I woke up the next morning with Izzy's naked body against mine, and no Billie alarm clock once more. I wondered if Erin had slipped in while we slept, or possibly while we were making love the previous day. I guess it didn't matter, it wasn't like she was quiet with her bear. I didn't think Izzy would mind either. She was already willing to go to see Lylah, and while I'd somewhat warned her about Miki, nothing could prepare her for the full impact of that girl.

               But I knew Izzy would be fine, she was really coming out of her shell, and it was great to see! Besides, she was right. We could indeed take a vacation any time we like. Hell, we could go somewhere for a long weekend the day after Thanksgiving if we liked. There was no way we were going to my parents, I didn't even want to do that for Christmas, despite Georgia's suggestion, and it wasn't like we had any other family...

               "FUCK!" I screamed, bolting upright and scrambling out of the bed.

               "What?" Izzy mumbled as she tried to throw the sheets off her body.

               I stumbled across the floor, still not completely awake, and opened the top drawer of the bureau where we'd stuck the envelope with Izzie's birth certificate and social security. I grabbed that and then looked at the big folder that was still in there too. My mind flashed back to a few days ago when Jeremy came in with the gun. He was really worried about this folder, wasn't he? I grabbed that too, and then brought them both back to the bed where I hopped back into the bed with Izzy.

               "I know I should be worried or scared about whatever is going on right now, but you can't keep walking around naked like that without me wanting to spank that ass," Izzy said as she leaned while leaning over to give me a quick peck.

               "Oh no! I turned my sweet, innocent girlfriend into a perv!" I held my hand dramatically over my chest before handing her the smaller folder.

               "This is my paperwork, right?" she asked, her brows scrunched up in confusion.

               "Exactly. So, you said that Jeremy was your uncle, and your SSN card said Isobel Woods. But we never looked at the Birth Certificate. That should have your parents' names on it. Jeremy may have been a dick, but maybe your parents aren't. Maybe we could get in touch with them?" I ventured.

               She looked at the envelope in her hands and started to shake a little. "What if my parents are dead? What if he was really my dad? What if... What if they're horrible? Like I'm a Trump or something?"

               I pulled her into a side hug, then kissed her temple. "There is no way you're a Trump! But seriously, I don't care who your relatives are, I'm going to love you regardless. This is just a way for you to find even more people to love you."

               "I don't know if I can look," she said with a shaky voice.

               I reached over and gently took a hold of the envelope. "Do you want me to?"

               "Yes please." She leaned up against me and closed her eyes as though fearing the worst.

               I opened the envelope, dumped out the contents, and then put the SSN card on her lap. "Hold that one," I murmured. That was the card that we'd seen originally, so it wasn't anything new. With a deep breath I unfolded the birth certificate and started to read it. "Well, you were right about being from Washington, but it wasn't the state. You were born in Washington DC." I kept reading and got a little confused. "According to this, you were born to Robyn and Mason Day. I have no idea where the Woods name came from. This makes no sense!"

               "So do I not have the right name?" she sounded scared, and I squeezed her tight.

               "I don't know Izzy, but we'll find out, okay?" I pulled the big envelope onto my lap and then undid the elastic holding it shut, then started rifling through it. A lot of it made no sense, there were bank accounts, wire transfers, articles about her father, and then finally one article about her parents getting divorced a few years after her birth. But after that, no mention of her mom at all, it was all about her dad. The file did have the last name Woods in it on the bank accounts though, as they were joint accounts with Jeremy and another man named Jonathan. Was that the idiot brother that Izzy had heard Jeremy mention?

               And then I found the last article. One that was dated much earlier but had been stuck in the back. The one that mentioned that Mason and Robyn Day had their baby daughter kidnapped at the age of four months. The baby with pale skin, red hair, and green eyes, just like her mom. There were no other articles about the baby, but I didn't need any. The ones about her father were all about his promotions and success on Wall Street. I had little doubt that the kidnappers had been getting money from her dad for 18 years after they kidnapped her as a baby. Had they been extorting and blackmailing him for all that time to keep her safe? At least now I knew why Jeremy wanted the file, but I didn't know who he was worried about killing him, Mason or his own brother.

               "Fuck," I said with a sigh. "Izzy, you know I love you, right?"

