"Answer me Mellie!" Fitz demanded. "Why are you working with Sally?"

Sally pursed her lips and crossed her arms as she waited for Mellie to give an answer. For the first time in a long time, Mellie was speechless. Mellie's non-answer made Fitz narrow his eyes at her. Mellie cleared her throat, "Fitzgerald. I was simply politely asking Sally to not harp on our family dilemmas as the basis for attacking your competency to be a good president."

Sally knew that Mellie was a good liar and even believed what she'd just said. Sally looked at Fitz. "And I Mister President was informing your wife that politics are cutthroat and nothing is off the table."

Fitz didn't believe either one of them. "I have a meeting to get to." He didn't wait for either one of them to respond. On his way to his meeting, he caught a glimpse of Hollis out ofthe corner of his eye. Now he knew something was going on and wanted to know what scandal they were orchestrating. Fitz called out to Cyrus—who was coming in his direction— "Cyrus, do me a favor and cancel my meeting."

Cyrus stuttered out, "But you need to start scouting candidates for VP. This meeting was one of those candidates."

"Cyrus, do as I say. If he still wants to be considered for VP, then he won't mind rescheduling."

"Is there something going on Mr. President?" he asked

"I need to spend some time with my kids before they go back to school." Fitz waited until Cyrus was gone to pull Tom to the side. "I need you to do something for me."

"Anything Mr. President."

"I need you to talk to Hal about what Mellie is hiding. I know how chummy they are with one another."

"Yes sir, Mr. President."

Fitz went to Lauren's desk, "Lauren, could you assist with getting me an extremely discreet divorce lawyer? I don't want Cyrus involved." Lauren was internally beaming at the fact that he was finally divorcing Mellie.

"Of course sir. I'll look into it now."

####################################

Quinn was surprised that Olivia allowed her to babysit Ivy alone. Olivia was currently meeting up with her former neighbors (Mrs. Delaney and Mr. SIdarthur), David, and Abby. Harrison and Huck were looking into Verna's past and Rip and JoJo were secretly investing Cyrus' shady dealings.

Quinn was helping Ivy with a floor puzzle. "Are you ready for school to start?"

Ivy shrugged, "I guess."

Quinn knew something was off and gently touched her cheek. "What's wrong pretty girl? You're usually much happier than this."

Ivy looked up at Quinn, "Does mommy ever get scared?"

"Why do you ask?"

Ivy nibbled on her lip, "When I get scared, I always have my mom and Ms. JoJo. Who's going to help my mommy when she gets scared if I'm at school?"

Quinn smiled slightly, "I'll make you a deal. You have the best time of your life at school and I will personally keep your mom safe when she gets scared."

Ivy held her fist out and said "Knuckles to knuckles? It's just like a pinky promise."

Quinn smiled and pounded her little fist. "Knuckles to knuckles."

The doorbell rang and Quinn went to answer it. On the other side of the door was the same neighborhood kids that were just at Ivy's party. A little girl beamed up at Quinn. "Hi. Can Ivy come out to play? All our moms said it was okay to ask." Quinn was wary about deviating from Olivia's instructions but figured that it would be alright if she watched them.

Quinn responded, "How about I come outside with you guys and we all go play soccer?" The kids quickly agreed and Quinn called out to Ivy. While Quinn supervised the kids, she made sure to keep an awareness of her surroundings. Unfortunately, she didn't see Charlie perched in a tree taking photos of her and Ivy.

##############################

Mr. Sidarthur saw Olivia approaching them and stood up to hug her. "It's been a long time pretty lady."

Olivia hugged him back and moved on to hug Mrs. Delaney. "It's good to see the both of you again."

Mrs. Delaney asked, "Is there something wrong Olivia?"

Olivia nodded, "Yes but we're waiting for two more people." As if on cue, Abby and David walked into the quiet restaurant and saw Olivia waiting for them.

Mrs. Delaney narrowed her eyes, "Now what are you doing here Mr. Rosen?"

David cleared his throat, "I'm not entirely sure."

Olivia sat up straighter in her chair, "I called all of you here because there is a situation going on and there is an innocent person caught in the middle."

David rolled his eyes, "Last time I checked, no one around you is ever innocent Olivia."

Mr. Sidarthur got irritated, "Young man, don't piss me off. I don't know who you are but you're not gonna talk to her like that in front of me. I'll kick your ass from here to Beijing. Mind your manners and keep your mouth shut." David gulped and kept his mouth shut. "Olivia, keep talking."

Olivia let out a deep breath, "David, I know why you were sent to start digging around my past. I know that you didn't do it of your own volition and that someone put a battery in your back. Yes, I have a daughter but she is not Edison's. I've never been pregnant by Edison. Our relationship was fine until I accepted his proposal. Once I became his fiancé, he became very controlling and abusive. The night he nearly killed me, I fought him with everything I had and only got away because I stabbed him. Edison is a demon in sheep's clothing. I wronged him by leaving, so him going after my daughter would be his revenge. He knows that if he rips her away from me then he would be successful in breaking me all the way down. The sister of my late boyfriend asked me to be her surrogate. I agreed and she passed away when our daughter was one month old. Biologically, she isn't mine or Edison's. Legally, she is mine."

David was shocked, "Olivia, I had no idea."

"Of course you didn't. You never even thought to ask. You—just like everyone else—assumes that Edison is the innocent nice guy. In reality, he's a violent psychopath."

David felt awful, "What can I do to help?"

