Free Secrets Uncovered by Amaleka McCall

bystanders; the rest of the officers began a methodical grid search.
    Candice had to chuckle a bit. The boy was right under their noses. The police began checking the stores almost immediately, just as Candice predicted. The officers who would find the boy would be dubbed heroes back at the station for reuniting the lost child with his nanny.
    This incident would be the first of many tragedies that would befall the DeSosa family in the coming weeks, if Candy had anything to do with it.
    Shortly after the cops arrived, a white Range Rover came to screeching halt near the police cars. Arellio DeSosa, whom Candice recognized from her photo collage, was out of his car before it even came to a full stop. Rolando DeSosa’s eldest son burst through the throngs of onlookers and officers and headed straight for Flora. His body language was rigid and menacing.
    Before Arellio could even utter a harsh word, a petite blonde, with a lithe build, rushed from behind him. Her hands were extended in front of her as if ready to scratch Flora’s eyes out.
    â€œYou bitch! Where is my son?” the blonde screamed.
    Candice slouched down even farther in her seat and smiled. She’d finally gotten to see Arellio’s wife. A police officer grabbed the woman’s arms behind her back and directed her toward the Range Rover before she could do any real harm to the nanny. The woman’s hands and mouth were moving a mile a minute.
    Arellio scolded Flora, his finger wagging accusatorily in her face. Snatching his daughter from her arms, he headed back toward his wife.
    â€œYou’re fuckin’ fired!” the blonde screeched, trying to outmaneuver the officer. “Where is my son?” The woman broke down, her shoulders shaking, as she covered her face with her hands.
    Flora was sobbing as well. She had always been careful. There was no way the boy could’ve unfastened his own car seat straps. The thought caused Flora’s knees to give out. She almost hit the ground before an officer caught her in his arms.
    Candice watched intently as Arellio handed his daughter to his wife and engaged in an intense conversation with the police officers. Candice watched him still trying to be the cool kingpin as the pressure mounted. Candice hated him more and more by the minute. She made her hand into a fake gun. Closing her weak eye, she aimed it at Arellio’s head.
    â€œBoom!” she whispered as she pulled back her pointer finger in a mock trigger pull.
    Arellio went over and embraced his wife; their baby daughter was snuggled between them.
    Such a loving family, Candice noted sarcastically.
    Alas, the play was nearing its final scene. Heads turned simultaneously to the left as shouting could be heard in the distance.
    â€œFound him! We found him!” a police officer belted out as he walked with a child in his arms toward the crowd. Cheers erupted from the worried onlookers.
    Arellio and wife rushed toward their child. “Thank God!” the woman cried as she scooped her son up into her arms and squeezed him tightly. Arellio was right on her heels. He kissed his son on the top of his head and held on to his wife and children for dear life.
    The scene sent sparks of white-hot anger over Candice’s body. Her cheeks were aflame and she bit down so hard into the side of her mouth that she broke the skin.
    â€œNow I know how to locate your Achilles’ heel,” Candice vowed aloud as she followed Arellio DeSosa with her eyes. Family clearly mattered to him, as much as it did to her. If that was his point of weakness, then that was where she planned to strike first.
    Standing nearly six and a half feet tall, Arellio DeSosa was a hard-to-miss target. He was nearly the spitting image of his father—olive-colored skin, shiny black hair, strong broad shoulders, large flat nose and long prominent chin. He joined his father’s business when he was just seventeen years old and was groomed to be just as