All 18-year-old Maddie hoped for was that her boyfriend would make it back in time for her baby’s arrival. But when the doctor saw his face, he immediately called the cops.
When Matt Bryant felt the first labor contractions, her initial reaction was disappointment. She had hoped, really hoped, that her boyfriend, Alex, would be back from Europe before the arrival of the baby. Alex was such a wild card. In a way, that had been what attracted her to him—his magnetic personality, that way he had her saying, “Come on folks, let’s get something started.” He’d been gone for two weeks now, and she really missed his lively personality.
Two weeks ago, she had begged him not to leave so close to the baby’s arrival. She really wanted him to be there for her as she gave birth to his child. But Alex was an investment guru. He advised people on how to invest their money, and in his world, matters changed at breakneck speed. “You have to be fast to run with the bulls,” that was another one of his sayings, and he explained to her what that meant: all about chasing a robust bull market where everything went up and down and up, and everyone made lots of money.
That’s why she wasn’t surprised when he woke her up early on a Sunday morning to say goodbye. He needed to be in Hong Kong as soon as possible, and from there it was direct to Amsterdam for a major deal going down. “And when I come back, you and this baby will be rich, rich, rich!” he shouted.
“Do you really have to go?” Maddie asked sleepily.
“Are you kidding me? They want to see me and me alone,” he said, “but that’s my Uber. Look after our little princess, and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
When he was gone, it occurred to her that she wasn’t even certain what it was that he would or would not do. And then, because it was still dark outside, she went right back to sleep, not suspecting that she was in for a nail-biting emotional roller coaster ride.
He called her 16 hours later to tell her that he loved her, and that reminded her that he brought her that special Greek yogurt and the organic honey from the farmer’s market so she could eat healthy food. It sounded as if there was a party in the background, but when Maddie mentioned that, Alex told her that he was in a noisy restaurant waiting for his contact. “And did I tell you I love you?” he said again.
“At least three times in the last five minutes,” Maddie replied with a laugh.
After he hung up, she settled down and watched a romcom on the streaming service. The lead actor looked a little like Alex, and when he finally declared his love to the heroine in a crowded metro station, after acting like a jerk for almost the whole movie, Maddie reflected on how lucky she was that she didn’t have to go through all of that with her boyfriend.
Just before she went to sleep, Alex texted her to tell her that the meeting in Hong Kong had gone brilliantly, and he was about to board his flight to Amsterdam. He phoned her at the most impossible hour to let her know that he was sitting in a coffee shop overlooking the canal and missed her like crazy.
“Just two more days,” he promised, “and then I’ll be home for you, baby George!”
“It’s a girl,” she chided him, knowing that he was pulling her leg.
“Okay, okay. Bye, baby Georgina,” he amended.
“I’m not sure yet if I’m calling her Georgina,” Maddie smiled.
“It’s your grandmother’s name,” Alex said emphatically. “You simply have to call her Georgina.”
Alex was one of the few people whose eyes didn’t glaze over when Maddie began to talk about her somewhat unusual upbringing by her eccentric grandmother. Her parents had died in a car accident when she was only two years old, and the old woman had been the one to raise her.
“You said two days,” she reminded him.
“48 hours. You can count them if you like. How’s my baby doing?”
“I felt her kicking,” Maddie said.
“Wow,” said Alex. “Okay, here’s my guy. I have to go now.”
But two days later, Alex would go silent on her, and when she finally got hold of him, he would add another disappointing twist. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the first but just the latest of many.
Maddie was in her last year of high school when she met Alex. Her grandmother had passed away a few months earlier, and the executor of the will had sent her off to a boarding school on the East Coast. It was a prestigious school, but Maddie felt miserable throughout the time she had been there. She did make friends with one of the other girls, a spunky young woman who was the exact opposite of her. She invited Maddie to spend the weekend at her dad’s summer house, and there, at a yacht party, she spotted Alex.
At first glance, he looked out of place as she felt, so she was drawn to his side. “Have you ever tasted real champagne?” was the first question he asked her.
“What do you think?” Maddie said. “I’m underage.”
“Not if you’re in Germany,” he replied smoothly. “Here, have a sip of mine. That is the real stuff.”
She took a sip. “I feel so lost here,” she said.
“Come with me,” he said, “and I’ll show you how to mingle like a boss.”
For the rest of the afternoon, she followed Alex around like a faithful puppy dog. He made her laugh, and he made things happen. “Let’s get something started,” he told her, his signature phrase, she later discovered.
Although Maddie added Alex as a contact on her phone at the end of the night, she did not expect to hear from him again. But he contacted her a week later. He texted her that he was in Paris, and did she want anything from the city of love? A month after that, she sneaked away to meet him for a shopping trip to New York. Around Christmas, she discovered that she was pregnant and dropped out of school. Alex sent her a plane ticket, and they had been together ever since. Well, as together as anyone can be with someone who’s always on the move.
