Fridays for her and her daughter was always bonding time. It meant that she would have to spend a little bit more time with her daughter after picking her up from school before returning back to work.
But Donna had come earlier, reason being that she might not have that much time to spend with Alix because of the nature of today's work - Mr. James Donovan's lawyers were expected to be at Ortho Speare to finalize the business they had between them. And Keith had told her she needed to be there.
He had given clear, specific instructions to her the day before, this morning and just before she had left the office, to imply just how necessary it was for her to be present. She knew he was not at ease, something disturbed him, and she knew it had to do with this particular contract and she wonders if it was because of Laura's involvement in the whole thing.
She hummed as she neared the school. She had approximately thirty minutes to spend with Alix and get back to the office. It was a five minutes drive back so she reasoned she could spend twenty minutes with Alix.
She had already rehearsed her apology speech as she drove from the office to her daughter's school, she had even gotten her a little bribe, a cute little doll and Alix's favorite snack which sat in the passanger's seat beside her, well packaged and wrapped in a nice little blue box with a yellow ribbon. It was something she knew her daughter enjoyed a lot, so she saw no reason why Alix would not forgive her this one time.
She chuckled.
She pulled her car into the parking lot, turned off the engine and stepped out of the car. School was not yet over but she had called the homeroom teacher in advance to let her know she would be coming to pick up Alix a little earlier than usual.
She had only taken a few steps away from her car when she heard a very familiar scream of protest and a swear word that followed. She paused. It sounded like Alix and it was not coming from inside the building.
Curiosity seized her and she began to walk towards the other side of the parking lot, quietly and cautiously.
"Madam Xiu, we got the girl," she overheard someone say. She peeked from behind another parked car to see a man, well built, standing outside a dark van with it's doors open. He had a phone to his ear and he kept moving his weight from one leg to the other impatiently.
"Madam Xiu? That has got to be Cheryl," Donna said to herself. She was confused as to why Cheryl would send anyone to come pick up a child from school, for all she knew, Cheryl had no child of her own.
She continued to approach slowly and undetected. She didn't know why she was this curious about what these people were up to, but she could not shake the feeling off either.
"Yes, we got the right girl, Alix Brooks, isn't it?" the man said again and this time Donna's heart seized to beat for a couple of seconds.
"Alix Brooks?" She walked towards them faster now, was there another Alix Brooks in this school? If there was she would have known about it.
"Hey!" The man suddenly said and Donna shivered, but he was calling out to one of his associates who was inside the van. The man poked his head out, his facial expression revealed that he was bored, "Bring the girl out, she's requesting for a picture."
The man groaned, "Now's not the time for this, let's just get out of here first."
The first man sighed impatiently, "Just a picture, then we get paid and deliver the girl to her."
"Unnecessary," the second man said with a sigh.
Donna ducked behind a car and watched, maybe she had heard wrong, maybe it had not been Alix they were talking of, but she would see.
The other man, with a groan, lifted the unconscious child from the floor of the van, and it was only then that Donna caught sight of her face. And she gasped. That was Alix, that was her daughter.
"Alix!" She called out without thinking and ran for the van. But the men had now been made aware of her presence.
"Oh snap, that's the mother," the first man said, "Let's get the hell out of here now!"
Quickly they jumped into the vehicle and shut the doors as another man who had been sitting in the driver's seat all along started the engine. Donna ran.
"Stop," she became frantic, "That's my daughter!"
She ran faster, but just as her fingers brushed against the van, it shot out of its parking position in reverse, ramming into another car before it sped out of the school's premises and onto the road.
"Stop!" Donna kept yelling and running after the vehicle, even as it left the premises, "Please! Bring her back!"
She watched the van hit a bump and her heart skipped a bit, then it sped into the traffic, almost colliding with another car.
"Hey!" Donna yelled, still running after the vehicle, "Hey! Bring her back! That's my daughter!"
For the splitest of seconds, she stood confused, lost and desperate, staring at the van as it raced down the road. Then almost immediately, she spun on her heels and ran for her car.
"Alix," she cried, as she reached where she had parked it, "Mummy's coming, hold on baby."
She yanked opened the door, jumped in, slammed the door and started the engine. She peeled out of the parking space in a frenzy and ran into the road without looking out for incoming vehicles. She had one thing in mind, not to loose sight of the vehicle and the people that had kidnapped her daughter.
Madam Xiu, that man had been on a call with someone he had addressed as Madam Xiu. Jeremy's mother was not alive and the only female that could be addressed as Madam Xiu was non other than Cheryl. Cheryl Declan Xiu.