She opened her front door, walked inside, and slid to the floor with her back against the door.

How could he have done this to her?

She’d given so much of herself to Max. She’d thought he understood her. She’d thought he knew just how hard it was to deal with the public part of his life, how much of a compromise it was for her to even come to events like this for him, to be in public with him, to let him tell the world they were together. But he obviously didn’t understand at all, or else he never would have done what he did tonight. He never would have looked to her in that room, full of the press and his staff and so many people, and tried to get her to talk about one of the hardest moments of her life, one she’d spent years trying to get over, one she’d long ago forgiven herself for, but she knew the rest of the world wouldn’t. How could he have done that?

She curled her knees up to her chest and let the tears that had pricked her eyelids for the last hour finally flow.

Where the fuck did she go? Max fumed in the back seat of his car as Andy drove him home.

After the town hall ended, Max had been busy shaking hands and taking selfies and talking to community members and staff from the center, but he’d looked around for Olivia over and over again. He hadn’t seen her anywhere, but he’d just assumed she was hidden behind the crowd, or talking to someone else, or waiting for him in the greenroom. But when he’d made it back there, no one on his staff seemed to know where she was.

He wouldn’t be quite so worried about this if it hadn’t been for the look on her face the last time they’d made eye contact. That kid had asked the perfect question to allow Olivia to finally easily address everything in an optimal, press-friendly way—it couldn’t have been better if the question were planted! Max had looked to her gratefully so she could stand up and briefly talk about her background, how she’d succeeded, and give the kid advice for his future. She’d seemed to want to be an example for kids who had gone through what she had. But instead she’d just stared back at him with that look of stone on her face. He hadn’t understood at first, so he kept looking back at her, but she’d just looked angrier and angrier.