Page 50 of No More Secrets

“No, I wouldn’t.”

“I heard you. You said—”

“Nothing.” He strides to the door, laptop in hand.

“But—”

“Go to sleep.”

She stares hard at him. “You’re a jerk.” She gets up and goes to the bathroom. A minute later the shower runs.

Lucas drags a hand over his head. He needs to watch himself around her, or she’ll be dragging him to LA before he can tie his shoe.

Back in his room, door shut and locked, he settles on his bed, his back against the wall, and does what he’s put off for eight months. He looks up Lily. Rather, he runs a search for Jenna Mason, and is floored over the number of hits. Page after page of links display. Her website is at the top. He skips that and goes straight for the story that would elaborate on what Shiloh told him this morning, an article inLuxe Avenuewritten by Ella Skye. And there before him, filling his screen, is grown-up Lily in full color. She’s smiling, seated at a table on an outdoor patio. A glass of water within reach, the ocean a backdrop. She looks entirely different from when he last saw her and the same. A vise grips his lungs.

When he met her son, Josh, Lucas wasn’t just worried about Lily and how she and her son had been separated. He was scared for her. He blamed himself for what happened. Lily never would have been separated from Josh if he had stopped her from running away in the first place.

He scrolls down the page. More photos of Lily cover the screen. One was taken in a professional studio. She’s perched on a stool and dressed entirely in black. Pants, blouse, and heels, her fingertips dippinginto a side pocket. Brownish-auburn hair swept off her face, her hazel eyes gleam. The slight curvature of her mouth mocks him, as if she’s flipping him off.I survived, Lucas. No thanks to you.

More photos show her at her desk, another seated on a couch, her arm around Josh, his face averted so only his profile is visible. It’s a studio shot, from the emerald couch to the gray backdrop, but the sight of Josh is a blade across his chest. Emotion wells in his throat. He swallows it down before it escapes. But...Josh.

He made it home.

Lucas scrolls back to the top and skims the article, which is a deep dive into Lily’s life. He learns the first photo was taken at Thalassa, a restaurant in Oceanside owned by her fiancé, Kavan. They’re getting married this summer. Lily’s movie releases in June, and she’s contracted to cowrite the screenplay for a follow-up film. This is on top of book releases, merchandise, and tours. He can see why Shiloh idolizes her. Lily’s accomplishments are impressive.

Then he reads what he witnessed firsthand the night Lily ran away. That she’d left. But then she’d come back. He didn’t know that. She found her friend Wes, whom she’d thought she shot before he fell into the bay, only to end up accidentally killing him in self-defense. That she’d not only run away but kept on running. Ryder Jensen, Wes’s older brother, stalked her for sixteen years.

Lily mentions there were people along the way who helped her. They took her and Josh in. But despite Ella Skye’s attempt to extract more details about what Lily’s life was like those years, Lily’s responses are vague. In fact, most of the article is Lily answering Ella’s questions with nonanswers and steering the conversation back to her career.

His father is briefly mentioned in that he passed before the writing of the article, killed in a single-vehicle accident, and that Lily has yet to see her brother, Lucas. It pains him to read about it. Aside from a couple of paragraphs about their lives in Seaside Cove, it’s the only time hisname is mentioned. No connection between him and Dwight’s death is cited. He doesn’t know if he’s relieved or alarmed.

Though there is mention of his mother. She’s a person of interest in Wes Jensen’s death, which doesn’t surprise him. She was inside the house when his father went after Wes. Lily believes she left the country, which is news to Lucas. That does surprise him. The last time he saw their mother, Olivia was taking Charlotte to spend the night at her house. She was distraught from learning of her husband’s death, and Olivia didn’t want to leave her alone. He helped put their mother in Olivia’s car.

Shiloh knocks, and he nearly jumps off the bed.

“Lucas?” she asks from the other side of his door.

“Yeah?” He slowly closes the laptop, catching his breath, embarrassed he wascaughtstalking his sister.

“Good night.”

“Night,” he says, listening for her to leave.

A few seconds go by.

“You still there?” Lucas asks.

Another beat.

“I’m sorry.”

He frowns at the door. “For what?”

“For what I said. You’re not a jerk. And...” She stops.

He stares at the door. “Shiloh?”

A pause.

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