Jocelyn watched the Starbucks drive-thru line get longer and longer. Surely Tanya Bell understood they were meeting inside. The last time they'd seen each other, Tanya had been twenty minutes late.

  She'd sat beside a young mom and her daughter, which amplified Jocelyn's ache for Mia. She picked up her coffee and held on to it like a safety blanket.

  What was she looking to get out of this meeting? Her ex-husband had dismissed her fears immediately. It shouldn't have surprised her. He was an asshole. But what if Trevor's mom said something similar? Who could she go to next?

  "I'm so sorry, Josie," Tanya Bell said, pushing blonde beach waves away from her face. "What did you order?"

  Jocelyn looked up, resolvedly. "Cafe Mocha. Nice to see you, Tanya."

  "All you could think to order was a Cafe Mocha? I'll be right back. They've got to have something fun on their seasonal menu," Tanya said, dumping her expensive purse on the seat across from Jocelyn.

  Jocelyn smiled and watched Tanya Bell join a line three deep at the counter, her hands sliding easily into the pockets of her designer jeans. She was a decent dresser. Her tennis shoes were adorable.

  Tanya didn't seem worried. She hadn't resigned herself to living in sweatpants waiting for her son to come home. But she was a mother. She loved Trevor. Surely there would be some comfort in sharing her thoughts with this woman. It was too late now; the barista was ringing her up.

  "I got us a muffin," Tanya said, sliding it across the table. "Take what you want, I'll eat the rest."

  Jocelyn stared at the muffin. There was no way she was sharing food with this woman. Plus, her stomach had been in knots since she'd first read the email. Eating was the last thing on her mind.

  "Thanks. That was thoughtful," Jocelyn said. "I just ate before I got here."

  "You don't have to tell me twice," Tanya replied, pulling the muffin back across the table. "Is everything alright? You usually only ask me to coffee if something's bothering you."

  Jocelyn felt her face go red. Was this true? It probably was. She didn't like Tanya Bell. She'd never invited the Bells for dinner. They weren't very likable.

  "Well, in honesty, no," Jocelyn said.

  "Just spit it out then. Holding things in wreaks havoc on your face. Yesterday I heard something about therapy being the best Botox any woman can afford."

  Jocelyn looked at Tanya Bell. If she were in therapy, the therapists should be fired.

  "Well, I know you get the same mass emails that I do each week about the kids and how they're doing."

  "I do. It's the highlight of my week. Every Tuesday, I leave yoga feeling like a million bucks only to get home, shower, and read one of those sweet emails."

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  How odd, Jocelyn thought. They were also the highlight of her week, but she found she couldn't do much other than shift around the house restlessly until the email arrived sometime between 8 am and 10 am. She couldn't imagine needing to shower before hearing about her child.

  "Well, this week they sent a photo. What did you think about it?"

  "It was adorable. I love how Kai's little eyes get all squinty when he smiles. You can't hide Asian, can you?"

  Jocelyn looked quickly over at the young mom to make sure she hadn't heard. The mom was fighting for her life while trying to tie her daughter's shoes.

  "Kai is Hawaiian," Jocelyn said.

  "Oh, I didn't realize," Tanya said. "He's such a cutie."

  Jocelyn began again, "The photo they sent of the kids is AI."

  "What?" Tanya said, her mouth full of muffin.

  "Get your phone out. Pull up the email."

  Tanya stuffed a large piece of the muffin in her mouth and began rummaging around in her purse for her phone. After a few seconds, it was clear that a dismantling of the contents of the purse would be necessary. Jocelyn hadn't expected to see a medicine cabinet's worth of pill bottles fill the empty space between them on the table.

  "Oh," Jocelyn said, involuntarily. It was hard not to glance at the labels. Tanya Bell was on the same beta blocker as her ex-husband. Or perhaps he'd stopped taking them. She wouldn't know anymore.

  "Got it," Tanya said.

  Jocelyn waited while the woman across the table, apparently full of a litany of medicines, scrolled through her phone.

  "Why do you think it's AI?" she said.

  "Look at Mia's hands," Jocelyn said.

  Tanya pinched the screen to enlarge the image.

  "What am I looking at?" she said.

  Jocelyn pursed her lips in frustration. "Her left hand is holding on to a metal bar, and her right one is wrapped around Sloan's shoulders, and she has a third hand here."

  Tanya squinted and then raised her eyebrows. "Where are Sloan's hands?" Tanya asked.

  "Right here," Jocelyn answered. "Where they should be."

  "Well, whose hand is that?" Tanya asked, pointing to the one hugging Mia's left hip.

  "Its AI, Tanya. Thats not a real picture."

  Tanya put the phone down and took a swig of her coffee. "Well, they probably couldn't find a time to get all the kids together in one picture, so they cropped two pictures together or something. I doubt half of those kids will ever talk to each other again after being forced on a spaceship for so long."

  "They could have sent more than one picture, Tanya. And look at this. Trevor is wearing the same shirt in this picture as he did in one of the first pictures they sent when they launched. I think they used that picture and maybe others to make this one."

  "Well, they don't have access to more clothes, honey. What did you think he'd be wearing?"

  "You're not listening to me," Jocelyn said. "That picture isn't real. It's not edited. It never happened. I think they're hiding stuff from us about the kids. Why can't Mia email me like she did on the way to Mars?"

  "I don't know, honey," Tanya said. "But its not worth getting this worked up over."

  "Please don't call me honey," Jocelyn said. "Or Josie. My name is Jocelyn, and I'm not getting worked up. You're an idiot if you think that's not AI."

  Tanya paused and looked around as if it were her turn to assess who was listening. "I can see this is scaring you," she said. "What are you afraid is happening to the kids?"

  Jocelyn, taken aback by Tanya Bell's maturity and logic, sat stunned. What was she afraid of? What could she say to get anyone else to believe her?

  "I think they're restricting our access to the kids. They're sending fake pictures, so how am I supposed to know what they put in the emails isn't false, too? How do we even know they're headed home, Tanya? Something is wrong."

  Tanya Bell sat still, her eyes focused on something or someone behind Jocelyn. It was hard to tell. Her thin, ringed fingers ran over her lips and down her chin, thoughtfully. Jocelyn wondered if she should say something.

  "He started calling me mama in his emails. The ones I got right before they left Mars. Trevor doesn't call me mama," Tanya said softly. "Not since he was little."

  "You think he's ok?" she asked, finally meeting Jocelyn's eyes. Her own full of concern.

  "I don't know," Jocelyn said. "I hope so."