Tears filled Kelly’s eyes as her future flashed before her. A world of pain. The house she loved carved down the middle. Milly would go with her, but she would be a reminder of Daniel, Daddy’s little princess. How had she come to this point? She was married to a marriage counselor, for crying out loud! How on earth could this happen with everything Daniel knew? With the advice he gave to everyone else?

“I need to confront him, but what’s the point? He’s denied everything so far, so I need evidence.”

The front door flew open, and Daniel staggered into the foyer.

“Gotta go. Daniel’s home.”

“Good luck. And don’t forget to be strong—”

Kelly scrambled to sit up as she cut the call. “What happened? Are you okay?”

Daniel stared right through her. “Um, yeah, okay, I guess—”

“I need to talk to you about work, but you look like you need to talk more than me.”

Daniel stared over her into the kitchen, his eyes glazed as he frowned and blinked, blinked and frowned. “I don’t even—”

He snapped out of it and fixed a gaze on Kelly. “What do you need to talk about?”

Kelly reeled at the sharp change in direction. She couldn’t just jump in and talk about quitting her job. She had to lead up to it.

“These news stories about Mendacium won’t go away. Children are now in the hospital in agony with headaches my product has probably caused. I can’t keep going if children will suffer after I’ve told their doctors they’ll be fine.”

“Can you confirm the side effects are real?”

“I’ve tried, but instead of answers I get motivation.”

A slow nod from Daniel. “So there are side effects.”

“Almost certainly.” Kelly took a deep breath and plunged into the deep end of the conversational pool. “I need to think about whether I quit. I can’t be part of this.” Kelly studied Daniel’s eyebrows. They remained unknotted. Hallelujah.

Daniel sat down on the edge of the sofa. “I don’t want you to do this long term if it will keep you awake at night.”

An old connection flickered to life. They were on the same page after months of not even being in the same story. “We’ll need to rearrange a few things—maybe sell my car, reduce the budget—but it’s only for a few months until your next book comes out.”

Knots rippled in Daniel’s jaw, and he strode to the kitchen, the distance between them yawning back into place. “It may be longer than that.”

Kelly reeled as their disconnection yawned back into place. “Why is it taking so long?”

Daniel spun on his heel, his raised voice making her jump. “Because it is! It’s not so easy to come up with another book.”