Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 94639 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94639 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
“I would turn all your notifications off.” She nods toward my phone, which is lighting up like crazy.
As I’m doing what she says, a text from Landon pops up. There are three pictures. The first one is Ella sleeping in her bed, the second is Hunter playing video games in his bean bag chair, and the third is a selfie of Landon. Under his picture, he wrote: See? Everything is okay. Love you and miss you.
“See?” she says, nosily reading Landon’s text. “He loves and misses you.”
After I finish turning off all my notifications, and my phone is no longer lighting up repeatedly, I vow not to go on social media anymore so I won’t see any of that crap. Then I text Landon back, telling him I love and miss him too and thank him for staying with the kids and for paying for my weekend.
The rest of the weekend flies by way too quickly. We spend Sunday lounging on the beach and by the pool. And then after we have one last dinner in the resort restaurant, we head home. Since Bridget drove, she drops Calliope off first and then me. When she pulls into my driveway, I’m stunned to see Richard’s Mercedes in the driveway.
“Oh, boy,” Bridget says, recognizing his car parked next to Landon’s.
“I better get in there,” I tell her. Leaning over, I give her a hug. “Thank you for this weekend. I had a wonderful time.”
“Of course! Call or text me later and let me know everyone is alive.”
“Will do.”
I grab my luggage from her trunk and as I’m rolling it up the drive, the front door swings open with Richard storming from the house with Ella trailing behind him.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
Ella pops her head around Richard and says, “Daddy said I have to go home with him,” with a pout.
“Your son refused to go,” Richard fumes. “I’ve had about enough of his shit.”
“Ella, sweetie, can you go inside while Daddy and I talk for a moment?”
“No, get in the car,” Richard says.
Ella looks between him and me, torn between who she should listen to, and my heart breaks for her. It shouldn’t be like this. Our children shouldn’t have to choose sides. They didn’t ask for their parents to get divorced, and I only have myself to blame for all this. I set it all into motion the day I agreed to marry him, even though I knew we didn’t love each other. I shouldn’t have allowed him to trap me into a loveless marriage simply because I was pregnant. I was so worried about trying to do the right thing for my baby, I didn’t think about the fact that the right thing isn’t always so black and white. If I could go back in time, I would tell myself that it’s okay to be a single mom. I could be a good, loving mother without being married to the father. Being forced into a loveless marriage only showed the kids what not to do. They didn’t grow up seeing their parents hugging and kissing and laughing and loving each other. And that’s my fault.
“Richard, can we please not do this?” I say, begging him with my eyes not to put our daughter through this.
He stares at me for a long moment before he sighs. “Fine, Ella, go back inside.”
She turns and runs back into the house, leaving the two of us alone.
“You can’t barge into my home and yank the kids out because you don’t like the man I’m dating,” I tell him. “It’s not right, and it’s not good for the kids to see that and be put in the middle. I never did what you just did to any of the women you’ve brought around.”
Richard steps closer to me. “Well, maybe you should’ve so I would’ve seen how stupid I was being. I miss you and the kids, Harper. I miss my family.” His eyes lock with mine. I wish I could agree with him, so we could give our kids both of their parents under one roof, but I can’t.
“You miss the illusion,” I tell him softly, not wanting to start a war.
“I want you back,” he says, ignoring my remark. “I want my family back.”
“That’s not going to happen,” I tell him honestly.
“We’ll see.” He steps back. “I took tomorrow off, so I would like to take the kids tonight to make up for missing my weekend. I’ll drop them off and pick them up from camp.”
“Okay.” I nod. “I’ll go tell them.”
“Hunter won’t listen.”
“I’ll talk to him.”
After speaking to Hunter and explaining his father wants to spend time with him, he reluctantly agrees to go. I give them each a kiss goodbye and then walk them to the car, giving them one last hug with the promise to see them Tuesday when I pick them up from camp.