Page 46 of No More Words

“What did he want?” Amber asks as they take the remaining groceries into the house.

“To talk.”

She grins. “Knew it. You’re going to get back together.”

“Mm.” She’s not ready to commit to that.

Josh is rifling through the bags on the center island. He looks up when they enter the kitchen. “Hungry.”

“I got something just for you.” Amber pours him a cream soda over ice and digs out a box of extra toasty Cheez-Its. Olivia has never seen a kid look so happy.

“Aunt ... O ... has ...” He gestures at the pantry. “It’s ... empty.”

Olivia grimaces and he grins, taking his loot out back where he’s been hanging out all morning, filling his sketchbook. He’s been obsessively drawing pictures of where he lives. But without a city or street address, his home can be anywhere along the southern coast. She’s confident they’d find Lily quicker if he could read, but he complains words make him dizzy. The letters aren’t in order. They swirl around the page.

She glares at Amber. “Are you trying to kill him?”

“Huh?”

“Carbs and sugar. That’s the worst thing you can give him.”

“Your pantry is a teenage torture chamber. You smoke, but you have the most boring, bland food on the planet.”

“It’s healthy. Please tell me you bought something healthy.” She peeks into a bag, afraid of what she’ll find.

“What’s going on with you? Aside from Lucas being Lucas. You’re wound up,” Amber says, unpacking groceries.

“When am I not?” She rips open a bag of dried fruit and pops an apricot to take the edge off.

“More than usual,” Amber says.

Olivia eats another apricot and pulls out a stool. She sits at the island and gives Amber the rundown of the past few days from thepolice station and Charlotte’s odd remark about Dwight to Lily’s power of attorney in Josh’s backpack and Ethan’s visit.

“Hold up.” Amber raises her hands. “You saw him?” Olivia nods. “That must have been ... interesting.”

“Very.” She never expected to speak to Ethan again, let alone see him. Amber knows their history. They were roommates and she was there after she broke up with Ethan over the phone. She even broke out the box of Kleenex and chewy chocolate chip cookies as they binge-watchedAliasbecause Olivia couldn’t sit through a teary rom-com. When Olivia questioned if Dwight might have been wrong, Amber agreed he couldn’t have been. Why would her dad lie about the father of Lily’s child?

“Surprisingly less dramatic than I thought it would be. We were both civil, and ...”

“And what?” Amber closes the fridge.

“He’s not Josh’s father.”

Amber leans her elbows on the island. “You’re sure?”

Olivia nods. “Josh says he knows his father. It isn’t Ethan. But Ethan did offer to do a paternity test to prove it.”

“Is he going to?”

She shakes her head. “It’s not necessary.”

“You believe him,” Amber adds as Olivia picks through the apricots.

“I believe Josh. But I knew it the moment they were in the same room.” Intuition kicked in. The feeling was overpowering. Josh and Ethan aren’t blood relatives. “Their hair color is similar, but that’s where it ends. Lily lied about Ethan. I’m sure of it. My dad must have really pressured her for a name.”

“What are you going to do? Wait for her to show up like that police officer thinks she might?”

At a loss, Olivia shrugs. Last night she sent an email to the address on the POA and immediately received a failed-to-deliver message. When she tried the phone number, she reached a disconnected-numberrecording. A quick search online showed the law firm went out of business years ago, and there isn’t any information about who took over their cases. Olivia was crushed. That law firm should have led her directly to Lily.

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