Chapter Twenty-eight
Things happen fast when you’re the vice president of the United States and request a private meeting with the embattled president and his wife.
Sam hated having to go to the White House with her face looking the way it did, but with Nick under tremendous pressure to testify in the congressional hearings, they had to do it before the president ceded to calls for his resignation.
The meeting took place in the residence, which Sam had not seen before.
Per Nick’s request, it was only the four of them sitting in a parlor with a coffee service and tray of Danish on the table between them.
Sam had worn her sleekest light gray suit, a pink silk blouse and the Louboutins Nick had bought her for Christmas last year as well as the diamond key necklace he’d given her as a wedding gift and her diamond engagement ring that she only wore on special occasions.
A private meeting with the president and first lady in the White House residence counted as a special occasion in her world.
She had brought clothes to change into before she went to work.
“My goodness!” Gloria Nelson zeroed right in on the massacre on Sam’s face. “What happened?”
Overnight, the bruise had turned an angry purple color and her eye was completely swollen shut. She hoped her one working eye would be enough to gauge whether the Nelsons were telling the truth.
“A scuffle with someone who didn’t think he needed to be arrested,” Sam said, choosing fiction over fact. Her troubles with colleagues had been in the news often enough. She hoped to keep this latest incident under wraps.
“I so admire what you do.” Gloria poured coffee for each of them. She wore a tan suit and looked as if she’d stepped out of a beauty salon while Sam looked like the Bride of Frankenstein. “Especially with what’s been happening in the city lately. Are you any closer to an arrest in the shootings?”
“We’re closing in,” Sam said, keeping it brief. They weren’t there to talk about the case she needed to get back to.
“Thank you for meeting with us on short notice,” Nick said.
“It was the least we could do under the circumstances,” David Nelson said.
“We want you to know,” Gloria said, her voice quivering with emotion, “how sorry we are for what our son put you through. We’re appalled by the entire thing.”
“If you’ve come to ask me to resign,” the president said, “I’ll do it. I have no desire to put the country through a protracted scandal that’ll probably end badly for me anyway.”
“We haven’t come to ask you to resign,” Nick said. “We’d like to hear directly from you that you knew nothing about what your son was up to.”
“We didn’t,” Nelson said, looking Nick in the eye. “I swear on the lives of our grandchildren. We did not know.”
“Christopher has been a difficult child from the beginning,” Gloria said haltingly.
“We have five children, and we love them all, but he didn’t make it easy.
He was in and out of trouble, involved with drugs and kicked out of four schools.
His brother and sisters were high achievers, excellent students and athletes, college graduates.
He managed to graduate from law school, barely, and there were hushed allegations of cheating in school and that he paid someone to take the bar exam for him.
We’ve long believed that the so-called think tank he oversees is a front for illegal activity, but we could never prove it.
Until he was arrested and we found out what he’d been doing.
” A tear rolled down her cheek, and she brushed it away as if it infuriated her.
“We’re horrified by what he did. The threats against innocent children, the murder of Sam’s ex-husband, the things he got Nick’s mother to say… ”
The president took her hand and sent her a loving look.
“We did everything we could to get him the help he needed,” David said.
“He’s been to rehab so many times I’ve lost count.
He’s gone through at least twenty psychiatrists and been on a variety of medications that either made things worse or turned him into a zombie.
” He swallowed hard. “Despite all that, never in a million years did we think he was capable of the things he’s done. If we’d had any idea…” His voice broke.
“We would’ve intervened if we’d known,” Gloria said emphatically.
Sam glanced at Nick and saw that he was visibly moved by the Nelson’s story.
“I have one question,” Sam said.
“We’ll answer any questions you have,” David said.
“How did you keep his troubles private in the age of the twenty-four-hour news cycle?”
“I was a senator with a bright political future and four other children to think about. I buried it.”
His blunt words gave Sam new respect. While she didn’t agree with what he’d done, as a parent herself, she understood why. People went to extraordinary lengths to protect their children.
“Do you have other questions?” Nick asked Sam.
She shook her head. “I’ve heard what I need to, and I feel better knowing you both had no knowledge of what your son was doing.” That was the signal she’d worked out with Nick in advance so he’d know she believed them.