Everything happened at a whirlwind speed, driven by Alex and his relentlessly frenetic energy. When she was six months pregnant, she stopped traveling with Alex because his jet-setting lifestyle was making her nausea worse, but he was really nice about it, even opening a special bank account for her, which he called the “baby fund.” He was truly sweet with her, and she hardly found any faults in him, that is, if she ignored his mysterious phone calls. Once Maddie overheard Alex arguing with someone called Ivan at 4 a.m., but when she asked him about it, he brushed her off. But after the incident, there was a subtle change in his demeanor. Although he was never short or impatient with her, others frequently bore the brunt of some caustic utterance. Maddie worried about this. Was the approach of the baby’s arrival getting to him?
About a month before the due date, Alex promised her that he would not be leaving again before the baby’s arrival, but he would break that same promise less than a fortnight later. Alone and frustrated by Alex’s promises, Maddie had spent the time preparing for the baby’s arrival. But when she went out to buy a few clothing items with her card linked to the baby fund, she made another shocking discovery: the purchase was declined. That was impossible. According to her last statement, that account still held over $10,000 in it. But when she checked with the bank, she discovered that there was only about $25 in it. Alarmed, she phoned Alex, but there was no response. Alex had gone silent and withdrawn almost everything from the account that was meant to pay for her needs.
Panicking, Maddie called the one person she swore she would never contact again: her grandmother’s lawyer. Ralph Tiger was not exactly what she would call a fun person, and the last time Maddie had seen him, they had not parted on good terms. When Maddie dropped out of school, he had demanded she return at once, and when she refused, he had threatened to cut her off financially. In response, Maddie had not touched a cent of her money that her grandmother had set aside for her. But with her daughter about to be born and Alex suddenly not taking her calls, Maddie had swallowed her pride and contacted him.
Ralph Tiger listened to her story without comment and then transferred the stipend. As she was about to lose all hope of ever hearing from Alex again, she got a phone call from Prague. It was Alex. Trembling with uncertainty, Maddie wanted to know where he had been and what happened to the missing money. Alex apologized, stating that there had been a cash flow problem with his usual account and he needed to move funds from the baby fund as a last-ditch stopgap. He was so sorry about it, and he would send her the money as soon as he was able to. She had to believe him. He didn’t mean to inconvenience her, but he had absolutely no choice about it.
Maddie took a deep breath and asked the one question that had kept her awake at night. “When are you coming home?” she demanded. “The baby’s coming any day. I tried to call you, and the phone just rang and rang.”
For once, Alex’s smooth demeanor seemed to falter. “I had to change my number,” he stammered. “Someone stole my phone. I wanted to call you, but I have a new number
now.”
Alex promised that he was booking the plane ticket right away, but when she called the next day, there had been another delay. Not his fault. This flight was overbooked, but he had a new departure time. The next morning, there was another message. It just said, “Departing in two hours.” He even sent her a photo of the boarding pass. As she made herself a cup of tea, overcome with relief that everything was okay, that he was finally on his way, Maddie felt the first contractions. With no other option and no one to help her, she booked an Uber and waited for her ride.
The Uber driver was a middle-aged man named Thomas, and when she explained her predicament, he immediately reassured her and made sure that she was comfortable. He was himself a father of three children and had taken women to the hospital on at least two previous occasions. His helpfulness restored her confidence, and Maddie ended up telling Thomas all about Alex, who was flying home at that very moment. “And he doesn’t even know I’ve gone to the hospital,” Maddie confided.
Thomas, the Uber driver, listened patiently. He had a calming effect on Maddie and talked her through most of her fears and anxieties by reminding her that the most important thing in the world for her was to focus on the birth of her child. Feeling much better, Maddie drafted a quick update, which she sent to Alex.
At the hospital, Thomas parked his vehicle at the emergency drop-off and let her in the capable hands of an orderly. While being wheeled towards the labor ward, Maddie checked her phone again and saw that there was a new message from Alex. It simply said, “Last stopover. We’ll be with you in two hours. Hugs and kisses.” This was wonderful news that lifted Maddie’s spirits. Perhaps he would be with her in time for the birth. All her fears about him were completely ungrounded. He had just had the most rotten luck over the past few weeks. Everything would be fine now.
Dr. Tim Carroll was a gentle, mild-mannered man in his mid-30s who immediately took charge of the situation. He asked several questions and then proceeded to explain each phase of the birthing process to her, detailing what she could expect and what he and the medical team would be doing. Although Maddie had read a few pregnancy books, he made it sound straightforward and uncomplicated. By that time, the pain from the contractions was getting more severe, but all Maddie could think of was the moment when Alex would be walking through the door. More than an hour had already passed. He could be here at any moment.
It was a relatively easy birth without any complications. When the doctor laid the tiniest little baby girl on Maddie’s chest, she folded her arms around her daughter. Her mother must have held her like that when she was only a little baby. There was a slight commotion at the entrance to the ward, and then Alex burst through the door. He looked travel-worn, and his aftershave was a little too prominent, but Maddie was still happy to see him.
