Page 107 of His Greatest Treasure

The door is unlocked,but I call for Avery before stepping further than a couple of inches into the house. When she answers with a short and sharp “come in,” I take my shoes off with a heavy stomach.

Once I’ve locked the door behind me and set my sneakers beside Nova’s new bright orange Crocs on the rack against the wall, I’m following the sound of hushed voices. The hallway is short but feels miles long.

“Cotton candy or bubble gum?”

“Both? In a waffle bowl?” Nova’s voice is dull, sad.

I clench my jaw and stop halfway down the hall. I’m close enough to see only one deep green wall and a sliver of the big white dresser through the cracked door to Nova’s room, but nothing more. My breathing is tight and ragged, but I focus on getting myself to calm down before joining them. They don’t need my anger right now.

“Sure, sweetheart. A waffle bowl. You can even get rainbow sprinkles and gummy frogs if you want,” Avery says soothingly.

“I don’t want gummy frogs today.”

“Are you sure? They’re your favourite.”

“I just don’t want them, Mom.”

Invisible fists use my heart as a punching bag. Maybe I should go back outside and pummel the sorry fuck before he leaves?—

“You can have anything you want,mitt hjärta. Vad som helst.”

“Jag vill inte att Pappa ska skada Ollie.”

The soft voice speaking my name amongst words I don’t understand is enough to have me moving again. I knock my knuckles against the door and slowly push it the rest of the way open before they notice me.

“Ollie?” Nova sniffles, pushing herself from her stomach to sit amongst the pillows on her bed.

The sight of her puffy red eyes fucks me up inside. My previous protectiveness grows tenfold.

“How are you doing, peanut?” I ask, fighting past the thickness in my throat.

She shrugs. “Is my dad gone?”

I look at Avery where she sits on the floor beside the twin bed, her knees tucked to her chest and arm splayed over them. One hand is clutching Nova’s on the bed, holding on so tight it’s like she’s scared someone will try to take her away.

She’s still wearing her bathing suit, but Nova’s buried in a sweatshirt I recognize the moment she shifts and the name stitched into the right corner becomes visible. Something settles inside of me. Slots itself into an empty crevasse left in my soul.

Avery sighs and presses her forehead to the edge of the mattress when she notices where my attention’s gone. The action nips at my gut, telling me something’s wrong, and I pay attention to the warning.

I trust myself completely. In my line of work, my gut instincts are all I have sometimes. And when this one demands I go to her, I don’t ignore it.

“Your dad went home,” I murmur.

Nova reaches for a fuzzy frog pillow from its spot along the inside edge of her bed and pulls it onto her lap. She picks at the material of it and rolls little bunches betweenher fingers.

“Okay.”

“Can I talk to Oliver for a couple of minutes, sweetheart? Then we can go for ice cream? Maybe you’ll be up for gummy frogs then,” Avery suggests with a pat to Nova’s thigh.

Nova blinks up at me, a small sparkle of hope in her eyes. “Can you come for ice cream too?”

“If you want me?—”

“No. He can’t. Not this time,” Avery interrupts, answering for me.

The rambled denial is unexpected. But maybe I should have seen it coming.

Nova’s voice takes on a different pitch than I’m used to. One that’s angry and raw. Stubborn. “Why not? I want him to come!”

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