“Sam and I are going to issue a statement, letting the public—and the Congress—know that we’ve met with you and we believe you when you say you had no knowledge of your son’s schemes.”
David stared at him, appearing shocked. “Why would you do that?”
“Frankly, because I don’t wish to become president. Not now and not like this. However, there is something I do want.”
“Name it.”
“A seat at your table and a role in your administration beyond boosting your sagging approval ratings.”
Nelson had the good sense to look chagrined by the assertion that he’d sidelined his more popular vice president. “We can make that happen effective immediately.”
“Excellent. We’ll issue a statement today that’ll hopefully put an end to this madness so we can get back to doing the people’s business.”
“I… I don’t know what to say,” Nelson said.
“Say thank you, dear,” Gloria said.
Nelson stood and offered his hand to Nick. “You have my profound thanks and any role in my administration you wish to take on going forward.”
Nick rose to shake the president’s hand. “I’ll give that some thought and get back to you.”
“I’ll look forward to hearing from you.”
Sam shook their hands, and then preceded Nick to the door.
He took her hand and they walked silently through the hallways of the White House, with Brant following close behind them, until they reached Nick’s office.
Once inside with the door closed, he turned to her.
“I’m glad you believed them, because I did, too. ”
“Their ordeal didn’t begin with Christopher’s latest crimes,” Sam said. “As a parent, I feel for them.”
“How can a family have four great kids and one bad apple?”
“I don’t know, but hearing what they went through with him makes me thankful for our fantastic kid.”
He put his arms around her and kissed the uninjured side of her face. “Me, too. Will you still love me if I’m only going to be the vice president for the time being?”
“I love you more for being only the vice president. Thank God that monkey is off our backs.”
“It’s not yet, but it will be soon, and then the only monkey we’ll have left is the monkey sex.”
Sam laughed, and he kissed her gently, careful not to touch the side of her mouth that hurt.
She wished she had time to burrow into him and breathe in the endlessly appealing scent of home. “I need to get to work.”
They’d already put together the joint statement they would release now that they were confident about the president’s lack of culpability in his son’s crimes.
The gist of the statement, which they planned to give to Darren Tabor exclusively, was that the Cappuanos had met with the Nelsons, and the vice president and second lady believe the president and first lady when they say they had nothing to do with their son’s crimes.
They hope the president and Congress can get back to the important work on behalf of the American people.
“Let me give you a lift.” He summoned Brant and asked him to prepare to leave to get Sam to work.
“It’d be less complicated if you put me in a cab.”
“Maybe so, but I couldn’t go with you for the ride. This way, I can.”
“I do like the way you think, Mr. Vice President.”
“I like the way you do everything.”
Avery scored a lunchtime appointment with Rosemary.
After Shelby agreed to come with him, he’d wanted to get it done as soon as possible so they could hopefully get back on track.
He already felt better after talking to her the night before.
At least the problem was out in the open now, rather than festering like a wound that couldn’t be healed no matter how hard he tried.
As he drove them, Shelby texted with her sister, who was staying with Noah while they were gone. It was the first time she’d left the baby, and she’d been a hot mess about it. He hoped that wouldn’t derail the purpose of this outing.
“He’s fine, honey. Your sister is a professional mom.” Ginger had three teenagers. “You called in an expert.”
“I know.”
“Shelby.”
She glanced over at him. “What?”
“Stop texting her. She knows what to do, and she’ll call if she needs you.”
“Let me send this last one so she knows where the extra bottles are.”
“You left her with a week’s worth of breast milk. She won’t need extra bottles before we get back.”
“Are you making fun of me?” she asked, her tone tinged with amusement.
“Would I do that?”
“Yes, I believe you would.”
“Darlin’, that’d be mean.”
“Don’t unleash that accent on me. You know what it does to me.”
The tiny taste of normal made him hungry for more. Taking a chance, he reached for her hand, knocking the phone into her purse in the process.
“Smooth.”
“I try.” He held on to her hand until he had to release it to parallel park. “If I get out and come around to get you, will you check your phone while I’m outside?”
“Of course not. Why would I do that?”