Fortune (Gray & Red) by A.J. Scudiere

Author:A.J. Scudiere [Scudiere, A.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Griffyn Ink

2

Mia sat on her couch, wringing her hands. She’d never actually wrung her hands before. It seemed like such a useless gesture—one of inaction, defeat, loss of control. Yet she did it now because she felt all those things. She did it because it was the only thing she could do.

She should have been out looking for her daughter, but she was stuck on her couch. Near the phone. “In case your daughter calls,” they told her. But she’d put the pieces together and knew they wanted her right here, that she was also possibly waiting for a ransom call.

The local police were out of simple tasks to keep her busy.

She’d told them in detail what her daughter was wearing. Eddie sat beside her, but he hadn’t known. He’d been out the door early today, Mia not too far behind him, dropping Fortune at school then heading in to teach her classes.

“What shirt was she wearing under the hoodie?” the officer had asked. He’d asked it politely, but Mia understood. What if Fortune hadn’t wandered off? What if someone had taken her and they wanted to change her look quickly? A pair of pants, lose the easily identified hoodie, and voila, a child who can walk right past the people looking for her.

“It was blue. It had a rocket ship on it.”

He’d then had the balls to ask, “Was it a boy’s shirt? A hand me down from an older brother or cousin?”

Mia glared at him, pretending to be confused rather than getting angry about his gendered assumptions. “She doesn’t have an older brother. It’s just the three of us.”

Had he not looked at all the family pictures in their gleaming silver frames? No older brother. No head count higher than the three of them. “Do you think we have another kid that we don’t hang pictures of?”

The officer looked far too young for this, and his expression was far too old. “I’ve seen it on more than one occasion, ma’am.” He went back to writing in his little notebook.

It was the only thing that had lifted her terror even the slightest amount. The thought that he’d seen more than one family with a child whose picture was not on the wall. She and Eddie had worked so hard to get the one child they had. Mia closed her eyes, unable to imagine a family blessed with multiple children and not loving all of them to the fullest extent.

Then the thought passed and reality crashed back down. Mia was stuck protesting her own inaction. “Her father and I should be out looking. If she’s stuck or hiding somewhere, she may come out for one of our voices, but not for yours.”

“As soon as we’re done here, we’ll take him out with us to call for her.” The too-young officer pointed at her husband with the end of his pen, still making notes in the little spiral bound notebook he had. He also had a tablet. He’d asked her to email him with a picture of Fortune.

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