She's No Beauty Queen

Mark watched the whole exchange quizzically but didn't say anything until they were in the car. "Does he not talk?"

"No. Don't think that not talking means not thinking though," Lily said defensively. "He's very smart and picks out patterns in things that even grown adults can't see. He might not be able to communicate well with people who don't understand but he gets by fine with writing if necessary."

A lot of people assumed that not speaking automatically made someone stupid. Adam wasn't intellectually challenged even if he did act a bit younger than his physical age emotionally.

"I never thought that. I was just remembering something. You got into a fight defending a nonverbal kid your freshman year of high school. It was because of your brother, wasn't it?" Mark asked mildly.

Lily tried to think back. She got into so many fights back then it was hard to keep track of which was which. She had been friends with a nonverbal girl though so what he said probably did happen.

Adam came to live with them about a month after the school year started. He was absolutely adorable but didn't know how to write then so he wasn't very good at communicating what he needed and threw a lot of fits.

He bonded with her the fastest only after their mother. She understood him in a way Gen didn't. She was always annoyed by how much noise he made at first.

After learning how to communicate a bit with Adam she had noticed Emily sitting at the special ed table at lunch and decided to go over and talk to her. She had been surprised but pleased and the two of them became good friends despite their different communication styles.

A smile appeared on Mark's face and it made him seem much less businesslike than he normally was. "Makes sense. What are the rest of your siblings' names?"

"Donovan, Genevieve, and Emma. And Angel, I guess. It's still so strange to me that I have an identical twin. This is like something straight out of a teen drama movie. I hope I'll be able to meet her."

Why was she telling him this? He was a total stranger. There was no reason to share anything remotely personal with him. Though he was one of the only people connected to her that she could talk about this with.

Lily had told her mother about Angel but couldn't spill her secrets because it wasn't her place. She only said that she had a twin sister that went missing the same time she ended up in the hospital and that her fiancé mixed them up because they looked exactly the same and her memory was gone. She mentioned that she had a niece as well but didn't include that fact that Angel was Miss California.

Anamaria Bennett had been shocked to say the least but she believed her oldest daughter's crazy story. She had always confided in her mother about everything. They were close. She had no reason to lie.

How Lily was handling the emotional upheaval was concerning to her mother—when you're an adoptive parent you always have to be sensitive about your children's biological families—and she did her best to explain how she was feeling. The problem was that she wasn't entirely sure what to make of all this new information. She told her that too.

"I hope so too because that will mean she's back home safe and sound," Mark muttered.

Her heart dropped. Right. That was a major concern. Angel might not even be alive right now, as horrible a thought as that was.

The rest of the drive over was a somber one after that comment that dropped like lead. Way for him to kill the mood. As if she wasn't nervous enough about this meeting already. They arrived at the house not a moment too soon.

Eddie was waiting for them in the entry way but so was Aria. She ran up to hug Lily immediately, thinking she was her mother. "Mommy! Awi miss you!"

His entire being radiated exhaustion. "No princess, this is Lily. Remember I told you she was coming over today? She looks like Mommy because they're twins. Lily's your aunt. Mommy is still working."

"Not Mommy? Lily?" Aria asked curiously, frowning as she got a closer look at her aunt.

She reached her arms out to be picked up and Lily heeded her request. In return for her kindness, she got her cheeks pinched and patted by sticky baby fingers. A satisfied expression crossed her face as she repeated her words as an affirmation rather than a question. "Not Mommy. Lily."

"Yeah baby, I'm your Aunt Lily," she said thickly as she locked eyes with this sweet little girl who may have already lost her mother at such a young age.

Aria squirmed to be let down and ran off before coming back with a teddy bear wearing a princess dress, crown, and shoes. She held it up proudly for Lily to see.

Eddie already looked exhausted before but now he was on the verge of tears. His composure was completely gone. Not having Angel here was taking a real toll on him. "She…only shows that bear to people she really likes. Her mom, the housekeeper, and I were the only ones before now. Angel took her to Build-A-Bear for her birthday and they picked it out together."

"I'm honored," Lily said with a smile in the little girl's direction.

Her pity for Eddie was increasing every second despite keeping up a good face for Aria. Looking at him kind of made her want to cry too. Did Angel know how much he loved her? Because if she didn't and she was still out there somewhere somebody needed to tell her so whatever weirdness was between them could stop.

It wasn't her place to interfere though. She wasn't Angel's friend. They had never even met.