Water Gate Hotel, Henry, 2014
My phone dinging breaks the deafening silence that has filled this hotel suite. I look over to Jessica, who is holding it in her hand. It must have been given to her when it was taken from me at the White House. The lump in my throat forms again. I see Jessica's rage as she scans the text I received. Her eyes narrow when she looks at me.
"Stevie, Jason, can you guys go in the other room, please?" they don't need to be here for this argument. Stevie looks at me, silently challenging my order. I shake my head at her and point toward the door. She looks dejected now, but gets up anyway.
"What did she say." I ask pointedly, there is no reason to drag this out.
"She wants to know if you can call." There is an edge to her body language that I've never seen before. She puts her hand out, trying to hand the phone to me.
"No." I keep it simple.
"Henry, I don't think you realize that you are not in charge." Her eyes grow a raging fire.
"I'm not going to do it." She does a once over of the room with her eyes and then draws her weapon.
"Henry, call her." My hands go up in surrender and I take the phone, as I remember my kids in the next room.
White House, Russel, 2014
My head is pounding. I don't know what to do from here. The Presidents hasn't let me out of his sight. We've been locked in his tiny private office. He is sitting in his chair leaned back, like he doesn't have a care in the world. Which is not something I understand, I have many cares right now. How do I keep this innocent woman alive? What if he decides that her family knows too much, too? What happens to my career? What will my wife think? Will Carol know that I absolutely did not know any of this about Conrad Dalton?
The National Mall, Elizabeth, 2014
Please ring. I'm staring at my phone waiting for, at the very least a text saying he can't. Isobel is watching me, I can tell. She is trying to make polite conversation with some staffer outside the Capitol. But really she's watching me stare helplessly at my phone willing it to ring. When it does, I nearly drop it.
"Henry." I hear the desperate relief in my voice. That nearly covers his shaky intake of breath.
"Hey, babe." It's his high voice, the one that usually means he's lying or covering something up. My hackles go up.
Water Gate Hotel, Henry, 2014
The gun pointed at me drives this conversation. As much as I want to tell her to run, I can't. I can't risk being shot while, my kids are in the next room.
"What did you want to talk about?" I try to keep my voice even for Jessica, but put enough desperation in it that Elizabeth will know something is wrong.
"Oh, um, the timeline has moved up dramatically. I want to… Um. I was wondering if I could see the kids before, I testify on national television." She didn't get it. She doesn't sense the danger. I look at Jessica, who is nodding.
"Sure." I fight through the lump in my throat.
"Great, where do you want to meet?" My heart brakes, as Jessica mouths here.
I mumble off the address and exchange pleasantries. Wanting so badly to tell her not to come, that it's a trap.
"Good job. It may not seem like it, but I love you so much Henry." She takes the phone back and holsters her gun.
Fuck you, I think.
The National Mall, Elizabeth, 2014
Something is wrong. Something is so very wrong. It's like I'm Peter Parker and the Spidey Senses are tingling. But maybe it's even stronger than that. It is stronger than that, and I realize. It's maternal. It's been so long, but I know that they're in trouble.
"Where do you want to meet?" I ask him. I stand as he rattles off the address.
"Izzy!" I yell over to her. I must sound more frantic than I planned because she quickly leaves her conversation and does a light jog over to me.
"What?" Her face is full of worry, matching everything I'm feeling.
"They set a trap."
"We knew they were going to." She's right, we did. And we had decided that we wouldn't fall for it. But it's different now.
"They have Henry and the kids." I can tell that she knows that this changes our original plan. She knows there will be nothing that can stop me.
"Okay, but we can't do it completely blind."
"They're at the Water Gate." She looks amused.
"Ah, like that place needed another scandal."'
The Water Gate Hotel, Stevie, 2014
"Hey, guys." My Dad knocks on the door of the room we were sent to.
"I need you guys to go down to room 308." He hands me a key card.
"Why?" Jason pipes up.
"I just need you to." I feel a shiver run down my spine as my father looks at us like it is the last time he will ever see us. Because I know, deep in my bones that if it came down to it, my dad would die for my mother.
"Daddy?" Tears fill my eyes.
"Everything's going to be okay. I love you all so much. Please take your siblings and go." I nod, out of options just like him.