Chapter 98

Lake POV

I couldn’t stop watching him.

Ollie was across the room, sitting at the painting table with Sophia and David and Julian, all of them chattering excitedly about their collaborative masterpiece. His small hands were covered in paint—blue and green and yellow—and there was a smudge of red on his cheek that he’d gotten somehow. Mr. Hoppy sat propped against a cup of paintbrushes, dutifully supervising as always.

And Ollie was laughing. Actually laughing, his face lit up with genuine joy as David said something that made all the kids crack up.

I’d woken up this morning in a complete panic. The bed had been empty beside me except for Ramon, and my first thought—my immediate, visceral thought—had been that Ollie was gone. That yesterday’s terror had somehow manifested into reality, that he’d disappeared or been taken or decided he didn’t want to be with me anymore.

I’d torn through the house in Ramon’s shirt, not even thinking about getting dre