Chapter 15

• Inside the house she’d shared with her husband for the last six years, Olivia stared at the closed door in front of her. There’d been a time when she’d spent some time in the room behind that door nearly every day. Whether it was waiting on her daddy to come to punish her or just taking some time to decompress, this had been her safe place.
• For the first time in weeks, she reached for the knob and turned. The door swung open, and her eyes filled at the sight of the familiar room. At her request, the walls had been painted a lovely pale green—her favorite color. The antique four-poster bed she’d picked out herself still stood against the middle of the far wall, with one lonely stuffed hippo sitting between the fluffy peach-colored pillows.
• If anyone had poked their head into the room over the years, they would have seen a rather fussy, feminine spare room, but little more. She hadn’t wanted a nursery, or even a playroom. What she’d wanted—and been given—was simply a space to unwind and be herself when life started to weigh too heavily on her.