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“He can’t read. He says it hurts his eyes and the letters are jumbled.”

“That would be the aphasia.”

“The what?” Amber asks.

“Aphasia. It’s a residual effect of his BTI. Sorry, brain trauma injury,” he says when they frown. “You can look it up, but it’s basically the brain’s inability to retrieve the right word. For instance”—he brings his mug into view—“he knows this is a mug and he knows what he’s supposed to do with it. But ask him to tell you what it is and he’ll say something else, like car or tree.”

“He gets frustrated when he tries to talk.” She gets frustrated when he can’t.

“I imagine he would.”

“Will he always be this way?”

“Hard to say. Aphasia can last several days to months. More extreme cases like those with stroke patients can be permanent.”

“Is there anything I can do to speed up his recovery?” He needs to be able to tell her what happened.

“What about Melanie?” Amber asks.

He frowns. “Who?”

“Your friend Melanie.”

His face lights up. “Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

“Who’s Melanie?” Olivia asks.

“She’s a speech pathologist Mike knows from the hospital.”

“She might be able to meet with you if Josh is going to be around for a while,” he offers.

“Thank you,” Olivia says, feeling more relieved than she expected to. She didn’t ask to be in this situation. She has no idea what she’s doing.

“I’ll text her number. She might have some ideas that you can work on with Josh now.”

“He draws a lot,” Olivia says. “Can that help?”

“Great idea. He can show you what he wants to say.”

Olivia nods, taking notes in her head. She can barely wrap her mind around everything she needs to consider to keep Josh safe and healthy. Clothing, food, doctors. How did Lily manage this when she was sixteen? Olivia briefly closes her eyes, feeling a flood of mad respect for her baby sister.

The hospital intercom on Mike’s end crackles. He looks past his phone. “I have to go.”

She thanks Mike for his help before the screen goes dark, grateful to have a sense of what Josh has been facing, dragons bigger than what any thirteen-year-old should have to slay. Armed with this new information, she hopes she can help him communicate. At the very least, help him find his way home.

CHAPTER 17

After lunch and Amber has left, Olivia takes Josh to the mall, exactly where she didn’t want to be. Every moment she’s not focused on Lily is a moment she isn’t looking for her. But Josh needs clothes. She’s nervous. Will he explode like he did at the police station if a salesclerk asks his clothing size and he saysturtleinstead ofmedium? Will he take off like he almost did the other day with her and Lucas if she asks too many questions?Which shirt is your favorite style? What color do you like? How’s the fit? Short sleeve or long?But once they arrive, she realizes her worries are unfounded. When Josh understands why she brought him, he leads her straight to his favorite store and combs through the racks as if he, too, is tired of wearing the same socks and underwear. Within fifteen minutes he has an armful of clothes, and when he can’t stop saying thank you, she wants to buy out the entire store.

While Josh tries on jeans and tees, Olivia researches his condition. She doesn’t learn much more from what Mike told her other than there are multiple types of aphasia that affect speech, reading, and writing to varying degrees. Aphasia doesn’t affect intelligence, but it can influence comprehension. That would explain why Josh takes his time answering her questions. No wonder Josh doesn’t talk much. She wouldn’t either if she thought she sounded stupid when the wrong word popped out.

She watches his feet below the dressing room door, wishing she could call Lily and let her know Josh is safe. It’s a miracle he found her and didn’t end up in a dumpster somewhere. Olivia shivers from thoughts of all the dangers Josh could have run into.

The dressing room door opens and Josh appears. He gives her several shirts and a couple pairs of jeans, and for the first time since he arrived, she gives his shoulder a playful knock. “You did good,” she says of his selection, and he smiles.

A short time later, Olivia parks in front of her parents’ house, a sprawling ranch near the end of Sundial Court in the private community of Seaside Cove. When her parents purchased the beachfront property, Dwight wanted to build a home to boast about. He was a politician in the making with an image to uphold. Charlotte didn’t want to see the neighbors from her windows. Olivia believes her parents never recouped the life savings they invested. Their financial woes were built into the framework. The house is a showcase.

Olivia cuts the ignition and Josh unclips his seat belt. She puts her hand on his arm, her eyes on the surveillance camera under the porch eave, Charlotte’s warning kicking back in a lawn chair in the front yard of her mind. “Wait here.” Dwight never looks at his surveillance footage, and from their current distance, parked on the side of the road, he won’t be able to make out Josh’s face in the car. But she doesn’t want to risk that Dwight finally figured how to work the system Lucas insisted he install and sees someone else is in her car. He’ll ask who it is. She restarts her car and finds a music station she thinks he’ll like. “I won’t be long.”

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