Chapter 1

Prologue

Therain fell down heavily that night, the sky heavy and thick.

On the outskirts of the city, the roads were nearly deserted, the street lights were barely hanging out. 

A car stood there, parked. It was a black Sudan, it looked expensive. 

Inside the car was a small boy who stayed curled up in the backseat, hugging his knees to his chest. His clothes were thin for the weather, he had on jeans and a faded hoodie which looked like it had been washed too many times. 

His clothes were damp, his sneakers had holes under them and his face had a white cast. He was about six year old but he looked like one who had seen too many life times, his beautiful brown eyes red and swollen from crying and his cheeks streaked with dried tears. 

“Please, Mom,” he whispered, his voice trembling. “Please don’t leave me.”

The woman in front of the seat had a striking resemblance with him, one could say she was his mom but her manicured hands gribbing the wheel, the lines on her face as she frowns and the way she ignored him as he cried contradicted the theory.

He cried and pleaded to be with her but his pleas fell on deaf ears, she stared ahead contradicted. 

“Mom, I’ll be good,” the boy tried again, louder this time. Desperation edged his words. “I promise! Please just take me home with you.”

She finally turned and looked at him, her face was pale and her lipstick smudged. Her expression was not entirely cold, she looked broken like she had a lot to say but was deciding not to.

“You’ll… you’ll be fine,” she said although her voice broke halfway through the sentence. She swallowed hard and forced herself to sound firm. “Someone will find you. They’ll take care of you.”

His breath caught in his throat, he couldn’t understand why his mom would do this to him. “But you’re my mom,” he whispered, like it was the only argument that mattered.

His words broke her heart as she closed her eyes for a second, her chest rising and falling before she let out a deep breath. She opened her eyes and told herself she was going to go through with her decision, she didn’t have the luxury of choosing something else.

“I can’t do this anymore,” she said, her tone clipped. “I’m sorry.”

Before he had the time to say something else, she opened her side of the door and stepped out in the heavy down pour walking over to his side. 

She pulled open the door and dragged him out with his backpack, she walked him to the bus stop and told him to sit there. She turned her back and returned to the car without him. 

“No! Don’t!” He stumbled out in the rain, the freezing rain soaking through his hoodie in seconds. His feet slipped on the wet asphalt as he ran toward her.

She turned to him, shaking her head. “Stay there,” she ordered. “Just…just stay. Please….stay there” her voice trembling. 

He didn’t listen, instead he ran to her crying, his lips quivering as his face held terror too much for someone that young.

“Please, Mom! Please don’t go, take me with you instead!”

She watched him as he clutched her jacket, tears wet her eyes. She didn’t want to leave him, but she had to even if it was breaking her heart.

She yanked herself free from his hands, the action making him loose his balance as he stumbled and fell to the ground crying.

He stood up immediately and knelt on the ground, still crying and pleading. His body began to tremble as the cold was getting too much, he sneezed. 

“Good bye dear, may the good Lord guide and direct your path”, without a word, she got into the car and shut the door. 

The boy scrambled to his feet, slipping and sliding on the slick road. “Mom! Wait!” His voice was hoarse now, ragged from screaming. “Don’t leave me!”

She didn’t wait, the engine roared to life as the lights came on piercing through the rain. She pulled the car into reverse and then she was gone.

The boy stood there, stunned, watching as the vehicle disappeared into darkness. His chest felt tight, his breathing shallow and panicked.

“Mom…” The word came out broken, almost a sob.

The rain soaked him completely now, chilling him to the bone. His small body trembled violently as the wind whipped against him. He stumbled toward the edge of the road, unsure where to go, unsure of anything.

Hours passed and he just stood there as time passed, watching to see if she’ll change her mind and come back. Come back to get her son.

He saw a car approaching and he watched in anticipation, his tears drying. He watched as the car close to him and he realized it wasn’t his mom, the tears came back falling.

The car slowed as it approached, then stopped a few feet away. The driver was a middle-aged man who had kind eyes, he rolled down the window and gestured for him to come close.

“Hey, kid,” the man called out to him, his voice gentle “What are you doing out here? Where are your parents?”

He couldn’t speak, he just cried out. The man was alarmed, who had left a boy this small in the middle of the rain?

He got out of the car and rushed over to his side, wrapping his coat around him to protect him from the cold. “Hey…it’s okay, don’t cry” he said softly, shushing him. “You’re safe now.”

The boy flinched and tried to get away, he remembered his mom had warned him to be weary of strangers but his mom was not here anymore, he wailed and cried all the more.

The man crouched down, giving him space. “You’re freezing. Let me help you, alright? I’m going to take you somewhere warm.”

He nodded as his legs gave out, his body trembling with fever. The cold had gotten to him. 

The man carried him to the car and turned on the heater, wrapping him in a blanket to help keep him warm. The man tried to hold conversations with him but he just stared out the window.

He felt his heart break and constrict and in that moment he told himself, that he wouldn’t trust anyone again. His mom had told him she loved him so many times but at the end she left him in the rain all alone. 

How could a mother do that to her own child? What could be the reason she left? He questioned himself as he cried silently while the stranger drove.

He had mentioned something about going to the station to check for the boy’s family. 

When they got to the station there was no record of him, the police advised to take him home and come back the next day to know the next steps to take. 

The man stared at him for some time before he asked him to follow him, driving him to his own family.