“You think I’m just going to let it all go? That you get to live your life being whole and healthy while my son wheels himself around in a chair because of you?”

“You can hate me all you want,” he said. “You can give me dirty looks whenever we pull up to the same intersection like you did the other day. You can say whatever you want about me, scream at me, hit me. Do anything you want to me. Just, please, think about what you’re doing to your own family.”

“How dare you come in here and try to make me feel as if I’m the one who’s done something wrong,” she said, but he lifted a hand before she could continue.

“Where do you think all this hate will lead? You’ll destroy your own children with it if you’re not careful,” he said and walked out.

Harper spent the next four days completely focused on her girls, when they were home from school, and Axel, who, once he found out about her failed date with Tobias, sensed an opportunity to improve his position and apologized for “overreacting” and sending those upsetting texts. Harper could tell he sensed victory close at hand, because he began to call and text even more, and to send her funny memes and inside jokes. His mother called to say she’d talked to her son and was excited to hear that they were “considering working things out.” Rory and Gary, the lead guitarist in the band, had each thanked her for saving the tour. And the band’s manager was so grateful that Axel had calmed down he’d sent a flower arrangement only slightly less elaborate and expensive than the daily bouquets she’d begun to receive from Axel.

We can make this work.

We belong together.

Don’t give up on us, babe.

That was what each of the cards had said so far—all of them sweet and sentimental and encouraging. He was finally treating her as though she mattered to him, as though he was grateful for her and eager to see her again.

Harper should have been over the moon. If they got back together, she wouldn’t have to feel like a failure in the most important area of her life. Her children deserved to have their father back. She wanted that for them more than anything else. Plus, she’d be able to show the press, who’d been so eager to announce the news about her troubled marriage, and the many trolls on social media, who’d been absolutely cruel in expressing their glee over the split, that they shouldn’t count her out yet. Vindication would be sweet.

She’d be getting everything she wanted—at least what she’d wanted just two weeks ago—and yet…she wasn’t as happy as she thought she should be.

None of it felt right.