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Laughing, I lightly slap his cheek, not feeling the least bit sorry for him. He’s just going to have to find a way to deal with it because getting vengeance for us and our boy comes first, above anything else.

Chapter Nineteen

Kady

“Kady,” Noah breathes, grabbing my hand and giving it a squeeze as I fidget in the chair next to him. This damn waiting room is too quiet for my sanity and thinking about what the lawyer might tell us is making me lose my mind. “It’s going to be okay.”

I nod despite the churning in my belly. Noah and I stayed up late into the night, talking about everything that happened to me when Oliver kidnapped me and what we were going to do about it before we moved on to how we should handle the situation with our son. As much as we both want to charge in there and take back what is rightfully ours, we were unsure if we could… or if we should. Noah suggested that we speak to a lawyer and find out our rights before we make that decision and I agreed with him. Thankfully, he had developed a friendship with his lawyer from seven years ago and even though he’s moved from being a public defender to a big office downtown, all it took was one call from Noah and he was squeezing us into his schedule today. That and the five thousand dollar retainer Noah promised him. Turns out, my man still has most of the money from his drug days hidden away so well that the cops never found it - almost one hundred thousand dollars total.

“Mr. LeBlanc,” the receptionist calls and Noah looks up. She smiles. “You can go back now.”

We stand and Noah wraps his arm around my waist as we follow her directions to a large office with glass walls. A man with dark hair and ice blue eyes glances up as we approach and stands, smiling as we walk in.

“Noah, good to see you again,” he says, holding his hand out and Noah releases me to shake it before he turns to me. “And you must be Kady. I’m Asher Reed.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” I say, shaking his hand. After the formalities are over, we sit in the two chairs in front of his desk and he takes a breath as he looks up at us.

“Okay, hit me with it.”

Noah spares a glance at me and I nod. He launches into the whole story, starting with the night he was arrested and the more he hears, the more his eyebrows creep up his face. When Noah finally finishes with the kidnapping portion of my story, Asher blows out a breath.

“Jesus Christ.” He turns to me. “Did you ever go to the police?”

I shake my head. “I’ve been in hiding for the past six years until Noah found me again.”

“Okay, I’d have to look into the statute of limitations on the crimes of kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, assault, and rape but I’m not sure how much you could really do after all these years.”

Noah leans forward. “That’s actually not why we’re here.”

“Then why are you here?” he asks, leaning back in his chair, his gaze flicking between the two of us. Noah glances at me and I clear my throat.

“When I was taken, I had just found out that I was pregnant.”

His eyes widen. “Oh…”

“I gave birth to the baby when I was being held captive and Mr. Ford said the baby died. We’ve discovered that was not true. Our son was left at a fire station and put in the foster care system before being adopted by a family in Port Allen.”

“My God,” he whispers, leaning forward and grabbing a piece of paper. “I’m going to give you the name of an excellent family lawyer I know. Tell them I sent you and they’ll be able to guide you through all this.”

“Actually, that’s why we came to see you. Do we have any rights in this situation?”

He nods. “The child was taken from you and while a judge may have terminated your rights when he was adopted, the kidnapping makes that all null and void. You just need to be able to prove everything you’re telling me and your son will be returned to you as soon as possible.”

“Will the family fight us?”

He gives us a half-hearted nod. “They might try, which is why I’m giving you her number. She’s one of the best family attorneys I’ve ever met and she’ll take care of you.”

My head spins as he hands over the name and number of the family lawyer. Noah stands, holding his hand out to me and I let him pull me out of my chair as I stare at the paper in my hand.

“As we agreed,” Noah says, trying to pass Asher an envelope of cash but Asher shakes his head and pushes it back toward us.

“Don’t worry about it. I didn’t help all that much and even if I had, I wouldn’t charge you for this. What the two of you have been through, it’s… unimaginable and Mr. Ford… he’s a nasty piece of work.”

“You’ve met him?” Noah asks and Asher nods.

“Just once but that was enough.”

Noah nods and shakes his hand. “I hear you there. Thank you for all your help.”