Falling to Pieces by Denise Grover Swank

sad, Aunt Rose?” Ashley asked, staring at me with large round eyes.
    She caught me by surprise, and I fumbled with what to tell her. “Because Joe went away, and I don’t know when I’ll see him again.”
    “Are you and Joe getting a divorce like Momma and Daddy?”
    “Oh.” I gasped at her bluntness. “Yeah. I guess it’s kind of like a divorce.”
    She threw her arms around my neck, her sweet scent of strawberry shampoo filling my nose. “I miss my Daddy, but I still get to see him. Maybe you can still see Joe.”
    I kissed her temple, wishing it were that simple. As far as I knew, I’d never see Joe again. The pain accompanying that thought was crippling.
    The rest of the night was a blur as I went through the motions of eating dinner and helping Ashley with her kindergarten homework. I offered to give the kids a bath, happy for the distraction. Violet folded laundry, then disappeared into her room and closed the door for ten minutes. I glanced at it as I carried Mikey into his room to put on his diaper and pajamas.
    “She hides in there sometimes,” Ashley murmured when she saw me staring at the door. “She’s talking to her friend.”
    My brow lowered. I had a feeling I knew who her friend was. “Do you tell your daddy that your mommy talks to a friend?”
    Her head bobbed up and down. “He asks me when I visit him.”
    My anger rose and I tried to squash it down so Ashley didn’t see it. One, I was angry with Mike for questioning his five-year-old daughter about his wife’s behavior, but I was more angry with Violet because I knew who she was talking to. She’d told me the night before that she’d cut things off with Brody since Mike suspected she’d had an affair. Now it looked like she lied.
    But I told myself that she could be talking to anyone about anything. She might have shut the door because she was talking about me. But I knew she wasn’t.
    The guilt on her face gave her away when she emerged from her room and stood in the bathroom doorway as I helped Mikey brush his teeth. “Ash and Mikey, tell Aunt Rose thank you for helping you get ready for bed.”
    “Thank you, Aunt Rose,” Ashley said, hugging my leg.
    Violet tucked her children into bed and I turned my back and left the room, tears stinging my eyes again. Less than a week ago, Joe and I had talked about children. Now that dream was gone too.
    He’d left me less than twelve hours ago, but I missed him with an ache that consumed me. I grabbed my cell phone out of my purse, desperate to talk to him, my heart leaping when I saw that I had a text. But I stared at the lone message on my screen, my hope fading. The message was from Mason.
     
    You are stronger than you think.
     
    Was I? I’d survived so much in the last few months, but I’d had Joe by my side to help me. Now he was gone.
    I covered my mouth to quiet my sob. Violet found me on the back deck minutes later, my shoulders shaking from my tears. She sat next to me and wrapped an arm around my back and pulled my head to her chest. I sank into her and cried, my anger at her fading as the familiarity of the past rushed back in. Violet had been the one to hold me after Momma’s many punishments when I was little, often rocking me to sleep. Despite her many faults, Violet loved me. She’d been there for me years ago when no one else had. And she was here now.
    Just like old times.

 
     
     
Joe

 
     
     
Chapter Eight
     
     
    By the time I’d pulled into the parking lot of the campaign headquarters, I’d gotten myself together as best I could. I walked into the strip mall office at 10:59 still wearing my sunglasses to hide my bloodshot eyes. My head aching as though someone had taken a baseball bat to it. Four eager college-aged kids—all of whom I was sure were handpicked by my father—sat at metal desks in the center of the room, looking up from their laptops as I walked past to the round tables at the back of the room. A Joe Simmons for Arkansas Senate vinyl