Chapter 5 - The Desperate Approach
The formal dinner concluded two hours later, giving way to the fluid chaos of the after-dinner cocktail reception.
Dignitaries, senators, and foreign ambassadors mingled across the polished floors, drinks in hand, negotiating policy in low whispers.
I excused myself from the head table to walk down the corridor toward the private terrace to catch a breath of cool air.
I had barely taken three steps past the security perimeter when two figures materialized from behind the heavy velvet curtains of the East Foyer.
Arthur and Evelyn.
Arthur looked exhausted, the arrogant swagger that had carried him into the White House utterly obliterated.
His tuxedo jacket was wrinkled, his hair disheveled, and his eyes carried the wild, frantic look of a cornered predator.
Evelyn clung to his arm, her earlier condescending smirks replaced by an expression of desperate, sickening warmth.
"Katherine," Arthur whispered, taking a step toward me, his hands held open in a posture of complete surrender.
"Please, darling, do not walk away."
"We just need five minutes of your time."
Two Secret Service agents immediately moved to intercept them, but I raised my hand slightly, signaling the agents to hold their ground.
"Step back to a conversational distance, Arthur," I said, my tone as cold and detached as a formal reprimand.
"You have two minutes."
Arthur swallowed hard, glancing nervously at the agents stationed just six feet away.
"Kate, look at what has happened tonight," Arthur began, his voice shaking with emotional manipulation.
"I was shocked at the gate."
"I was stunned, and I said things that came out completely wrong."
"You have to understand the immense pressure I have been carrying on my shoulders for the last five years."
"The company, the thousands of employees, the legacy your mother and I built..."
"Do not bring Eleanor into your mouth," I cut him off, my voice dropping an octave, carrying the lethal quiet of a loaded rifle.
Arthur flinched.
"Katherine, please," Evelyn chimed in, taking a step forward and offering an agonizingly false smile.
"We are so remarkably proud of you."
"Trevor and I have always spoken of your courage, even when you were away in those dangerous countries."
"We always knew you had your father's incredible leadership skills."
"This is a glorious night for the Mercer family!"
"If your father and you stand together on this defense contract, we can announce a joint family partnership."
"Think of how wonderful that would look in the press."
"The Assistant Secretary and her visionary industrialist father, working side-by-side to protect America."
I looked at Evelyn with pure, unfiltered disgust.
"Twenty-six years ago, Evelyn, you threw my mother's photograph albums into the trash incinerator behind the carriage house," I said evenly.
Evelyn went rigid, her mouth clamping shut like a steel trap.
"You told my father that if he kept paying my tuition, you would take half the company in a divorce," I continued.
"You stood in the foyer and watched me carry two duffel bags into the rain, laughing that I was finally taking out the trash."
"And now you want a family partnership?"
"Kate, that was twenty-six years ago!" Arthur pleaded, stepping closer, his composure cracking completely.
"People make mistakes!"
"I was building an empire!"
"I needed Trevor to take the reins because I thought you were gone forever!"
"You gave me up, Arthur," I said.
"You traded a daughter for a corporate stooge."
"And now the bill has arrived."
Arthur dropped his hands, his desperation finally turning into the dark, familiar anger that lived at the core of his soul.
"Is this what this is about?" Arthur hissed, stepping closer, lowering his voice so the passing senators wouldn't hear.
"You orchestrated this whole night to humiliate me?"
"You pulled strings to get this post just so you could take revenge on your own flesh and blood?"
"You think this is about you?" I responded, looking straight into his bloodshot eyes.
"You flatter yourself, Arthur."
"I spent twenty-six years serving this country while you spent twenty-six years buying influence."
"I did not spend decades crawling through the dirt, burying brothers-in-arms, and mastering military law just to balance a petty domestic grudge."
"I don't think about you at all."
"You are not an empire to me."
"You are simply a government contractor who failed an audit."
Arthur’s face tightened with sheer panic.
"What audit?" he whispered.
"The Aberdeen testing facility reports were unsealed at four o'clock this afternoon," I told him.
"Every single lie Trevor submitted has been documented by the Defense Criminal Investigative Service."
May you like
"You are not walking out of this building with a four-billion-dollar contract, Arthur."
"You are walking out with a federal subpoena."
