MOVIES HAVE A FORMULA. A THREE-ACT STRUCTURE. A RESOLUTION. LIFE ISN’T like that. Life doesn’t fit into pretty boxes, it doesn’t look like an outline, it doesn’t work that way.

Life would make a terrible movie.

Awful.

Box office trash.

No bonuses.

None.

The summer is over. My screenplay is finished. And I’m on my way back to LA. This was what was supposed to happen, I tell myself. This was the best-case scenario.

So why do I feel like I’ve lost everything?

Penelope picks me up at the airport. In the car, I tell her everything. She pulls into a parking lot, and I collapse into her, gasping, sobbing.

“I loved him,” I tell her, in between sobs. I say it in the past tense, like I won’t love him for the rest of my life. “I really loved him.”

“I know,” she says, smoothing my hair down. “I know you did.”

The studio executives offer me a three-movie deal. They love my script. Filming begins in the fall. “They’ll use CGI to make it look like summer,” Sarah assures me. I’m invited on set. I refuse. Going back to each of those locations, going back to the city, would be too painful.

I throw myself into writing. Pain produces script after script. Cali puts her apartment on the market.

The city is bad for the baby.

I spend the holidays with her, little Isabella, and Pierre in Switzerland, before they leave to spend time with our father.

Gwen is getting her MBA at the London School of Economics and invites us all to visit her. We do. Penelope has a brief and predictable fling with a thirty-something professor there.

Every few months, there’s a new headline.

“Atomic Drops Virion Deal—Parker Warren to Remain as CEO of the Growing Tech Company.”

Then: “Atomic Goes Public,” accompanied by a photo of Parker ringing the bell. He’s smiling, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. They don’t crinkle at all.

Finally: “Billionaire Bachelor No Longer Billionaire: Tech Genius Gives Most of His Wealth to Charity.”

Penelope slaps that newspaper on my desk.

I look up at her. “So?”

“So? That man literally gave all his money away for you.”

I roll my eyes. “He has plenty of money left.” With interest rates, honestly, he’ll probably have to fight not to be a billionaire on a regular basis, if it’s that important to him. “And he didn’t do it for me. He did it because he thinks it’s the right thing to do.”

Penelope looks exasperated. “I don’t understand. You’re miserable, Elle. You love him.”

“He’s the CEO of a massive tech company with thousands of employees. He’ll always have more money, more power. He’ll diminish me. Next to him, I’ll always be no one. Everyone will think I’m some trophy wife, none of my accomplishments will ever matter.”

“I don’t think that’s true, Elle, I—”

“My mom would hate him.”

Penelope frowns. “Elle, your mom would want you to be happy,” she says.

“I am happy,” I say, a little too defensively.

She looks unconvinced. “I don’t get you. Why are you so obsessed with money?”

I rear back. “Obsessed with money? If anyone is obsessed, it’s him.”

She shakes her head. “You are more obsessed with money than anyone I’ve ever met. And you are letting the love of your life get away because of it.”

My eyes sting.

She’s right.

But I don’t know how to fix it.