Circle of Deception 2

by Skye, M.

  “Sure you can, she loves spending time there. Don’t consider it using her, just consider it getting Intel,” she laughed.

  “I guess you’re right.”

  Meg sat back and watched Melia eat and grinned. She was happy to see the smile on her face. She finally looked happy about something and it was a great change. She knew that Melia wanted to be excited about her pregnancy, but everything going on with her and Matt was making it almost impossible. She wanted so badly to help her forget it all, even if just for a little while.

  “Hey, how about when Cici is with Alli, we do something? Just you and me.”

  “Really?” Melia’s eyes lit up. “I would love to. Do you have time for all that?”

  “I’ll make the time, sweetie. You need me, and I’m here for you.”

  “God, I love you, you’re the best sister in the world.”

  “Don’t go canonizing me, I’m just repaying a favor. Hopefully by the end of the night, we will be one step closer to this Ms. Pierre mess.”

  Melia laughed and then stopped suddenly. Meg saw the shock all over her face and stopped laughing as well. “What was that name you just said?”

  “Ms. Pierre. That’s the name Dr. Steinfeld gave us for Allison’s imaginary friend.”

  “Are we sure this person isn’t real? It slipped my mind a while ago, but Alli isn’t the only one to mention her. Cici drew a picture with a Ms. Pierre in it, I was going to say something, but I got side tracked. My brain has been in a permanent upheaval as of late.”

  “Where did she say she knows her from?” Meg asked, seething with anger.

  “The playground, she says they play together. I assumed maybe she was a teacher’s aide or something, but now I’m not so sure. If she’s saying things to the kids, it’s time to put a stop to it.”

  “What the hell could that bitch be thinking? I’m going to that school! Somebody is about to give me some answers now!”

  Melia dropped her bowl and stood, grabbing her purse and keys. “Where are you going?”

  “I’m coming with you, it’s not just your fight, now it’s mine too. She has been talking to my child also. Now, she’s about to see how over the top I can be.”

  “Let’s go,” Meg huffed and sped out of the office. She had tried calling Alex several times in the car ride over, but he wasn’t answering. She knew he had a huge case to try today, so she just left him a very detailed voice mail. She was practically screaming into the phone as she spoke. Melia kept looking to her to see if she was calming down, but her hands were shaking. She knew calming words were no use, her sweet older sister looked angry enough to kill.

  When they pulled into the parking lot of the school, Meg threw her seatbelt off before Melia could get a single word in. She called out to her, but if fell on deaf ears. Meg was in the school in an instant, and as angry as Melia was, she knew one of them had to be the level headed one. It was clear that she was it because Meg was tearing down the hallway to the principal’s office like she owned the place. Melia sighed deeply when she thought about what was about to take place, thank goodness for Alex being a lawyer because before this was all said and done, Meg was definitely going to need one.

  Meg burst into the office, startling the women inside and threw her bag down on the floor with Melia running behind her. “Meg, slow down, I can’t keep chasing you. This baby has me out of breath.”

  “I’m sorry, are you okay?”

  “Yes, I’m fine.” Melia turned to the secretary and smiled, but the smile wasn’t the nice and sweet one they usually received, it was cold and forced. “We don’t have an appointment, but we are here for Principal Wilkes. It’s important that we speak to her now.”

  The secretary huffed and placed her hand on the desk in front of her. “I’m afraid you can’t just barge in here demanding a meeting without calling first.”

  Meg’s eyes grew to the size of saucers and she slammed her hands down in front of the secretary, causing her to jump. “You don’t understand, if you don’t get us in there in the next five minutes, I’m going to flip every desk in this school over. Now if you would be kind enough to get off your ass and get into that office and let her know we’re here to see her it would be greatly appreciated.” The woman stopped and looked at Meg, searching for humor in her eyes, but she saw nothing but anger. “Go,” she growled.

  “Meg, you have to calm down, they’re going to call the cops on us,” Melia reasoned.

