The McRae Series 01 - Twelve Days Sam and Rachel

to hold her and build some memories of her and then let her go. He hadn't seen how anything could have helped him let her go, particularly holding her in his arms. But he was sorry now that he hadn't. He was so sorry for everything, still felt so guilty. How could a marriage possibly survive under a burden like that?
    "Sam?" Rachel asked tentatively.
    He turned his head away. "I've got to go, Rachel."
    He headed down the stairs, ignoring her calling to him. He did it by remembering how it had ended last night, that broken look on her face when she'd apologized and he'd asked what she was apologizing for.
    Everything, she'd said with heartbreaking sadness. Everything.
    That one word had carried so many regrets, so much pain. There was nothing left between them. He deeply regretted it, but he couldn't fix it.
    Sam would have rushed out the door and not come back all day, but when he walked into the kitchen, Emma was there sipping a glass of milk. Emma with her sad eyes that saw too much and an expression on her face that said she still thought he was something akin to the big bad wolf who snarled at little boys and girls over the breakfast table.
    "Hi," she said, just as tentatively as Rachel had only moments ago.
    Was he really such a bear? So scary and snarly? Was this what he'd become? A grumpy old man at thirty-two.
    Sam stifled the impulse to swear once again and went to the counter to pour himself a cup of coffee, thinking he might still escape somewhere to lick his wounds and shore up his defenses against his wife, maybe keep his distance from these kids.
    "Good morning," he said, once his back was to Emma.
    "I heard the baby. I got up to get her, but Rachel was already there."
    "Rachel's enjoying herself with the baby," he said. "With all three of you. Why don't you relax a little and let her take care of all of you."
    Emma said nothing. He turned around and judging by her expression, she didn't like what she'd heard from him. He couldn't seem to do anything right this morning. He felt so totally inept when it came to dealing with these children. He was searching for something to do, something to say to her, when the phone rang, saving him. He grabbed it, hearing Miriam's voice on the other end.
    "How is everything with the children?" she said.
    "Peachy," he replied, growling at yet another woman this morning.
    "This is getting old, Sam."
    "Yes, it is." He knew it. He'd griped at Miriam the day before and griped at the world in general lately. He had to stop. Leveling his tone, he asked, "What can we do for you, Miriam?"
    "I just wanted to check in on you all. Make sure everyone's all right."
    "Everyone here is fine," he reassured her.
    "Good. I also need for Rachel to do something for me. I need for the two oldest children to be at Dr. Wilson's office sometime this morning. He's doing me a favor. He agreed to draw blood and get DNA swabs today for testing, even if it is Sunday."
    "Why do you need blood and DNA?"
    "We sent out information about the children all over the country, and there's a couple in Virginia whose two children were kidnapped by their nanny almost four years ago, a newborn boy and a girl of seven, and they have never been found. They think the photos of Emma resemble an age-progression photo of their daughter, and the ages are similar, the eye color, and the hair color. This kind of thing is going to happen, Sam, and we'll have to check it out every time."
    Sam didn't know what to say to that. He looked at Emma, imagining her at seven, snatched away from the only home she'd ever known, something he knew a whole lot about.
    Oh, Emma, he thought. What has the world done to you?
    Sam turned his back to her once again, because the girl seemed to know something was going on. Which made Sam think about Grace.
    "What about the baby?" he said.
    "I don't know. If the older two belong to that couple, it's no telling where Grace came from. Maybe snatched from another couple. First things first. Let's get the blood test and go from there."
    "How long?" he said. "Before we know?"
    "Depends on how far they have to go with the testing. They'll do blood typing, because that's quickest and inexpensive. If the blood types don't exclude the possibility of a match, they'll move onto DNA testing. The couple hired an independent lab to do the work. No waiting for backed-up state agencies. We'll overnight the samples Monday and should know something in a few days."
    Sam thanked her and hung up the phone.
    "Is my