But he didn't and she didn't sleep, spending both the dark hours of night and the spare moments of her days worrying.
She wanted to tell her mom that Emma had been found, but was afraid of what it would do to her to hear the news.
Blade called and said he couldn't find any indication of how Emma had come to live with Heather Grant as her daughter.
"If she's not the kidnapper, Miss Hemsworth, then I have no idea how she came to be your sister's mother."
Blade had learned more about Heather and Emma Grant during his investigation and it all pointed to Heather being as good a mother as Zoe. It hurt to think it had all started with a kidnapping. She couldn't imagine how her sister would feel to find that out. Choking out a goodbye to Blade, Ash was already mentally dialing Nikos' number when she disconnected her call with the world renowned investigator.
Nikos swore in Greek when Ash told him what she had learned. "I'm so sorry,agape mou . But we will not let this situation tear lives apart."
He said it with such confidence that she believed him.
"What am I going to do?"
"We begin by telling your mother."
"We?"
"Naturally. You do not think I would leave you to do this thing alone, do you?"
She had no right to call on his support since their breakup, but she wasn't about to turn him down. "Thank you."
Sitting in her favorite chair close to Ash's place on the couch in her oversize living room, her mother paled as Ash told him all that Blade had learned so far.
"So, this woman…Heather Grant…most likely kidnapped my daughter and brought her up to believe she was the baby she had lost two months before?"
"Yes, that's what we think." Nikos held Ash close to him with one strong arm and she wasn't about to protest.
Nor did she protest him answering for her. She was shaking inside from the stress and worried that talking about her sister was once again going to prove too much for her mom.
Ash added, "Her husband had died in the tragic car accident that sent her into early labor. Blade thinks the similar circumstance surrounding mine and Emma's births may have triggered the kidnapping."
"But the woman was a good mother?" her mom asked in a hoarse voice.
"From all that Blade could discover, she was exemplary in every way. She really loves her daughter. She lives for her." Ash kept the wistfulness from her voice.
It was wrong to envy her sister a lifetime with a loving parent, especially knowing that she would face the pain of difficult revelations soon enough. But part of Ash couldn't help wondering what it would have been like to be raised by someone who considered her more than an adjunct in her life.
"I think we should approach Heather Grant first," Nikos said.
"I agree." Her mom ran her hand over her face and sighed. "She's no doubt been living in abject terror of being caught out for more than two decades. We need to deal with her first."
Ash had reached the same conclusion. "It's going to be awful for everyone. I've never met the woman, but I can't help but pity her. Whatever led to her taking Emma, she really seems like a decent person who loves her daughter." She took a deep breath and said what needed saying. "I don't want the authorities brought in. This is going to be hard enough on everyone without that."
Her mom nodded. "We will find out what happened…why she took my daughter and kept her…and we'll go from there."
Relief that she was taking the news so well and that her mother was being so tolerant flowed through Ash. "You're a lot more understanding about this than I expected you to be."
She grimaced, her light blue eyes shadowed with guilt and pain. "I can't get past the fact that she gave Emma the love I withheld from you. Maybe you would have been better off if she'd taken you both."
Ash didn't know what to say. She was a poor liar, so she could not claim she'd hadn't had the same thought. Until her mom had "gotten human" she would have questioned whether losing her would have impacted her emotions at all. She felt guilty for thinking that way and knew it was wrong, but she'd spent most of her life believing that if she were to disappear—for whatever reason—the only thing her mother would feel is a sense of failure in living up to her responsibilities.