“Bossy,” she muttered but didn’t try to get back up.
She looked like she’d seen a ghost… Scratch that. The woman talked to ghosts on the regular. She looked like shewasa ghost. Frowning, he slapped a hand to her forehead. “You don’t have a fever.”
“I’mfine. Go talk to her.”
Nick wrapped both hands around the back of his neck and ignored the twitching under his swollen eye.
“So,Beth, where the hell have you been for the last six years?” Josie asked, leaning over the back of the couch, playing with a switchblade. Brian sat in front of Kellen and “Beth” with his fingers poised over his laptop keyboard, ready to investigate anything that came out of this woman’s mouth.
Nick felt a swift rush of gratitude for his team.
Even if they were assholes most of the time and had tried to commit a mutiny that morning. They still had his back when it counted.
“You know those are illegal, don’t you?” Weber said, eying Josie’s knife.
“You know you have bigger things to worry about, don’t you?” she shot back.
“I go by Sesame now,” the woman on the couch piped up, bringing the attention back to her.
Nick shot a look over his shoulder at Riley, who held up both palms.
That explained the recent weird cravings.
“Okay, Sesame,” Josie said, “you show up here and expect us to believe that you’re Beth Weber, yet you look nothing like her.”
Sesame giggled. The sound of it rang something deep in Nick’s memory banks. “I didn’t expect you to take me at face value when my face is so much better looking now. So I brought proof.”
She reached into a tiny leopard-print purse and produced a piece of paper folded into a small rectangle. She handed it to Josie, who shook it violently to unfurl it.
“DNA results,” she muttered, scanning the paper before handing it over to Brian.
“Well, let’s get this part over with so we can pop some champagne and celebrate.” Sesame scooted to the edge of the couch.
“We don’t have any champagne,” Nick announced, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Ofcourseyou don’t, Nicky,” Sesame said. Her smile wrinkled her nose in almost exactly the same way Beth’s used to. “I sent my driver to pick up a few bottles.”
“You have a driver?” Josie asked. “What’s his name, date of birth, and social security number?”
“You are a delight,” Sesame said. “We’ll get to Wilhelm later. In the meantime, have you ever heard of amnesia?” When no one said anything, she continued. “It’s a medical condition which results in the loss of memories.”
“We know what amnesia is,” Josie said. “Anyone who’s ever watched a soap opera knows what amnesia is.”
“Great!” Sesame clasped her hands in her lap. “So, I had amnesia. I woke up with no memory of Harrisburg or Beth Weber or, well, anything. The people I was with insisted that they were my family and that I’d suffered a head injury.”
Josie turned to look at Nick. “Boss? You wanna take this?”
Nick glanced at Weber. He still didn’t look like he was capable of, well, anything. “Fine,” he said, stepping forward. “Who were the people you were with? Were they the ones who abducted you?”
Sesame beamed at him. “I’m so glad you asked, Nicky. The people I was with were the Hemsworths. I thought they were my in-laws.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because their son told me we were married.”
“And you just believed him?” Josie asked incredulously.
Sesame shrugged. “He took me home and introduced me to three boys who called me Mom. There were pictures of us on the walls. I never suspected he was lying.”
