Chapter 23
CHAPTER 23
Lillian
T ell Charlie good luck! I got my eyes on the tally, can’t wait to have a brother-in-law in Congress!!!
I grin down at my phone. It’s a message from Amber. I kind of wish she were here helping me get ready, but it’s okay. She got out of Shade Valley, and I think that’s for the best. I didn’t even know she was planning to go to college out of state, but hey! More power to her.
For the first time, she’s living on her own. Charlie set her up with everything she needed, and now she’s far from me. When I think about it, I get anxious, but they both told me, in their own ways, that she needs to be free to protect herself now.
I want her to be strong.
I guess I need to give her the chance.
“Almost ready?” Anne’s voice calls impatiently.
“I’ll be right there!” I call back from the bathroom. I’m fixing diamond studs into my ears, gifts from Charlie, and looking into my eyes in the mirror.
Are we really here?
The road to November is up, and by the end of the night, we’ll know if Charlie got the seat or not. No one on the team is worried. Of course, anything can go wrong at the last moment, but there’s an air of confidence floating around. The bottles of champagne are chilled and ready.
Only I know what can go wrong. Scandal can still rock us, and it’ll all be my fault.
Over the weeks since Charlie confronted me, I’ve been getting attacks of sickness at the mere thought of the blackmailer. But I haven’t been able to mention it to him, and he’s returned to his usual self, sparing no opportunity to tease me.
He was cold for a time, and I thought that night meant nothing to him.
I guess he was just preoccupied.
He said he’d handle it. Did he?
I’m eaten up with guilt over jeopardizing the campaign, which is funny. I hadn’t ever second-guessed myself about my father.
Charlie gave me a reason to.
I step out in my skirt suit, fluffing my loose waves, and stumble into?—
“Charlie!” I gasp.
“Came to get ya. What are you doing in there? You want to make us late on my big day?” He steps closer to me, forcing me back into the bathroom.
“You want to make us late, apparently!” I huff, not in the mood for his games for once.
“What’s wrong?”
I frown at him and look up, exasperated.
“Aren’t you worried?”
“About what?” His face is blank innocence. He can’t think of a thing to be concerned about.
I peek past him and out the bathroom. He closed the door behind him, and that makes me want to slug him. He came to fool around! I groan with frustration.
“What is it?” He chuckles, grabbing me by the arms and shaking me. “Lillian, look at me.”
“Aren’t you worried about the blackmailer?” I whisper, hearing a whine creep into my voice.
“That’s what you want to talk about?” he asks with a sigh, and his jaw tightens. “If you’re going to make faces all evening, I don’t have any way out of this, do I?”
“Charlie, I’ve been worried. You really aren’t?”
“Not really.”
I wait for him to clarify what he means.
“You’re so pretty,” he says instead.
“Charlie, take this seriously!”
“Right, right. Okay.” He takes a deep breath and launches into it, leveling with me. “Remember your neighbor, the one you stayed with? She’s the one with the loose lips telling stories about your past.”
“What stories?” I ask, bewildered. Did she know? How could she have?
“Doesn’t matter. She stopped. I told her to ignore any other people coming around and asking questions about you.”
“Did she know?—”
“No, she wasn’t the blackmailer. It was…” he struggles for the right word. “A jealous ex-girlfriend thing.”
“Thing?”
“She wasn’t my girlfriend. She was more like a pet.”
“What?” I want to cover my face with my hands, but I’m wearing makeup, and I don’t have time to reapply. “Okay, whatever, you had a pet, and she wanted to expose me?”
“Right.” His face drops the play, and he looks me in the eye. “But don’t worry. I killed her,” he confides in a low voice.
“Charlie, what?”
“Just kidding,” he says, just as solemnly. “Lillian, let’s be serious.”
Before I can blow my top, he launches into another explanation.
“I left Lottie on her own years ago, and she festered into something else. I needed to kill that part of her. She’s still a good girl beneath that, I know. It was the neglect, being away from me, all that. I skimmed that off the surface, and now we just need to start again.”
Lottie? I frown as I listen to him, not finding it too hard to believe. If I were suddenly ripped away from Charlie, I don’t know what I would do. I reach for his hands at the thought, and he gives me a warm squeeze.
“Start again how?” I ask quietly. “She’s just going to keep her mouth shut? How’d you kill?—”
“We don’t have a lot of time for these questions,” he says quickly, cutting me off.
“Whose fault is that?” I shoot back.
“I’ll tell you everything later. What you need to know now is that I need your help.”
“Yes?” My eyebrows knit together in confusion as I try to figure out where he’s going with this. “With Lottie?”
“Yes. She’s not my pet anymore, but she’s going to be your pet.”
“ My pet? Charlie?—”
“I already have a pet.” He strokes my hair, looking at me affectionately.
It doesn’t work.
“I don’t want a pet! That’s so creepy! I don’t even know her!”
He takes another deep breath and nods.
“I know this is my fuck up. I thought about killing her outright, but you getting exposed like that was my fault. I want to make it up to you both.”
For the first time, Charlie looks uncomfortable. I open my mouth to speak, but he goes on.
“Think about the path we’re on. You can’t always be by my side anymore. After tonight, I’ll be around less and less, and I don’t want you to…” Whatever he wants to say, he can’t find the words this time. “Lottie can be with you instead. You can do what you want with her. She’ll be there to watch over you, keep you company when I can’t. I don’t know. Go shopping? Amber’s not around anymore, so?—”
“What about you?” I ask, bristling.
“What about me?”
“Will she keep you company, too?”
“No, she’s your pet. Unless you two want to send me pictures and videos?—”
“Charlie, I don’t even know her?—”
“I know. I’m just asking you to try. Help me fix this thing. I don’t know what else to do,” he admits softly, and he does look at a loss. “Lottie betrayed me because she…” He sighs hard and roughly rubs his face. “She wanted my attention. Real bad. If I give her that acknowledgement, let her be a part of my world, she’ll settle down.”
I can’t really wrap my head around this turn of events. But the way he’s looking at me so earnestly, I know I can’t say no.
I want him to rely on me more.
But doubt continues to swirl in my mind. Who even is this girl? I’m supposed to welcome her after she plotted against me? Does she even like me?
“Hey, just think about it,” Charlie says, putting a light touch to my chin. I nod, and he smiles.
“That’s my girl.”
I hate it, but his praise feels reassuring. With his eyes on me, he leans slowly in and captures my lips.
“Think you’re going to win?” I whisper with a smile, returning my thoughts to the evening ahead. The business with Lottie can wait. Whatever the task, I know I’ll give it a chance—if it gives me Charlie.
I’d do anything for the ones I love.
“I’ve already won,” he murmurs and takes my lips again.