Dad answered.
“Richard.”
Cole sounded breathless.
“Is Lauren there?”
Dad glanced at me.
I nodded.
“She is.”
“Put her on.”
“I’m listening,” I said.
Silence.
Then Cole softened his voice.
“Baby.”
My body tightened.
“Don’t call me that.”
“Lauren, please.”
I’d heard him use that warm, reasonable, almost wounded tone with investors after difficult negotiations.
“I came home and you were gone.”
“Yes.”
“The babies were gone.”
“Yes.”
“Do you have any idea what that did to me?”
I nearly answered.
Then remembered Evelyn’s instruction not to litigate my marriage
