatted before her. Amie nced back at me and back to the woman''s face, then she smiled and gave the woman her hand.


    Then the woman, whose face still backed the camera, took Amie''s hand and they began to walk away. As they moved through the store to the entrance, wherever there was a camera, she''d duck her head.


    My body racked with sobs as I watched the woman lead Amie out of the store.


    Immediately, the police were contacted. And as they did their job, I cried into Dennis'' arms, scared to death.


    ****


    SHARON


    Was it possible to be mad and scared at the same time?


    Well, I now knew it was.


    It was irritating that Dennis felt the need to call Aiden to inform him that Amie was missing. What did they think Aiden would do? Was he the police?


    But my anger wasn''t enough to override the cold fear that had gripped me since that wretched phone call came in.


    Amie went missing? How and when?


    Was it Tabitha? It couldn''t be her.


    Abducting the poor girl wasn''t part of our n. I confidently fooled myself for the first half of the


    that it wasn''t Tabitha; that she had nothing to do with Amie''s


    disappearance, but I knew...


    I was d that Aiden left the house immediately he got the call, else, he''d have seen the naked fear in my eyes. He''d have known that I was a culprit in his daughter''s disappearance.


    It''s been a full twenty four hours and


    Amie still hasn''t been found. Aiden didn''te home for the night and when I called him in the middle of the night, he said he was with his private investigator, which meant he wasn''t getting any sleep either out of


    worry, and fear of losing his first


    child.


    I couldn''t sleep either, but it was solely out of fear of what would happen if anything happens to the girl and I somehow get caught.


    I shouldn''t have gone with her n. I shouldn''t have called her back, I should have done this, I shouldn''t have done that was all that filled my thoughts as I paced the room the next morning.


    When I couldn''t take it anymore, I rushed to the bed and snatched my phone from the sheets. My fingers shook as I dialed Aiden''s number. As I watched the call go through and waited for him to pick up, I began to shake my head.


    "No, no, I can''t do this. I can''t tell him," I whispered. Coming clean that I was involved wouldn''t only require me telling him, I''d also need to tell him what had pushed me to someone as dubious as Tabitha.


    I quickly ended the call before he could pick up, but to my dismay he called back immediately. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.


    "Calm down, Sharon. Calm down," I told myself. Then I cleared my throat, and picked up the call.


    "Hey, Sharon. I missed your call, are you okay? Do you need me to take you to the hospital?"


    "No, no," I rushed out. The near heart attacks I always get whenever he mentions the hospital should be enough to push me to tell the truth, but I just couldn''t. It was almost as if I''d rather have a heart attack than


    teft him.


    Joy


    I licked my lips. "I just wanted to ask if there''s been any lead?"


    He sighed. "Nothing, man, nothing at all. This was well nned."


    I swallowed. "I hope you get a lead soon."


    "Thank you, babe, Take care," he said and the call ended.


    My lips quivered and my hands shook as I scrolled through my contact list and found Tabitha''s phone number.


    "Oh, Tabitha, you wench!" I whispered with so much rage as I dialed her number. I dialed her number several times, but it kept going into voicemail.