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"The baby’s fine, Cade"

"And you? How are you doing?"

"Great No about you quit stalling and just spit it out? Whatever it is, I can handle it"

Somehow, he knew that She could probably handle it better than her husband could If there was ever anyone strong in a crisis, it was Audrey "It’s Daphne She got upset prior to her show last night and locked herself away and took a lot of pills" There was utter silence on the other end of the line, so he continued "We called an a to be fine I just didn’t want you to worry"

"Thank you," she said, her voice flat For ato get out of the ICU in a few hours, and I’ll go in and talk to her as soon as she can have visitors But I’m sure if you ca, Cade"

"Because of the baby? Is it not safe to fly? Let e cars so you--"

"No," Audrey said, her voice utterly brisk "II told Daphne that if she pulled this kind of stunt again, that I was done with her I can’t keep doing this I can’t keep running to her side every time Daphne can’t handle real life and decides to take a bunch of pills to re to rush to her side and pat her hand and tell her everything’s fine so she can do this all over again Last time, I swore to her that this was it, and Ifor a moment "Have you called Gretchen?"

Daphne’s older sister? "Ino, not yet"

"Good Leave it to me I’ll handle Gretchen"

"Are you sure?" This was a hell of a load for a pregnant woman to handle

"I’ood in a crisis She’ll just blubber like a baby, say a bunch of things she doesn’t ed at Cade’s mouth She had a point Gretchen tended to speak first and think later "Can I do anything for you, Aud? Friend to a friend?"

She thought for a moment "Yeah" That quaver was back in her voice "You can scare the living shit out of ain"

"I’ll see what I can do," he said softly "I promise"

"I know this is cruel, Cade," Audrey said "Butwe just can’t keep doing this I can’t keep doing this" Her voice choked

The phone switched hands again, and then Reese spoke, his nor us know, , okay?"