THREE

“What are you doing?!” Jane yelled, trying to pull the frightened baby back into her arms when her stepmother backhanded her across the cheek. Such was the brute force her stepmother wielded that Jane stumbled a few steps back. But the sting on her cheek was nothing compared to the confusion and fear that consumed her.

Before Jane could even run back towards her baby, the door slammed in her face with a bang.

“Open the door! For goodness sake, open the door! Give me back my baby!” she screamed, pounding furiously at the timber door. It didn’t matter if she woke up the entire neighbourhood, all she wanted was to have her newborn back.

“We fed and clothed you for two decades. And all you did was to bring shame upon this family!” her stepmother shouted back from behind the door.

“OPEN THE DOOR!” Jane yelled, slamming both fists at the door, splintering her porcelain skin in the process. There was no other way in, she had no key and the windows were locked from the inside. “PA!!” she yelled out at the top of her lungs.

“He won’t see you! We’ll take the baby as collateral. Give us a million dollars and we’ll call it even,” the woman hissed.

Jane could not believe her ears. What was her stepmother talking about?! She wasn’t making any sense at all! Was she extorting money from her?

“I’ll call the cops!” Jane threatened, pulling at the doorknob with all her might. It rattled but the door did not budge. Inside, her baby cried even louder.

‘Oh God please open the door!’ her mind screamed, on the verge of losing its sanity.

Her stepmother laughed bitterly from the confines of the house, “We have the baby’s records with us remember? We paid for your hospital bills. Go to the cops all you want. Let them know the bastard child that you are!”

Tears welled up in Jane’s eyes and finally, she slumped against the door - all strength failing her now. She choked back her sobs, pleading, “Please give me back my child. Please…”

Where is Pa? Why isn’t he here? Her heart shattered into a million pieces as her mind raced for a possible solution.

In a way her stepmother was right, she had no proof. All the paperwork was with her parents. No, not parents. She did not even know who these people were anymore.

Her heinous stepmother continued raining venom on Jane, “Call the cops if you dare. Make a hoo-hah out of this, let EVERYONE know and see if this will kill John.  You gave him a stroke once already with the revelation of this bastard baby…do you really want to drive him to his grave?”

Oh, God... It felt as if a sharp sword had stabbed all the way inside of her, that was how strong her bond with her baby was. But how could she hurt her father again? He almost died from a stroke a few months back, and it was all because of her!

“You have three days to pay us one million. Otherwise, you can say goodbye to your bastard as well.”

Jane crawled back up on her knees, clawing at the door as her body wracked with sobs, “Please, don’t do this. I beg you. Please give me back my baby….”

“THREE DAYS!”

And with that, the thundering footsteps and the wailing of her little child grew softer as both the older woman and her baby disappeared upstairs.

Three days….where was she going to find such a large amount of money in a short time? Rob a bank?

She wiped away her tears even as fresh ones sprung onto the corners of her eyes, spilling out.

She could only trust that her father would take good care of her baby in the meantime.

“Money, I have to find money…”

***

Jane’s father, John McKay sat cradling his head in his calloused hands at the edge of the worn-out spring bed. By his side lay a faded and torn photo of his first wife; his heart ached at the betrayal.

“Jane is not my daughter,” he whispered, trying hard to come to terms with the harsh reality. A part of him wanted to run to Jane and hold his darling daughter in his arms, and yet another part of him held him back. She was not his child. Why did his first wife lie to him? They were each other’s first loves!

He could hear Jane and his wife, Marie downstairs but he could not catch what they were talking about. Without his hearing aid, John was practically deaf and at the moment, his hearing aid laid unobtrusively on a wooden dressing table not far from where he sat. Suddenly there was a slam at the door. That, John could hear.

Abruptly, he stood up and limped towards the window. His arthritic leg was acting up again, but he brushed away the pain and took a peek out of the curtains only to see nothing. The view from his master bedroom was not a favourable one. Quickly he went for his hearing aid just in time to hear a baby’s wail.

“Stop crying!” Marie shouted as she stormed into the room.

John whirled around and his jaw literally fell to the ground. In Marie’s arms was Jane’s baby. Little Timmy! That was the name he had written in the baby’s birth certificate yesterday.

His lips trembled as he inched towards the crying baby. Was he dreaming?

“Why is he here?”

Marie swiftly put on a façade of grief, “Sweetheart, Jane insists on paying us back every single dime we spent on her before she officially cuts ties with us. I told her it wasn’t necessary but she insisted. Little Timmy will stay with us for the time being.” Her acting put Meryl Streep’s Oscar-winning performances to shame.

In reality, Marie had dabbled in shares and lost a whopping five hundred grand. She would wring that bastard of a girl dry before letting her go scot-free. Things were looking up for her, she smirked.

Perhaps the baby could sense Marie’s maliciousness towards his mother for he chose the perfect time to urinate on the older woman, making her shriek bloody murder.

“EEWW!! Here! Here! Take the baby! It peed on me!”

She pushed the little bundle into her husband’s arm and ran to the bathroom as if her life depended on it and John McKay was left with a happy and satisfied baby cooing in his arms.