They didn’t take me to jail after that. Not immediately.
Instead, they moved fast—too fast for comfort. The cuffs stayed on, but the tone changed from accusation to crisis management. An officer escorted Liam to a neighbor’s house for safety, while two others pulled me onto the porch and asked questions like bullets.
“Who has access to your child?”
“Who watches him after school?”
“Any custody issues?”
“Any recent threats?”
My mouth felt full of sand. “He goes to aftercare,” I said. “Sometimes my mother picks him up. His father isn’t in the picture. I— I don’t have enemies.”

The detective introduced himself as Detective Aaron Pike. He was older, eyes tired, but sharp. “Ma’am,” he said, “we need to understand how our department received an identification on a deceased child with your son’s information.”
“How was he identified?” I demanded, voice breaking. “Dental? Fingerprints?”
Pike shook his head. “Not dental. The child was found near the river. No ID on the body. Initial identification came from a missing child report filed this afternoon. The report included a photo, a name, and your son’s date of birth.”
I stared at him. “I didn’t file a missing report.”
Pike’s expression tightened. “We know. That’s part of the problem.”
The female officer pulled out her phone and showed Pike something on the screen—a copy of the report with my name typed in, my address, my contact number. It looked official enough to trigger dispatch.
But the phone number listed… wasn’t mine.When I got home from work, police were waiting at my door.
One officer came forward and said, “You are under arrest for the murder of your son.”
“That’s impossible… my son is—”
But when the real truth came out, even the officers froze in shock.

When I got home from work, the street in front of my house was lit by flashing red and blue lights. Two squad cars blocked my driveway, and my porch looked like a stage—officers standing under the glow like they’d been waiting for the main character to arrive.