Page 56 of Pursuit of Happiness

“Don’t besilly. She’ll come around. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be involved with thewoman who’s about to be the most powerful person in the world?”

“I hope toGod you don’t expect me to answer that question. And there won’t be anystatement from this office about Stevie. Not a word. Understood?”

Meredith had walked away from the conversation shaking her head.Jen had been immersed in politics too long to realize Stevie had no interest indating her as a power play. She had more integrity in her little finger thanall the members of Congress put together.

Meredith heard a knock on the door and prayed it was the coffeeshe’d ordered the night before. She put on her robe and padded to the door,annoyed to find both Jen and Gordon standing outside. She fought the urge toignore their presence and swung open the door. “One of you better have coffeefor me.”

Gordon barreled into the room and shoved a piece of paper in herhand. “Tell me you weren’t keeping this from me.”

His angry tone was more effective than caffeine. She scanned thepaper, and dread filled her with each word she read.

MitchellFoundation Implicated in Scheme to Influence Social Media

WilliamBarkley, arrested last fall and charged with violations of the Espionage Actfor disseminating classified documents, has provided information to governmentofficials regarding allegations against the Mitchell Foundation in exchange fora plea deal on his original case. A source, who prefers to remain anonymous,stated talks are already underway between the US Attorney’s office and publicdefender Stevie Palmer.

There was more, mostly vague innuendo, but Meredith tossed thepaper onto the bed. “At least they didn’t say, ‘Stevie Palmer, SenatorMitchell’s girlfriend.’”

“Very funny,” Gordon replied. “CNN is running this story asbreaking news in less than an hour, and they’d like a statement from thecampaign. You can bet that right after they finish hashing out a possiblecriminal case against your family, they’ll have a roundtable to discuss your relationshipwith Palmer.” He shook his hands in the air. “This is serious.”

Meredith motioned for them to sit down. “I know, and I am takingit seriously. This is the first I’m hearing about any of this, and I can assureyou I’ve done nothing wrong. Do you have any suggestions?”

Jen piped up first. “Let’s not add fuel to the fire. We’ve beenholding steady with a ‘no comment’ about Stevie. Let’s stick with that on thistoo. Let them show their cards and then you’ll know how to respond.”

Meredith turned to Gordon. “Do you agree?”

Gordon shot an apologetic look at Jen and shook his head. “Ithink we need to get out in front of this. You, on camera, vehemently denyingthe charges, but you won’t answer any follow-up questions, because, as a formerprosecutor, you know how important it is to let the process work withoutinterference from the outside. Then we need to examine every scrap of paper,every email you’ve ever written, sent, or stuffed away to see if there’sanything to implicate you if the Foundation winds up getting indicted.”

“Next you’re going to say she needs an attorney,” Jen said.

“Probably not a bad idea,” Gordon replied.

Meredith held up a hand to stop the back-and-forth. “We’re all onthe same team, remember?” She looked down at her hands, formulating a plan. Sheknew what she had to do, or at least the first step, but she dreaded thefallout. While she ruminated, her thoughts drifted to Stevie, and a thousandquestions filled her head. When did Stevie find out her client had informationabout the Foundation? Meredith understood attorney-client privilege as well asany seasoned lawyer, but if all of this was percolating while they were seeingeach other, shouldn’t Stevie have given her some indication something was up?Had she held back on giving this information to the government until they brokeup? If they hadn’t broken up, would she have shared it at all?

The timing was suspect, but none of her thoughts squared with theStevie she thought she knew. She wanted to call her, ask her what was going on,but her attorney brain said it was a bad idea. A few days ago, she would’veignored the practical voice in her head, but she was already feeling theconsequences of not paying attention to the full implications of her actions.She’d hurt Stevie, and she’d caused a major distraction for her campaign. Nowthat she was faced with a real disaster, it was time to focus and listen to theone voice she could trust. “Jen?”

Jen looked up with a satisfied smile on her face, and Meredithfelt a twinge of regret for what she was about to do. “I need to talk toGordon. Alone.”

Jen’s smile faded, but she didn’t protest. She walked out thedoor with a respectable display of dignity. When the door shut behind her,Meredith sat down and met Gordon’s eyes. “We’re going to do this your way fromhere on out. I’m not going to fire Jen outright because of how it will look,but she is going to recede from the campaign to handle the workload at theSenate office while I’m campaigning.”

Gordon nodded. “Do you want to tell her or should I?”

“I’ll take care of it later today. Go ahead and prepare mystatement, and let me know where you think we should give it.”

“Your first appearance this morning is down the street from theMiami-Dade County Courthouse which will look nice framed in the background.We’ll park near the courthouse and have you stop and give the statement as youwalk down the street. You’ll need to have it memorized so it doesn’t look likea photo op.”

“You’re kind of scary good at this.”

“I learned from the best.” Gordon tapped his fingers against thearm of his chair. “About Stevie…”

“What about her?”

“No need to growl, I just wonder if maybe you should saysomething to address your relationship. Get it out of the way. There are boundto be questions, more so now that she’s tied to the investigation of theFoundation.”

“Gordon, I’m going to say this once. You have full rein overevery aspect of this campaign, but Ms. Palmer doesn’t fall under the categoryof campaign-related issues. No statement, no questions.”

He stared at her for a moment. “Got it.” He stood. “I’m going toget to work on the stuff we can talk about. I’ll meet you downstairs in half anhour.”

Meredith walked him to the door and sagged against it as itclosed behind him. She was both relieved and disappointed that the campaign wasbarreling forward so fast she barely had time to think. Her entire family wasgoing to think she’d lost her mind when she fired Jen from the campaign, butshe knew it was the right thing to do. Maybe if she’d done this from the verybeginning, Stevie would still be talking to her and they’d have a chance tobuild on the intimacy they’d shared.

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