Yes, it hurt. A fresh glaze of pain spread into their gazes.

“So . . . you’d basically deleted us like files on your computer,” River said.

“I guess I can see why he left,” Jasper said.

“So can I,” she said. She opened the refrigerator and motioned for River to look at the selection, a six-pack and three bottles of another brand. He grabbed the six-pack.

“You can’t drink all of that if you plan to drive tonight,” she said.

“I’m driving,” Jasper said.

“But why drive?” River said. “Let’s stay here.”

“River . . . ,” Jasper said.

“What?”

“She hasn’t invited us.”

“It’s okay, isn’t it?” River said. “We were going to find a hotel in Gainesville.”

“Sit down,” she said. “We need to talk.”

River opened a beer and put the rest back in the refrigerator. The boys sat on the couch, and Ellis faced them on Keith’s lounge chair, the one he used to watch football on the TV he’d bought for himself but pretended was a gift for her.

“You want to know why we’re here,” River said.

“I do,” she said. “I also want to know why you lied to your father.”

“Second question is easier,” River said. He took a long drink. “We didn’t tell him because he would have said we couldn’t come here.”

“Then why did you come?”

River looked at Jasper.

“It was your idea?” she asked Jasper.

“It was. Dad’s lied to me all these years. He said he didn’t know where you were. When Viola came home, I found out he’d known for a long time where you live. River knew, too.”

“Internet,” River said before taking another long pull on the bottle.

Jasper aimed a hard look at her. “Why would you ask why we’re here? You’re our mother.”

Ellis hadn’t had a drink since she quit in the mountains. But she wanted one of those beers.

Jasper said, “I’m here because I thought it was bullshit that Viola got to see you and we didn’t. Dad says she’s here to hide from reporters, but I know that’s more lies. She lives with you now, doesn’t she?”

“She does, but she doesn’t want to. All she wants is to go back to Washington.”

“Do you want her here?” he asked.

“That question is way too complicated to answer.”

“Try.”

“Okay. First of all, I’ll say I’m relieved she’s okay. All these years, I’ve had every imaginable fear about what happened to her. But it’s not like this was some happy reunion. She doesn’t want anything to do with me. Being here is like a prison sentence she has to serve until she can go back to her house in Washington. So . . . do I want her here? I don’t know.”

“I wonder what her house is like,” River said. “Dad says she’ll be really rich when she inherits.”

“Are you serious?” Ellis said.

“You didn’t know? That woman who took her is from some billionaire family in Chicago.”

No wonder Audrey Lind successfully kept Viola hidden away all those years. She’d had limitless resources. And now Ellis understood why her sister had been so eager to drop Raven into the obscurity of the Florida woods. She didn’t want the news of what her sister had done to penetrate her elite sphere.

River finished his beer quickly and got another from the refrigerator. “Can I ask a question now?” he asked.

“Go ahead.”

“Are you still a doper?”

“Who told you that?”

“Gram, of course. And looking back, it’s pretty obvious.”

“I quit all that long ago.”

“Too bad. I was hoping to hit you up for something good.”

Ellis stood. “If you’ve come here to blame your problems on me, you can leave.”

“But I can stay if I came here like Jasper to make nice? Or if I’m a poor abducted kid who doesn’t know her ass from an alligator?”

“You know, I have a lot on my plate right now.” Even as she said it, she was disgusted with herself.

“You’ve got a lot on your plate, and I’m hungry. Mind if we mooch some food before you kick our asses out of here?”

He was there to punish her. Clearly trying to rattle her with his obnoxious behavior. Maybe he wanted her to boot him out of her house so he could justify hating her. Hatred was an addictive emotion, and it thrived best with frequent injections that kept the high going. River hadn’t had a fresh dose since he was a little boy. He didn’t want her to give him a pill to dull his pain. He wanted a slap to increase it. And the sad thing was, he also believed he deserved to be slapped.

No, she wouldn’t play into his self-hatred. “You’re welcome to anything in my kitchen. And you can stay in this guesthouse as long as you want. But you have to tell Jonah where you are. He needs to know in case there’s an emergency.”

“He can call us,” River said.

“He has the right to know where you are.”

“He doesn’t give a shit where I am. As long as I’m out of his house.”