I pretend to be angry at Axel, but I’m a different person than I was three years ago. He hurt me then. But now I have to play like it’s all fine and perfect, like he never hurt me in the first place.

For Lark.

That’s what I named her. She began a new chapter of my life, and she came into this world cooing and singing. She brightened my life like a song, and made my heart sing again. My precious baby. And now I have to do what is best for her. Maybe not what’s best for me, but for Lark.

He can’t get close like that again.

“Congratulations,” he mutters.

He never used to mutter. That’s how I know he doesn’t mean it.

I’m lying, and I’m pissed. How can he come back now, when everything’s going so well? Where was he before when I needed him so desperately? Doesn’t he know how much I needed him before?

I doubt it.

I purse my lips in a thin line like I used to when I was a kid, when all I had to worry about was stories and getting through the school day. Axel meant so much to me then. He changed my life, forever.

Sometimes I wonder if he ruined it.

No …

Shut up, Olive. He’s an old friend, but that’s it. He means nothing to you now. Less than nothing. In fact, you’re fucking pissed at him.

I move to the coffee table, where I pick up a mug and the remote control. The coffee inside is lukewarm but I bring it to my lips. Anything for an excuse not to talk to him. I focus on the grounds at the bottom of the mug instead of the wounded look on his face.

Jason never looks at me like that. Jason is emotional, but he’d never do anything to hurt me. Unlike Axel.

“Whatever,” I say into my drink, hearing it echo back to me. I doubt Axel hears anything. I set down the mug and glare at him. It probably looks like hate to him. Good. “I have to go get Lark.”

“Lark?” he questions, stupidly.

We’ve both changed over the years. He must have gotten slower.

I roll my eyes at him, making sure he can see it. “My daughter, stupid. She has to go to preschool.”

Never mind that he and I met in preschool. The same thing had better not happen to Lark. We’ll be moving around more than my family did, though. We’ve always been too stationary, at least for my taste. But maybe I feel that way because of how close I got to Axel …

I shake my head. “Stay where you are, and don’t break anything.”

I resist the urge to throw something at him, partly because I actually don’t want him here and partly in frustration that his lips aren’t crushing against mine. “And don’t you dare swear around my daughter.”

He looks like he’s about to say something—his lips part, but he refrains.

No longer the awkward, shy girl I once was, I turn on my heel. That Olive might be buried somewhere deep inside of me, but around Axel she isn’t coming out.

I leave him dumbfounded, and it kills the piece of me inside that screams for me to go back to him.

Lark should be out of her room by now. Sometimes, she struggles to get out of bed, though, or to put on her clothes. She is three, going on four. Maybe I should still be helping her. I love Lark so much, but every time I see her, I think of Axel.

And then it hits me like I’m the one that got slapped.

He still doesn’t know he is her father. Will he recognize himself in her the way I do?

I’m about to open the door, but it yawns open before I get there, and my little bundle of joy crashes through it. She’s wearing one of her favorite dresses, a frilly pink thing Selena bought her as a joke.

“Mommy,” her little voice interrupts.

I feel sick even thinking about Axel seeing her. I drop to my knees in an instant, brushing her lovely curls out of her face and scooping her in for a hug.

She needs a father. I know this. It’s why I’m engaged.

I feel Axel’s eyes on us, and it makes my skin prickle.

“Did you sleep well, darling? No bad dreams, I hope?”

“Nope!” She grins and I can’t help but smile at her. She’s my little ray of sunshine who makes everything so much better. “Do we have a visitor, Mommy?”

My expression clouds over.

I wrap my arms around her, bringing her to my chest. I’ll protect her from anything bad in the world, anything that could make her sad. I got together with Jason just after she was born. She has to think he’s her father. What else could she think?

“Are you ready to go to school, baby?” I kiss her forehead, ignoring her previous question.

She nods vigorously, and when we walk into the living room, there’s Axel staring at us. His eyes are deep and beautiful and filled with sorrow. My heart catches in my throat. I want to say something, but what?

“Where are my two favorite girls?” A deep voice booms down the hallway.

Jason strides through the foyer, throwing his arms around me as he stares down my first love. I lean into him, but it’s just an act.

Am I Jason’s? Or does my heart still belong to Axel?

I shouldn’t question this. Jason is the one who put that ring on my finger. He’s been taking care of me.

I sigh wistfully.

“You okay?” Jason asks me a question, but it’s all for show. He doesn’t want an answer. He presses his lips against mine softly, focusing more on Axel in the background than on me. He looks from Axel, to me, and then back again.

He remembers him. He must. “What’s he doing here?”

“Sure.” My words come out defensive. I hope Jason doesn’t notice. “I was just walking him out.”

It’s not a lie.

I leave Lark with Jason and grab Axel’s forearm, digging my nails into his flesh. I drag him toward the door and he follows. It hurts that he doesn’t resist. I half expected him to dig his heels in and demand I answer his questions.

I push him into the hallway. “Never call me again, Axel,” I say coldly.

And as I deliver the blow, I know it’s breaking my own heart more than his. Surely, it shouldn’t be this way …

“But, Olive,” he manages to get out. “Your little girl.”

“What?” I bark.

“Am I … is she …” He stares at me hopefully, his Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows, desperate for an answer.

“Don’t fucking fool yourself, Axel Reign,” I say, and immediately I can see how badly I’ve hurt him.

“What’s her name?” he wants to know.

I hesitate. But he deserves to know.

“Lark,” I whisper, before slamming the door in his face.

Selena clicks her seatbelt in the passenger seat as she slams the door closed. “I can’t believe you let Axel come over.”

“It was your idea!” I take the car out of park. She’s been talking about Axel nonstop like we’re in eleventh grade again. She had lots to say when she wanted to know about our date that night; she had even more to say when I was expecting. That I should tell him. Go to him. Get a little house by the sea and start a family with him. I did none of it, and I don’t say much now.

“Don’t you want to see him, Olive? Be with him again? You were obsessed with him for years,” Selena continues, ignoring my death grip on the steering wheel. “You had his baby. You want him. Admit it.”

I stop the car at a red light, gritting my teeth. I wonder if he’s still a boxer, if he still takes out his rage on punching bags when he’s upset. I’d love nothing more than to do that right now, maybe with him behind me, guiding my punches so I don’t hurt myself.

But then … The other half of me wants to use him as the bag.

“I’m getting married, Selena.” This needs to be the end of the conversation. Selena is my best friend. All I need to do is tell her to drop it and she’ll probably quit mentioning it.

But I don’t.

“Yeah, which, if you think about it,” Selena keeps talking, her injection-filled lips moving faster than most people imagined her mind could, “is a horrible idea.”

The light turns green, and I press the accelerator.

We’re almost there.

“We’re trying on dresses for a rehearsal, Selena! This is the end of it. Enough!” My voice rises and I feel bad for yelling at my friend, but I have to draw a line somewhere. Before I start considering the possibilities.

“Look. Dresses are nice and all, but Axel is better. Think about it. I’m not backing down from this, Olive, just consider it. You always preferred him to Jason anyway.”

I pull into the parking lot, find an empty space and turn off the car.

Throwing the door open, I emerge with as much enthusiasm as my bittersweet heart can muster. “Finally, we’re here.”

And before Selena can say anything more, I give her a look that warns we’ve ended the discussion on Axel.

“Be a good maid of honor and help me find something pretty.”