The audience, she realized, was deciding her fate. Perhaps not in the literal sense, but definitely in how the country was likely to react to her from here on out. She didn’t understand precisely why her person was evoking such visceral reactions, but she remembered what Ryan had said earlier about her moment of notoriety. Maybe it had something to do with that?
“It’s a miracle!”
“She’s been saved by the light!”
“Glory be to God!”
“Hallelujah!”
The crowd broke into raucous applause, cheering and whooping as she stood there beside Ryan. She relaxed a little, but not by much. She didn’t know why, but she sensed she had just been saved from a proverbial social guillotine. Ryan, inscrutable as ever, remained steadfastly calm and self-assured.
“Traitor!” a woman with a megaphone yelled out. “You’re a traitor!”
Gaia tensed back up. Her plastered on smile wavered. Who was she calling a traitor? Ryan?Herself?
The crowd turned angry against the protestor and quickly silenced her. Gaia could hear the woman screaming as the megaphone was ripped from her hands and her clothes were ripped from her body.
“Whore!” someone spat out at the woman.
“Jezebel!”
Gaia gasped. This was just too much.
“Stop! Enough!” Ryan told the crowd. His jaw was tensed. “I said enough!”
Gaia felt like she was going to be physically sick. She opened her mouth to speak, but was waylaid by her husband.
“Say nothing,” Ryan quietly warned. “Let the police deal with it now.”
Would they deal with the stripped naked woman the way they’d dealt with the other protesters? She started to shake. From anger, fear, or both she couldn’t say. “I don’t like this,” she bit out. “Make it stop or I’m leaving this moment.”
“I can see her being put into a squad car,” Ryan said under his breath. “They put clothes on her too. She’s fine.”
Fine? This was his definition of fine?
“You repulse me,” Gaia whispered. “Get this fucking inauguration over and done with before I walk out.”
“Gaia—”
“I’m serious.”
“We’ll discuss this later.”
“There’s nothing to discuss.”
“We’ll see about that.”
The inauguration carried on as though a woman hadn’t just had her clothing ripped from her body by an angry, allegedly Christian, mob. The crowd was back to praising Jesus every other second and shouting blessings at Ryan and Gaia. By the time the surreal scene ended and Gaia was whisked from the balcony and back into the party, she’d had enough. Acknowledging no one, she walked through the crush of partygoers and out through the double doors. She kept on walking, not even certain she was heading in the right direction, but needing to be away from all of it.
Chapter Nine
Frank found her and guided Gaia back to the presidential suite. “I’m sorry you had to see that, ma’am. People haven’t calmed down enough from the wars yet. They’re still on the bloodthirsty side.”
“The crowd,” she gasped, panting. “They pulled that protestor’s clothes right off her body!”
Frank sighed. “I’m sorry. Let’s just say I’ve seen worse.”
“My God.”
