First Family (Sean King & Michelle Maxwell 4)

CHAPTER 82

THE FIRST COUPLE stood looking down at Tippi Quarry as the machine inflated her lungs, the oxygen seeped into her nose, and the monitor recorded the jumps of her heart and the status of her other vitals.

“Over thirteen years she’s been like this,” said Jane. “I had no idea.”

The president studied her. “I don’t remember her, honey, I swear I don’t. She has a pretty face, though.”

When he said this she moved slightly away from him. He didn’t seem to notice. “Tippi Quarry?” he said inquiringly.

“Yes.”

“In Atlanta?”

“That’s right. At the PR firm that helped handle your early Senate campaign launch. She was a volunteer there, fresh out of college.”

“How do you know all that?”

“I took the trouble to find out. I took the trouble to find out about all the ladies you seemed so interested in back then.”

“I know I put you through hell.” He looked back at Tippi. “I don’t remember having any contact with her at all.”

“That’s no doubt why no one ever put the two of you together. But you did have contact with her. Something that even surprised me. I found you two together in our hotel room. She was screaming for you to get off her, but it was too late. You’d already finished. It took me hours to calm her down while you were lying in a corner passed out from too much gin and not enough tonic.”

“Why didn’t the police come, then? Are you sure it wasn’t consensual?”

“She didn’t phone the police because I finally convinced her what a mess it would be if the incident became public. That it was only her word against yours, she was in our hotel room, and that I couldn’t testify against my own husband. You were on your way to the Senate and possibly the presidency. She was a young woman with her whole future ahead of her. A future that could be ruined if something like this came out. If people thought she had instigated the sex. Tried to take advantage of your position. Tried to trap you somehow. I was very persuasive. I even told her that it was a disease you had. I painted a very sympathetic picture.”

“Thank you, Jane. You saved me. Again.”

She said coldly, “I hated you back then. I hated you for what you did to her. And to me.”

“Like you said, it was a sickness. I’ve changed. I worked through it. You know that. It never happened again, did it?”

“It happened one more time.”

“But I didn’t force myself on that woman. And after that, there was no more. I worked hard at it, Jane. I cleaned up my act.”

“Your act? Dan, this wasn’t a case of leaving your underwear on the floor. You forced yourself on that poor woman.”

“But I never did it again. That’s my point. I changed. I moved on.”

“Well, she sure as hell didn’t have the chance to move on.”

The president suddenly thought of something. He looked wildly around the small room. “You don’t suppose there are any recording devices in here, do you?”

“I think the man has all he needs. Even without this poor woman.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean Willa.”

“What about her?”

“She’s your daughter. And he knows it.”

The president, his face pale, slowly turned to look at his wife. “Willa is my daughter?”

“Don’t be stupid, Dan. What, did you think that Diane Wright was just going to go away when she got pregnant?”