Forever After (Unrestrained 5)

Lara shook her head and gave me a hard glance. “Nope. It’s entirely factual, aside from a few titillating bits of speculation.”

I sighed. “Should I put out a response?”

“No,” she said. “If you’re contacted, give the canned response, like I suggested. If you want, I can write something up for you. In this case, less is more. Keep it simple. Keep it consistent. It’ll blow over. If it doesn’t, we’ll deal with it.”

I nodded. “Okay.”

Then Lara turned to me and held my eye. “So, what did Kate tell you?”

I shrugged. “Just that you were there to help her while the police visited. Thanks, by the way.”

“No problem,” Lara said. “What else did she tell you?”

I frowned. “Other than telling her about the email, they asked a few questions about what she knew about Lisa being in the NYU residency and when she knew it. The same questions they asked before. She thought they were trying to see if her story was consistent. Maybe check out our place. See if there was a hidden dungeon.”

“That’s about it. Did Kate tell you anything else?”

I frowned at the tone of Lara’s voice. It was suggestive – of what I didn’t know.

“About what?”

“How she's doing.”

I leaned back and considered. “How she's doing?” I thought for a moment. “She’s doing as well as can be expected, given she was almost murdered by a jealous ex-sex-partner of mine whose face I never actually saw without a mask on. That she had an emergency C-section, lost her ability to have more children, and has a preemie to look after. Why do you ask?”

“Did she tell you that she’s sad and depressed all the time? That she cries when she’s alone?”

A surge of adrenaline went through me. “What?” I said, my body tensing. “She told you that?”

Lara nodded. “She cried on my shoulder. Said that she felt sad all the time. That she was always tired. That she didn’t want to tell you because you had enough going on and she didn’t want to burden you with it. I made her promise to tell y

ou. I told her that if she didn’t, I’d be talking to you myself.”

I closed my eyes and rubbed my forehead. “Oh, God,” I said, my throat choking with emotion. I looked back at Lara. “I knew she was having problems sleeping. She’s very emotional, but she’s never cried in front of me…” Then I remembered how she’d gone from laughter to tears in a few seconds flat when I fell outside the bathroom. I shook my head, knocking myself on the temple with my fist.

“Dammit all,” I said. “She did cry last night. We had a laughing fit and she went from hysterical laughter to tears. I asked her how she was, but she never said anything.”

Lara sighed. “She’s probably thinking about the emails and the article and figured that you had enough to worry about. At least now you know.”

I looked in Lara’s eyes. “Thank you for telling me. Seriously, I’ve been watching her for signs of postpartum depression but it’s hard for me to know what’s normal for a new mother versus what’s serious. I’ll have to speak with her, maybe get her some extra help and counseling. I’ve been there almost all the time to help with Sophie, but there’s some things she must do – like nurse Sophie. I get up in the middle of the night to give her a bottle of expressed milk so Kate can sleep. I bathe her every other day, so Kate gets a break. I change her…”

“Drake, it’s not your fault. It’s post-traumatic stress disorder, if anything. She almost died. Her baby could have died. That’s a lot for someone to take in. If it had been a regular accident and not an attempted murder, it would be hard, but it’s that, too. She has to worry about the trial, about the publicity, about the repercussions for you in terms of your career. No wonder she’s depressed and tired all the time.”

I nodded. “I’ll hire a nurse to come over and let Kate sleep in every morning. She can do things for Sophie so I can spend more time with Kate. Right now, Kate feels protective towards Sophie. She practically watches her breathe, even though Sophie only had a brief period when her breathing was being monitored and we have an apnea monitor. Sophie’s doing well, considering.”

“Will it stress Kate to have someone else look after Sophie?”

“I’ll see,” I said. “The least I can do is get a housekeeper to come in and clean the place, maybe make us some meals so we can only think about Sophie and ourselves. I’m tired, but that’s fine. Nothing happened to me physically.”

Lara shook her head. “Drake, you almost lost your wife and baby. You’re facing damage to your professional reputation because of the publicity surrounding the trial. You are not fine. You’re a new parent, too. Don’t deny your own needs. You have to be in top health, mentally and physically, to be there for Kate and Sophie.”

I nodded, shifting position on the sofa. “You’re right. I guess I’m so used to stress that I don’t notice it. I’ve always been so busy with such a tight schedule, it’s second nature.”

“You need to slow down. Hire the housekeeper. Better yet, find a nanny who’s willing to do housework and make meals as well as tend to Sophie when needed.”

I shrugged. “I’m not sure Kate will want a nanny this early in the game.”

“Give her the option,” Lara said. “Better yet, hire someone and have her come over to start taking care of things. Don’t tell Kate that the woman is also a nanny. Tell her she’s a housekeeper and will cook meals. Hire a middle-aged woman with experience. Pay her well.”