The instant her car left my driveway, I called Dr.

Okonkwo in Meridian City.

Within forty-eight hours, the case was pulled out of local hands entirely and handed to a specialized state unit that worked cold cases and missing children.

It had stopped being one grieving father’s impossible story.

It had become an investigation.

Chapter 15 — Do It Right This Time

On the state investigators’ instructions, my son was formally registered as a recovered minor with pending identity status, until his legal documents could be corrected.

And this time, I did everything the way no one had let me do it seven years before.