The Marriage Agenda(30)

Chloe sat up straight, spilling her salad in the process. "What things? What story?"

"The story on Rex Hamilton. I've got to say, I never saw this coming.  You've got balls the likes of which I've never seen … and I've seen  plenty." The woman sounded giddy. Giddy.

Panic made a shrill sound when it traveled at the speed of light. "Beth, I'm not kidding. What the hell are you talking about?"

"Don't act like you don't know. Olander got a call after you left. The  memo came through the door, and he shot out of his chair as though he  was being chased. Left us all sitting there, wondering when the last  time was he'd let anything interrupt a meeting. While I was waiting for  him to return, I found your story in my email."

Chloe's story. Beth had Chloe's story? "Beth, you have to tell me how you got that file."

"In my inbox, like I get the rest of them. What's going on?"

"Who sent it to you?" Chloe's pulse thundered in her ears.

"You did." Beth sounded puzzled, not that Chloe could blame her.

"Can you double check that?"

"Yes, hang on." The sound of clacking keys drifted through the phone line. "You've got me worried. Is this info legit?"

"Yes, it's legit. Beth, listen to me. You cannot run that story."

"Not a chance. Olander's already seen it."

Chloe's heart sank. Beth was right. There was no way in hell Olander  would drop a story that guaranteed national exposure. "How did he see  it?" she whispered.

"Direct email. The time stamp is 12:46 this afternoon, and it was sent  to me with a copy to Olander. I'm assuming that's why he hightailed it  out of the meeting, then came flying back the same way. He was moving so  fast, hollerin' the whole while ‘stop the presses,' that he lost his  toupee in the corridor. I've been here over ten years, and I've never  seen anyone do that. I didn't know people actually said that."

This isn't happening. "Is it running tomorrow?"         

     



 

"If he can verify it, it will. Olander is practically humping the  printing press to get it out there, but he's smart enough to fact-check  first. He's got a whole team of people on it, not one of whom knows  what's going on with the rest, but he's not going to sit on it. He  doesn't want anything to leak ahead of time."

Oh, God. Chloe sank lower in her seat. She'd had no intention of ever  submitting that story. She'd written it for Knox-so he could be the  first to see the truth. Chloe had gotten to it before any other reporter  because she had an insider advantage, but she'd known the story would  come out eventually. Rex hadn't hidden his trail as well as he thought  he had-especially in light of that last affair, which connected one too  many dots. She'd known the truth would destroy Knox, and she hadn't  wanted to be the one to break the story.

She couldn't do that to him.

And then the truth hit her. He'd done it to himself.

"Chloe?"

"The memo Olander got during the meeting … do you know what it said?"

"Everyone in the meeting knows. He left it on the conference table when he flew out of there."

Chloe gritted her teeth. "What did it say?"

"Don't quote me, but it was something like ‘Knox Hamilton is offering an exclusive. Holding on line two.'"

She took a deep, unsettled breath. He really had done it to himself. But  why? "Look, I've got to go. If the press date changes, let me know."  She ended the call over Beth's protests and stared through the  windshield, picking absently at the spilled contents of her salad. Knox  was going to kill her, but she knew what she had to do next. Before she  lost her nerve, she scrolled through the contacts in her cell until she  found the one she needed. She tapped the screen. The phone rang only  once before the call was answered.

"Toby, it's Chloe. We need to talk."

 …

Katherine Hamilton's expression was absolutely unreadable. It had been  that way the whole time Knox told her about her husband's latest  misdeeds, and when he got to the part about the story breaking, the only  shift in her countenance was the slight lift of one of her eyebrows.

Knox pinched the bridge of his nose with one hand and reached for his  coffee with the other. Five in the morning was mighty damn  early-especially for this kind of news-but his mother had been off at  some charity thing the night before and hadn't returned his call … not  that it mattered. He wouldn't have told her this over the phone.

