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Adonis just shrugged again.

I didn’t know him. Not really. But I was pretty sure that talking about his mom wasn’t easy for him. His body looked tense.

He didn’t say his mom had died. So...had she just up and left? What kind of person just left their kid like that?

“So you must have an older sibling or something that stays at the house with you?” Uncle Matt asked.

Adonis shook his head. “No, I’m an only child.”

Uncle Matt looked very disturbed by this. “So you’re home alone?”

“Well, a maid stops by every now and then,” Adonis said like that was a normal thing.

Uncle Matt seemed to agree with me. Because he said, “You can spend the night here if you want.”

“That’s okay,” Adonis said. “But I appreciate the offer, Uncle Matt.”

Uncle Matt laughed at Adonis calling him that. “Seriously, stay. We can make up the couch. I’m not sending you back to an empty house.”

Adonis turned to Jacob.

“Yeah, stay,” Jacob said.

Uncle Matt slapped Adonis on the back. “Good, good. How’s the homework going? Is this that videogame you’ve been working on?” He peered at the screen. And then he laughed at something.

Had they changed something?

“You kids.” Uncle Matt shook his head. “I’m gonna go tell your mom that you have a friend sleeping over.” He patted Jacob’s shoulder and walked back into the living room.

“Your dad is nice,” Adonis said.

Jacob was quiet for a second. “Yeah,” he said.

“Oh, sorry,” Adonis said. “I know your last name is Miller. So Uncle Matt isn’t really...”

Jacob shook his head. “No. He is. Like a father to me.”

“What happened to your actual dad?”

I kept my eyes focused on Chloe’s homework. But I listened to every word the two of them spoke. Jacob told Adonis about his father. And Adonis told Jacob about his mom. Adonis said he barely remembered her. She just up and left one day, leaving him and his father. He said it was fine.

Like how Jacob always said he was fine.

But neither of them were.

And even though Adonis wasn’t talking to me, I felt his gaze on me the entire time.

These were the questions I’d wanted to ask about his family the other day in his car. But I’d chickened out. Now I was filled with information about Adonis. And my stomach felt a little queasy.

I pulled out my phone and sent RJ a text, asking him to pick me up.

“Thanks, Soph,” Chloe said as she closed her notebook. As she did, I briefly saw some hearts scribbled on a previous page. But the notebook closed before I could see them clearly. All I’d made out was an H in one of them before she hugged her notebook to her chest.

Whoever this H was...he’d regret ignoring Chloe one day.

“Anytime, Chloe. And don’t worry, one day that guy is going to wake up. I promise.”

She smiled.