When North woke up, Eli stood over her. No, he was crouched down beside her, she realized. She was lying on the floor, and she couldn’t remember why for a moment. “What…?” She trailed off as it all came back, and she closed her eyes for another moment, summoning the courage to open them again, but not finding it until Eli brushed his hand down her cheek.

“It looks like you have some things to deal with, North. You need to wake up now and face them.” He leaned over her and helped her to her feet. As he was standing beside her, she felt him slide something into her pocket, and he whispered in her ear, “Call me if you need me.”

“Is she all right, doctor?” asked the same voice from before—the woman claiming to be her mother.

“I believe so. It was just a shock.”

“In that case, would you leave us please?” It was clearly a demand and not a question that came from the man claiming to be her father.

“Of course. If she starts to pass out again, please make sure you catch her and call for help immediately.”

“I’m sure we’ll be fine,” added a voice North didn’t recognize. She turned her head to identify the speaker and found it to be the shorter, chubbier man in the suit standing next to the tall and skinny one, who was clearly a few years older. “Who are these people?” Her voice sounded raspy as she uttered the question, and she wasn’t even certain who she was asking.

“They’re the detectives in charge of your case, and they brought along a couple of uniformed officers in case Campbell survived.” The man who said he was her father gave her the explanation as he cast a vicious glare at her father’s body, where it lay on the bed.

“I can’t do this.”

“Of course you can’t. This is clearly the wrong place.” With kindness in her eyes, the older woman put a hand on her arm to draw her forward. “There has to be a better place for this discussion.”

“What are we doing?” She still felt like she was floating along, allowing the river to guide her. She was completely overwhelmed and close to shutting down emotionally as she walked out with the couple and the other four men in a daze.

“How about the cafeteria? This young lady could use some coffee to perk her up,” said the tall, thin man in the suit. One of the detectives, North reminded herself.

“We should just take her home,” said the man beside her, the one who seemed to think he was her father despite the fact that her dad had died that evening.

“You can’t do that until we’ve had a chance to interview her, Mr. Allis.”

Now she had a name to put with the couple, or at least a last name. “I really need to get home.” The cabin was suddenly all she wanted, its safety and security, and the ability to lock herself away while she mourned her father’s passing and tried to make sense of her new reality.

“It’s settled then,” said Mr. Allis. “You can interview her tomorrow, detectives.”

“She’ll be coming home with us,” said Mrs. Allis.

North pulled away from the hand on her arm. “No, I won’t. I don’t know you people.”

The detectives shared a look, and the tall, thin one came closer to her. “I know this is a lot to take in, but we have some things to explain to you, and some questions to ask. Do you feel up to cooperating with us this evening?”

“Will I get some answers to my own questions?” At his nod, she also nodded. “I guess so then.” She made a point of evading Mrs. Allises hold when she tried to reach for her again, but she felt mean for doing so when she saw the older woman’s hurt expression.

She followed them to the cafeteria, noticing somewhere along the way they lost the two patrolmen in their uniforms. They must not have been deemed necessary.

They entered the cafeteria, and it was nearly empty, except for two people at another table on the other side of the room. North followed the detective when he suggested she sit with him, and she didn’t refuse the coffee and juice that the other detective offered her a moment later. She needed something to keep her focused and present. After gulping several sips of the juice, she turned slightly away from the Allises to focus on the detectives. “What’s going on here?”

“My name is Marv Korman, and this is my partner, Ed Schuessler.”

“Call me Ed,” said the shorter detective.

She nodded, but didn’t acknowledge his words otherwise. “Please tell me what’s happening here.”

“Your case was one of the first Ed and I ever worked together as partners. That was almost twenty-one years ago.”

“What case?” A feeling of dread crept through her as she asked the question, half-convinced for a moment that she didn’t want the answer.

“You were kidnapped out of the hospital by your doctor just days after your birth,” said Ed.

“We trusted that horrible man, and he stole you from us,” wailed Mrs. Allis.

“Hush now, Carol. You don’t want to frighten her.”

Carol, formerly Mrs. Allis to her, nodded at the man beside her. “You’re right, Jim.”

Jim and Carol Allis, who claimed to be her parents. It was preposterous, and she opened her mouth to deny it, but couldn’t find words. The detectives looked so earnest, and her parents—no, they weren’t her parents—appeared so hopeful that she was having a tough time denying the explanation.

It painted another piece of the picture that provided an all-too-credible reason for why Sam Campbell—her father—would have lied to her about the fall of civilization and the need to stay hidden in their cabin. He wouldn’t have wanted her to run across the wrong person who might recognize her and rip apart his carefully woven deception. “How did you find me?”

“Your folks are persistent,” said Marv. “They put up new missing person flyers for you everywhere they can think of just about every week. That includes the hospital, and one of the registrars recognized you.”

North remembered Liz flipping through stacks of papers pinned to the corkboard and now knew what the other woman had been searching for—the flier showing her face that would confirm to Liz that she was a missing person. “This just can’t be true. My father wasn’t the kind of man who would kidnap a helpless infant and steal her from her parents.”

“I’m certain your father didn’t show you every aspect of his personality,” said Ed in a gentle voice. “He would’ve wanted to keep you docile, so he would have given you the picture you expected.”

