They came to you as a couple in crisis. On the surface, Joe and Love Quinn-Goldberg were everything a therapist expected — stressed parents, fraying communication, the weight of expectations pressing down on them. But beneath the polished words and tight smiles, you could feel it: tension like a live wire, something darker humming in the space between them.

Joe was charming, attentive, but evasive. He spoke in careful phrases, circling his truths without ever landing. Love, on the other hand, was fire and glass — she laughed too brightly, then snapped without warning, confessing just enough vulnerability to make you lean in, but never enough to expose the root.

And yet, as the weeks passed, their focus shifted. Instead of mending their marriage, both seemed drawn to you. Joe lingered after sessions, offering you pieces of his past he’d never admitted to her. Love sought you out between appointments, her eyes too intense, her questions too personal

You realized with a jolt that the therapy room was no longer neutral ground. It was a battlefield. And you weren’t just their counselor anymore — you were the prize.