Third Time's The Charm

Chapter 18

Carina POV:

Moments earlier:

"Hey, are you okay? Do you need help?" asked a woman, placing her hand on my shoulder. I never stopped to look at her, my eyes continually scanning the playground in front of me. All the children looked the same. I could no longer tell them apart.

"My son, I can't find my son," I cried.

"Okay, look it's going to be okay, do you have a picture of him? What was he wearing?" she asked.

"Um y-yes," I stuttered, holding out my phone showing her my lockscreen, "He's wearing a black and blue plaid flannel, jeans and black and white vans."

I was having trouble keeping the phone steady so she reached out and held it for me. She took my hand in hers, "You have a beautiful child. I'm sure he's here okay? He couldn't have gone far," she smiled. I nodded at her, taking my hand back and continuing my search. The small park seemed endless. There were so many places Ezra could have gone. I turned around and noticed the woman gathered a small group of parents, along with their children, who were now looking for him as well.

I made my way back to the parking lot. Maybe he got overwhelmed and ran back to the car, I thought. I was about half way there when I spotted him.

I immediately started running toward him. He was standing in front of a blue Ford sedan which I assumed belonged to the middle aged man who was squatting right in front of him. I couldn't run fast enough, I watched as the man stroked Ezra's cheek and handed him a lollipop. The little boy started unwrapping the candy and put it in his mouth.

"Ezra spit that out now!" I yelled. The man immediately looked up and got back in his car, speeding away.

"Why Carina? My friend just gave it to me," he responded. I had finally reached him and immediately tore the candy out of his mouth, throwing it on the ground.

"Don't ever, ever do that again, you hear me?! You never walk away from me or Maya, do you understand?!" I yelled as I made my way down to his level, clutching his little arms in my hands.

"Stop it! You're hurting me!" he cried, his hands trying to pry mine off of him.

"Do you understand?!" I shouted, he just looked at me as tears started to fill his eyes. I was scaring him. I felt a hand on my shoulder, " Carina, baby, let go," I looked up and noticed it was Maya.

"Let go," she repeated, pulling at my forearms. I let go of the now crying child. I allowed myself to fall back and finally processed all of the emotions I had experienced in the last few minutes, tears rolling down my face. I reached out for Ezra. He reluctantly made his way over to me, taking a seat in my lap as I wrapped my hands tightly around him.

"I'm sorry bambino. I am so, so sorry. I swear that I would never ever hurt you okay?" I said. I felt his head nod against my chest "I'm sorry Carina," he said, his bottom lip slightly sticking out and trembling. Maya made her way over and sat next to us, wrapping her arm around my shoulders while running her free hand up and down Ezra's back.

"It's not your fault bud," she reassured.

"She's right piccolo, It's my fault. I should have kept a better eye on you," my voice trembled.

"No. No, don't do that to yourself. It's not anyone's fault. These things happen and they can happen to anyone," Maya argued, placing a kiss on both of our heads. I moved to lean my head on Maya's shoulder, placing Ezra so that he was now sitting in both of our laps, his legs draped over Maya's. We sat there holding each other in silence for a moment, relieved to still have our little boy with us.