North wasn’t certain about much, but she knew the detective was wrong on that count. Her father might’ve lied to her, and he might have even stolen her from these people, though she didn’t want to contemplate that being true, but he hadn’t pretended to be someone he wasn’t, and he hadn’t made her believe he was a different man, a man she could love and admire, when he wasn’t really like that. “You’re wrong.”

Ed and Marv shared a look before Ed shrugged.

Marv said, “We’ll come back to his motivation later than. What can you tell us about where he’s kept you for the last twenty years?”

“We had a little cabin on a big property. He said it wasn’t safe to go back to the cities, because there was a big war, and civilization collapsed. I thought he was telling me the truth, especially since all the educational materials and books he used to teach me were all created before the year I was born.”

“What a horrible man,” said Carol Allis in a screech.

“Did he hurt you?” Jim Allis looked like he would’ve pounded her father if he hadn’t already been dead.

North frowned at him. “Of course not. Dad loved me.”

“He’s not your father,” roared Jim. “I am, and he stole you from me.”

She recoiled at his display of emotion, pulling away from him as far she could and pressing her back into the booth supporting her. Tears swam in her eyes, and she blinked them back.

“Jim, you’re being too harsh with her. It’s certainly not our baby’s fault.”

After moment, he exhaled, and his anger had clearly dissipated—or at least had been buried behind a more amicable wall. “To hear you refer to him as your father kills me.”

North hung her head. “I’m sorry.” She was genuinely sorry for causing them any suffering, but she couldn’t help that in her heart, Sam still felt like her father. She didn’t even know the man who wanted the title.

“What exactly did Dr. Campbell do with you?” asked Ed.

She frowned at him. “He taught me how to read and do math and all the things I guess you would expect. He taught me how to survive, I learned some basic first aid, and we spent one whole year learning all about foraging food from the wild.”

Marv cleared his throat. “I don’t think that’s exactly what Ed meant, Nara.”

She blinked. “Who’s Nara?”

“That’s your name,” said Carol softly. “Nara Allis.”

North absorbed it, but the word had no meaning. The name didn’t feel like it should be part of her. It was alien and as unwelcome as everything else she’d learned that night. “I prefer North,” she told Marv, studiously avoiding looking at the Allises as she said the words.

“Of course, North. I think Ed is trying to figure out what Sam did to you.”

North frowned. “I guess he stole me from my birthparents?” It was more of a question than a statement, because she still wasn’t certain about anything.

“We’re trying to figure out why,” said Ed gently. “Did he have you making movies, or perhaps he hired you out to be friendly with other pedophiles?”

Marv elbowed him in the shoulder at the same time North gasped. Her head spun, and anger spiraled through her. “You’re disgusting. My father would never do anything like that. He loved me and protected me. I don’t know what’s going on here, but Sam Campbell is not the man you’re painting him to be.”

“He’s a kidnapper, and they usually have one reason for stealing a child,” said Ed in a scornful tone.

“There can be multiple reasons,” said Marv in a more soothing tone. “We’re just trying to get to the bottom of it all.”

North shook her head and pushed away from the table. “I have to get out of here. I can’t do this anymore.”

“You can’t go out there alone,” said Carol. “We lost you for so long, and we can’t risk losing you again.”

North shook her head, backing away slowly. “I don’t know you. I don’t know either of you.”

“That’s what we’re trying to change,” said Jim gruffly. “Why don’t you come stay with us for a few days, just to see how our life is? We’d appreciate a chance to get to know you.”

“Oh, yes, please.” Carol was clutching her hands before her in a hopeful fashion. “Please come home with us, even for just a few days. We really want to know more about you, Nara.”

North flinched at the name, but didn’t refute it at the moment. She wanted to refuse, because every instinct inside her was telling her not to go, but she was also certain her thinking processes were clouded with grief and confusion.

The Allises wanted to know their daughter, and they believed she was it. She didn’t see how she could really be theirs, but she was having a hard time disbelieving it as well. She couldn’t seem to summon the words to refuse their invitation, especially with the naked hope in their eyes.

“I… All right, but just for tonight. I don’t feel like driving all the way home.”

“Yeah, sure, just for one night, if that’s what you want,” said Jim.

Carol was crestfallen. “Only a night?”

“It’s been twenty years,” said Ed in a bracing fashion as he placed a hand lightly on Carol’s arm for a moment and patted. “It will take time to build a relationship with her.”

With a long sigh, Carol nodded. “We’d be thrilled to have you even for just the night, but I hope you know you can stay forever, baby girl.”

The endearment made her shudder, but she couldn’t voice a protest. Carol looked so happy, she didn’t have it in her to rob the other woman of that joy. She was still more than half-convinced that this was some kind of mistake, and that she just looked like Nara Allis, but tomorrow would be soon enough to figure it out.

As they left the cafeteria and exited the hospital, she saw Dr. Scott getting into a beige Volvo. He waved a hand in her direction, and she did the same, but didn’t cross to say goodbye. For one thing, she wasn’t certain that she had any right to do so and couldn’t explain the compulsion urging her to anyway.

For another, she doubted the detectives or the Allises would allow her to break rank to approach him at the moment. They were guarding her like she was spun glass, and she realized that analogy wasn’t too far from the truth. All it would take was one more crack to shatter her into a thousand pieces.