Meanwhile, on the other side of Washington, another talk was taking place, and it did not have anything of the loving, encouraging effect of the first one on either of the two participants. The atmosphere was tense, heated almost to the boiling point, and neither one backed down, it was as though they were waiting for the escalation.

"Did you really swallow that pitiful heap of shit she sold you, Nate?"

"She sold it pretty convincing, General. I don't think I paid too much for it."

"Do you now? What about that deal back at the confirmation hearings? I don't remember giving you any reason to break it."

"And I don't recall extending it to a scenario in which you turn into a criminal."

"You did buy her story! What did she do, squeeze a tear out of those huge brown eyes of hers? Have you join her huge circle of sexual entertainers?"

"I find this kind of talk disgusting, General. What she told me and what I chose to believe is absolutely none of your business."

"Disgusting, eh? And since when are you the official protector of the high road?"

"I'm warning you, General. Don't mess with me. I might have a higher back-stabbing-tolerance than she does, but that doesn't mean I am willing to play along with everything."

"So you're going to be on her side in this? Come on!"

"No, General, I will be on nobody's side. I feel no desire to get involved. But if I am forced to choose a side, then yes, I will choose hers. I want to beat her in a moment of strength, not like this. I want her to die on a hill that I chose."

"Then we have nothing to say to each other."

"Indeed we don't, General. I suggest you leave my office and never come back again."

Once the door closed behind the former Vice President, the Speaker leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes and enjoying the subtle scent of the old leather for a short moment.

"The truth, Mr Speaker? What makes you think that what I'm about to tell you us the truth, and not what I want you to believe?"

He chuckled. She was incorrigible, and he liked that. It made her a worthy opponent.

"I trust your absolute and almost self-destructive need to be honest and truthful even when it is to your own disadvantage, Madame President. In fact, that is one of the very few things in this town I rely on. At least more than on the weather report."

She shook her head and shared his smile for a few seconds.

"Are you sure you want to know this? You can still have the Vice Presidency, you know."

"I have no desire for it, Ma'am. The truth, on the other hand, is always a desirable good."

She sighed.

"Well, Nathan, it seems like I'm trapped then."

"It certainly does Ma'am. I suggest you just spit it out. What did he do? Drugs? Prostitutes? A coup d'état?" He chuckled at his own joke, a bad habit that every powerful person seemed to develop over time and that he had despised and sworn he would never do back when he was young, but he soon stopped when he noticed that she hadn't joined him. She hadn't even cracked a half-smile out of politeness.

"Ma'am? Is everything alright?"

She shook her head.

"Of course not. Nothing's right. It's not right that I tell you before anyone from my family knows. It's not right that I have to blackmail him into keeping his silence over something he should never have done. It's not right that it's gonna be dragged out in the open just because of who I am."

"What should he never have done, Ma'am?"

She was shaking her head, probably mentally berating herself for having made this deal, or maybe frowning upon the whole situation, he could not really tell.

"He should never have put a knife to my throat to keep me silent while he raped me right here on my desk."

He could feel his jaw drop. She had to be kidding him.