Dirty Daddy(58)

Who wouldn't?

Right, don't answer that.

"But eventually he saw the light and realized he had to get rid of me. Laurel and I always knew it was a gamble and that we couldn't ensnare Magnus forever, but we were surprised by how cleanly and without emotion he was able to move past me," Mom replies. "And how neatly he removed me from the money that Laurel and I were expecting from the divorce settlement."

So that was it. Could this whole thing come down to something so tawdry and evil as trying to siphon money through a divorce?

"I mean, Laurel was supposed to run for Governor with that money," Mom explains matter-of-factly, as if this justifies her behavior.

"But Magnus didn't want to play ball, so we have to destroy him instead," Mom finishes. Then she adds as an aside, "It's too bad, really. But that's the way the world works."

How can one woman be so fucking evil?

Don't answer that. You won't be able to, hun. This is literally the most bored I've ever seen my mother, you know?

Like she doesn't care that she's about to destroy this man's life.

That she's about to destroy the life of my baby by taking away his father;

I can't let that happen.

I can't let this slide.

"You won't get away with this," I say quietly.

Mom looks at me and her eyes flash with an evil glint. "Not so sad that you crossed me now, are you, Penny dear?" she asks me.

"You think you're going to stop me?" she asks taking a step closer.

"I can't let you destroy an innocent man's life just because he had the misfortune to get duped by you, Mom," I say with gritted teeth. "I'll tell everyone what you just told me."

"And who do you think will believe you?" Mom asks. "Who do you think will believe an out of work journalist who is also a petulant child over her mother who is an Editor-In-Chief of the largest newspaper in the country and the mayor of New York City?"

But she forgets.

I have the bullet that Natalie invented.

The one with the recorder. I'm wearing it.

I smile.

I mean, you didn't expect such deviousness from me, did you? Well, when you're playing the stakes that I'm playing for, you gotta up your game. Or something like that.

Mom's eyes travel down my body and she takes a step closer.

"Or do you think I don't know that you're wearing a little bullet in your cooch?" she asks me.

What.

The.

Fuck.

I can't move. Mom flashes a smile.

"You think you're recording this?" she asks me. "You don't know that my computer flashed the moment you walked in a picture that showed where you had a recording device? That I turned on a white noise machine. That all you recorded is garbage noise?"

I'm shaking.

I don't know what to say.

I feel an utter sense of defeat. My last card.

“I knew you'd try something like this ever since you met that bitch Natalie,” Mom continues on.

Oh my God. What is going on here?

Is she following me?

"Ever since you left work here I've had you followed, in case you were wondering," Mom confirms for me. "You think you're clever, girl, you have no idea how out of your league you are."

I'm shaking. She's defeated me. Completely.

"Now go, and get out of my sight before I decide to destroy you as well."

I want to leave, but my knees don't move.

"Go and get the fuck out of my office, daughter," she says with the grating and harsh voice of a monster.

Holding back tears, I get my knees to move and get out.





31





Magnus





It's like the fucking world is going to Hell and someone gave me a front row ticket to the carnage.

This morning, coming into work for Davion Development, two people stopped to hiss at me. Who the fuck hisses at people anymore? I just kept walking. It wasn't really worth my time to stop and deal with a hisser.

I mean just the thought of someone hissing ... is fucking strange, something that I associate with a snake or some other reptile. Not sure about whether I really equate that with things that humans do.

But then again these New Yorkers on the street probably think I'm some sort of snake at this point considering the kind of press I've been getting.

I mean Jesus Christ, if the President thinks that the news media is against him, imagine a hundred fucking times worse. It's like someone got all the fucking newspapers and cable channels and broadcast news and every sort of nickel and dime journalist and told them that they should go out there and come up with the slimiest shit that they could think of to get me.

I mean, I never really trusted the news media. Does anyone in this country anymore?

Do you?

Sure, they're not all bad. And they're human beings too. I'm not saying that they individually are bad people. They probably have families and they don't eat babies or whatever the fuck.