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When William heard those words, he knew exactly what she meant. And his heart sank. “Who knows?”
“I haven’t the foggiest. But there’s a video. Of us. Together.”
“Good Lord,” William said as his heart sank too. “Does Arthur know?”
“No! He can never know, are you insane? It’ll destroy him, William.”
William understood the other implication. “It’ll destroy your candidacy too.”
Diana nodded her head as she fought back tears. “The weight of all these black people in Canada, and America too, are on my shoulders. They’re all so proud of me. They’re so hopeful for my candidacy. You should have seen the flood of emails and the followers I gained on social media immediately after my announcement. There’s so many people depending on me, William. So many people! Arthur, nor anyone else, can ever know. And Arthur’s your client too? Oh William, this is just awful!”
William knew it, too, as Joynetta entered his mind. And the sheer anguish of her finding out caused him to want to stop the world and get off. But he knew that was impossible too. “Did somebody contact you directly?”
Diana shook her head. “They couldn’t get to me. But they contacted my campaign manager.”
“Is he or she the only one who knows?”
“She’s the only one, yes.”
“Can you trust her?”
“With my life, yes.”
William exhaled. “Okay. Did they make a demand?”
“No. Not yet. But they’ve made clear that there will be a demand that, if not met exactly, they will go public.”
“Did you see this video they claim to have?”
Tears appeared in Diana’s eyes as she nodded her head. “Yes. I’ve seen it.”
“And it’s you and I?”
She nodded her head again. “Yes.”
A memory flashed across William’s mind. A memory of Diana, beneath him, in that hotel room in Montreal. “Could it be A.I., or some deep fake. . .”
She was already shaking her head. “No. I remember the time. I remember the place. No.”
“But is it date-stamped?”
“What difference does that make? I’ve been married to Arthur for twenty years. What does it matter if I cheated on him last night, last year, or a decade ago? I was still married. I still cheated. There is no way, if this gets out, that my candidacy can survive it. No way. They will never give me that kind of grace. They don’t give black people that kind of grace.”
William leaned his head back. “Damn, damn, damn!” he said forcefully.
Then he looked at Diana. It was his literal job to remain cool in the face of his clients’ crisis. And he was in the middle of this one too? “Send me everything you have. Make clear that my office will be the point of contact between you and the extortionists. Because that’s what they are, let’s face it.”
She appeared hopeful. “Okay.”
“I’m usually the damage-control person, as you know,” William said. “I’m usually attempting to soften the blow when shit hits the fan. But this is different.”
“It’s absolutely different, William. You can’t attempt to manage this one. It can’t hit the fan. You have to stop it before it hits the fan. It can never get out or my candidacy is toast. It is over. Not to mention my marriage,” she said with anguish in her eyes.
Willaim could feel her distress. “I’m sorry, Diana.”
She couldn’t even accept his apology, even though she knew it took two to tango. She turned her head away from him.
William, understanding completely, moved to get out of the vehicle.
