She quit to devote herself full-time to hunting for you. Eventually, she started working part-time, but out of the home. She couldn’t work with children, she said. She does machine-quilting.”
Bailey blinked. “That’s a big cut in pay.”
“I get the impression she stays as busy as she wants to.” He hesitated. “Three years after your abduction, they took in a foster daughter and eventually adopted her. Eve is a year younger than you, I believe.”
So they’d tried to replace her. Bailey wondered how that had worked. If she remembered them, she might be hurt, but as it was, nothing he’d said yet had triggered even the smallest of memories.
“It turns out I’m a little younger than I thought I was.” She made a face. “We guessed I was at least twelve when he left me. Because of the way I was developing.”
His gaze flicked to her irritatingly overabundant breasts.
Men always looked. And she never blushed, although—wow—her cheeks definitely felt warm.
“Is Bailey what he called you?” the detective asked.
She shook her head hard. Hard enough her hair clip slipped and she had to reach up to reanchor it. “No. I wouldn’t tell anyone my name. Eventually, they gave up and let me pick my own. I went to court to make it legal once I was an adult.”
“You know I’m going to want to know that name eventually.”
She compressed her mouth.
He took out his phone, his gaze never leaving hers.
* * *
S ETH SUCCEEDED IN talking her into riding with him to the Lawsons’. She’d wanted to follow him.
Have her car available for a quick getaway, he suspected.
But she reluctantly got into his department issue unmarked car and deposited a sizable handbag at her feet. He started the engine to get the air-conditioning going, reached for the gearshift, then let his hand drop. He sighed and looked at her.
“You know this isn’t going to be as simple as meeting and greeting the Lawsons, don’t you?”
She eyed him warily. “You mean they’re going to want more from me.”
“They are, but that isn’t what I’m talking about.” He hated to even raise this subject, given how obviously close to panic she already was, but felt he had to. “Your reappearance is going to be big news. The biggest. The press will flock to Stimson. You’ll be on the cover of
People
magazine. You will give hope to every parent who lost a child who has never been found. It won’t be a nine-day wonder, either. They’ll keep following up.” Seth knew he sounded brutal. “A week from now, a month from now, a year from now, they will want to hear how your family has healed. How you’ve moved on. They’ll dig for all the details. Paparazzi will try to catch you unawares. You will never live an unexamined life again.”
As he’d talked, horror had gradually overtaken her face. “Like Elizabeth Smart.”
“Yes. You, Bailey Smith, will be famous.”
“Oh, God.” She was shaking.
Unable to resist, he took one of her fine-boned hands. “Breathe.”
“I can’t do this.”
“I think you’ve come too far to turn back.”
Blue eyes fastened on his with a desperation that wrenched his heart. “If I go now—”
“Do I leave the Lawsons thinking you’re probably dead?”
“What if I meet them and we don’t tell anyone?” She didn’t seem to have noticed they were holding hands. That she was clutching
him
.
“I don’t think that would work.”
“Why not? You could make it part of the deal. Say I’ll talk to them only if they agree to keep it private.”
“You have grandparents. Aunts and uncles, cousins. Your parents have friends. Their adopted daughter. I know Karen Lawson. She’s incapable of lying to everyone. She won’t be able to hide her happiness.” He stroked the back of her hand with his thumb. “And then there’s your face, Bailey.”
The way she stared at him, stricken, told him she understood.
“The stranger that pointed you to the picture. Is this the only person who saw it and