"Excuse me. I'm looking for Olivia Pope."

Harrison turned around at the sound of someone speaking. "I'm one of her associates. What can OPA do for you?"

"I want to hire OPA."

"For?" Harrison prodded.

"To prove that someone murdered my mother. She was a judge."

Harrison quickly went to find Olivia, who was in her office going over other client files. "Liv, we've got a walk-in."

Olivia looked up. "Okay. Give me the details."

"He says that his mother was murdered and that she was a judge."

Olivia's brows scrunched together as she got up from her desk, "Um okay. Let's see what we're working with." Olivia walked up to the man and extended her hand. "Hello, I'm Olivia Pope. You think your mother was murdered?"

The man shook his head, "I know she was. I believe you knew my mother. You must have known her well enough to have her getting secret cancer treatment under your name. My mom was Verna Thornton."

Everyone at OPA's stomach dropped. Olivia cleared her throat, "Yes. I knew your mother. You are aware that your mother was dying from cancer?"

He nodded, "Look, I know my mother was far from a saint but she didn't deserve to die like that. She had a few more weeks to live but she somehow died that suddenly. I talked to the staff that were on her floor. My mother had some sort of secret visitor right before she died. The hospital wouldn't tell me who it was so I requested an autopsy. The autopsy revealed that she died from asphyxia, which made no sense because she was on oxygen. I think whoever visited my mother had something to do with her death."

"I'm not trying to minimize what you went through but how can you be so sure that she was murdered?"

"My mother called me 7 hours before she died. She apologized and told me that she needed to atone for something that she did, something that ruined someone's life. She told me that she'd changed her will and left everything to me. She said that she would be meeting with the Attorney General before her chemo treatment that day. She never got the chance to because she died and whatever she wanted to report died with her. Please Ms. Pope. I just want to know why someone killed my mother and what she was hiding."

Olivia gnawed on her lip, "Give us a moment please. Everyone in my office." Olivia closed the door behind them and leaned against it.

Harrison asked, "Are we taking the case?"

They all looked at Olivia while she looked at Quinn. "That's not up to me. Quinn. Are we taking on this case?"

Quinn played with her hands, "I hated Verna so much. She helped ruin my life. I don't want to help her with anything…but her son is innocent in all this. If he's right then someone that knows what happened and wanted to make sure that she kept her mouth shut. That list is relatively short. I think that we should get to the bottom of it. If Verna was murdered, then what's stopping someone from covering after Liv—or even me?"

Olivia nodded, "Okay. We're taking the case. Huck, look into security cameras all around Verna's hospital room. Abby, I need you to talk with David Rosen and see who she might've been meeting with. Harrison, I need you to get keys from her son and go to her house to find any type of clues or evidence to back up what he's saying. Quinn, I need you to reach out to your ex, Charlie, and see if Cyrus hired him to kill Verna. Let's get going people!"

A few hours later, Olivia was pacing the conference room floor when Huck found her. "Liv, I got something."

She was going to ask what he found but she saw the rest of the team walking it. "Hold that thought Huck. What does everybody have?"

"Cyrus didn't ask Charlie to kill Verna. Charlie says that Cyrus was plotting on Sally Langston and Hollis Doyle." Quinn said.

"She didn't leave much evidence around her house. I was able to find that she made a large donation of $700,000 to a non-profit named Tobra."

Olivia was surprised, "That's the non-profit I started in my mom and aunt's names."

She also made a hefty payment to Edison Davis. Not sure what it was for but she sent him $100,000. Here's the kicker. Her calendar had all these MG initials on it. I'm going to assume that she was meeting with the first lady twice a week for who knows what reason."

Abby was staring at her shoes, "David was the one she was going to meet with. He said that he didn't have all the specifics but that it included extortion and murder. He was confused as to why she wanted to meet so urgently."

Olivia looked at Huck, "What did you want to tell me Huck?"

"I went through all the footage and the last 30 minutes before she died, she had a visitor that is connected enough to already have the hospital turn off their cameras. I can only think of one person who has that kind of power and who was directly connected to Verna. The President."

"You guys think Fitz killed Verna? He's incapable of killing someone." Olivia defended.

Huck shrugged, "Anybody is capable of anything when pushed far enough. Maybe he has some secrets that you don't know about but Verna did."

"Well howdy there Ike and Mike." Hollis said as he jovially sat down on the bleacher behind them. JoJo and Rip were currently attending her son's soccer game.