  “Let them call. I don’t care what they do. I’m getting to the bottom of this and then I’m taking my daughter out of this school.”

  “Meg, I know you’re upset, but at least let them get us in there before you start tipping things.”

  “Fine, but they better hurry.”

  When the secretary made her way from the office with the principal right behind her, Meg exhaled and pushed her way past them and walked into the office with Melia right behind her. Principal Wilkes offered her a genuine smile, but Meg’s angry demeanor persisted. There was no penetrating her foul mood, not at this point; she was way past the point of return. Melia looked at her phone hoping Alex would call back soon, she knew he and only he could talk her down now. There was going to be a blowup like never seen before once they shut that door.

  Melia watched hesitantly as the door closed behind them and Principal Wilkes offered a seat. She looked to Meg, who remained standing and shuddered, this wasn’t a good sign. When Principal Wilkes offered them a glass of coffee it was like yelling attack because Meg started right in. “No, my sister and I won’t be having any of your coffee. What I would like is for you to bring this Ms. Pierre here, I have a few questions for her.”

  “Mrs. Hanover, excuse me if I’m a bit out of sorts. I’m just not sure what’s going on here.”

  “This is your school, how do you not know what’s going on around here? One of your staff has been talking to my child about things they shouldn’t have, and I want her in here right now.”

  “Whom are you referring to? Allison is in Mrs. Anderson’s class, and as far as I know, there haven’t been any issues. Your daughter is in great hands, Mrs. Anderson is excellent.”

  “Listen to me, whoever this Ms. Pierre is, seems to be the issue. You get her down here now!”

  Principal Wilkes sat up in her chair looking rather confused as Meg continued her ranting. When Meg stopped to see the look on her face, she glared at her angrily. “Mrs. Hanover, I understand your frustrations, but I’m afraid I can’t do what you’re asking.”

  “And why the hell not? I hope you’re not trying to protect her because I’ll march up and down every hallway in this school if I have to until I find the woman who is poisoning my child’s mind. If you’re going to conceal her from me, I’ll bring this whole school down!”

  “Mrs. Hanover,” she screamed. “I can’t bring her to you because there is no teacher here by that name. No one on our staff is named Ms. Pierre.”

  Meg stopped her yelling to focus in on what she was saying. She was livid, and the lies this woman was spilling was only making it worse. “Well, how in the hell can you explain how she’s been talking to my daughter?”

  “Kids make up friends all the time, maybe it was just a decoy for feelings she doesn’t want to express to you.”

  “No,” Melia snapped. “Cienna has mentioned this friend that plays with them on the playground during recess. This is more than just their imagination running wild. She drew a picture of this woman.”

  “Oh dear,” Principal Wilkes sighed.

  “Oh dear is right,” Meg snapped. “You know what, get me my daughter and my niece, I’m taking them home now.”

  “Mrs. Hanover, I don’t think...”

  “I don’t care what you think right now. Get me the kids!”

  “Okay, they’re at recess, we’ll find them and bring them in.”

  “Recess, huh? This is even better, I’m going to that playground to see this Ms. Pierre.”

  “Mrs. Hanover we can’t have you making
scenes in front of the other children. You will have to wait here.”

  “You try and stop me and see what happens, that is my child. I’ll go where I damn well please.”

  Principal Wilkes conceded and walked out of the room towards the playground. Honestly, she understood Meg’s anger. If it were her, she would be the exact same way, that simple fact is the reason why she hadn’t called the police when things took a turn for the worst. She was almost as determined as Meg to get to the bottom of the playground incident.

  When they arrived on the playground, Meg scanned the area looking for the two girls, and at first sight, she didn’t see either child. They looked for a few minutes before Cienna spotted them. She ran over and latched on to her mother, and Meg continued to look for Allison. She knew they always played together, so she couldn’t be far behind.

  Meg looked around the sea of children searching for her energetic little girl, but still didn’t see her. After several minutes with no success, she bent down to talk to Cienna. “Cici, sweetie, can you help Aunt Meg? Do you know where Alli is?” When she shook her head yes, Meg smiled and rubbed her brown locks. “Good, can you show me?” When she shook her head no, Meg’s smile faded. “Why not? You won’t get in trouble, I promise.”

