AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I would have opened up a space beside me and allowed her to walk with me in this journey. We could have exposed Jessie together, helped Quinn leave together, cover Olive's tracks together. That would have been the real choice. Transparency would have allowed her to see and understand the full spectrum of things.
By doing that, I would have showed her the love I felt for her instead of just expressing it in a word that had no backing.
It was duplicitous of me to be go behind her back and assume what choice she would have made, guiding her in that direction, when I could have actually fought for her.
Why the fuck hadn’t I fought for her?
Then and now? I'd just watched her and my daughter walk out of this room, and I'd stood here, doing absolutely nothing to stop it.
A door at the back of the conference room was thrown open. Jessie, Carter, and Rachel stumbled inside, their words tangled in the middle of an argument. Rachel saw me and spun around.
"Where is she? Where's Olive?" Rachel snapped.
Jessie raised his hands. "Rachel, stop it!"
"I will not!" Rachel shouted. She stormed toward me. "That bitch ruined my husband’s career."
I glanced between them. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"She was at Helen's house," Rachel said. "She went to the bathroom, and I think that she went into Helen's computer and made a copy of the video."
Carter scratched his head. "Helen? Who the fuck is Helen?"
Rachel spun around. "The whore you were cheating on me with! I just wanted a recording of you cheating. So that way, I could divorce your ass and take full custody."
Jessie's face fell flat. "You were in on that video?"
Carter's jaw dropped. "Rachel, what the fuck? So this is your fault?"
"I'm not an idiot," Rachel snapped. "You can fuck whoever you want if I have a path to working in the White House. Once I saw the video and realized that you were going to rig the votes, I didn't give a fuck."
Jessie glared at her. "I wired you four hundred grand."
Rachel crossed her arms. "Like you can't afford it. And that was more for Helen, anyways."
"But you said you deleted the video," Jessie snapped.
"I did—I don't know how Olive could have gotten it."
And none of them ever would. I'd covered all of our tracks, and it was clear to me that they had no idea what they were talking about. Jessie and Carter would be arrested for fraud, and Rachel for blackmail before they'd ever have a chance to figure anything out.
I'd heard enough. More than enough. And I regretted nothing. I pulled the projector’s remote out of my pocket and dropped it on the table.
The echo of the clatter silenced all of three of them.
Jessie cocked his head. "What the fuck is that, Lucas?"
I gave a shrug and feigned shock. "I don't know. I just found it in my pocket."
"How the fuck did that happen?" Carter asked.
Rachel glared at her husband and shook her head. "Oh my God, you are so fucking dumb."
"What?" Carter asked, throwing up his hands.
Jessie took a handful of calculated steps toward me. His smile had completely vanished. For once in my life since meeting him, I was fairly certain that I was finally seeing the man behind the facade, that I was being granted a peek behind the carefully constructed mask Jessie always wore.
Without it, all his charm vanished. His eyes seemed to recede into his skull, turning dark and beady, and when he spoke, his lip curled back into a scowl.
