Chapter 30
Meanwhile…
Aurora was screaming with every ounce of air in her tiny lungs, her chest heaving as she hyperventilated from the sheer terror of being stolen. Though she was only a year old, her instincts were sharp and untainted by logic. She didn't know how this woman possessed her mother’s face or her mother’s scent, but deep down in her small, racing heart, she knew this was a stranger.
“Goddess, will you just shut up?!” the woman snapped, twisting around in the passenger seat to glare at the child.
Aurora was a mess of tangled blonde curls and tear-stained cheeks, her face a frantic shade of crimson. She squirmed and fought against the restraints of a car seat that hadn't been sized for her; the straps were loose and jagged, biting into her skin in all the wrong places.
“A
