Page 28 of No More Words

Bitter, Olivia clenches her jaw, squeezing her phone. She misses the idea of them, and despises that she feels that way. Lily stole her chance to experience the world with him.

She needs to cease stalling and call him.

Olivia brings up his number. He answers after the second ring.

“Olivia?”

Her breath catches, startled by the sound of her name in his voice. Her number hasn’t changed since college. His has because she accidentally called him once when she dropped her phone. An automaticrecording notified her that his number had been disconnected as she fumbled to end the call before he answered.

“Yes.” The sour knot in her throat expands.

“Is that you?”

“It’s me.”

A short pause. A brief, dubious laugh. “It’s really you.” He almost sounds happy to hear from her. That’s unexpected. Another pause. “How are you?”

“Ethan.” His name feels odd on her tongue. Tight and inflexible, like a muscle that hasn’t been worked in a long time. “Josh is here,” she announces.

“Josh who?”

She frowns into the phone. Is he playing games? “Your and Lily’s son.”

“I don’t—” He stops and the line goes quiet. “You still think I’m the father?”

Olivia unconsciously draws a cigarette from the box. Dwight has pictures. He didn’t lie. Lily did. She even lied to her son. “Something happened to Lily. Josh needs you.”

“Is she all right?”

“I don’t know. We’re trying to work that out.”

“Where is she?”

“I was hoping you’d know, or that she’d be with you.”

“Olivia, I haven’t seen Lily since my last year at Southern Cal.”

The cigarette drops to the ground. A chill makes its way up her arms. Her skin tingles. “You didn’t know she ran away?”

“Yes. But I didn’t think—she never came back?”

She swallows roughly. “You didn’t go after her?” The question comes out as a breathless whisper, heavy with shock. He’d wanted kids. If Josh is his, he wouldn’t have let Lily take their son from him. He would have chased her around the world insisting on visitation rights. At the very least, offer financial support. That’s what she assumed he did.

At a loss for words, Olivia supports her head in her hand. All these years she’s believed Ethan betrayed her. Is it possible she’s been wrong? Was Dwight wrong? If so, who’s in Dwight’s photos?

Josh’s father.

She needs to ask her dad for those pictures.

“Where are you?” Ethan asks.

“SLO. I remodeled the house Dad practically gave me and moved in.”

“I know the one. I have back-to-back meetings tomorrow. I can be there tomorrow evening. Seven okay?”

“Seven’s fine,” she states, stunned he wants to visit. Maybe he’s ready to admit Josh is his and wants to do so in person, because she’s not ready to believe the alternative: Josh isn’t his. He never betrayed her.

Olivia stands just inside Josh’s room, nursing a scotch. Blaze left behind the bottle. Josh breathes evenly, the sheets kicked to his ankles. The ceiling fan above rotates on the low setting. She thought she’d look for a wallet in his backpack, save them both from the frustration of him attempting to answer her questions when she’d asked before to see it. But he hugs his backpack like a koala with her cub.