Sign the Papers Mr. Langford novel Chapter 467

When Lawrence arrived at The Family Bond Center for the second time, he was once again ten minutes early.

After his last session, he had simply sent Wren a screenshot.

I finished my first class.

It had felt like submitting a mandatory report.

During that session, Dr. Fiona Finch had emphasized: Don't rush to fix your child's emotions.

He had absorbed some of the words, but he hadn't truly applied them. It wasn't until Leo tore up his drawing over schoolyard gossip—and until Wren explicitly told him not to bulldoze through the situation with his usual tactics—that Lawrence realized his idea of "handling things" usually just meant making the noise stop as quickly as possible.

Today was his second class.

The hallway walls were still plastered with children's drawings of suns and houses. A few parents had already arrived; some were reviewing the practice sheets handed out last week, while others murmured about their children's progress.

Lawrence took a seat near the edge of the room and placed his practice sheet on the table.

He hadn't filled out much.

Dr. Finch walked over and glanced at it.

"Mr. Langford, did you have a chance to communicate with your child this week?"

"We had one video call."

"How did it go?"

Lawrence was silent for a moment.

"I didn't interrogate anyone, and I didn't try to track down the kids who started the rumors."

Dr. Finch nodded. "What did your son say?"

"He said the other kids were calling his mother bad, and talking about how his parents were fighting. He said he didn't want them to say those things."

"And how did you respond?"

Lawrence looked down at the writing on his paper.

"I told him it must have been very hard for him to hear that."

A faint, encouraging smile touched Dr. Finch's face.

"That is the beginning of truly listening."

But Lawrence didn't feel any sense of relief.

Those ten minutes had been unimaginably difficult. He had caught himself countless times wanting to demand answers, wanting to explain himself, wanting to tell Leo that 'Dad will fix it.' But the stronger the urge to speak became, the more he realized just how many times he must have interrupted his son in the past.

Once the class began, Dr. Finch asked each parent to review their homework from the previous week.

The theme for the day was written on the whiteboard.

Listen, then respond.

"Many parents find active listening awkward at first," Dr. Finch explained. "Because we are so used to turning our love into advice, and our anxiety into solutions. But most of the time, a child isn't coming to you for a fix. They just want reassurance: When I'm hurting, are you going to stay with me?"

When it was Lawrence's turn, he hesitated for several seconds before speaking.