Mother's Necklace

Mother’s Necklace

I’m sitting on the floor, my blonde curls resting behind my ears and draping over my shoulders. The dress I'm wearing from my business meeting is still on. I'm sitting on the floor with my legs stretched out and I'm leaning against the couch. I’m watching the fire light up the room, watching the flames fly up and go out immediately. I can feel the heat on my face as I sip my red wine. I think about the shitty day I had today.  Right when I get to the worst part of the day, my phone rings. I looked at the phone, face down, for a few seconds as I debated about picking it up to see who it was. I made my choice and picked up the phone to see my son’s caller ID. I answered the phone before the ringing ended. 

“Hey, are you on your way home from school?”

“He was,” an unfamiliar voice says. I sat up straight, panicked.

“Who is this?” I started to think it was a friend of his and Adrian was hurt. 

“Call me Milo.” the voice, Milo, said. 

“Where is Adrian?” my voice deepened as i started to get worried. 

“Let’s just say he’s sleeping.” the voice said, almost proud of himself.

“What do you want? Money? How much?” my voice was calm and steady but the look on my face and the tears in my eyes said something else.

“No, Rosa, I do not want your money, but I do have my eyes on something else; a jewel from your mother.”

He’s talking about the only thing I have from my mother, her necklace, the thing she always called special and said to never lose until she died in my teenage years.

“Why do you want her necklace?” I was still worried about Adrian but now confused and curious about my mother’s necklace. 

“Meet me at Edwards Croft in 20 minutes with the necklace or I'll kill your son” the beep blared in my ear as he hung up.. I tried processing what just happened but kept wanting it to not be true, for Adrian to be okay. 

I grab my mother’s necklace and the keys and rush to the door. I try to stay calm so I can have a clear head in case I need to think fast. I turned onto Edwards croft and drove slower to look for a car parked on the side. I see three, all the same distance apart, and start to panic. It’s been close to 20 minutes. I need to know which one is him. Suddenly, the farthest car’s driver's side door opens and a tall man gets out. He stands in the middle of the road with his hands in his pockets. He is muscular, his hair is dark and curly. His skin is tanned. If he wasn’t crazy I might have found him attractive. He is wearing a suit like this as a business arrangement. Maybe it is for him. I stop in the middle of the street and get out, leaving the car running. It’s cold out and I can see my breath as I walk to the front of my car. 

“Milo?” I ask, wondering if it’s him.

“The one and only, wanna see him?” I want to slap the smirk off of him.

I was nervous about what he did to him, but the trunk of the car opened and I saw a boy with dirty blonde hair, the same nose as me, and a cut bleeding from his head, going down his face. What did he do to my adrian. 

I wanted to look away but I couldn't. I just couldn’t, everything in me wanted to look away, to not have to remember my son this way, to not have nightmare over this and have to wake up in the middle of the night to check on him, to not be so worried all the time tha milo would take him like i knew was gonna happen.

“Do you have a necklace?” He raised an eyebrow.

I hold it up by the chain so he can see the shape and details.

“Give it to me”

“Give my son to me.” He holds out the keys and I go to grab them but he jerks his hand away right when the keys, the car, my son, were in my fingerprints. I looked at him with a confused face wearing eyes filled with anger. 

“At the same time,” he almost asked, but I knew I had no choice.

I hold the necklace out in a fist over his hand as my other hand grips the keys to the car my Adrian is in. 

“3, 2, 1.” 

I pulled the keys at the same time as I opened my hand. My mother’s “special” necklace fell into his large hand. The only thing I had to remember her by. I ran as fast as possible to the car and closed the trunk, put the key in the ignition, and turned the key. Wait, it wont turn. That bastard gave me the wrong key. I looked at him to see him throw the necklace on the ground. I got out before I saw what else he had got. I opened the trunk and grabbed my son. He is already taller than me, but he’s skinny, so I practically dragged him across the frosted road. I put him in my back seat when I ran to the other side to see that Milo had smashed the necklace into multiple pieces and started to look for something. I run to the driver’s side when he grabs my arm, spins me around and pins me to the car holding my arms to my body. He’s yelling about how he couldn’t find it. 

“Where is it Rosa,”I didn't know if he was talking about the real necklace or what he was looking for, but before I could answer him…

Are Rosa and Adrian okay?

What was so special about the necklace?

What was he looking for in the necklace?