The President's Wife - Kathy Myme Page 0,73

in submission, he must know he’s beaten. “You got me, I give up.”

“Get up,” I say. “And take a seat.”

With a shaky arm, he lifts himself up and pulls himself onto his chair.

“Now start talking.”

“What do you want to know?”

There is one question I need answered more than the others.

“Why?” I ask. “Why did you sell me out?”

For months I’d been thinking this over. Was it political? The leaks could have been designed to weaken my administration and favourability with the public. Or maybe it was personal, and that I’d unknowingly offended the wrong person?

“Money,” Andrews replies. “It was just business. You’ve always been light on specifics and details, which means the press was willing to pay a lot for leaked information.”

“But… You’re the one who’s been advising me on the press. You’re the one who’s been telling me not to give too much away.”

“And it’s made me rich,” Andrews replies. “Though not as rich as my latest leaks. With a bachelor president in the White House, any gossip relating to your personal life was worth… well worth a lot. Everyone was willing to buy it, from gossip magazines to newspapers.”

He smiles, looking almost proud of himself. “I had quite the bidding war on my hands.”

I want to punch him again. I don’t think there’s anything in the world I want in this moment more than to punch him again.

“So you set this whole thing up?”

“Pretty much,” Andrews says. “Though I could never have hoped to get such incriminating photos of you and an intern so quickly. I was expecting I was going to have to set something up myself, and there’s no way that would have worked quite as well.”

I frown. Andrews may have been the one person I trusted most. He’d run things for me since the start of the campaign trail, and I’d thought he was a friend. The realization he had just been using me to make a bit of extra money was…

“You know what you’ve done, don’t you? This is treason.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he replies, though his smile drops. “No court will convict me of that.”

“No, but the public will,” I say. “Especially when Veronica and I claim you’ve been betraying us. The public love her, and there’s no way they’d side with you.

There’s a knock at the door. “Errr, Mr President…” It’s Jackson.

“Not now,” I call out.

“I think you might want to hear what it is,” Andrews says, a smug smile growing on his face.

“And why is that?”

“While you were arguing with your girlfriend, I had time to send out one last leak.” He reaches into a pocket and pulls out his phone. “Too slow, Mr President.”

“What did you send, you son of a bitch?”

“All of it.” He laughs. “Every single part of your relationship with Veronica. Proof of your plan to pretend to marry her and fool the public. Emails where you claimed you were screwed when that first photo came out. Expense forms for all the money you’ve spent keeping up this ruse. All of it.”

I freeze. All of it? I… I…

This was it. This was the end of my presidency. This was where it all came tumbling down.

“Why?” I ask, too shocked to be angry anymore.

“If I’m going down, then I’m taking you with me.”

I shake my head. This has gone too far now.

Without another word, I leave the room. “Jackson, go keep an eye on Veronica.”

I look over at the other two secret service agents. “You two, arrest Andrews. He’s the leaker.”

The lock of surprise on their faces barely register as I walk back towards my office.

This is it. I’m done for.

Veronica

I know what I have to do.

I cry about it, of course. I’ve spent the whole afternoon sobbing in my rooms alone. I think Jackson has been standing by the door, but by some miracle nobody has tried to come in. There’s only one person I can talk to about this, and yet… I don’t know if I want to talk to him. Not ever.

It’s crazy to think that David and I woke up in the same bed this morning. We definitely won’t be sleeping in the same one tonight.

Andrews has ruined anything. The notifications started coming in on my phone not long after I holed myself up in my bedroom.

The public know the truth. Andrews has told them everything. Some journalist - thankfully not Stephanie - has released transcripts of everything pertaining to David and I.

It’s sending the world crazy. Every headline in every newspaper has gone wild.

When