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The broach was meant to seal in all the happiness. And it had worked, her mother had said. She’d never known a moment of unhappiness since she started wearing it, and despite being terminally ill, her gracious smile never wavered. The look of love and happiness when she looked at her family never dimmed.
Harper had convinced herself that once she received her mother’s broach, it would automatically take away her need to continually shop because her mother’s unique take on life, her happiness, and her contentment, would become Harper’s.
That was the light at the end of the tunnel for her. She didn’t tell anyone about it, it was a private thing between her and her mother.
She believed it so wholeheartedly, that she started a countdown calendar which marked the day she finally became better, happier, more like her mother whose equanimity even when life threw daggers at her, was beyond reproach.
Her mother’s broach would have the power to considerably lessen Harper’s constant grief nearly eight years after her death. It was all Harper lived for.
Now she had no choice but to follow her father’s orders and book herself into the retreat for shopaholics even though she knew nothing could cure her until she received her mother’s broach.
Innately, she knew an object, no matter how sentimental didn’t have the power to transform her life, which was the sole reason she told no one about the broach, but the thought made her sleep at night, so was it really such a bad thing?
So here she was, on her way to a rehabilitation center for her affliction and the stupid thing was so far removed from all civilization, she couldn’t put it in her GPS if she tried.
No, the facility could only be found using a map. An actual honest-to-goodness freaking map. She wondered if her father thought the further in no man’s land the therapy center the better chance of her being cured.
She lifted the large bland-colored sheet of paper and gave the map a proper glare before she chucked it back down onto the passenger seat beside her.
Her father had further highlighted her route with a marker but all the trees flanking both sides of the road looked the same. Bottom line she couldn’t tell the retreat from the trees, and she had been driving forever now. Surely, she should be nearing her destination.
She leaned forward, looked at the sky, and shivered. The air-con had already been set to maximum, but she was sure the temperature had dropped exponentially.
She’d give up a pair of shoes to be in the comfort of her own bedroom, snug in her fashionable onesie, sipping an Amara hot chocolate.
She had never driven this far away from the Hamptons and certainly not this far out of the city and she wondered if she was still in New York, or what.
Oh why did the place have to be in the middle of nowhere?
An ominous feeling crept up her spine. Was she lost? She hadn’t passed another car in over an hour, maybe two. She picked up her cell phone and true alarm set in when she had no signal.
Oh fuck balls.
While the road ahead was reasonably visible, layers and layers of thick snow seemed to have fallen before and covered the sides of the road now. But the further she drove the denser the snow covering became.
She slowed down and strained her eyes ahead. Wait. Was that a concrete barrier blocking the road ahead?
Oh no.
She stopped the car and cursed everythingand their father, mostly her own father for putting her in this situation. She climbed out and trembling uncontrollably stared at the concrete barrier preventing her from going any further.
Great. Just great.
She must have taken a completely wrong turn if she reached a dead end, literally, and this put her squarely in lost territory.
But that didn’t feel right. She had followed the map precisely, hadn’t she? There were no turns she had to take, so how did she end up here? Maybe the retreat didn’t exist anymore, which meant she had tried and that showed good faith so now she could come back home again.
For the fear of her lips turning blue or some wild animal leaping out from the woods on either side of her and mauling her prettily scented body, she raced back into her car.
Just as she was about to reverse out of there, so she could backtrack her route, the car made a loudclackety-clacksound and then again and again.
It was a brand-new car for goodness sake. Her father had bought it for her six months ago. Not knowing what was wrong she pulled onto the side of the road, pulled the key from the ignition, and stepped out.
She couldn’t believe her eyes. She had a flat and no knowledge of how to change it.
She reached inside the car for her phone once more and sobbed when she still had no signal. Hating every minute of it, she started walking up and down the road, raising her cell above her head in the hopes of getting enough signal so she could call her dad and tell him his map had gotten her lost and she had a flat.
He needed to send help.
