Three weeks after Daniel’s early morning call about counseling, nothing had changed except his promises had been forgotten and their physical relationship had resumed.
The counseling he’d mentioned so urgently at 6:47 AM was never brought up again. When Kassie had called him back that day after their line went dead, he’d been vague about what had happened—something about his phone dying, work calling, needing to handle something urgent. The focused determination she’d heard in his voice that morning had evaporated, replaced by the same careful distance that had characterized all his interactions with Emma.
Now, by late April, Daniel’s visits had settled into a frustrating pattern. He would show up unannounced—sometimes three times in one week, sometimes not for ten days—but when he did c
