Anna walked home from Vronsky’s house in a daze. She was beside herself and had no idea what to do about it. How did life get to be so complicated? And how did it happen so fast? The last few days were a nightmare, but things had been insane for months now.

Anna heard a familiar jingle and turned to see a Mister Softee truck parked up ahead. Breaking into what was probably her first smile in days, she quickened her step and went to get a cherry-dipped cone. She and Steven were obsessed with Mister Softee as kids and even put together a business plan for their father, called “Why We Need an Ice Cream Truck, and How to Get One!”

Anna sat on a bench and took a picture of her half-eaten cone and texted it to Steven with the message: I wish we were little kids again! Life was so much easier! She watched as bubbles appeared and then her brother’s text came in: Where Are You? She texted back that she was wandering around aimlessly through Central Park. Come home, he texted.

When Anna entered the apartment, Steven was waiting for her and without even saying hi, she beelined right toward him, clutched her brother, and cried. Steven hugged her back and told her everything would be okay. “Everything is a mess,” she said, wiping away her tears. “I don’t know who I am anymore.”

“Welcome to my world,” her brother replied. “Maybe we should go see a Marvel movie.”

“Which one?” she asked.

“I don’t know, but there’s always one playing somewhere.”

Then Anna’s mother came home and told Steven she needed to speak with Anna alone. Anna shook her head and said that anything her mother had to say, Steven could hear, too.

Anna’s mother reluctantly agreed, then started to speak, telling them she had received a call from Anna’s school that Anna had skipped classes and that her normally perfect grades had plummeted in recent weeks. Without giving her daughter a chance to respond, she continued that she had also heard the rumors about Anna and Vronsky and Alexander and demanded to know what was going on. Anna told her mother what had been happening, leaving out the sex stuff, and admitted she was absolutely in over her head and honestly didn’t know what she should do.

“Well, I do,” Anna’s mom replied curtly. “You’re going to stop wasting your time with that Vronsky kid and beg Alexander to forgive you. Really Anna, I don’t know exactly what went on and I don’t want to know, but I’m very disappointed in your actions. Alexander has been so good to you and he deserves far better than he got. I just hope your father doesn’t hear about it; he’d be crushed to know his precious daughter isn’t everything he thought she was.”