“Look,” he said, “I told you I’d be here, and here I am! Wait, let me take a photo of this.” Alex grabbed Maddie’s phone and snapped a few pictures of her and the baby. Although she was totally exhausted from giving birth, she tried to smile in what she judged to be a motherly fashion. Alex sat down. He still had her phone in his hand and seemed to be scrolling through the messages instead of looking at his newborn daughter or comforting his baby mama. Maddie was too exhausted to complain, but someone else was watching out for her. Across the room, the doctor was staring at the young father. He had seen him before. Then he too grabbed a phone, his own, leaving the ward. He called the police. He had quite a story to tell them.
Although Dr. Tim Carroll came from a working-class background, his family had supported his dream to study medicine. They worked hard and made real sacrifices to put him through college and med school. Once he had graduated, he resolved to give a portion of his salary to them, encouraging his father to invest the money wisely. For the first few years, it had gone very well, and their investment grew steadily to a tidy nest egg. But then his parents fell into the clutches of an unscrupulous investment guru. When his father first called him, gushing enthusiastically about this brilliant young man who had increased an investment of just $200 tenfold, Dr. Tim knew that something was off, but it was already too late. With the tempting hook of an even higher dividend on a large investment, his father had liquidated their entire investment and transferred it to the investment guru, who went by the name of Jared Bell. That was, of course, the last anyone saw of him until this afternoon because when Maddie’s baby daddy finally showed up, Dr. Tim Carroll instantly recognized him as the same Jared Bell who had swindled his parents out of their savings.
Dr. Tim knew that he had to act quickly and dialed the special number of the detective tasked with his parents’ fraud claim. Did Bell recognize him? It was unlikely. He had only seen the man briefly while he was getting into his car. Concerned about the young woman, who was probably a victim as well, he spoke to the resident social worker about a possible support network for her, and that’s when he made another startling discovery: this was Georgina Hegermie’s only granddaughter, Madison. That must have been what had drawn this predator to this young girl, who was barely 18 and seemed nice, if a little naive.
The detective called him to tell Dr. Tim that he was on his way, and he was not alone. Dr. Carroll peeked into the ward. All was quiet, and his quarry did not suspect that anything was amiss. He seemed to be very interested in the phone screen ahead of him. Dr. Tim had an idea. According to Maddie, her boyfriend had been on a long flight, which probably meant that he was a little tired. Speaking to the neonatal nurse, he suggested that it might be a good gesture to organize that poor young man a cup of tea. When she brought it a few minutes later, Dr. Carroll offered to take it himself.
What no one knew was that he had spiked the beverage with a sleeping tablet. Just as Dr. Carroll handed Alex, whom he knew as Jared Bell, that cup of tea, his phone went again. The young investor looked puzzled but accepted the beverage. The doctor expected to hear from the detective again, but his call instead was from another expectant mother. As he answered their questions, he kept one eye on the young man in the ward. Bell took a sip, yes, but then almost immediately put the cup down again. What was wrong? Why wasn’t he drinking it?
At that moment, Dr. Tim’s pager went off. Now what? He made his way to the nursing station, ending the call, and there the detective waited for Dr. Tim Carroll along with two uniformed police officers.
Maddie was still gazing into the eyes of her daughter when three men darkened the ward with their presence. She frowned, but Alex sprang up. The detective flashed the badge. They had Alex cornered. Maddie let out a yelp as the uniformed officers placed Alex under arrest, taking the smartphone from his hands.
“Hey, that’s mine!” Maddie said.
Then the police officer showed the screen to the detective, and he came over to Maddie. What he showed her on the phone shocked her profoundly. She looked at Alex one more time, tears blurring her last image of him. The message on the screen came from her grandmother’s lawyer and said, “Are you sure you want to send $1,200 to Bell Investments?”
Alex had actually been about to transfer the money that Mr. Tiger sent for the baby’s needs to his own account. As the officers dragged Alex away, Dr. Tim sat down with Maddie and slowly explained everything about her so-called golden boyfriend. He was a thief and a liar and was probably stringing her along with the hopes of one day putting his hands on her grandmother’s inheritance. Getting her pregnant had only been a clever way to tie her to him forever, knowing she wouldn’t have anywhere else to go with a small child and no money of her own.
Maddie was heartbroken. She had truly believed that Alex was the love of her life and that they would one day be a happy family, but she’d been naive and she’d fallen into this trap at first.
The next day, Maddie received a surprise visit from Mr. Ralph Tiger himself. He had flown there to see her and her baby, bringing a teddy bear so large that she could barely see his face. Never again would she call him boring.
With testimony from Dr. Tim’s parents, Maddie, and several other people who had been defrauded by Alex, or Jared Bell, the fake investment guru was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Mr. Ralph Tiger helped Maddie to get a new apartment and reliable help with the baby and to enroll in a high school diploma program. While not all the money was recovered, Dr. Tim Carroll was grateful that he had been able to get justice for his parents and protect a young girl from a miserable future.
