Page 190 of 7+Us Makes Nine

“No. I’m not going to do that to Camilla.”

“Merritt, get serious. We’re not in the kindergarten and playing games. This can seriously damage your career. Your own party can go against you if they want. They are not going to bail you out of this.”

“I know that, Marissa. Goddamn it! Don’t treat me like I’m some idiot.”

“Well, excuse me for being brutally honest now, but you acted like one when you started seeing that woman.”

“Careful, Marissa,” I growled. “You’re crossing the damn line now.”

“I know, but what do you want me to do? Congratulate you and pat you on your back? As I said, the smartest thing for you would be to say that she seduced you and that you weren’t in your right mind when you hooked up with her. Say that you regret everything and that you’ll make sure she’s fired—”

“No. Absolutely not. I don’t care what you or the rest of the PR team says. I’d rather fire all of you than do that to Camilla. Understand? So don’t push it, because I’m seconds away from giving the whole team the sack.”

She let out an exasperated sigh, clearly annoyed with me. “You know you can’t do that. You would breach the contract and then you’d have to pay—”

“I don’t care about that. So you better watch your mouth from now on.”

“You don’t care about that? Are you aware of the negative publicity that stunt would bring you? You don’t need that at this moment.”

I didn’t answer anything to that. I couldn’t when she was right.

I hit my fist on the mattress, feeling terribly powerless. This was exactly what I had wanted to avoid. How the hell did this happen?

I didn’t understand, because we had both agreed to keep it hush-hush. And the pictures were from Camilla’s phone. If she hadn’t sold them to that tabloid, then how did they get them? And isn’t that such a big coincidence? She took those pictures just a few days ago, and bam, we had this story today? On top of that, she was the one who had insisted on taking those photos.

Did she break the story? But why? I couldn’t quite comprehend why she would do that. Was this all just to get further in her career? Would this hurt her brother too? She cared about him. I thought she cared about us.

I needed to call her ASAP.

“I understand, but I won’t do anything that could harm Camilla. That’s not my style.”

“But you do realize she might not be as innocent as you think?”

“I know, but as I said, I won’t do anything to ruin her career, and that’s my final answer.”

“I see. Well, then we have to think of a damn good story. We can’t issue an official denial since they have your pictures. So we have to admit to it. You can say that you weren’t aware that she was an aide of another congressman.”

I snorted. This was getting more ridiculous by second. “And you think the public would buy it? They’re not stupid.”

“Then you can also say that it was something temporary and you deeply regret it. You fully understand the consequences of your actions and you’ll make sure not to repeat your mistake again. Until the end of the press conference, you’ll shift the attention to the bill that you passed recently. Emphasize how important it is and how much good it will bring to the citizens.”

“Then you’ll remind them of all the good decisions you’ve made so far and insist that you’ll continue to work your hardest for this country and the benefit of its people.”

“Yeah, I know the drill in these situations. You don’t have to

feed me with every single detail.”

“It doesn’t hurt to remind you. I will prepare the full statement by noon, and we can have the press conference at two. We need to do it before other media outlets break this news.”

“Fine. Whatever. But don’t put the blame on her in any case. Don’t even mention her.”

“I understand.”

“Good.”

I started tapping my fingers on my bed, anxious to finish with this call. I needed to call Camilla.

“Oh, and one more thing. You have to break all your contact with her immediately.”

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