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Kelly let out a sob. “Mom. Stop. Please. You need help. You took this woman’s child. You can’t do that! No matter what you think of her.”
Mom strained against Lleyton’s grip on her to face off with her daughter. “Can’t I? I walked right up to that house, and the woman theregaveme that little girl. Put her right in my arms. There was no kidnapping involved. She willingly gave her up.”
“After you tricked her into believing you were her grandmother,” Lyric accused, ice in her tone.
Mom smiled coldly. “Tell the police that, sweetheart. Who do you think they’ll believe? An upstanding, church-going woman who volunteers at hospitals?” Her gaze rolled up and down Lyric’s body. “Or a gutter whore who should have never had custody of her in the first place.”
I didn’t even know the woman standing in front of me right now. It was like I’d never met her. Was this how she’d spoken to my mother? How she’d convinced her to give me up? “And Toby? Did his mother just willingly give him over to you as well?”
Mom pinned me with a dark stare. “Why are you asking me all the questions, when the real question is, Zepherin, why do you continue to surround yourself with prostitutes? Is it because you were born to one? Your mommy issues are showing, son.”
I shook my head, done listening to her rubbish. I yanked the security pass from around her neck and handed it to Lyric. “Don’t let her go,” I barked at Lleyton, referring to my mother.
He went to argue, but Lyric was already storming inside the building, opening each door to the left and the right of the corridor, searching each one for her lost daughter.
I had no idea what my mother had done to Amelia, and I wasn’t about to let Lyric face it alone. I caught up with her halfway down the hall, and she turned wide, wild eyes on me.
“Where is she, Zeph? Where?”
I didn’t know either, but I joined the hunt, running down the hall, opening doors. This entire wing of the hospital didn’t seem to be in use, each room empty of patients, and a musty, abandoned smell permeating the air.
A cry rang out, muffled but sad and desperate. A keening wail that broke my heart.
In unison, Lyric and I sprinted for the room at the end of the hall. She slammed the electronic pass against the card reader. The second it took for it to register felt like an hour, the little light finally going green, allowing her to push down on the handle and open the door.
On the inside of the dark room, pads lined the walls.
A tiny figure ran to the corner of the room in fear.
“Toby,” I choked out, kneeling so I was the little boy’s height.
He had his face buried in the corner, trying to hide from us. But at my voice, his cries quieted, and he raised his head.
“Hey, buddy. Remember me?”
On tiny toddler legs, he ran across the mats and threw himself into my arms.
I scooped him up, clutching him close, and then turned to Lyric, panicked. “Is he hurt?”
She scanned his body, lifting the dirty T-shirt, checking his arms and torso for any signs of injury. “No, I don’t think so.”
Fury filled my veins. I strode from the hospital corridor, out into the sunlight, leaving the suffering of patients behind me.
“Oh, Mom,” Kelly gasped, taking in the sight of Toby in my arms. “You didn’t. That boy has been all over the news for weeks.”
“It was for his own good. He needs rehabilitation after living with that prostitute so long. The church can turn him into a good man.”
“Like they did with me? Where’s Amelia?” I spat out at her.
But she’d clammed right up.
I passed Toby over to Kelly who went straight into Mom mode, shushing him and carrying him away from our mother. I grabbed the woman who’d raised me by the shoulders, giving her a solid shake.
“So help me God, Mom. If you don’t tell me what you’ve done with that little girl, I will not be held accountable for what I do next.”
Police sirens started up in the distance. I didn’t know who’d called them. It could have been Lleyton or Kelly, or maybe it had been one of the staff members. It didn’t matter. But Lyric and I needed to get out of here before they arrived. I wasn’t losing hours of searching time while I filled them in on what was going on.
Some of the fight went out of Mom’s stance, her head twisted toward where Kelly had Toby’s head tucked tight to her neck, rocking him from side to side and singing lullabies to comfort him.
