Page 107 of Sinful Palace

“Okay.” She held her palms up again. “Just… please try to understand. I didn’t have a choice.”

“Yes, you did. You could’ve told the truth and helped Chloe.” Unless you wanted Chloe dead all along, because you set the whole thing up in the first place, I silently added.

“No,” she hissed, slamming a hand on the desk. “Your life and my career would’ve been destroyed. I already explained that.”

I rolled my eyes. “That’s such bullshit. There’s a ton of politicians out there who’ve gone through scandals, and their careers are still alive and kicking.”

“Yes, but they’re all men.”

“Huh?”

Mom narrowed her eyes. “I said they’re all men. That makes it different.”

“How?”

She looked away, focusing her gaze on a framed photograph on the right side of the desk. “It’s hard enough to be a woman in this world,” she began. “But trust me—being a woman in this line of work is even worse. If a male politician screws up in some way, people judge him as an individual. They say stuff like, ‘Wow, that guy sucks at foreign policy’ or ‘Urgh, that guy is a sleaze who can’t keep it in his pants’. It’s not like that for women. We get judged as if we’re one singular entity.”

I raised an eyebrow. “We do?”

“Don’t be naïve, Willow. Of course we do,” she snapped. “You’ve heard all of this before. If a man is bad at math, people say ‘Wow, that guy is really bad at math’. But if a woman is bad at it, they say ‘Wow, women are really bad at math’.”

“I guess.”

The hand on the desk tightened into a fist. “It’s the same with everything else. If I screw up, people say things like ‘Women are obviously no good at this, and they don’t belong in positions of power’,” she said bitterly. “That’s exactly what would’ve happened if I did the right thing and let the world know that my daughter ran over Chloe Thorne that night. People would’ve used the scandal to ‘prove’ that women don’t belong in government positions, and I would’ve never risen as far as I did. I couldn’t let that happen. I knew my potential, and I didn’t want to set women back in politics. We’re already so far behind.”

A snicker escaped my mouth. “Oh my god… this can’t be real,” I said, shaking my head. The snickering quickly turned into full-blown laughter, and within seconds I was gasping for air, shoulders shaking like mad.

“Why on earth are you laughing?” Mom said in an indignant tone. “This isn’t funny.”

Laughter kept bubbling up in my chest, no matter how much I tried to stifle it. “It’s just so ridiculous,” I said, throwing my hands up. “You’re acting like you’re a saint who did this in some sort of crusade for equality, but the truth is, you left a girl for dead on the road and shot your own daughter up with opiates to make her forget the whole thing. That’s probably the most anti-woman thing you could’ve possibly done!”

She stiffened. “I know how it sounds, but I thought I was doing the right thing at the time,” she said. “Besides, it wasn’t all about me. I was protecting you too. I didn’t want you to become known as the girl who tried to run over her high school enemy. I didn’t want you to lose your future.”

My laughter finally dried up, and the earlier exhaustion started creeping back in. I sighed and put my head in my hands. “What happens now that I know the truth about that night?"

Mom was silent for a moment. “I don’t know. Are you going to tell anyone?” she finally said, raising her brows.

I stared at her, nibbling on the inside of my cheek. If Logan was right and she really was Q, she would probably hurt me or kill me in order to keep my mouth shut about this whole Chloe thing.

I couldn’t risk that.

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I won’t tell anyone. You’re going through enough with the Rutherford scandal and dad’s death.”

Mom frowned. “You really won’t say anything to anyone?”

“My lips are sealed,” I said, affecting a sweet tone. “I’m not happy that you drugged me and refused to help Chloe, but it was a long time ago. Coming clean now wouldn’t achieve anything positive. It would only do more damage to everyone.”

Mom smiled, shoulders sagging with relief. “Thank you for keeping it to yourself. You have no idea how much it means to me.”

“It’s fine. I just hope we can start being more honest with each other now.”

“Of course.” She glanced at her watch, and her smile faded. “Dammit. It’s been twenty minutes. I’m sorry, but I really have to go now.”

“I understand.”

She stood and gathered some of the paperwork on her desk. “The White House Christmas party is on Saturday night,” she said as she stuffed some papers into a black case. “I didn’t tell you about it before now because I assumed you’d want more time alone to grieve, but if you’re feeling up to it and you’d like to come, you’re more than welcome. It would give us another chance to chat.”

The party she was talking about had to be the same one Jamie mentioned earlier. I nodded and pasted on a fake smile. “I’ll be there.”

“Great.” She stepped around the desk and planted a soft kiss on the top of my head. “Thank you for making me talk to you today,” she murmured. “It needed to happen, didn’t it?”

“Yes.”

She smiled again, but this time it didn’t meet her eyes. “All right, well… I’ll see you again on Saturday. I’m looking forward to it.”

I gritted my teeth and held her cool gaze. “Me too,” I replied. “I can’t wait.”

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