She looked across to the sparkling glass and gleaming silver of her expansive kitchen. These memories didn’t take place there. All her happiness had taken place somewhere else, somewhen else. Not now. Not here. Here was defined more and more by awkward silences, unfulfilled dreams, and Milly’s refusal to come out of her room.

She had to be honest with Daniel.

Leaving might put some distance between her and the pain of the present, but it wouldn’t return her to those times—times she would revisit in a heartbeat. And she didn’t want to leave. She had cried over coffee with Jasmine about the breakdown of her marriage and her family. Still, it was not a place she wanted to be. The thought of leaving had toyed with her in moments of frustration with her husband but had taken root when the first seeds of suspicion were planted. They were watered by the realization that the distance between them wasn’t busyness, that there might be more to it. When she felt the best way to win a debate with Daniel was to hold an unspoken one in her own head.

But still the suspicion clung to her—unless she was clinging to it.

Maybe Jasmine was right; she should just threaten to leave. But Simon’s point jabbed into her conscience. If she expected Daniel to be honest with her, she had to be honest with him—and with herself.

She just had to pick the right moment to talk to Daniel.

Her phone rang. Kelly looked across at the screen, hoping it wasn’t her husband. Not now, in the middle of these unordered thoughts. A sinking feeling grew in the pit of her stomach. The phone number was Milly’s school.

“Mrs. Whiteley, Nicholas Rhodes from St. Arcadia’s Academy. How are you?”

Milly’s principal. Kelly pumped energy into her end of the conversation to fight a rising dread. “Fine, thank you.”

“Mrs. Whiteley—Kelly—I don’t like making calls like this, but it’s an important one to make. We have identified your daughter as being at risk. Milly blurted to her teacher that things are so bad at home she’ll need to do something drastic to get your attention.”

Kelly jammed her eyes shut, horrified. At risk was bad enough. Your daughter made it so much worse.

“It’s in Milly’s best interest for you to come in and talk with us.”

Kelly fought hard to lasso her stampeding breathing. “Anything to help Milly talk would be good.”

The principal gave a light chuckle. “Of course, I don’t need to tell your husband that. We have counselors here, but if you’d prefer to have that conversation with someone away from our school, I’m sure your husband knows someone who can help.”

He did. Anna. But Kelly would not outsource mothering her daughter to Daniel’s work-wife.