Peter Li

A 54-year-old former USN Admiral whose Taiwanese parents emigrated to the U.S. before he was born. Recruited away from the Navy by Dexter & Reed, a U.S. Defense contractor HQ’d 30 miles north of Chicago, Li agreed only if they would also hire his Navy XO and best friend Allen. Allen’s wife Sophie was best friends with Li’s wife Anne in Norfolk, so they bought homes across the street from one another in the historic Fort Sheridan neighborhood of Lake Forest, on Lake Michigan. Anne died of an aneurysm 5 months after they moved, just short of their 30th wedding anniversary. Then Allen died of pancreatic cancer a year later. Li and Sophie supported each other (and her teenage children Martha and James) in their grief for two years before they began dating. They married a year later, and now Sophie is pregnant with their child.