My initial instinct was still to join him in a morning schmooze, and I eased into the chair. “How’re you holding up?” Yes, he was an asshole, but it was hard to cut ties completely. I’d worked for the man for a long time, had held him when he’d cried at DJ’s funeral. I blinked rapidly at the memories.
“I’ll be all right.” His eyes shifted from side to side. “I, uh, it was a mistake. A stupid mistake. She came on to me, caught me in a weak moment, and—”
“Don’t,” I cut him off, unwilling to listen to him blame the victim. “Don’t bullshit me.”
We faced off across his desk, but he blinked first. His shoulders sagged, and he tipped his head toward the picture of Amelia in her wedding dress. “She’s leaving me. One mistake in over thirty years of marriage, and she walks.”
“You’re joking, right? You cheated on her with a woman half her age. Someone who worked for you. Don’t you see how wrong that was?”
“You have no idea how hard it’s been. When DJ died, Amelia withdrew, and I was so lonely…” He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes.
Impatient with his excuses, I put up my hand. “I’m sorry, Dan, but I can’t do this anymore. You sneaking out, telling me you had private meetings I didn’t need to attend when all along you were banging an intern?” There was nothing left for me to say. “I’m leaving. I’m betting it’s not the first time you’ve cheated. No more. I quit.”
All the angst fled from Dan’s face, and his eyes grew cold. “And you’re so perfect? I know your dirty secret.”
My stomach dropped. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
His lip curled in a sneer. “When DJ was in college I had to pay off someone who sent me compromising pictures of him. With a male student. After that, I had a private investigator watching him.” The smack of his hands on the desk jarred me, and I saw a different, dangerous side of Senator Dan Bridges I’d never been privy to before. “Tell me why you thought it was okay for you to work for me and fuck my son.”
I’d never run from a problem, and I wouldn’t now. “DJ and I loved each other. I was never with him while I should’ve been working.” I raised a brow, and Dan flushed at the implication. Part of the investigation into his affair was the fact that he’d slept with his intern in his Senate office. “And I’ve never made my sexuality a secret, but it has nothing to do with my job.”
“He didn’t love you. I bet you didn’t know he was going to call it off with you. That’s why he was coming home early. To tell you it was over and he was going to be married.”
My mouth dried. “You’re lying.”
The sneer grew broader. “Oh, no. I’m not. About a month before he died, I paid him a visit and told him if he didn’t end it with you and the others he was sneaking around with, he was cut off. No more trust fund. By the time I left, he knew the score. I had the perfect girl set for him to marry, but the damn fool went and got himself killed.”
If I didn’t pass out from pain then, I never would. “The others?”
“Oh, yes. Did you think you were the only one he was with? DJ had a type, and you fit the mold. But if you thought you were the only one, you’re not as smart as I’d believed.”
I licked my dry lips. “I don’t believe you. He cared about me.”
“Do you want to see the pictures? I have them all.”
I shook my head, pain cramping in the pit of my stomach. I wanted to puke.
“Did you think you’d get married? I’d never let that happen. Not my son. And now he’s dead, and none of it matters.” The ugliness of his words hit me like a knife to the chest. “Get out. And I hope you have another way to make a living, because your name is dead in the industry. No one will hire you now.”
A chill swept through me, but my training had prepared me for anything. Even betrayal. I rose from my seat, back straight.
“Is that all? Here’s my ID and credentials.” I slipped the lanyard over my neck and placed it on the desk. I prided myself that my hand remained steady, even though I wanted nothing more than to throw it in his smirking face. “Good-bye, Dan.”
Once outside, I took short, shallow breaths until I reached my room and closed the door behind me. To know that Dan had someone spying on DJ and me in our most intimate moments was both humiliating and galling, and hearing that DJ had been cheating on me all along wasn’t something I could wrap my head around. Not at the moment. I also couldn’t help wondering if the threat Dan had made was something I had to worry about.
Fuck it. I have to get out of here.I gathered the rest of my clothes still in the dresser and split them between a suitcase and a large rolling duffel. I shoved the picture of my mother into my bag and zipped it up. My shaving kit got tossed into the suitcase, and I was done. Five years reduced to ten minutes of packing. I hefted the suitcases out the rear door and called for a car to pick me up at the side-entrance gate. The waiting photographers and reporters spotted me rolling my bags down the lane and sped to my side, shoving microphones in my face.
“Are you leaving the senator’s employ?”
“Did he fire you?”
“Did you know he was having an affair?”
Despite my anger with Dan, I remained silent, unwilling to respond. That would only hurt Amelia even more. The car came, and I shouldered my way past the crowd. The driver helped me load the suitcases in the trunk, and I slid inside the sedan and slammed the door shut on their yapping faces.
“Damn, that was a scene. You work for the senator?”
“I did.”
