Page 182 of Treason's Temptation
“You’ve been blackmailing people for a long time, I see. Now, he’s somewhere in the world with a degree he didn’t earn.”
“Shit, I don’t even know if he graduated. I need to look Patrick up and see what he’s up to.”
Navie shook her head, “Sounds like you had a ball in college.”
“Time of my fuckin’ life stressing my mama the fuck out. Every Thursday morning, I woke up to a text with random statistics reminding me to be safe.”
“And did you listen?”
“To her knowledge, yeah. She worried too damn much. I calledEviewith all the real shit because I knew she’d hold me down.”
“That poor woman. Did you always want to be a politician?”
“Law was always the dream. Politics came later.”
“Is that why you cosplayed as my lawyer, because you miss it so much?”
“I had to do what I had to do. You wouldn’t let me help you otherwise.”
“You’re still sticking to that story? You did that for me?”
“I did it forus. I got what I wanted, so what do you want out of life?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never slowed down enough to think about it. With the baby coming, I’ve been thinking about it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy, but I want something for myself, not just being attached to you. I just don’t know what that is.”
“You don’t have to be ready to take on the challenge. It’s the challenge that gets you ready. Lean into the opportunity in front of you to figure it out.”
“Yeah, maybe. Let’s get you some money for this campaign because broke isn’t a challenge I’m willing to take on.”
“Your scamming ass can’t call me broke.”
“Well, you’ve hitched yourself to me, so if I’m broke, what does that make you not?”
“A smart man.”
Navie did her makeup and got dressed faster than I’d ever seen, but we still walked into the venue an hour late. She didn’t let that defeat us, smiling while she curled into my side, taking responsibility for our late arrival. She owned it, admitting she wanted a campus tour while spinning the narrative that I was a man of my word. That made me a trustworthy candidate and worthy of votes, rather than criticism.
Damn, my baby was good.
Chapter 29
Naylor Southern was the last time I saw Treason relaxed. We made it back to Madison Pointe, and he was all business once again. Even I couldn’t pry him out of his office at night. A few times, I even used the baby because desperate times called for desperate measures. He was going to run himself into the ground at this rate, but I didn’t want to put anything else on his plate.
My own was full of community service appearances to remind the city of all the good I’d done and would continue to do when Treason got elected. His numbers were improving, so it was working, but we weren’t out of the woods yet. That was the sole reason Sloane stood in my kitchen while Danielle and the cameraman had a sidebar in the living room. Part of repairing my image also meant repairing Sloane’s, too.
I wasn’t in the mood for either of them today, but I had to pretend like there wasn’t a baby pressing on my bladder underneath my pant suit. It was becoming harder to hide. It felt like once I decided to keep the baby, I woke up with a ball under my shirt. Treason welcomed every change, while the fluctuating hormones made me extremely self-conscious.
“Is it time to go yet?” Sloane yelled, interrupting Danielle’s conversation.
“Almost,” Danielle replied, not even looking up.
“This is taking up a lot of my time for something I’m not getting paid for,” Sloane fussed.
“What else do you have to do?” I asked.
Sloane, accompanying me to the Women’s League meeting, felt more like Fallon setting me up than helping the campaign.
“Alright, we’re ready. Navie, enter from the hallway and transition to a normal mother-daughter conversation.”
