Page 177 of Drama Queen

“For the love of—” she growled, before taking a deep breath. “I’m going to answer the second question first. Grace Diaz is currently at her home indisposed. She will likely be away for the next few weeks to convalesce. As part of the procedures for our people, any assistant of Grace — which would be me, as she only has one — is able to act in her stead pro tem. I may represent her at things like this press conference, I may give a speech to the human government with the approval of the shifter cabinet, I may even give advice to the shifter cabinet. Unlike Grace, however, I cannot vote on matters within the cabinet. Nor can I vote in the human senate, as Grace’s position is more like that of an ambassador. She can give advice, and my only vote on matters that affect shifters alone and not humans. I can’t even do that, although I am able to tell them what our government’s stance is on the issue.”

“Don’t you need to be ratified by the human government?” another reporter, a woman this time, asked.

Charlotte shook her head. “It goes back to the ambassador thing. I represent the shifter government, I’m like a liaison. Now, your government can refuse me entry to the building, but they don’t get to declare whether I am a suitable representativeof shifters. Denying me access to their government wouldn’t change the fact that this is the role I hold until Grace returns to work. We don’t need human permission to do this.”

There were murmurs in the room, but Charlotte refused to back down. If they paid half the attention to the actual laws of the place as they did to who designed the suit she wore, then these questions wouldn’t have been raised in the first place. Although thinking about it, she was kind of glad this one had been, because now it had been addressed and people’s minds set at ease.

“And moving his mistress into the room beside him?” David pressed.

She rolled her eyes, exasperated beyond measure. “Once I answer this, and put this ridiculousness to rest for good, can we please have him escorted from the room? I won’t have his page three, clickbait tactics disrupting this process any further.”

There were several nods from the audience, and a couple of people clapped. Good, then she wasn’t the only one pissed off by this. As she prepared to speak, Charlotte saw human guards making their way toward David. That was good, because if it had been shifters, the man would have kicked up an even bigger stink. As it was, she knew he wouldn’t believe her, and would make up his own story for the internet. There was nothing she could do about that, but hopefully she could convince the rest of them that there was nothing going on.

She half turned to face the president, ensuring her voice could still be clearly heard over the microphone. “We’re on the same floor?” Charlotte asked him, and he nodded, also rolling his eyes, which told her everything she needed to know. Yes, they were on the same floor, but no, her room was not near his.

“Alright then. Today, when I agreed to be pro tem for Grace, my security clearance, and thus the threat level against me, rose significantly. The apartment where I have lived for the last fiveyears was no longer a secure enough location for me to reside in. Now, given we’d only just been informed of today’s tragic events, and the need for us to come together as a cabinet and discuss what we could do to ameliorate the situation in whatever way we could, it meant I didn’t have time to go house hunting. I also need somewhere to sleep tonight that is secure.”

Charlotte paused, reaching under the podium for her bottle of water and taking a sip.

“Please excuse me, I’ve been talking all day, and I’m a little parched,” she explained. “Not knowing where they were, or what they consisted of, I asked the president if there were any secure locations where visiting dignitaries were housed, somewhere secure that was fully furnished and wouldn’t be a drama for me to check into for a few days. He agreed that was a suitable suggestion, and passed me over to an aide to organise it. Given I have no time to pack, nor unpack, this was done for me by staff at The Seat. All I knew was what floor I was on.”

There was no way she was divulging that kind of information, the less humans knew about the interior layout of the building, and where people could be found, the better.

“This afternoon, having spent all day in the conference room with the cabinet, I was led to the lifts, and escorted to the correct floor. We then had the choice of a corridor to one side, and a door on the other. The corridor also had a door, but it was propped open, which made me suspect the door on the other side would also lead to the same thing. It was like a hotel, doors on the left, doors on the right. I was taken to one, shown how to enter, and then left to my own devices to shower and change. At no time did I see anyone else, other than the two women who very kindly helped me get ready, and my own assistant.”

A warmth at her back let her know the president was there, and he leaned over her shoulder. “The door on the landing she referred to, does indeed lead to where I reside. While we areon the same floor, we are not in the same corridor, and our apartments are nowhere near each other. Ms Bailey was given a three room apartment as she needed an office, and space for her belongings until such time as she finds alternative secure accommodation.”

“I hope now that we can put this aside and focus on the real task, of how to ensure a day like today never happens again.”

She slipped out of the way as John began to ask his questions, and the president began to answer him. Time and again, Charlotte stepped in, taking turns with the human press secretary to choose the next four reporters who were allowed to ask questions of either president.

After two solid hours, with all the details being picked over like vultures on a corpse, the press were finally satisfied with their meal.

“Are there any more questions?” Charlotte asked, almost groaning when a woman at the back raised her hand. “I’m sorry, I can’t remember your name. What is your question, please?”

“Can we all go home now?” the woman asked with a chuckle.

“You can,” Charlotte said, smiling. “I’m going to head back to my temporary lodgings and start sorting through what needs to stay, and what needs to go into storage while I’m staying at The Seat. I’ll take volunteers if anyone wants to put up their hand?”

There was more laughter as people began to rise, packing up equipment, and getting ready to go.

“Thank you everyone for coming here today, we appreciate your time, your honesty in your questions, and your courtesy. Please travel home safely,” the human press secretary told them all.

If only things stayed that civil.

Charlotte

The first cluecame as they left the conference, those reporters not allowed inside screaming their questions.

“Ms Bailey, Ms Bailey?” a strident voice called, and stupidly, she turned to look, camera flashes exploding in front of her as photographers went into a frenzy. “How far along is your pregnancy with the president’s secret lovechild, and is it actually twins like the rumors suggest?”

Stupid, stupid woman. That was David’s voice again. The bastard was determined to ruin her, and she didn’t understand why.

“David,” she replied, feigning a calm she didn’t feel. “You were just thrown out of the press conference for asking ridiculous questions like that. If you can’t act like a real reporter, then you need to rethink your career.”

“When is the baby, or babies due?” asked someone else.

“For goodness sake,” Charlotte exclaimed, struggling to hold onto her composure. “There is no baby, there is no relationship, there’s only David’s deranged obsession with shipping me to whoever I am currently working with. Now, Sean over there is my driver. Should I be warning him that he’s next on the shiplist? David’s already accused me of having an affair with Grace Diaz, never mind that the two of us are straight. He’s repeatedly said that neither Grace nor I could have achieved our positions without sleeping our way there, and now he’s staring up a whole new clickbait parade because I’ve changed roles. I’m going to take legal advice about getting a restraining order, that’s how bizarre this is becoming.”

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