I will always remember the day I lost my 7-year-old son in the mall. I was so worried that I couldn’t stop crying and looking for him nonstop. At that moment, a blonde woman came up to me and offered support and encouragement. After several hours, my son was found, and I was thankful for the stranger’s help.
But after 10 years, what I thought I knew about that day was wrong. I was telling a friend about the story when my son turned pale all of a sudden. He gave me a serious look and told me the shocking truth: the blonde woman who had “helped” me was actually the person who had taken him.
He told me that the woman and man had taken him to the parking lot and left him in their car for a while. He remembered that they got into a fight, and the man was only let go when he changed his mind. The woman’s return to me was just a trick to keep me busy while her partner freed my son.
I was shocked; everything I thought I knew about that day was broken. For many years, my son kept the truth from me because he didn’t want to cause me more pain. I was amazed at how brave and strong he was after going through something so terrible.