JoJo scoffed, "What you want Doyle?"

"Is that any way to treat an old friend?"

"We're not friends. What do you want?"

Hollis patted a hand on Rip's shoulder and leaned forward "I want you to ease up on this pissing contest Rip."

"You're not fracking on my land Hollis. I didn't start this war, you did. Get your hand off me before I break it." Rip said.

"And I'll finish what I started" Hollis promised. "I'm gonna pour everything I got into Sally Langston. When we win, you'll be lucky if I still let you have the ranch."

"Let me?" Rip stood to his full height and stared at Hollis. "You want to handle this right now? It ain't nothing but space and opportunity between us."

Hollis chuckled, "I'm not going to fight you at my grandson's game. I'm not some country hillbilly that throws down for the hell of it. I will advise you that you've got a lot to lose Cartwright."

"Keep playing with me and you'll lose your life." Rip warned.

"Working for them Grants is gone backfire."

"So will working for Langston."

Hollis stood up to leave. "Sorry about your wife. She deserved better than you."

Rip was barely able to contain his rage. "I'm going to kill that guy."

JoJo stated, "Rip, we have to stay focused. Hollis going to jail doesn't satisfy me. We need to make sure our ducks are in a row before we get at him completely." JoJo looked at a text message that she just received from Olivia. She looked over at Rip. "You're about to find something out and you need to not judge Olivia for the choice she made."

Edison looked up at the two people seated across from him. He smiled. "Sally, First Lady, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

Sally twirled her hand around the rim of her water glass. "We're here for two different reasons but with the same common denominator. The one and only Olivia Pope."

Edison gritted his teeth and could barely contain his contempt at hearing her name. "What about Olivia?"

Mellie leaned forward, "What would be her undoing? She has a vice grip on Ripley Cartwright and my husband. I have my own plans that Olivia will derail. I need to bring her back down to Earth. Sally has her own reasons for wanting information on Olivia."

Edison looked at Sally, "Why do you want to destroy Olivia?"

Sally smirked, "If I steamroll her then in essence, I steamroll Fitzgerald Grant. My reason is very simple. Destroy the woman he loves and watch him all but give the presidency to me."

Edison leaned back in his chair, "She had a secret baby…our baby after she ran out on me. I have looked high and low but I can't find our child. Find my child and I'll stand behind and defend what I just told you. As of right now, it's merely a rumor until I confirm it." Both women agreed to find Olivia and Edison's alleged child.

There was a knock on Huck's office door, "Huck. I need a favor."

Huck turned around, "Of course Liv. Anything you need."

Olivia stepped into his office and closed the door. "I have a secret. I have a child."

Huck's eyes widened. "Why have you been hiding this?"

Olivia gnawed on her lip. "I don't even know where to begin. Before Mac died, we talked a lot about having kids. I knew that I didn't want a baby with Edison. When I left him, Mac's sister reached out to me. She had a lot of reproductive problems and didn't have the money to go through IVF. She desperately wanted a child and I wanted to have some sort of happiness in my life at that time. I agreed to be her surrogate. I left D.C. for 2 years—to experience a drama-free pregnancy as well as a safe delivery. Mac's sister, Ingrid, died from endocarditis when the baby was a month old. I never knew that her health was that bad. All she wanted was to be a mother. I've been raising Ingrid's daughter as my own. Well raising is a bit of a stretch since she isn't with me full-time. I found out that Edison had convinced himself that I ran off with our child. I didn't want her in danger so, I've been hiding her. She's been living mostly with my friend JoJo and her family. That's the reason why I leave D.C. so frequently. I leave so that I can spend time with her but I don't stay too long because I don't want to risk anyone finding out about her."

Huck was absorbing all the information, "What's her name? How old is she?"

Olivia pulled out her phone and showed him a picture. "Ivy is her name. She's almost 8."

"You've done well at keeping this secret. Why tell me now?"

Olivia was nervous. "I think that someone is looking for her. I don't know if it's my father or Edison. Gracie, JoJo's oldest daughter, said that someone has been lurking around their property and that Ivy saw a strange man at her school. I refuse to put JoJo's family in any further danger, so I want to bring Ivy here."

"You want to put your daughter into a safe house?"

"I've got a plan for that. No one will go looking for her at Rip's ranch."

"Are you gonna tell the others?"

Olivia shrugged, "I have to. She's going to be on a plane tomorrow."

"How are you going to tell Rip?"

She sighed, "I don't know."