The bad boy's wife

the long version

"When they were young, they lived only for each other. How could things go so wrong? Cole Jackson, a gorgeous ne'er-do-well horse trainer, shocks everyone when he proposes to Hannah Baker, the daughter of a wealthy Southern family. When Cole leaves her, after a twenty-year marriage filled with infidelity and other secrets, it comes as a shock to no one but Hannah. Now, though, there are no longer just the two of them to suffer the consequences of their actions: caught in the middle is Mattie, the child who was supposed to settle them down and make them better people, the child who still might be their only chance at saving themselves from each other." "This is the story of a relationship and marriage told in reverse, from its fateful end to its magical beginning. Can a husband, a wife, and their ten-year-old daughter pick up the pieces of a broken past and dare to expect something from the future? In the tradition of books like The Horse Whisperer and Cowboys Are My Weakness, Karen Shepard deals with issues of broken trust and damage we cause to the ones we love most."--BOOK JACKET.