Another Notch in the Beltway (16 page)

“Deal.”

“So this thing with you and the guy is pretty serious?”

“It could be. I'm not good with trusting men.”

“I guess you can thank the senator for that.”

“I suppose. But I'm working on it. MP's had a crazy life too, so I think we're evenly matched in that department. There's an article coming in
The Times Book Review
section tomorrow. Read it. It will make my saga look like a fairy tale.

“Okay,” he said, warily raising an eyebrow.

There was a knock on the conference room door. Connor Walker came in to join them.

“I wanted to let you know that both Maxwell and Morris are here. They're using the facilities at the moment.”

“Morris wasn't part of the deal,” Lenore said hotly.

“That's why I'm here. If you want him to wait in my office, I'll keep him out,” Connor Walker said.

“Keep him out,” Nate said. “I don't know him, but I don't want him to be part of this.”

Walker looked at Lenore. “Keep him out,” she agreed.

Several minutes later, Maxwell joined them.

While both father and son were aware of the fact that they looked alike, coming face to face stunned both of them into silence.

“Nathan Held,” Nate finally said.

“Byron Maxwell,” the senator returned. “Lenore,” he continued, acknowledging his son's mother.

She nodded and said nothing.

Maxwell went on, “You look good, Lenore.”

Lenore nodded again and thought he looked like shit but didn't say it.

No one spoke.

Lenore thought Maxwell was afraid to speak, so she kicked off the meeting.

“Senator Maxwell, why don't you explain to Nathan why you wanted to meet him.”

“I didn't want to meet him. You said he had a right to meet me if I wanted him to be tested to see if he's a suitable match to be a bone marrow donor for Jack.”

Strike one and two, Lenore thought.

Nathan looked at his father with a combination of annoyance and hurt.

Maxwell blurted again, “So will you do it?”

“Get tested?”

“Yes.”

“I suppose, but not because of you or Jack, but because it's the morally right thing to do.”

Maxwell let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

Lenore was surprised he had the grace to string those two words together.

“But,” Nate said, “if I am a match, before I agree to donate the bone marrow, I want to talk with Jack.”

“I don't think that can be done. His condition is precarious, and I'm sure you're aware that your existence has been kept under wraps.”

“Of course, and I don't want anyone to know I'm your biological son. Trust me on that, Senator, but I do know your son, even been mistaken for him once.”

Maxwell gave a pained look.

“Not to worry, Father. Once the person saw my eyes, she knew she was wrong. I have your former intern's eyes.”

Wow, Lenore thought, her son was pissed at both Byron and Jack.

Nate continued, “I have a few things to say to Jack, and if I'm donating part of my body to save his life, I want to make sure it's a life worth saving.”

Lenore had no idea what Nate was talking about but could tell that something he knew about his half brother set him off.

“You've met Jack?” Maxwell finally asked.

“Yes.”

“I see. I still don't think it's a good idea. You meeting him.”

“Don't you trust him to keep his bastard half brother a secret?” Nate asked.

Maxwell's silence was telling.

“I see,” Nate said. “If that's the case, maybe you should make other arrangements, because that is my condition for considering the procedure.”

Byron's color was bright red.

“I want to make sure your son, Jack, does not plan to live his life the way he did before he got sick.”

Lenore's interest was piqued. Maxwell must have known what Nate was referring to, because he didn't ask what Nate was talking about.

“Why don't we see if you're a match and then discuss this further if you are?”

“No problem, Senator Maxwell. I needed to be up front with you about the conditions.”

“Did you put him up to this, Lenore?” Maxwell spat at her.

“I don—” Lenore began.

“My mother has no idea what I'm talking about. She didn't even know that Jack attended Georgetown.”

Strike three, she thought.

“Sorry, Lenore,” the senator offered grudgingly.

Like hell you are, she thought.

“Nate do you have anything you want to ask the senator?” his mother asked when the silence dragged.

“Nope. Nothing I want to know and nothing productive to say.”

“Senator Maxwell?” She looked to him now.

“Can't you call me Byron?”

“No. Anything else?”

When he didn't respond, she said, “Give my attorney the information Nate needs to be tested.”

“It has to be done ASAP,” Maxwell said.

“I understand and will do it in an expedient manner,” Nate assured him.

“I'll get the info to Walker.”

“If there's nothing else, I think we're done here. Mother? Senator Maxwell?”

When neither spoke, Nate got up, and so did his parents.

Connor Walker met them in the hallway.

“Senator, your chief of staff is in the guest office up the hall on the right.”

“Thanks.”

“Lenore, Nate, if you'd come to my office for a few minutes, I have some things to discuss while you're here.”

“Sure.”

Connor closed the door behind them.

“I wanted to give them a minute to leave before you. Morris thinks someone might be following one or both of them.” The attorney left mother and son to talk in private.

“Great,” Nate said sarcastically. “I'm serious. I don't want anyone to know he's my father. There's no need, and if word gets out that my mother's alter ego had his love child, the media will go wild. And Mom, I'm sorry, but you most likely are not the only young woman he took advantage of.”

“No apology needed, honey. I know I'm not.”

“Those other women start crawling out of the woodwork and—”

“Do not go there, Nate. I've had nightmares about it.”

Fifteen minutes later, mother and son were on their way.

Corrine detached the media card that was taped under the ATM at the health club. She couldn't believe she'd resorted to this type of behavior. If it weren't for Morris, she wouldn't have to. Maxwell wasn't bright enough to have her followed and investigated, but his chief of staff was.

Once home, she popped the card into her laptop. She waited for it to load.

Pictures, lots of pictures, while they confirmed her suspicions, were useless for her purposes.