  “I don’t know where she went. She left with Ms. Pierre.”

  Meg felt the air leave her lungs and she slumped back. “Where did Ms. Pierre say she was taking Alli?”

  “They didn’t tell me. Alli said she needed to go to the restroom and they never came back.”

  “How long ago?” Meg asked, trying to hold back her tears.

  “I don’t know. Are you mad at me for not telling? Mommy said not to leave with strangers, but she said we weren’t strangers.”

  “No, baby,” Meg rubbed her face with tears in her eyes. “You did the right thing by telling me. Here, go with your mommy, I need to call Uncle Alex.”

  Principal Wilkes began to scour the playground asking everyone what they had seen, but no one remembered seeing her leave. Meg watched, feeling numb as they questioned everyone in sight. They decided it was best to evacuate the rest of the children while they questioned the teachers present. Principal Wilkes walked back to Meg offering her apologies with a frantic look on her face, but Meg heard nothing. Before she could fully take hold of the situation, she slapped Principal Wilkes so hard it sounded off across the playground.

  “This is all your fault! This is your school, my child was supposed to be safe here. You let someone take my daughter under your watch and I’ll shut this school down!”

  Melia had secured Cici with one of the teachers and rushed back to Meg. She practically had to pry her off Principal Wilkes. Just as she was dragging her away, the phone rang. She looked down and saw Alex was returning one of their many calls and scrambled to answer it. He sounded upbeat when she answered it, but when he heard what Melia had to say, he grew grim. Before she knew it, the line went dead. Melia screamed into the phone, but he was gone. She tried calling back, but only got his voice mail.

  Melia was able to restrain Meg enough to drag her into the school and sit her down to wait for the police to arrive. They sat in silence for over fifteen minutes until Alex came running in with Aiden close behind him. “Baby,” he called out. “What happened? Where is our daughter?”

  “Alex,” she ran into his arms. “Ms. Pierre is real, she’s not imaginary. She stole our baby. She took her Alex, I want her back!”

  Alex pulled her against him, letting his tears fall into her hair. He was so terrified about what could happen to their child, he couldn’t hide it this time. He was feeling helpless knowing there was nothing he could do. When one of the officers stepped in front of him, Alex turned and pushed Meg behind him. He walked off to talk to them, and Cienna came around the corner with one of the teachers. Aiden watched as Alex conversed with the detectives, and turned to Cienna, who looked frightened. “You know you were really brave for telling your aunt about Alli, right?”

  Cienna shook her head, but kept it down. Aiden wanted to take her mind off the situation, so he offered to do something to entertain her. “Hey, would you like to color with Uncle Aiden?” she smiled and agreed readily. When he looked through his briefcase, he discovered he didn’t have any paper, so he looked into Alex’s to see if he did. While going through the papers, he ran across all the articles Alex had confiscated from Meg about last year and paused. Cienna looked at him with wondering eyes as he looked at them quietly. When she noticed one of the pictures, she pointed at it.

  “What is it Cici?” Aiden asked in confusion.

  “That’s her.”

  “Who?” Aiden asked, studying the picture.

  “Ms. Pierre, Alli went with her.”

  Aiden looked down at the woman in the picture and gasped for air. He stared at the picture a moment longer and then over at Alex and stood suddenly. “I’m sorry, Cici, Uncle Aiden has to tell Uncle Alex something really important.” He raced to Alex and presented the picture breathlessly.

  “Aiden this isn’t the time, I don’t want to look at that woman right now.”

  “Alex, Amanda has Alli. Cienna recognized her from the picture.”

  “That murdering bitch has my daughter? How is this even possible? They should have been watching her,” he screamed, and threw his fist into the wall.

