Counterfeit Son Read Online Free Page B

that? Had Colbert and Simmons heard? Would they rush into the room and arrest him? How bad would the punishment be this time?
    "Neil!" she cried, and threw her arms around him again. Over her shoulder, he saw the man—
Father
he reminded himself—staring at him in stunned delight.
    "You remembered!" she was saying, rocking him in her arms. "You used to call me Mama Bear when you were a toddler and I'd get upset!"

    Cameron closed his eyes and sagged against her in relief, letting her rock him. He couldn't believe how lucky he'd been to remember the picture in the clipping. Whatever the doctor's positive identification disclosed now, they would believe he was Neil.
    Except, somehow, he hadn't expected the Laceys to be so nice. As the woman held him tightly, Cameron remembered Detective Simmons's accusations, and felt bitterly like Goldilocks, the interloper.

4. Tears
    His mother stayed with him Saturday night, although he slept through most of it. Cameron woke in the night and saw her in the light from the hospital corridor. She sat propped awkwardly in an uncomfortable-looking hard chair, her head leaning back, her eyes closed. In her sleep she was still smiling. Both she and the man were beside him all day Sunday, through more testsandpokingandprodding. Theytalkedtohim, telling him about the house, and about his brother and sister. His mother stayed through the night again, still talking, crying sometimes, and sometimes just smiling at him.

    On Monday morning his father came back, this time carrying a small blue nylon duffel bag. He got more X rays taken of his teeth, and Cameron worried about this after what they'd said about dental charts. But the Laceys didn't seem concerned. They'd made up their minds about him.

    Finally, one of the army of nurses took him back to the room where the other boy still lay unconscious. She pushed him in a wheelchair, as though he were too helpless to walk for himself, but Cameron didn't argue. He was exhausted from keeping his balance on the tightrope. His mother walked beside the chair, holding his right hand and still talking. Her voice was getting a little hoarse, but he liked the throaty sound of it.
    "Diana and Stevie just can't wait to see you," she was saying. She had said this so often that he couldn't help wondering whether it was actually true. Perhaps they weren't as glad to get a big brother back as their parents were to get a first son. Probably Stevie was ticked off, after being the only boy for so long.
    Cameron had read about the smaller children. Stevie probably wouldn't remember Neil too clearly, since he'd just turned three when Neil had been abducted. But Diana had been almost seven—old enough to know Neil pretty well. In the pictures she'd looked sad, and in one newspaper interview she'd said how much she missed her brother and wanted him to come home.
    "Stevie started cleaning up his room as soon as that Investigator Colbert called to say you were safe," his mother went on.
    Cameron felt sick to his stomach. Apparently Neil was supposed to share a room with Stevie. If the younger boy had had the room to himself all these years, he would probably be mad at having to start sharing it again. Not the best way to make friends with the kid.
    And Cameron was nervous about sleeping in the same room with somebody. He was used to sleeping alone, except when Pop was there. He could remember waking suddenly in the dark to the sound of Pop's breathing, and knowing what was about to happen. Could he ever sleep with another person breathing so close to him? Also, he dreamed a lot. He'd had plenty of practice in keeping his dreams quiet, but what if the kid noticed anyway? He wished he could ask for a room alone, but he guessed instinctively that Neil's parents wanted to pretend everything was just the way it had been before. If Neil had shared a room with Stevie six years ago, then he would have to share one now.

    His father looked up as they came into the hospital room. "I've