Chapter 3

Karen sat with her younger brother in his nursery. She noticed how little time her mother spent with him over the past two days.

"I promise to always take care of you," she whispered against his head.

She heard the door opened and in walked Fitz smiling at the sight. A flashback of Mellie sitting on the floor with Karen as a baby entered his mind. He quickly shook the memory away.

"Hey Kare," he said.

"Hi dad," she greeted. Fitz kissed her cheek and sat next to her. He took Teddy out of her arms.

"How's my boy doing?" he asked. Fitz smiled when Teddy started making noises. He heard Karen laugh.

"I never get tired of hearing you laugh," he said. His eyes softened a bit. "I am sorry at how I acted toward you and your brother the last time. I wasn't myself."

"No you weren't," she replied while focusing on Teddy.

Fitz went silent for a few minutes. "Your mother told me the real reason of this visit."

"And?" she pressed.

"Your mom and I will take care of any situation that arises."

She sighed frustrated. "Why?"

"Why what?" he asked.

"Why did you even have us if you two hated each other? What was the point of having Teddy in the midst of this madness? No one asked us if we wanted to go to boarding school. We were just shipped off like we didn't matter."

He couldn't go into details about the reason behind Teddy's conception. "We don't hate each other."

"It's not like you love each other," she shot back.

"Karen, people sometimes grow apart but your mother and I don't hate each other," he reiterated.

"So you turn to a mistress," she blurted.

His eyes narrowed. "Karen," he warned.

She stood up growing more frustrated by the minute. "What? I know you and mom are just lying. Your marriage is shot and you pretend to be this stupid perfect family. That's pretty hard to do without your kids but who cares as long as you have my baby brother to show off to the world."

"Karen Grant, that's enough," he said calmly.

She shook her head. "Not even close."

Mellie walked in. "What's going on?" she asked. "I can hear yelling right outside the door."

"Ask dad," she said taking Teddy out of his arms. "I'll take him. At least he can't be tainted for a while."

She brushed past Mellie and Fitz was on the receiving end of Mellie's glare. "Fitz, what happened?"

He rubbed his forehead. "We got into an argument."

"Over what?" she questioned. Her eyes widened. "Tell me Olivia's name did not come up."

"No but she brought up a mistress and also the fact that we sent them to boarding school. Something I never wanted to do by the way."

"It was the best thing for them Fitz. We wanted a good education for them," she countered.

"No. I wanted them with us. It was you who couldn't stand to be a mother to them longer than necessary."

"Don't put this on me," Mellie said her voice rising. "You had one job. Reassure them that we would take care of everything. You can't even do that right."

"I did reassure her. She wants answers neither of us want to give," Fitz said.

Mellie let out a sigh. "I'll talk to her." She stormed out the room and went to Karen's room. It was empty. She went to Jerry's room.

He was sitting with Teddy on his lap. "Jerry, have you seen your sister?"

He didn't respond at first and she knew her daughter was up to something. "Jerry?"

"I don't know where she is. She gave me Teddy then ran back out. She wouldn't tell me anything."

"If you're covering-

"I swear," he interrupted.

Mellie quickly went to Fitz's office. He was talking to Cyrus. "Fitz, we have a problem."

"We do have a problem Mellie," Cyrus said. "Either Fitz admits to an affair on national television or that woman is going to the press blowing this whole thing up."

One more thing to deal with. She had other things to focus on right now. "I need to talk to Fitz. Alone."

Cyrus looked between the two. "Either you fix it or I will." He closed the door behind him.

"Fitz, Karen's gone."

"What do you mean gone?" he asked thinking she was deliberately egging him.

"Karen took Teddy to Jerry's room and she took off," Mellie said.

Fitz jumped out of his seat. "She was just-

"I know. Just find her. She couldn't have gone far," Mellie said. Fitz got on his phone and alerted secret service.

Mellie started to pace. "Where would she go?"

Karen didn't know why she ended up on this doorstep. This early visit was not in the plans and she knew she should have turned around. She glanced at the secret service newbie. He was going to get in trouble and she felt bad. She stared at the door debating to knock. The more she thought about her situation the angrier she became. She knocked on the door.

The door opened. "May I help you?"

"Hi. You must be Olivia. I'm Karen Grant. May I come in?"