29. You’re Fired
29
YOU’RE FIRED
DARREN
I walk through the doors of the campaign headquarters, and I’m immediately accosted by Angie, who’s shoving papers into my face.
“I have the notes for the debate, and I think we should cut out the…”
I blow past her as soon as I see Rausch looking up from his computer through the glass wall of the office.
“What part of you’re fired did you not understand?” I slam my bag on the desk.
Rausch takes his glasses off and sets them on the desk. “Darren, you fire me about once a week,” he replies with annoyance.
“You gave me his address. You wanted me to find him. What did you think he would tell me?” I shake my head.
For about thirty seconds he stares at me in confusion. The minute he gets it, he stands and enters the bullpen. “Everyone out!” He orders, and they stare back at him in confusion.
“Go home. We’re closing the office for the debate today.” The volunteers pack up their things, and leave. “We can discuss this calmly,” he offers.
“Discuss the fact that you and my father were lovers?”
Rausch pinches the bridge of his nose, but he doesn’t say anything.
“How long?” I demand.
“I’ll tell you everything you want to know, but you need to calm down,” he requests.
“How can I be calm, when I just found out that my whole life was a lie?” I ask.
“Your life wasn’t a lie. Your parents loved you and protected you,” he barks.
“Protected me from what? From knowing that their marriage was a fraud, that my mother was just his wife on paper while he was screwing around with you behind her back?” I question.
“It was not behind her back!” Rausch demands. “It’s more complicated than that.”
“Complicated,” I say sarcastically, and I look over to Evangeline entering the office. She clutches the doorframe, looking between Rausch and me.
Rausch eyes her cautiously. “She knows,” I tell him.
“Who else knows?”
“Are you afraid all the people you paid off to keep quiet will start coming out of the woodwork?” I question sarcastically. “I know you paid off my grandfather!” I bellow.
“He couldn’t be trusted,” Rausch demands, the vein on his temple protruding.
“You’re the one who couldn’t be trusted!” I yell. “Did you know my father when you were teenagers?” I accuse.
Rausch collapses into a chair. “I never hid that from you.”
“Just because you omitted telling me that you grew up with my father does not give you a pass from being a liar,” I demand.
“We thought it would be best if people didn’t know,” he responds.
I laugh. “That’s why you made sure no one went digging where my father lived when he was running for office.”
I smack a stack of papers off my desk and Evangeline enters further into the room. I put my hand up to stop her, and she does.
“Where do the lies end?” I request. “My mother went along with all of this?” I narrow my eyes at him and shake my head.
“Kerry would have done anything for your mother, anything to make it right. He was going to come out, but she knew if that happened, he would never go any further in his political career. It’s what Merrill wanted,” he explains.
“You don’t get to tell me what my mother wanted,” I grit out.
“I know I let you down,” he offers quietly.
“You led me to him, knowing what he would tell me. Why would you do that?”
“Because I couldn’t tell you!” He yells. “I wanted to. So many times, but I just couldn’t,” he explains.
“You’re a fucking coward,” I spit.
“Darren, that’s not fair,” Evangeline speaks up.
“No, it’s fine,” Rausch says to her. “I should have told you and I didn’t because I couldn’t take another thing from you.” He casts his eyes back to Evangeline, who looks heartbroken for both of us, and it dawns on me.
“Jesus. Langley knows, doesn’t he?” I look at Rausch in horror. He’s been taunting me with it but I was too stupid to realize.
“Yes,” Rausch answers.
I pace the room, rubbing at my jaw. “He didn’t give a shit Evangeline used to be an escort when he has this information in his back pocket,” I fume. “And you didn’t tell me!” I narrow my eyes at him.
“I was handling it!”
I scoff and turn away from him.
“Was it worth it?” I ask. “You broke up a marriage and ended my father’s career!”
The look of shock and hurt in his eyes makes me shudder but I’m still too angry to be intimidated.
“I loved him!” Rausch roars. “He was my everything! And now he’s gone. You lost a father, and that’s a horrible thing, but you are not the only one that has lost here.”
The boom of his voice causes me to jump.
He runs a large palm over his face. “I loved your mother, too. We protected him, we guided him, we sacrificed everything, and it was all for nothing.”
I don’t want his tears, and I certainly don’t want to feel sympathy for him.
“So, you can hate me for keeping this from you, because I deserve that,” he offers. “But know that I love you like the son I never had, and it pains me deeply to know that I let you down.”
I drop into the chair and lean against my thighs, palming my face. I feel the kind of tired that brings you to your knees.
“I think you should leave,” Evangeline says. “Give him some time.”
Rausch clears his throat. “The debate.”
I close my eyes to his voice.
“Darren has to be at the community center in less than an hour.”