Chapter 193

Lake POV

“What if he won’t open the door?”

“Then you call him from the doorstep,” Rhodes suggested. “You tell him Ollie is there. You let him hear his son crying for him. Lake Ramon might be able to ignore text messages. But I don’t think he can ignore Ollie’s voice.”

I thought about Ollie upstairs, organizing his dinosaurs with mechanical precision because it was what Papa had taught him. About the withdrawn, sad child who’d replaced my usually vibrant, joyful son. About the fact that my five-year-old had asked to be alone because talking about his feelings was too painful.

Troy was right. This wasn’t working. Space wasn’t helping. Distance wasn’t protecting anyone.

“Okay,” I said, my voice steadier than I felt. “Tomorrow. I’ll take Ollie to the house. We’ll make Ramon talk to us.”

“Do you want me to come with you?” Rhodes offered. “For moral support?”

I shook my head. “No. This needs to be just us. Just me and Ollie. Ramon needs to