Not My Mother By Miranda Smith

They arrest my mother in the middle of my baby daughter’s first birthday party.
They say she’s not really my mother.
They say she stole me, thirty years ago…

I’d heard of the Baby Caroline case, of course. When a baby is snatched from her mother’s arms, the whole country knows about it. But I never dreamed it had anything to do with me.

Today, my daughter turned one. I hosted a party for my friends and my mother, my only family. We were in the middle of unwrapping gifts and blowing out candles when the knock came at the door, and they took my mother away.

The police say she is the only suspect for the kidnapping. When I visit her, desperate for answers, she won’t give them to me. She looks me in the eye and says nothing.

I don’t even know her real name. The truth is, my whole life is a lie.

I have to find out what happened thirty years ago, but I’m scared. What if there are other secrets, worse secrets? What if my own child is in danger? What else don’t I know?