  “Alex,” Meg rasped. He looked in her eyes, trying to find the way to tell her what danger their child was in, and dropped to his knees. He couldn’t bear to tell her that her worst nightmare had actually come true. He just couldn’t. She walked closer to him and pulled the paper from his hand. He didn’t have to say the words, she knew from the look in his eyes what was going on, and she hit the floor. Meg passed out, and Alex scrambled over to lift her head from the floor. He pushed her hair back and sobbed into her shoulder as he held her close.

  Aiden alerted all the officers that they knew who had Alli, but he was terrified. They had been looking for this woman for almost a year with no luck and now she had his niece. She could disappear from the face of the earth and they wouldn’t know where to look. He knew to fix this, he was now going to have to get everyone in the loop. He picked up his phone to call Melissa and within twenty minutes she was there wrapping her arms around both Meg and Alex.

  Alex was hysterical and Melissa pulled him up and off to himself. “Alex, listen to me,” she placed her hands on his face. “There is so much that you don’t know, and so much I need to tell you. First of all, we’re going to get Alli back, Amanda is unhinged, but for some reason she loves Alli to death. She wouldn’t hurt her. Secondly, I think it’s time you talked to your father. I know you hate him, hell, I hate him, but he can make things happen. He would move heaven and earth to make sure either of these kids were safe.”

  Alex looked at her with a grim expression and wiped his tears away. “Mom, I would make a deal with the devil to get my baby back. Look at my wife, I swore to never let this happen, now I have to fix it. If that means teaming up with Satan himself, then that’s what I have to do for them.”

  “Go to him, see what he knows. I’ll take care of things here and I’ll take care of Meg until you return. I promise you son, we will find her.”

  “Where is my son?”

  “In good hands, they will bring him home when you get back.”

  “They?”

  “Alex, things will come out soon enough, you just go.”

  Alex nodded his head and walked over to Meg. He held her in his arms and kissed her gently before running off with Aiden. He would explain things to him in the car. For now, he just needed to get to Ben before too much time could pass. His little girl needed him, and he was going to explore every possibility to get her back; even working with the man he hated.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Melia,” Matt called out and rushed into the house. “Melia, where are you? Where is Cici?”

  She came around the corner to find him looking defeated. “She’s sleeping. What’s going on? Have they fou
nd out anything? Have they found any clues?”

  “No, baby,” he framed her face with his hands. “I just wanted to be sure she was safe. It could have been her. It could have been our baby she took. When they called me, I was so scared. I just needed to be with her.”

  “Go to her,” she smiled and stepped aside.

  “Thank you, I know I shouldn’t just show up here. I just needed to see her.”

  “It’s fine, go.”

  Melia watched as he raced up the stairs and placed her hand on her stomach. It was times like these when she missed him the most. She wanted to be there for Meg, but she was exhausted, all the stress of the kidnapping added with her pregnancy had worn her out. After a while at the school, she gathered Cici and took her home. All the shock of the day had her little girl shaken beyond measure. In the car ride home, she slept the whole way and when they arrived home, Melia just scooped her up and placed her in bed. It was fairly early for them to sleep, but considering the day they had, she understood.

  Matt stayed up with Cienna longer than Melia had expected him to, so she decided to just lay it down. She knew he would lock up when he left, so she left him to it. After changing into her bed clothes, she pulled back her covers and climbed into bed. Within minutes, she was drifting into her own little slumber. She had never gone to sleep so early in her life. It was only six and she felt like she had been through a whole day. She allowed herself to succumb to her needs fully when she felt it. The baby had taken her peaceful retreat and turned it into another upchuck session.

  As she raced to the restroom, the light in the hallway flickered on. Matt poked his head into her bedroom only to find it vacant. When he stepped further inside, he looked around the room, remembering his old life and smiled. Everything was the same except for a few misplaced papers. He sat down on the bed and rested his head against the pillows. He closed his eyes for a second and then he heard something. When he sat up suddenly, he knocked her papers off the night stand. Cursing himself, he picked them up, and even though he wasn’t trying to, he glanced down and saw that they were records, medical records.