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He turns silent for a moment. “He made the right choice when he married you, that’s for damn sure. But while I’m one of your biggest supporters, I’m not going to get involved. Not like this. You want to help him, you go to him.”
While he doesn’t give me what I’m looking for, I respect the way he looks out for his brother. I also like the way he looks out for my marriage.
After our call, I text a friend who might be able to help me.
Me: Anthea, I’m calling in that favor.
I watch the blue dots go up and down, up and down, and then stop. Anthea does not want that favor called in because she knows it’s going to hurt.
The blue dots go up and down again a few more times before she finally sends the text.
Anthea: Okay.
Me: I need something that will convince Cecelia Aniston not to pursue politics right now.
She calls me. “James will kill me for this, Kristen.”
“I’m aware. But you owe me.”
Anthea and James do owe me. I saved them from financial ruin years ago when I gave them a heads up to get their money out of an investment that was actually a Ponzi scheme, information I’d put together from various whispers I’d heard.
Anthea told me back then that she’d repay the favor whenever I wanted. And since I know that she and her husband have dirt on everyone, I know she’s the person who can probably help me now.
There’s only one problem: Cecelia is her husband’s cousin.
“I know, but I didn’t think you’d want me to give you information that will hurt his family,” she hisses.
“She won’t know where I got the information.”
She exhales a long breath. “I fucking hope not.”
“So, what do you have?”
It turns out Cecelia has some skeletons in her closet. I refuse the first skeleton: the fact Cecelia has had an abortion. I don’t care to use something like that against a woman, so I tell Anthea that doesn’t work for me. She gives me something else I’m not really interested in because I don’t think it’s enough to convince Cecelia to stop vying for the senate seat. Then, she shares with me that Cecelia has had multiple allegations of sexual harassment made against her at work. Five, in fact, all from women she’s silenced in one way or another.
After I finish with Anthea, I call Callan and ask him for Olivia’s phone number. He’s intrigued as to why I want it. I’m honest with him and tell him I need a crisis manager.
Five minutes later, I’ve got Olivia on the phone.
“Kristen.” She sounds surprised to hear from me. “What’s up and why aren’t you and Bradford coming skiing with us? I was looking forward to getting to know you.”
I fill her in on everything happening with me and Bradford. She listens carefully and when I’m finished, she says, “Holy fuck, that woman. I’ve seen a lot of shit in my line of work, and this is somerealshit.”
“Yes, it is.”
“So, how do you want me to help? I know Bradford already has a PR team, so I’m not sure what I could contribute.”
“Yes, he has a team, but I don’t. I want you to be my PR team.”
“Oh, I like that. Yes. Let’s do this. I’ve got some time now to go over ideas if you do.”
“I would love that. Thank you.”
An hour later, I get off my call with her and think about Adeline’s advice to listen to my gut. She was right; I had to stop thinking so hard in order to hear what my gut had to say. I just had to let how it feels guide me. Today, it’s speaking so loudly I can’t not hear it. And what it’s saying is that I need to run as far in the opposite direction from Alan as I can. I need to have a conversation with my husband and share with him what Alan said to me. I really don’t want to have that conversation because I don’t want to put Bradford in that position. But the thing I’ve had to remind myself over and over this morning is that I can do hard things.
I promised to let Bradford worry about me and now I will uphold that promise.
But first, I will remove the burden of Cecelia from his life.
