When my son went missing in the mall at age seven, I was inconsolable until a blonde woman came over to comfort me. Hours later, my son was found.
Ten years after, while sharing the story with a friend, I mentioned the kind stranger who had helped me. Suddenly, my son went pale and said, “Mom, that’s not what really happened. That woman was the one who took me. She and a man carried me to their car in the parking lot and kept me there for a while. I remember them arguing.”
He added, “She came back to distract you, but it was her boyfriend who changed his mind and let me go.”
I was stunned. My son had hidden the truth all those years to protect me, and in that moment, everything I thought I knew about that day—and that woman—was completely shattered.
