Page 50 of No More Words

Charlotte drops the sponge she soaked. She slowly turns to Olivia when something outside draws her back. “Who is that?”

Olivia looks outside and curses under her breath. “It’s Josh.” He’s heading toward their private dock. What’s he doing? She told him to stay in the car. “I’ll get him.”

“Take him home, Olivia. He can’t come in the house. Your father’s security cameras.”

Too late now. Olivia tries not to feel alarmed. “Dad never looks at the video footage.” He can barely log into his computer. Twice she’s tried to walk him through the app on his phone and he never got the hang of it.

“He does too.” Charlotte wrings her hands.

And he will if he has reason to look through the footage. Olivia watches Josh mount the dock. Her limbs tingle as adrenaline courses through her extremities.

“Get dressed. I’ll see what he’s up to.” After closing the french door behind her, Olivia dashes across the yard. “Josh, wait up.”

He’s hauling, his pace a reminder that he’s Lily’s son. Lily was quick, whether chasing Lucas in a game of tag, breaking records in the fifty-yard freestyle, or running away from home.

She catches up with him at the end of the dock. Hands stuffed in his hoodie pockets, shoulders rounded against the wind, he gazes over the choppy water.

“I told you to wait in the car. What are you doing here?” She gasps, short of breath.

“Looking for you. Saw that.” He points across the bay toward the sleepy ocean-side town of Morro Bay.

“That’s Morro Rock,” she says of the massive volcanic rock dominating the coastline. Behind the geological formation, three four-hundred-foot-plus smokestacks left over from an old power plant tower over the Pacific coast. Her inspiration of the source of the Crimson Wave’spower. Every day she looked out her bedroom window at this view. So did Lucas and Lily. “Cool,” he says, showing no sign of leaving.

“We should go. Come on.” She’ll ask Amber to stay with him and come back later.

Josh looks up at the house. “Mom?”

Olivia glances over her shoulder. “She’s not here, I told you that.”

He shakes his head and points at her.

“Me? Oh, my mom. She’s inside.”

Josh starts walking toward the house.

“Where are you going?” She chases after him. “Josh, stop.” She tugs the sleeve of his new sweatshirt. He gets too close to the cameras, Dwight will have a clear picture of his face.

He turns around. “My ... mom.” He points at the house.

“Like I said, she’s not here.” How many times does she have to explain this? “I was asking my mom about yours when we saw you out the window.”

He holds his hand at his waist. “Mom ... girl ... bat ... rug.” He smacks his forehead repeatedly. “Little!”

“I don’t—” She stares at his hand. “Do you meanlittle girl?” He nods vigorously. “Yes, you’re right. This was her home when she was little.”

“See?”

“See what? Her room?”

He nods.

How does she tell him no? He’ll ask why. He’s probably curious about his mom’s childhood. Did Lily share anything with him? She left behind her clothes, artwork, scrapbooks, and journals.

On a slight gasp, Olivia looks up at the house.

Charlotte’s kept Lily’s room unchanged for years. She’s also kept the door locked as if it was too tempting, yet too painful, to look inside.What if Lily wrote in her journal about her pregnancy and where she was thinking of running away to?

She might have named the father. Olivia still believes Josh’s father might know how to reach Lily. He might even know where she could have gone.

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