Tobias wished he could shut everyone out, get her to look at him, to believe him. But he couldn’t get her to listen. Her family was rallying around her, trying to protect her and creating so much insulation that nothing he said could get through.

“Just go.” Karoline, whose husband was standing next to her for support, had already grabbed hold of Harper and pulled her under the shelter of one arm. “Leave. What’s happened is bad enough. Please, don’t make it any worse.”

He looked at Harper, tried one last time to get her to listen, but Axel was waving the bat, and Tobias knew he’d only look worse if he took it away from him. “I was going to tell you,” he repeated lamely.

Harper didn’t get a chance to respond before Axel yelled, “Do you really think a guy like you could ever make someone like her happy? Look at her, man. She’s so far out of your league it isn’t even funny. And there’s no way in hell I will ever allow you to be around my children.”

Tobias had thought Harper was too good for him all along. How had he convinced himself that he might have a chance with her?

“Do you think, after what you’ve done, you could ever deserve someone like her?” Axel persisted.

Finally, Tobias grabbed the bat, wrenched it away and tossed it aside, just so that they would all know the threat of it had nothing to do with his leaving. “You’ve made your point,” he said, got in his truck and drove off.

In his rearview mirror, he saw Harper bury her face in her sister’s shoulder and start to sob.

Harper’s eyes were still blurry with sleep when she stumbled into the kitchen to get a glass of water. “What’s this?” she asked when she saw something silver sitting on the island.

Terrance, who was the only other person up, turned from where he was scrambling eggs at the stove to see what Harper was talking about. “A watch of some sort,” he replied. “I found it behind the pillar on the front porch this morning when I went out to get the paper. I was surprised. Looks expensive.”

As soon as Harper picked it up she realized it was the watch she’d given Tobias. He must’ve brought it back and put it behind the pillar to keep it safe until she could stumble across it. Except she hadn’t left the house. For the past three days she’d been pretending to be sick so that Karoline, Terrance and the girls wouldn’t question why she could scarcely drag herself out of bed. Karoline and Terrance probably guessed the truth, but at least they hadn’t pressed her.

“There’s nothing on the security app on your phone?” she said.