"Come here, come here. Let me see if you fattened him up the way I told you to."
He reached for Conrad's arm. I slapped his hand away hard.
"Don't touch him. You can't afford the consequences."
Something venomous flickered behind Layla's eyes.
Then she turned to the crowd and shrieked at the top of her lungs.
"Felicia! How could you? You're a kidnapper! You tore apart a happy family!"
The word kidnapper hit the crowd like a match to gasoline. Nobody was walking away from that.
Every last one of them wanted to tear me apart.
Within seconds, dozens of outraged "good Samaritans" swarmed around me. Two burly men even volunteered to grab my arms, one on each side, pinning me in place as if I might bolt.
When someone pulled Conrad away from me, his desperate cry of "Don't hurt my Mommy!" was swallowed whole by the wave of shouting and cursing.
"Snatching children in broad daylight? You've got some nerve!"
"You don't even deserve to be called human! You're worse than an animal!"
"Call the police! Lock her up! She should rot behind bars!"
When someone pulled out a phone and threatened to call the cops, Alex, who'd been standing off to the side enjoying the show, suddenly went pale.