               She nodded against me, not speaking. I heard her sniffle, as though she knew bad news was coming. I put all the information back into the folder, and then pulled her back into my lap, holding my hands on her cheeks while kissing her softly. "Nothing in that folder changes who you are. Nothing is going to make me stop loving you. But we need to go to the police, and we need to do it soon. If I read everything in there right, it looks like Jeremy and his brother Jonathan kidnapped you as a baby, and have been raising you ever since, while getting money from your father for keeping you safe."

               She cocked her head at me, then sniffed. "That's it?"

               "Well, your mom and dad are divorced, and there isn't much word on your mom. The file is all about your dad," I told her.

               "But I have parents?" She gave me the ghost of a smile.

               "Yeah, you do. I have no idea how to get in touch with them, but if we take everything in the folder to the police then I know Jeremy will go away for even longer, and I bet they can get in touch with your parents." It was going to be a fucking media circus, but if she got a family out of it, it would be worth it.

               "Can we do that today?" Izzy's eyes were wide with excitement. "The police aren't closed on Sundays, right?"

               "No, they're not." I smiled down at her and pecked her on the nose. "We can go. Come on, let's take a shower, and then get food. This could be a long day, because the police are going to freak out when they realize what's happening," I promised.

               Izzy was almost bouncing off the wall at the prospect of finding her real family, and I was thrilled for her. I really wanted to kill Jeremy though, he'd kept her for 18 damned years! No wonder he didn't care about making her sleep in a closet, she meant nothing but a payday to him, and once she turned 18, he'd really lost all control over her. As long as she didn't get the folder, he was safe. But we had done precisely that!

               We didn't waste any time. This was the first time that we didn't have fun in the shower since we started sharing the water, and we were done in record time. I didn't even try fully drying my hair but threw it into a ponytail instead. Once we had clothes on, we grabbed all the documentation and raced down to the car.

               "Can we just grab donuts and coffee to go?" Izzy asked plaintively.

               "You want to bring donuts to a police station? We better get a few dozen!" I joked as I saw a Krispy Kreme up ahead. We pulled in and got three dozen as well as a couple coffees and then rolled back out onto the road. When we'd been interviewed after the Jeremy shooting, I was so frazzled I'd completely forgotten what he said about the folder, but the detective did give us a card with a police station address, and we were using the GPS to get there. A short drive later, and we pulled into the precinct, and after a moment of hesitation we both headed in.

               "Can I help you?" asked a man behind a desk when we walked in.

               "Hi, yes." I pulled out the card and handed it over. "We're looking for Detective Murray."

               "Hmmm, Murray huh? He asked, eyeing the donuts we were carrying.

               Izzy didn't even hesitate but opened up the top box and held it out. "We brought some for everyone, so go ahead."

               He smiled and nodded off towards an elevator. "Third floor, take a left."

               We hurried along our way, with Izzy pausing now and then to distribute donuts. The first box was gone before we hit the elevator, and the second was half gone before we got off it, to the delight of the others sharing our ride up. When we got off the elevator, we took a left and found ourselves in an area with several work desks, each with a computer.

               "Excuse me," I said to a female detective. "We were looking for detective Murray. Do you know if he's about?"

               She turned and then eyed us both speculatively. "And you two are...?"

               I shared a glance at Izzy who nodded back at me. "We were witnesses to the Xochi Swimwear shooting, and we have more information on that, as well as a possible solving of an 18 year old kidnapping"

               "Well shit. I'm glad I'm in today!" she crowed gleefully while running her hands together. "Murray is off on Sundays, but I'm Detective Whelan and I can help you out. So, what do you have? Besides my breakfast of course." She eyed the donuts with interest.

               I lifted the folder, and she led us over to a desk with her name plate on it. She speared two of the donuts, eating the first in two bites, while we went through the attack and our realizing what Jeremy meant about the folder. Then we started going through the file folder and she started getting all kinds of excited.

               "Holy fuck! You two need to get comfortable. This is going to go federal with crossing state lines and wire fraud." She was running her fingers through her hair as though taking mental stock of the situation. "I'm going to have to call the FBI on this one. I know you have donuts, but that sugar is going to crash you. Do you feel like going in on some pizza with me? This could be a while."

               She was right. We were there late for most of the day, but fuck did we make some cops and agents happy.