Abby interjected, "What can you do? You can get off your ass and make this custody hearing go away."

"Even if wanted to, I couldn't without giving a plausible reason. A plausible reason could make this whole ordeal even more dangerous for the child."

"Then stall" Abby demanded.

Mrs. Delaney looked across the table at Olivia. "Olivia, sweetheart."

Olivia looked at David, "Who did it? Who set this in motion."

David leaned over and whispered into her ear, "Sally Langston."

Olivia's eyes widened and she gave a knowing glance to Abby. She wanted to change the topic before her former neighbors started asking questions. She looked at the both of them, "I may need your help."

They both responded, "Anything you need."

Olivia stuttered, "I don't want you to feel like you have to say yes—"

Mr. Sidarthur stopped her, "We will help you. No matter what it is."

Olivia willed the tears away, "Edison is not going to stop. I don't have much family but if anything were to happen to me—"

"Liv" Abby said softly.

Olivia kept talking, "I just want her to experience sort of having grandparents. My father is a strong no and my mother is gone. Her dad's family is gone as well."

"You don't even have to ask" replied Mr. Sidarthur.

Mrs. Delaney asked, "Can we meet her?"

#######################################

"Son of a bitch" JoJo groaned out as she rubbed her sore knee. "Rip, where the hell are you and what is all this?"

Rip's head popped up from behind a large stack of folders. "I found out something about Hollis."

"That the reason you told me to haul ass over here?"

"Yeah." he pointed to a file. "Look at this."

"What am I looking at Rip?" she asked.

"This is a memo that proves he was warned about what fracking would do in those towns."

"Okay" JoJo said. "He's a gremlin. What else is new?"

"This memo was sent before he got the order signed giving him the go ahead. Look at who is BCC'd on it."

JoJo looked closer at the memo and saw that Verna Thornton was the BCC email. "Why would Verna be a part of this? She knows nothing about Texas."

Rip scoffed, "Why would anyone be in bed with Hollis? He had something on her. Something damning enough to put her under his thumb."

"Are we going to tell Olivia?"

Rip shook his head no. "She's dodging Edison right now."

"Keeping this from her—letting her hear it from someone else—is gonna destroy whatever trust she has in you. Don't lie—even by omission—to her…not if you're trying to be with her."

"Then, we'll take it to her people at OPA."

"Rip" JoJo warned. "Verna is dead and there are whispers that she was trying to meet with an AG. You sure you want to get further into this?"

"This involves Olivia and Ivy. Yes, I want to do whatever it takes to keep them safe."

"Let me ask you this. What if Olivia's hands are dirtier than we think?" JoJo challenged.

"I don't care how dirty her hands may be. I'm still going to protect her."

JoJo smirked, "Seems like you and the President have more in common than you think."

"Bite your tongue."

They headed to OPA and divulged the information to Huck and Harrison. Harrison stated, "There are some people that believe that Verna was murdered. Maybe this is why. We'll run it by Liv."

"Where is she?" Rip asked.

"Working" was the only answer Huck gave.

"What did you guys find out?"

Huck and Harrison shared a look before Harrison stated, "We believe that Cyrus Beene's husband, James Novak, found out about the election rigging. I assume the two of you already know this?" JoJo and Rip nodded in agreement, so he kept talking. "He's made three trips, within 3 months, to Defiance, Ohio. On the first trip, he was there for only 24 hours—presumably trying to figure out where to begin. The second time, he interviewed a few of the people working at the poll stations. His last trip was going through each election box and testing his theory with some local computer programmers."

JoJo shook her head, "He didn't tell Cyrus. Cyrus is too much of a control freak and would've blown a gasket by now. The better question is why?"

"Election rigging directly implicates Cyrus. I mean they were all on the same team with this. Cyrus, Verna, Hollis, Mellie, and…Olivia. The only one in the dark was Fitz." Rip said. "I still don't think that's why Verna is dead."

"Why not?" Harrison asked.

Rip responded, "Because everyone involved would be a target. If Verna was killed by Hollis, then there's no way she would've been the only one. He would've already set in motion the deaths of everyone involved."

"He won't have the President assassinated" Harrison argued.

JoJo shook her head, "You drastically underestimate what a man like Hollis is willing to do to get his way."

"Quinn proves that." Huck murmured. "He set her up to cover up their tracks. She'd be dead or rotting in prison if Liv hadn't saved her. I think they're right. I don't think that Hollis had a hand in Verna dying. I've got an idea. JoJo, I need you to come with me." Rip and JoJo left OPA quickly.

Harrison turned to Huck, "We didn't tell them about the President being involved because?"

Huck shrugged, "Just because they know Liv doesn't mean I trust them enough to tell them everything."

"We—and Liv—trusted them with Ivy."

Huck's eyes narrowed, "I…don't…trust…anyone…with…Olivia's…heart!"

Huck's computer started pinging. He went into his office and started furiously typing around. He yelled out to Harrison. "Harrison, get in here."

"What's the problem?"

"Either he's getting sloppy or I'm just that good—"

"Who are you talking about?"

"Charlie. Cyrus hired him for another job and I was able to hack into his phone using a botnet, mirrors, and—"

"Please get to the point" Harrison stated impatiently.

"Cyrus hired Charlie to follow someone."

"Who? Is it Liv?" he asked already grabbing his jacket.

Huck kicked his chair back and grabbed his gun. "No…Ivy. Call Quinn from the car."

Huck sent a text to Nyla. {GET TO OLIVIA'S HOUSE NOW!}