Page 117 of The Kidnapped

Kenna smiled and said, “God, let’s hope so.”

Hollis finished up her workday at her desk, checking in on her mom a few times. Raleigh had continued to work out of Hollis’s living room, even when the nurse was there, and Hollis used to worry that it was too much too soon, but working around people seemed to help Raleigh as much as her being there for Hollis’s mom helped Hollis.

With the day done, Hollis got into the rental car she knew she’d need to return soon. If she wasn’t working, she wouldn’t be able to afford it and would have to figure something out as far as money went. Deciding she needed to do something else to help her move on from her past, she picked up her phone and dialed.

“Hello?”

“This is Hollis Richardson,” she said to her father’s lawyer. “Or, Heidi Ramsey, depending on what my dad told you,” she added.

“Miss Richardson, hello,” he said.

“I’m thinking about visiting my dad, but I don’t know how to go about it.”

“I see. Well, I can help you with that,” he replied.

CHAPTER 37

It had been days with no updates. Raleigh was growing restless. She knew she needed to be patient, but she’d been patient for over a year now. It was too much to ask that she keep being patient. With Hollis working from home and then no longer working, that enabled Raleigh to go home, if she wanted to, but she’d grown accustomed to being around Hollis, Olivia, and the nurses taking care of her. She knew she should go home, though. Their relationship was still relatively new, and they’d essentially been living together due to their circumstances, so she’d told Hollis that she would spend the night at her own place, which would give them all a little space.

She hadn’t wanted space, but Hollis could use some time alone with her mother, and Raleigh being there meant that they couldn’t have that. So, instead, Raleigh had worked from her office for a few hours, cleaned the place, and had done some laundry before she grabbed her car keys and hit the road.

The therapist Molly had recommended was over thirty minutes away without traffic, so it took a while to get there. Once she’d signed in, she put her phone on silent, which she never did, but she didn’t want to be disrespectful. Then, she sat and waited her turn. The first time was more of a consultation than an actual appointment, and it would be a chance for the two of them to get to know one another and see if there was a good match. She’d been told that therapy could only really be effective if one had the right therapist for them, so she wasn’t holding out hope that this doctor would be the one for her.

The appointment itself had been fine, but since her benefits didn’t cover it, she had to pay out of pocket. Watching the receptionist swipe her card had about given Raleigh a panic attack. She wouldn’t be able to afford this once a week, which was the schedule the doctor had recommended in the beginning. Raleigh would have to move some money around or put these appointments on credit cards and hope she’d be able to pay them back with more client work. Scheduling the next appointment had been the last step before she left, and when she got into the car and needed her GPS to get home, she remembered that she’d put her phone on silent.

“Shit,” she said, noticing two missed calls from Dylan and a text message asking Raleigh to call her.

???

“Shouldn’t we be at the station?” Raleigh asked once she was inside Dylan’s home office.

“My place was closer to where you were,” Dylan said.

“Right,” Raleigh replied, sitting on the sofa next to Dylan. “So? There’s news?”

“There is. But before I begin, there’s still no concrete evidence that it’s Eden. I just want to–”

“Dylan, I get it, okay? When you know for sure that it’s her, I assume you’ll lead with that.”

“I will.” Dylan nodded. “But we do have good news.”

“Tell me.”

“We have two really good leads. There’s a possibility that she moved to a small town in Alabama.”

“Alabama?”

“Yes. But I’m not putting my eggs into that basket. It’s a very small town of only about a thousand people. We have to follow the lead, so officers are working it now, but it’s not likely she’d want to hide in a place that small. The only way I could see that happening would be if she was truly delusional and believed herself that Eden was her daughter. She wouldn’t really be in hiding then.”

“So, she might be in Alabama?”

“Or, she might be in San Antonio,” Dylan added.

“Texas?”

“Much larger city. And, it turns out, her family spent time there during a few summers. Her brother remembered and gave us the lead yesterday.”

“How can we find her in a huge city?” Raleigh asked.

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