Forever After (Unrestrained 5)

“Sorry to hear that,” Dave said, his expression genuinely concerned. “I know it’s hard in normal circumstances when you have a new baby. People always talk about how tired they are, how much sleep they’re missing, the whole physical adjustment. Add to that the accident, and Sophie being premature…”

I nodded. “Yes, it’s all adding up to more than Kate can handle. I’m going to hire a housekeeper-nanny to help out so Kate and I can both get more sleep and so we can spend our time with Sophie and not cleaning or cooking.”

Dave watched me, his eyes narrowed. “How are you doing? This has got to be a shock to you as well.”

I took in a deep breath. I didn’t want to bring up the email issue. If it came out later in the press, I would discuss it but until that time, I didn’t want to have one more thing out there that could blow up in my face. Even though Lara seemed to think the cops would discover the account was fake, if word got out there were emails…

“Yeah, I’m pretty exhausted. Running on adrenaline at times. I’m doing a lot better than Kate. I’m used to the stress.”

He shook his head. “Don’t think you’re invincible. You’re human, too, Drake. You probably have PTSD as well.”

“Nah, I’m fine,” I said, waving him off. “I’m tired. Nothing that a little sleep won’t cure.”

“My uncle's wife, Karen, is a retired nurse who was a

doula. She might be willing to help you out if you need it. She loves babies.”

“Talk to her and see if she’s available,” I said, genuinely interested. Dave’s aunt would be a great choice if she was willing. From what Dave told me, she almost raised Dave after his mother became ill when he was a child.”

“I will,” Dave said.

We spent the next hour going over foundation business – a report on projects that were on-going, starting up and finishing, and I was glad that Dave was still his old self with me. I had only a few close friends, and I didn’t want to lose Dave.

Finally, when we were through, Dave turned to me, his expression curious.

“What are you going to say in response to the article?”

“Lara’s working on some text for me,” I said.

“Your lawyer friend from college?”

I nodded. “Yes,” I said. “She’s going to develop talking points for me and Kate so we stick to the script.”

“That’s a good idea. You want to respond, but not too much. You want to talk about it being in your past and that now you have a loving wife and child and are focused on your family and on your future. Something like that. This woman who tried to kill Kate? She’s a nutcase. Kate’s the innocent victim in all this.”

I nodded.

“And you, of course,” Dave added quickly. “You did nothing to bring this on.”

I shrugged. “I’m the one who was involved with her in the past. I obviously didn’t handle things well enough when I learned she was a student in my Fellowship program.”

“It’s not your fault, Drake. That’s clear. I know you.”

“Our donors don’t know me. For all they know, I was having an affair with a student doctor and asked her to kill my wife so we could be together.”

“That’s what she’s telling police?”

I nodded. “Yep. She told them that I wanted Kate out of the way so we could be together." I wasn't going to say anything about the emails, but I felt Dave needed to know everything so he could be prepared. "She even faked some emails from me. Created a fake account and sent herself emails and responded to herself.”

“That’s crazy. You cheating on Kate is the biggest lie in the world,” Dave said with a sardonic laugh. “You’re crazy about Kate. I told the police detectives that.”

I frowned. “They talked to you, too?”

He nodded. “Yeah, they came by last week because they learned we’re friends, besides the fact that you’re my boss. I told them that there was no way in hell that you would harm a hair on Kate’s head. That you were deeply in love with her and were so happy about the baby. That you took a year off so you could spend it with Kate and the baby. That you were a humanitarian and saved the life of your son from another marriage. I was adamant that there was no way you would ever become involved with that woman.”

“Thank you for that,” I said and shook my head. “I can’t believe that all of this is happening to us. Lisa went off the deep end and I didn’t see it coming fast enough.”

“Were you concerned?”