Page 164 of Always Us

I slide Lilly off my lap and stand up. “Why don’t you go in the kitchen and see what Charles is making?”

“He’s making cookies. Chocolate chip.”

“Let’s go have some. But first I have to go upstairs and get Jade. Wait for me in the kitchen.”

“Okay.” She walks off while I sprint up the stairs. I pass Jade in the hall on the way to my room.

She follows me in there. “What are you doing?”

“Katherine’s pregnant with the senator’s baby.” I turn the TV on and flip through to a news channel. I see her name scrolling at the bottom of the screen, with the words, ‘Katherine Kensington, recently divorced from Pearce Kensington, admits to having an affair with Senator Lyndon Tate of New York.’

I flip to a different channel and see the senator’s photo in the corner. The news guy is talking, “…major scandal for Senator Tate, who currently serves as the chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, a very prestigious and powerful role. News of this scandal will not likely harm his position as chairman, but it could affect him when it comes time for re-election, given his conservative base. Katherine Kensington, the woman he had the affair with, broke the news to the media just this morning, adding that she recently found out she’s pregnant with the senator’s baby. No word yet on whether the two of them plan to get married. This will be the senator’s first child. We’ll update you later as more details come in.”

“Holy crap!” Jade sits on the bed. “Katherine’s pregnant? She hates kids. Why would she want another one?”

“This isn’t about wanting a kid. This is about making the senator marry her.”

“Maybe he won’t do it.”

“His campaign was all about family values. If he wants his constituents to vote for him again, he needs to marry her. Katherine knows that. She also knows that making this public means she’s protected.”

“Protected from what?”

“The organization. If the pregnant wife or girlfriend of a well-known senator ends up dead, reporters will be all over that. The members don’t want to deal with that.”

“You think they were going to kill her? I thought they couldn’t hurt her now that they have that new rule.”

“She lost her protection under that rule when she killed my grandfather. She knew she wasn’t safe. Let’s go downstairs. I told Lilly we’d have cookies with her and Charles.”

My dad’s there when we get downstairs. He’s already changed into different clothes.

“They dismissed us early because of everything that’s going on,” he says.

“So you heard the news?” I ask him. “About Katherine?”

“Yes. It was discussed at the meeting.”

“She did it to save herself, didn’t she?”

“I don’t know how far along her pregnancy is, so I can’t say for sure. She might’ve been pregnant before your grandfather’s death. But I do think the pregnancy was her way of making sure the senator would marry her. He has no choice in the matter. He wouldn’t be re-elected if he didn’t. But he’s out as VP. Katherine thought she was being clever. She thought getting pregnant would secure her both a husband and a place as the vice president’s wife. But the VP part isn’t going to happen. They’re going to find someone else. In fact, they’re not even going to support Tate when he’s up for re-election. Now that he’s forever tied to Katherine, the organization wants nothing to do with him.”

“Speaking of Katherine,” I say, “Lilly’s really upset that Katherine just left without saying goodbye. She thinks her mom doesn’t want her anymore. Lilly wanted to call her, so she did, and Katherine told her about the baby.”

He sighs. “What is wrong with her? That’s not something you tell a child over the phone.”

“Daddy.” Lilly runs down the hall and up to him. “You want a cookie?”

He picks her up. “I would love a cookie. How’s my favorite girl?”

“Good.” She smiles really wide. “Where’d you go? This morning I woke up and you weren’t here.”

“I had a meeting to go to.”

“I missed you.” She hugs him.

“I missed you, too.”

She looks surprised. “You did?”

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