" You weren't reading them?" I asked."I trusted him." She shook her head. "Big mistake." Not even a Harvard MBA taught you that?" I had to learn that ...rom the School of Hard Knocks. That's how they got Dad -- through me. The Feds threatened to put me away unless he copped a plea, and he couldn't bear the thought of me behind bars for something HE did. Eventually we came up with a plea agreement. Dad's doing seven years." Seven years?" We were looking at twenty." With good behavior..." It's a. . what ... how...?”“Silver-tongued, isn’t he? The night I met him he was all slick lines and relentless adulation, but ever since he arrived it’s been impossible to get him past caveman preschool. It’s so disappointing.”“I probably should’ve warned you. A few months ago, I watched him lose control of his basic functions in the presence of an outrageously attractive woman. I’m not sure they ever returned.”“Is that right? And now there are two of us. No wonder he’s sub-verbal.”“So, big shot, now. Donna unceremoniously plopped herself down on his lap and asked if he'd missed them, placing her arms around his neck and giving him an open mouthed kiss. Before he could give her an answer to her question, she was up off of his lap and leading Lupe by the hand out into the kitchen. He heard laughing and giggling in the kitchen and, when the two girls returned, they were carrying yet another fresh bottle of wine. Donna turned down the lights and turned up the music and came over to the sofa and. She looked arou8nd for anywhere else that would have been better… But the whole place was a mess.“The trials and joys of having a genius for a husband, he can fix anything, but damn does he leave a mess behind him.”Heading out to leave, Susan tapped her finger over her lower lip, thinking on what to make for dinner now that the crisis was over, but as soon as she reached the threshold of the door, a crash behind her snapped her attention around to find the device she brought in had fallen off.