Funny how one minute you felt on top of the world, and then the next the depths of despair. Jack had broken down those walls I’d erected around my heart. Not that I’d put up much of a fight. The man swooped into my life like an eagle catching its prey and stayed there. And now, against my better judgment, I wanted him back.

It was impossible. I knew that. For weeks, the man had kept his family a secret. Keeping his daughter’s existence from me was bad enough, but he out and out lied to me about her belongings being his niece’s.

I should have listened to that niggle inside of me when I wondered why his niece kept boots, shoes, and toys at his place. Geez, I was stupid. It never even occurred to me that he had a kid. That’s probably why he offered to stay at my crappy apartment instead of his luxury penthouse.

“Ugghh,” I mumbled and grabbed my head in frustration. How did I not see it? And a wife? All those nights he had to “work” late, was he with her? The thought of him with another woman made me want to barf. How could he do something like that?

The constant loop of questions going through my brain was exhausting. Somehow, I managed to make it into work every day, but that was about it. As soon as I got home, the couch and the bed were my hideaways. Hours and hours of thinking and what-ifs plagued me. What if I hadn’t gone home with him that first night? What if I had told the girls I didn’t want to go out to the club in the first place? I could have avoided all of this bullshit.

With Jack’s texts and calls, I felt like I had two stalkers instead of one. The difference was that Jack’s texts made me cry and caused my heart to break all over again. That didn’t seem conducive to getting over someone, so I blocked him. The irony of me blocking Jack on the phone he bought me because of a stalker was not lost on me. Still, it had to be done.

We were done. His constant requests to talk and work it out were senseless. If you couldn’t trust the person you were with, there was nothing left in that relationship to save. No amount of talking was going to change anything.

My girls had been a constant support for me the last few weeks. Audrey, Riley, and Vivienne all thought I should hear him out, but a face-to-face with the man who had hurt me so much seemed more like torture than anything else.

Surprisingly, all Roza, my neighbor, said was, “Harper, everyone has demons. You never know things that happened in somebody’s life ’til they tell you. Give him benefit of doubt and talk to him.” Roza’s Czech accent was strong, but she spoke in a gentler tone than usual.

Needless to say, I didn’t listen to any of my friends. I also managed to dodge my parents and my sister, Charlie. No doubt they probably guessed something was going on, but mercifully, other than a few quick texts, they left me alone.

I hadn’t seen or heard from Gabe since that night at the police station. It certainly was an eye-opener, though. The anxiety that filled me every time I left my job, home, or even the grocery store was exhausting. Always on the lookout for the crazy person. And man, was he crazy.

The one thing that surprised me the most was how the loneliness crept in. Little things would happen during the day, and I would think, I need to tell Jack. Then the reality would slam back in—that I’d never tell Jack anything again. Ever.