What You Did

My partner had killed himself afterward, leaving Anthony Piatkowski—his child from a previous marriage—fatherless. “But that’s not all,” Piatkowski said. “There’s more. Not only did you fail to find the baby, but it was also your fault it was taken in the first place. Iris, his wife, told me everything. She told me how you and Gary, a week or so earlier, had stormed a house and rescued a kidnapped man, a gang member who owed money. When doing so, you shot a man. This man was the brother of Diego Sánchez. That was why he stole the baby in the first place. It wasn’t random. He didn’t just walk by on coincidence and decide to grab the baby. It was planned. It was revenge for what you did. The FBI believed it was coincidental until Sánchez wrote his confession. That was when the real motive came out. He wanted to revenge the death of his brother, and that was why he stole Gary’s newborn.

His obsession with her had grown unhealthy; he knew it a little too well. He also knew he had to tread carefully, but it was hard for him not to give in to it. He wanted to possess her; he wanted her to know he was in charge of her, of her life. And he wanted to hurt her. Not in a traditional way or even a physical way. No, he wanted her heart to bleed so terribly she wouldn’t want to live anymore. Even if it meant taking it out on someone she loved. Only then would he be fully satisfied. Only then would he have achieved his goal.

I stared at the woman, wondering about an article I had read recently about the parents of today. They weren’t called helicopter parents anymore; no, today they were called snowplow parents. A snowplow parent will “plow” down any person or obstacle standing in their child’s way. They were constantly paving the way for their children, removing every obstacle or disappointment that might appear, enabling them never to make responsible decisions or take responsibility for their actions.

Three teenage girls have been kidnapped; a fourth was strapped to a swing set, raped and blinded. A pipe bomb exploded and hurt a colleague, and now one of the girls has been found beaten to death. I don’t get him. It makes no sense.