Your husband is a bigger cheat than anyone knew. Oh, and he's also a  felon. Environmentalism was all the rage. The fact that Rex's cash  influence would have led to pollution of an environmentally sensitive  area was just the icing on the fucking cake.

Knox had told her everything.

Almost.

"There's one more thing."

"There's more?" His mother looked as tired as he'd ever seen her. He  didn't doubt she'd be fine in an hour-she had that way about her-and for  the first time, the thought pissed him off. Why couldn't she be real?  Maybe if she hadn't perfected the art of pretending the bad stuff didn't  exist, she'd have had a chance at being happy. He thought of Chloe and  wished his mother would take a page from her book. Maybe if she'd just  once threatened to rip Rex's balls off and fucking meant it, he'd have  thought twice about what he'd done. Knox didn't blame his mother one  bit, but dammit, why did she have to take it?

Chloe wouldn't. She'd never know his mother's unhappiness, because she'd  have his nuts in a sling before she let him do that to her.

He drained his coffee cup, buying time before he answered. "Chloe broke the story."

His mother didn't flinch. She simply stood and turned toward the window,  through which reflected the shimmering blue of the brightly lit  swimming pool. Knox had grown up with that view beyond his mother's  breakfast table. Funny how it hadn't changed in so many years, even as  it seemed everything else had.

"Chloe broke it," he repeated. "But she didn't send it to the paper. I did."

She spun, and for the first time in his life he saw a break in that famous façade. "You? You destroyed our family?"

"No, Mother. Not me, and not Chloe. Rex did that."

"You could have warned us," she fired back. "Given us some time for damage control-"

"No. You don't get it, do you? He broke the law."

"I don't know where you got your morals, growing up under your father's  example as you have, but people who do everything by the letter of the  law seldom get anywhere."         

     



 

"Those may be your rules, Mother, but they're not mine."

She shook her head. "Don't be so sure. The higher the stakes, the more  loosely people tend to hold their ideals." She paused, raising an  eyebrow. "Take Chloe, for example."

"What about her?"

"I'm not stupid, Knox. The timing of your marriage was suspect, at best. I saw the poll results."

A dark, cold knot formed in Knox's chest. The polls hadn't changed how  he felt about Chloe … just what he'd done about it. "I didn't choose her  because of the election," he said firmly.

"I hope that's true," his mother said, her voice softening. "Because  when you hit send on that story, you did more than ruin what was left of  your father's legacy. You cost yourself the race."

That was when it hit him. He didn't care.

Love isn't worth it. Not for anyone, Chloe. Not even you.

He'd been wrong. So wrong. He'd thought his career was what mattered,  but he'd hit send on that damned email knowing full well what the  consequences to his campaign were.

He'd done it for her.

He could walk away from the election. Hell, he could walk away from his career. But he couldn't walk away from Chloe.

He just had to find her and let her know.





Chapter Twenty-One

Chloe had seriously underestimated what the hell she was doing. Her  initial plan had seemed simple enough: arrange a small press conference,  tell the world how Knox Hamilton was honest to a fault, and escape  before she had a chance to put her foot in her mouth. She'd hoped by  speaking early on the day the news broke, the buzz would be so intently  focused on her story that the press would fail to notice her speaking  engagement, but she hadn't counted on how quickly word would spread.

She should have known.

Instead of a small handful of reporters she more or less knew, she found  herself in front of a crowd predominately filled with strangers. And  for all she worried over how she would start her little speech, she  hadn't considered she wouldn't be given a chance to start anything in  the barrage of questions flying her way. She couldn't think, and she  sure as hell couldn't tell one question from the next. They hadn't even  given her a chance to say anything, and she had no idea how she was  going to string two words together to form a thought in the face of all  that yelling.

How did Knox deal with this all the time?

He had an obligation to be polite. She didn't. Screw 'em. She put her  fingers in her mouth and released a shrill wolf whistle directly into  the microphone.