easy to sink into sleep with my arms around Ari that night.
It just felt right.
Ari. I wasn’t lying when I said I liked the name. There was a lightness to it that fit the way he made my heart glow.
I fell asleep with a smile on my face.
It felt like only seconds later when I woke up to an incessant buzzing from my phone. I felt around for it groggily on the nightstand, the room still completely dark. Ari turned over and buried his head under a pillow
I blinked when I saw my phone screen. It was four in the morning, and my lawyer was calling. We only talked a few times a year, when I was negotiating new contracts for work, or occasionally during tax season. What the hell was this about?
I pushed myself out of bed and stumbled into the hall. Just because I was awake didn’t mean Ari had to be too. I swiped the phone on and brought it to my ear. “Hello?”
“Holden? Is that you?” Tilda, my lawyer, always asked that when we talked, and it always made me feel like I was testifying under oath.
“Yeah, it’s me. What’s up?”
“I’m calling you with a rather strange request.” Tilda was always brisk, her voice a cool silver. “As your lawyer, I’m advising you up front that you are in no way legally obligated to accede to this, but since the request is rather time-sensitive, it seemed prudent to make you aware of it, posthaste.”
She also always sounded like she’d swallowed a dictionary. I sorted through the words trying to find the key details and nodded. “Okay, yeah. What’s the request?”
“I have, on the other line, the family lawyer of Mr. Robert Vaughn and Ms. Laura Sachs, who claim that their youngest child, one Ariel Sachs-Vaughn, has been seen in the vicinity of your house. Apparently, Ariel has been missing for a while, and they’ve been very anxious to locate him, and—”
“Yeah, yeah,” I broke in. “Yeah, that’s fine. Whatever they want. Do they want to talk to him?”
“Well, that is what their lawyer conveyed to me. But Holden, I have to make you aware that if Ariel is there under any sort of duress or—”
“What? God, no. Nothing like that.” I squeezed the bridge of my nose. “We were just talking yesterday about how to get in contact with them. I should have thought of calling you. It just didn’t occur to me. But this is good.”
“Oh.” Tilda was silent for a moment. “So you don’t object to speaking with them?”
“Not at all.”
“Hold on one moment then,” Tilda said. “I’ll connect you.”
There was a series of clicks, and then a woman’s voice flooded the line, warm and rich.
“Ariel? Ariel, are you there, sweetheart? Are you okay?”
My stomach turned a somersault. I’d expected another lawyer, but I was pretty sure this was Ari’s mom.
“Um, Ms. Vaughn? I mean, Ms. Sachs?” I said hesitantly. “This is Holden Amundsen.” I shook my head. “I mean, Eric Amundsen. It doesn’t matter. I’m so glad you called. Ari’s been—”
“What have you done to my son?” Ms. Sachs interrupted, her voice considerably less warm. “Why did you take him?”
“Take him? I didn’t take—I think there’s been some confusion. Your son’s been—”
“My son was taken from me three weeks ago and held captive,” Ms. Sachs broke in. “We’ve received multiple ransom demands, and threats of what would happen if we went to the police. I warn you, Mr. Amundsen, I don’t know what game you’re playing, but you’ll find we’re not—”
“I’m not playing any game,” I yelped. “I swear. Ms. Sachs, your son washed up on the beach on my property—and I mean literally washed up, from the ocean—bruised and injured, a few weeks ago. And he had amnesia.”
“Amnesia?”
“Yeah.” I nodded vociferously, not that she could see. “He couldn’t remember anything about who he was, or what had happened to him, and he’s been staying with me ever since. It wasn’t until last night that he remembered his name. We were going to try to get in touch with you today, I swear.”
“And you expect me to just believe that?” She sounded fierce, and I had a vision of a lioness gearing up to attack. I wasn’t going to be able to talk her down.
“You don’t have to believe me,” I said, glancing back towards Ari’s room. “I’ll get Ari and put him on myself.”
I regretted waking him up so early, and I hoped he was a little less freaked out about talking