This week’s Story Starter teaser is:
Jill’s solution to having two young children to care for was to find another woman to do the job.
Fandango’s Story Starter #269
The Other Mother
Fandango’s Story Starter — 21 October 2026
Jill’s solution to having two young children to care for was to find another woman to do the job.
Not because she didn’t love Emily and Oliver.
But between her demanding career, a husband who was rarely home, and two children who seemed to need her every waking moment, Jill was exhausted.
When Victoria answered her advertisement for a live-in nanny, she seemed like a gift from heaven.
She arrived carrying one suitcase, three glowing references, and a smile that could convince anyone she was trustworthy.
Within a week, Victoria knew everything.
Emily was afraid of thunderstorms.
Oliver couldn’t sleep without his stuffed rabbit.
Jill worked long hours and occasionally needed sleeping tablets.
And Richard, the children’s father, hadn’t been home in eleven days.
Victoria was wonderful with the children.
She baked biscuits, read bedtime stories, kissed scraped knees, and remembered every little detail.
For the first time in months, Jill could breathe.
But three months later, things began to change.
The children stopped running to greet her.
Oliver cried whenever Victoria left the room.
And Emily had started drawing pictures of their family.
Four people.
Daddy.
Emily.
Oliver.
And Victoria.
Jill was nowhere to be seen.
One afternoon, she confronted the nanny.
“You’re getting far too close to my children.”
Victoria lowered her eyes.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Bennett. I only wanted them to feel loved.”
Jill dismissed her that evening.
The children screamed.
Richard, home for the first time in weeks, accused his wife of being unreasonable.
But Victoria left without protest.
She even hugged Jill goodbye.
“Thank you for everything,” she whispered.
That night, Jill slept better than she had in months.
Until the doorbell rang.
At two in the morning.
She opened the door to find two police officers.
“Mrs. Bennett?”
“Yes?”
“We’re investigating a woman who has been using several different identities while working as a nanny.”
Jill felt the blood drain from her face.
“Victoria?”
The officers exchanged glances.
“That’s one of the names she’s used.”
They showed her a photograph.
Victoria.
Standing beside two children Jill had never seen before.
“Those children disappeared three years ago,” the officer said quietly.
Jill gripped the doorframe.
“Where is she now?”
“We were hoping you could tell us.”
From upstairs came a small voice.
“Mummy?”
Emily stood on the landing, holding her stuffed bear.
“Victoria said you’d be angry.”
Jill hurried towards her.
“Sweetheart, what else did Victoria say?”
Emily hesitated.
“She said if you sent her away, she’d find us another mummy.”
Jill’s heart pounded.
“Another mummy?”
Emily nodded.
“Someone who really wanted us.”
The police began searching the house.
In Victoria’s former bedroom, they discovered a loose floorboard.
Beneath it lay a passport, several photographs, bundles of cash, and a handwritten note.
A new life.
A new family.
Now mine.
Jill stared at the photographs.
Different houses.
Different children.
Different names.
But the same woman.
Always smiling.
Always holding someone else’s child.
Then an officer found one final photograph.
It had been taken outside Jill’s house.
That morning.
Victoria stood beside a woman Jill recognised immediately.
Richard’s personal assistant.
On the back, someone had written:
THE REPLACEMENT IS READY.
Jill’s phone rang.
Richard.
She answered with trembling fingers.
“Richard, where are you?”
There was a pause.
Then his voice.
“Darling, I think we need to talk about the children.”
Behind him, a woman laughed softly.
Jill recognised that laugh.
Victoria.
And suddenly she understood.
Victoria hadn’t simply been trying to steal her children.
She had been helping Richard take them.
The false identities, the photographs, the hidden money — everything had been preparation.
Jill looked at the two police officers standing in her hallway.
Then she smiled.
Because for the first time, Richard had made a mistake.
He’d called while the police were listening.
“Of course, darling,” she said sweetly.
“Let’s talk.”
The End.
💜
With love, coffee, poetry, and stardust,
— Maggie The Afterlove Voice 💫
New songs out .
Dj Maggie in the house 🎧
https://ditto.fm/arena-51-the-calima-conspiracy-original-mix
https://ditto.fm/arena-51-the-calima-conspiracy-alien-invasion-remix
https://ditto.fm/silenced-but-not-broken
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