Page 76 of The Liar in Room 5

The social worker flashed a harried smile and stepped over the threshold, followed by the boy. We showed them into the living room, where he set the baby down in her carrier and pulled a stack of papers from his messenger bag.

“Thank you so much for agreeing to take the placement,” the social worker said by way of introduction. “Finding a placement that will accept a teenager and an infant isn’t as easy as it sounds. Finding a placement for the baby is easy, but teenagers are much harder to place, so I appreciate you opening your age range to accept her too.”

The boy had straightened when Mr. Victorlio mentioned us opening our age range. He stared intently at both of us.

“We’re happy to do it,” Drew assured him.

“Well, I appreciate it just the same. It’s so hard to keep siblings together when there’s a wide age range. This young man is Liam. He’ll be going into his junior year of high school, and this is his baby sister Alice. They’ve been staying in a temporary placement while we searched for a place to try and keep them together.”

“Hi, Liam. We’re Drew”—he pointed to himself—“and Henry,” he said, pointing at me. “We’re glad to have you with us.”

“Yeah.”

His outfit was the typical teenage uniform of basketball shorts and a hoodie with Rainiers Hockey emblazoned across the front. His dark-blond hair was a mess of tangles that desperately needed a trim while his green eyes knew far too much already.

“You a fan of hockey?” Drew asked conversationally.

“My dad was.”

“Oh, hey, mine too,” Drew answered with a small smile. “I, on the other hand, didn’t get the sports-ball gene. But my dad and mom live in the guesthouse on the other side of the rose hedges, and he’s always willing to talk sports. It doesn’t matter what kind.”

“Your parents live here?”

“In their own house, but yeah. Henry’s brother and his son live a block over, so it’s like a family compound neighborhood.”

“Weird.”

Mr. Victorlio looked at Liam with an expression that could only be interpreted as behave before returning his attention to us. The giant stack of papers consisted mostly of protocols, schedules, and duplicate placement agreements. It was a daunting pile since everything seemed to be in triplicate—one set for each of them, one for us, and one for social services.

When the stack was finally finished, the baby was starting to stir. Rather than take her himself, the social worker turned the carrier toward me and said, “No time better to start than now.”

Panic hit my heart when no one moved to help me. What I knew about babies would fit in a thimble. We’d listened to an audiobook about caring for babies when we went shopping yesterday after the phone call, but that wasn’t the same thing as hands-on practice.

“Liam, is it okay if I pick up your sister?” I asked.

The teenager visibly relaxed at my question. He nodded, and I pushed the blanket off her and lifted her out. She had the same coloring as her brother and looked like a miniature version of him. There was no question they were siblings. I glanced over to find Drew watching them both with hearts in his eyes.

“Yeah, but she’s probably getting hungry. I packed her a bottle before we left.” Liam rummaged through the worn diaper bag and handed me a bottle. “She likes it warmed. Not to room temperature, just not cold. Running it under hot water is usually enough, but you need to shake it before she drinks it.”

“I’ll defer to your expertise, Liam. Can you check it before she gets it?”

Liam’s shoulders dropped a little more at my request and deference. When it came time to actually feed her, he allowed me to take on the task. Once I had her situated to his liking, he relaxed a little and let me do it without interference. Drew looked on with a small approving smile.

Meanwhile, Mr. Victorlio was wrapping up his paperwork.

“All right, I think we’re done here. You’ll have a regular placement social worker assigned in the next day or so, and I’ll have school enrollment papers for you within forty-eight hours.”

He turned to Liam and said, “I know this wasn’t what you wanted. No one wants to lose their parents in a car accident and not have any family able to take them in. It sucks, but you’d be smart to remember there aren’t a lot of places that will take a teenage boy and an infant. Think about that before you make any decisions about how to treat these guys.”

If he considered that cryptic, he was off by a mile. I understood why he might have felt the need to say it, but it sent Liam’s shoulders straight back up to his ears.

“Thanks for dropping them off, and we’ll talk to you soon,” Drew said in a clipped voice. “We can take it from here.”

Mr. Victorlio climbed to his feet, gave Liam one more pointed look, and saw himself out.

“Liam, would you like to see the rooms for you two?” Drew offered.

At Liam’s nod, Drew led our little troupe upstairs.