Courtney scanned the headlines before looking up at her, affecting a perplexed expression. “I’m afraid I don’t understand. Troy and Dustin worked that case when they were in Knoxville, but I never met those people.”

“You raised their son.”

She recoiled in horror.

Jeannie couldn’t tell if it was real or faked.

“You... That... That’s not true! They looked for that baby everywhere for weeks. Troy and everyone in his office put in more than a hundred hours straight working that case. They didn’t sleep or shower or eat. All they did was look for that baby!”

“Who was never found until this week when an age-progression photo was released to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the abduction.” Jeannie put that photo down in front of Courtney, who blanched at the sight of her son looking up at her. “Your son saw the photo and put two and two together to get the possibility that he might be Taylor Rollings.”

“What’re you saying?” she asked softly, her lashes glistening with unshed tears.

“I’m saying that the child who was taken from the Rollings family was raised as Josh Hamilton. We’d like to know how he came to be in your custody.”

Jeannie watched as the other woman searched the archives of her life, as if looking for an explanation that Jeannie would believe.

“He... I... I’d like to call my lawyer now, please.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

SAM WAS GETTING ready to leave the hospital to head home when her phone rang. Eager for news about the case, she took the call.

“Lieutenant Holland, I’m calling on behalf of U.S. Attorney Tom Forrester. He would like to see you in his office today at noon. Are you available?”

Sam swallowed hard. “Yes, I can do that. Do I need a lawyer?”

“That might be a good idea. We’ll see you then.”

The chipper-sounding woman was gone before Sam could reply. Fuck. She found their lawyer friend Andy Simone’s phone number in her list of contacts and made the call. When your husband is the vice president, receptionists tended to give your call higher priority, which is how she ended up speaking to Andy a minute later.

“Sam, this is a nice surprise.”

As he was a close friend of Nick’s, they socialized with Andy and his wife, but Sam didn’t have a regular reason to call him on her own. Not like Harry, who she had on speed dial. “I need a lawyer, Andy.”

“What’s going on?”

“The U.S. Attorney would like to see me today at noon to discuss the possible assault charges he’s going to file against me.”

“Ah crap, so he’s actually going through with that?”

“Apparently. Are you available?”