They showed Morris and Maxwell going into a Philly office building thirty minutes after Lenore Held and her son entered the same building. She wanted pictures of Maxwell and Held and her son coming and/or going together. While she could infer plenty from them both being in the same spot at the same time, it left room for argument and question.

She cropped one of the photos and zoomed in on Nathan Held's face. The resemblance was unmistakable; even without DNA evidence, Lenore Held's son was Byron's. She had long suspected he was.

Byron and she had fought bitterly and violently over Lenore Held. Corrine was convinced he was having an affair with her, and he vehemently denied it. The memory was still devastating.

“I know you're having sex with your intern, and I'll not be the subject of gossip and pity because you're a cheating pig.”

“I'm not fucking Lenore Held, Rin. She has better taste and class than to screw me.” Implying that Corrine didn't.

“Bastard,” she had spewed and had hauled off and slapped him.

He had grabbed her wrist and held her fast.

“But if I was sleeping with her, no one could blame me. You've denied me since before Carter was born.”

He pulled her closer, taking her mouth with a bruising force, pushing his tongue through her unwilling lips while he plunged his hand into her dressing gown, grabbing her breast roughly. He pinched her nipple hard and twisted it.

Corrine tried to push him away, bringing her hands to his shoulders. But she was no match for his strength, anger, or desire.

He wrapped his free hand around her waist and ground his erection into her pelvis.

“I'll take what's mine, Corrine, if you won't offer it. I'm tired of you denying me.”

Corrine was panicked as he pushed her down on to the bed. His full weight was on top of her. She couldn't breathe. “Stop,” she sobbed. “Please stop.”

He didn't. He seemed possessed. Maxwell got a hand between them and ripped off her underwear and then somehow opened his fly. He forcibly parted her knees with his own and violently shoved into her.

The pain rippled through her. He was thrusting into her hard and fast. Each invasion designed to humiliate and punish her. Tears escaped her eyes. She thought the brutal assault would never end.

When he'd spent his semen in her, with a grunt he finally stopped. Then Byron got up and looked at her as if seeing her for the first time. “Sorry,” he had said, running a hand over his face, stuffing himself into pants, and leaving the room.

Six weeks later, and much to her distress and dismay, she had found out she was pregnant.

Corrine had prayed that she'd miscarry, even thought of having an abortion but couldn't face the fallout at the time.

Now she had massive guilt over her second son's illness. Because of his traumatic conception, she had never bonded with him, and now he was most likely terminal. Although it appeared that Byron was attempting contact with his illegitimate child in an effort to save Jack's life. Did he deserve praise or was this simply another self-centered act?

She almost didn't care. She was going to destroy her husband, even if she destroyed herself and others along with him. Corrine was not about to see Maxwell as president, and she was not under any circumstances going to be his First Lady. She wanted to be free. Free of him, free of Jack and his illness, free of the overwhelming sadness and anger that now filled her life.

Later that day Corrine went to see Jack. She knew it was simply out of a guilty obligation, but she went anyway.

She quietly entered his private room and saw him dozing. He had looked so much like his father until the cancer got him. Now he looked like a cross between a shriveled child and a dried-up old man—sad, maybe even tragic. She had certainly become the object of pity among her circle of friends and acquaintances. Truth was, she knew lots of people but couldn't think of one true friend. Because of her marital situation, she kept a distance from everyone. She wanted no one to see the cracks and fissures of her life. D.C. high society would have had a field day with her if they'd had an inkling of what her life was like. Yet she was going to expose it all.

She looked back at her son and was about to sneak out when he said, “Yeah, go ahead and leave. Tell the nurses you were here and found me sleeping. You left, because you didn't want to disturb me.” He gave a bitter laugh and started to cough uncontrollably.

Corrine went to the bed and held a glass with a straw for him to sip.

Jack feebly wrenched the glass from her hand, threw the straw at her, spotting her silk suit, and drained the contents quickly.

He started to laugh again, as his mother futilely tried to blot water from her jacket.

“Sorry, about that, Corrine. Hope you don't have an important luncheon to attend after spending time with your terminally ill son.”

He'd taken to calling both her and Byron by their first names but she didn't care.

Corrine inhaled a deep breath. “Are you okay?”

“As opposed to what? Taking a dirt nap?”

She looked at him and then said, “You may be ill but that does not give you license to be rude.”

“Of course it does. It gives me leave to do exactly what I want. Too bad I can't do much. I'd like to be fucking some well-endowed blonde but can't seem to rise to the occasion.” Jack started laughing again and the cough came with it.

This time Corrine stood there and watched him cough himself into exhaustion.

“Bitch,” Jack spat breathlessly once he stopped coughing.

“Thank you for the compliment. A gift I developed a little late in life. Had I developed it earlier, I think I'd be in a different place today.”

“Hell?”

“No, this is hell.”

“Look, Corrine, I don't know why you and Byron come here all the time. You don't want to. It's all about appearances.”

Tired of the game with her son, she replied, “Yes, it is, so I think I'll sit here for an appropriate time and then leave.”

“It has been noticed that you and the senator never visit together. Have you thought about that?”

“We're both busy people. The only thing that matters is that we visit you.”

“Right. Come up with any donors or a donor?” Jack asked with a surly edge.

“No, but I think your father may have a bastard out there he's trying to convince.”

“Do I have a half brother or half sister?”

“A brother, I believe.”

“I'll be damned. Old man was a stallion. Maybe still is.”

“Fact is he could be a match.”

“Not much more likely than the general population. We only share one parent.”

“Thank God,” she said under her breath.

“Could you say that again, Corrine? I don't think I heard you.”

“It's worth a shot if he can convince the kid,” she replied, ignoring his comment. She knew damn well he heard.

“Yeah, right. This guy anyone I know?”

“Don't know. If it's who I think it is, maybe, he goes to Georgetown. Ask your father.”