Chapter Twenty

"Good morning Ms. Lockhart, Mr. Gold has already asked about you," Eli's secretary greeted Diane anxiously Monday morning.

"Good morning, Nora," Diane responded with a calm smile, not letting the younger woman's mood affect her.

Their stressful Saturday night had been followed by a relaxing Sunday and it almost felt like they'd managed to put the unfortunate events behind them. They'd grounded both kids for a week, so they would learn from their mistake, and make sure something like that would never happen again. And Marissa had promised to tell her dad, so Diane entered her campaign manager's office assuming Eli already knew everything.

"Good morning, Eli," she greeted him rather cheerfully, although she saw right away that he wasn't in the best mood.

"Hope you're ready for damage control," Eli skipped the formalities, jumping straight to the point.

"I thought the ball was a success," Diane stared at him confused.

"Too bad you forgot to tell me about the rest of your night," Eli noted angrily, which confused Diane even more.

"Will you tell me what's going on?" she demanded an explanation.

"Read it for yourself," Eli handed her his iPad with an article open on the screen the title of which already pissed Diane off.

Attorney General Candidate Diane Lockhart's family isn't so perfect after all

As Diane began reading she felt her anger rise line by line. Even though there was some truth in most statements, they twisted them in a way that made them sound a lot worse. What hurt the most wasn't the questioning of her ability to fulfill the duties of the future office, but that they questioned her as a mother and got her kids involved. If it was a paper and not an expensive device in her hand, she would have thrown it at the wall or in the journalist's face who wrote the article.

"How dare they?" she burst out once she was done reading and she was grateful Eli took his iPad back straight away.

"Is any of it true?" he asked.

"Some of it is," she admitted, not that it made anything better. "Didn't Marissa tell you about the party?" she questioned him. The party seemed to be the core of the article, probably because that was one of the few facts they were able to rely on, but they used it well to fabricate the rest of the story.

"Did she have something to do with that?" he caught up rather fast and Diane realized she had to be the one telling him now.

"It was her idea," she confirmed, not that it made anything better. She didn't want to use Marissa as a scapegoat, the blame fell on whoever talked to a reporter about what happened in their house Saturday night.

"I'm going to kill her," Eli hit the table with his hand angrily.

"Both my kids were working on the campaign last week, couldn't they write about that? Or maybe they would have twisted that too and said I'm forcing them to work against their will."

The depressing feeling of nothing she did was good enough hit Diane all of a sudden when a knock on the door interrupted them.

"Not now," Eli shouted, but the door opened anyway, and Nat peeked in.

"I'm sorry, but there's something you need to see right now, our neighbor is on TV talking about us."

Eli added volume on the TV that was on in the background, they just hadn't paid attention to the screen.

Diane's unvoiced question was answered as she glanced at the screen. She had to think of the cake they wasted yesterday to go with their apology. Apparently the woman was more interested in making some money selling them out. Diane didn't understand how she could do this to them. Maybe they weren't the best neighbors, but it's not like their children threw a party every weekend. And their parenting techniques were really non of her business.

At the first offensive comment about her children Diane approached her son. She decided she'd heard enough already.

"Come with me," she instructed him and lead them to her office quickly, then closed the door behind them.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have let you work here," she addressed Nat, who seemed just as outraged as Eli.

"I would have heard about this at home all the same. I have you on google alert you know. It's all our fault anyway." He looked guilty and it only made Diane hate the whole situation more. He shouldn't have blamed himself, when it really wasn't their fault. They made a mistake, and already got punished for it.

"No it isn't. You may have broken my rules, but they are making a bigger deal of this than it is. And bringing up the past was a low blow."

The article referred to a birthday party from years ago, that had gotten a little out of hand. Diane still remembered that incident like it had been yesterday, but she was surprised their neighbor did too. They shouldn't have left the babysitter alone with so many kids, but there had been an emergency in the office, so they had a choice to make. Needless to say they had learnt from that mistake.

"You have always been amazing parents, we are so lucky. I'll tell this to any reporter," Nat offered, and even though Diane appreciated his words, she didn't want him to be involved in this any more than he already was.

"You are not talking to any reporter, leave that to Eli and me," she warned him, raising her voice so he knew she was being serious.

"Do you think dad has read it already?"

Diane wished her husband wouldn't read the article at all, no matter how impossible that wish sounded. The things it said about their marriage also pissed her off, even though or especially because there wasn't much truth in them. The assumption that Diane was running for office to get away from their firm was rather ridiculous.

"He would have called if he had," she sighed. She wasn't looking forward to dealing with Will's anger too, but at least she knew she wasn't alone in this. "He must be in court or in a meeting. I'll call him. You just stay at your computer, don't talk to anyone beside the staff, understood?"

"Of course, you don't have to worry about me," Nat reassured her and Diane hugged him protectively.

"We both love you and your sister very much. You two are the best thing that happened to us," she whispered and felt tears forming in her eyes, so she quickly let go. She didn't want her son to see her cry.

"I love you too," Nat mumbled with a flustered smile.

o-o-o

When Diane found out Will was in court she was sure it meant he hadn't heard the news yet. She wanted to be the one telling him, so she got into her car to drive to the courthouse. Seeing the reporters in front of the building made her stomach turn. She didn't suppose they were there to interview her husband, they hadn't shown up at her campaign headquarters yet either, there had only been a few phone calls related to the article.

She texted Will that she was in the garage and needed to talk to him as soon as possible. She also warned him not to talk to any reporters. When long minutes passed without him replying she realized how stupid it was to just drive there. It's not like Will could leave the courtroom anytime he pleased. She should have stayed with Eli and take part in damage control.

But it somehow felt good to be alone. Her office phone wasn't ringing, Eli wasn't knocking on her door every second. The garage's peaceful atmosphere was exactly what she needed right now. It was only disturbed by occasional footsteps and cars coming and leaving once in a while.

The longer she waited the more comfortable she got with hiding. Maybe that was exactly what she needed, to be completely alone for an hour or two. She texted Will again that she had to leave and she would call him later.

And before she realized it she'd already driven out of town.