“I wish I could, but it doesn’t make sense to keep flying back and forth. The travel is killing me. You know how anxious I get on a plane. I had to take a Xanax just to make it over here.”

It was difficult to feel any empathy. She was too numb—and when the numbness receded, which occasionally it did, she was hit with such agonizing pain she was grateful when the numbness returned. “I’ll tell them that…that you’ll be back as soon as you can.”

“I appreciate it. Listen, I’m transferring some money into your account. Can you get them Christmas presents from me?”

She stared at her reflection in the mirror above the dresser—the dark circles under her eyes, the haggard, almost-gaunt look that was beginning to creep into her face. “What would you like me to get them?”

“Whatever they’re asking for.”

He didn’t even know what they wanted, didn’t seem to particularly care. “Okay…”

“Oh, and my mother would like to see the girls. She just asked me when you’d be back in Colorado.”

So he’d called his mother first? Harper knew his mother wasn’t thrilled about the divorce, either, but maybe she was a better actor. “I don’t know yet.”

“Well, can you give her a call? Let her talk to the girls for a few minutes, at least? I don’t think she expected you to be gone for quite so long.”

“Of course,” she managed to say.

Karoline knocked on her door. “Harper? What’s taking you so long? We’re almost finished eating.”

“Be right there!” she called out. Then she told Axel, “I have to go.” She wasn’t sure she could tolerate much more of the conversation. She felt like a dam holding back an entire reservoir of feeling—a dam that had little cracks and fissures that were threatening the entire structure. If she wasn’t careful, she’d break into a million tiny pieces, releasing a flood of hurt, anger and recrimination.

Even so, she thought of Piper and Everly before she let him go. She knew how disappointed they’d be if he called and they didn’t have a chance to talk to him. “Or…if you’ve got a minute, I’ll go get the girls.”

“Not now,” he said. “I’ll have to call later. I’m late for a meeting with our social media coordinator.”

Biting back what immediately came to her lips—that surely his social media coordinator wasn’t more important than his children—she managed a “No problem.” This wasn’t the man she’d married, she told herself. That man had always put his family first. This was some preoccupied stranger who didn’t seem to know them very well, let alone care.

Karoline knocked again, then opened the door. “Harper?”