THE MOTHER’S SCREAM
THE MOTHER’S SCREAM
“LET GO OF HIM! THAT’S MY SON!”
The scream ripped across the sunny park so violently that strangers stopped in their tracks.
A well-dressed couple was hurrying down the path with a little boy between them.
Behind them, a disheveled woman came running as fast as she could, her hair tangled, her clothes wrinkled, terror written all over her face.
“Please! Stop!”
Her voice cracked.
“That’s my son!”
The elegant woman tightened her grip on the boy’s arm without even looking back.
“Don’t listen to her,” she whispered coldly to the man beside her.
“Just keep walking.”
They moved faster.
The desperate mother tried to catch up.
Then her foot caught against the edge of the grass.
She went down hard.
Her knees slammed into the ground.
But she barely seemed to feel it.
She stretched one trembling hand toward the child as tears poured down her face.
“Mateo!”
The boy froze.
“Mateo, look at me, baby!”
His head snapped around.
The second he saw the woman on her knees, his entire expression changed.
Recognition.
Fear.
Then panic.
He began fighting against the adults holding him.
“MOMMY!”
The man stopped dead.
“MOMMY!”
Mateo kicked and twisted, reaching both arms toward the crying woman.
“Mommy! I want my mommy!”
The color drained from the man’s face.
Slowly, he looked down at the struggling child.
Then he turned toward the woman kneeling on the grass.
She was sobbing so hard she could barely breathe.
The man stared at her.
Then at the woman beside him.
His voice came out barely above a whisper.
“What did he just call her?”
The elegant woman said nothing.
And for the first time...
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she looked terrified.
CUT TO BLACK.
