DUTCH AND GINA: AFTER THE FALL (16 page)

“Let me explain,” Sam said and Jade looked at her exclusively. She wasn’t buying it. Not for a second was she buying it. The president her father? Come on. At any moment she expected her mother, who was not above such things, to say something like,
you can’t
even take a joke
, and laugh about it. Expected the president to laugh too. But first she wanted to hear this explanation.

Dutch placed his arm ghter around Gina as Sam spoke. And Sam was a sight to behold. She was about to give some earth sha ering informa on, but she was almost pathologically emo onless. She just spoke about how she and Dutch met, how they slept together, and how she told him she had had an abor on as if she was talking about the weather.

“But it wasn’t true,” Sam said.

“Why did you lie?” Gina asked her.

Sam, at first, seemed offended by the ques on.

Why, Gina nor Dutch could say, but they both saw that look in her eyes. Then she smiled a kind of chillingly ght smile. She looked at Dutch. “A er I le ght smile. She looked at Dutch. “A er I le Nantucket,” she said, “a er I told you that I was pregnant, your mother paid me a visit.” Dutch stared at her. “My mother?”

“Your dear old mom, yes. And Max Brennan, of course.”

Dutch frowned. “Max?”

“ That’s right. They came to Cambridge and walked into my apartment like mobsters; like the Godfather giving me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Told me no son of hers was having a child by the likes of me and I had better rescind that lie and rescind it now. But just to be on the safe side, she offered money.”

Dutch’s heart pounded. “Money?”

“Yup. It started low, like a couple thousand dollars to disappear, but then it kept rising un ll she asked me to name my price.”

“What did you do?” Jade asked her, causing everybody to look at her. Her eyes were like Kennedy Fifty Cents. And she wasn’t blinking.

“I told her what she could do with her money and kicked her and Max Brennan out of my apartment.” Sam smiled, remembering the time. Then she looked at Dutch. “But then the cops came.”

Her eyes strayed away, as if the memory was s ll raw. “And then it got serious. It was like three of them, one in plainclothes, and they said Victoria Harber, your mother, sent them. But they weren’t talking big talk about family legacy or rescinding lies and they didn’t offer me one dime. It was my life they dangled before my eyes. They showed me a big bag of powdered cocaine, made me taste it too just in case I had any doubts. Told me they would arrest me now and charge me with possession with intent to distribute and, given the amount I was trying to sell, would assure me of at least twenty years in prison.”

“Dear Lord,” Gina said and Jade’s heart dropped.

But Sam con nued, s ll struggling to keep her emo ons at bay. “ They said I’d never see the light of day again, because those drugs were connected to an unsolved murder that they were sure to pin on me. A murder, they said. Like who were these people?” It was her first flash of emo on, that she quickly tamped back down.

“ They said once I went to prison, it s ll wouldn’t’ be easy for me because they would ensure that the baby I carried was cut out of my belly and tossed in the trash like the garbage it was.” Another pause. Jade could hardly breathe.

“ They handed me the phone,” she went on, looking at Dutch alone, “told me what to say to you. And so I said it. It was my abor on speech. And it was quite a performance. They told me if I ever dreamed about having any contact with you, about so much as men oning your name on my juicy black lips, they would track me down. But they needn’t have worried about that. I didn’t want to have anything to do with you or your mother or anybody remotely associated with people like y’all. So as soon as they le my home, I packed up and left too. I ran and never looked back.” While everybody was looking at Sam, Dutch was staring at Jade. And as soon as her mother stopped talking, she shuttered.

Dutch hurried from Gina and went to her. He knelt down in front of her and placed his hands on the side of her legs. It was a sight to see for everybody in the room: the President of the United States on his knees.

“ This is some shocking news, isn’t it?” he said to his daughter.

Jade, stunned by his presence, could only manage a nod. A singular tear rolled down her unusually pre y face.

face.

“I know,” he said, wiping the tear away with his thumb, his own face a mask of concern. “It’s shocking to me, too.”

“It’s true?” Jade asked him.

His throat constricted. Her innocence, her need to hear it from him and then she’d believe it, caught him short. “Yes,” he said. “I’m your father.” The tears puddled in her eyes when he said those words. She wanted to run and hide, the way she used to do as a child whenever her mother would get too crazy, the way she s ll did today whenever Henry would get riled, but she didn’t this time.

“And I want to apologize to you,” Dutch went on. “I want to apologize for not being. I would have given my everything to see you grow up, and laugh, and run and play and be the wonderful child I know you were.” Tears were now in Dutch’s eyes, and he didn’t try to staunch them. “I would have loved to see you on your first date, and on prom night, and when you graduated.

It would have been something like heaven if I could have been there for you. If I could have held you when you were afraid, or when you were lonely, or when you just couldn’t figure any of it out.”

Jade covered her mouth in anguish as he spoke, the tears flowing freely now. Because everything he said, every word he spoke, she had dreamed of coming true when she was a child. And she was just realizing how sad, how tragic her dreams had been.

Dutch placed his hands on the side of her thighs. “I did it wrong, sweetheart,” he said. “When your mother told me she had had that abor on, I should have made certain that it was true. I should have made certain that there wasn’t a child in this world who belonged to me and I knew nothing about her.” The tears rolled freely down both their faces now. “But I didn’t. I was a coward and I didn’t. I am so sorry, Jade.” Silence filled the room. Gina was teary eyed, Chris an was teary eyed, and Sam was trying to smile it off and keep those feelings she vowed to never reveal, at bay.

Jade stared at her father. Amazed that he would completely blame himself when she felt as if her mother should bear the brunt of the blame. She was the one who kept it all a secret even a er the threat from his mother was long past. But she wasn’t concerned about her mother at this moment in me.

She was too busy staring at her father, at this man who was her biological parent. She touched the side of his face. “I never noticed before,” she said.

“Notice what, sweetheart?” Dutch asked her.

“Your eyes. They’re exactly like mine.” Dutch smiled, the lines of age appearing on the side of those eyes. “I think, my darling,” he said, his hand on the side of her angelic face, “that it’s actually the other way around.”

Jade smiled too, looked into those familiar eyes, and then embraced him.

Dutch felt so blessed to not be hated by his own child that he returned her affec on with a hug of his own.

He embraced her greedily.

TEN

Despite all of his efforts to keep his daughter out of the media spotlight the way he was able to accomplish with his son, news leaked anyway, and spread like wildfire. Soon satellite trucks and circling helicopters and tabloid journalists and even the White House press corps once they realized they’d been duped and the president was not in White House as they had thought, converged in front of the Redding home in a mob-like display of near-hysteria.

“We want to see the president’s bastard,” one of the tabloid reporters shouted angrily.

“Where’s the daughter, we want to see the daughter!” shouted another.

“Why did the President keep this from the American people?” shouted a third. “What is he ashamed of? It was maddening.

It became so fran c, in fact, that the Secret Service had to create a parameter of security that closed the en re street south to east. Of course that move angered the residents who lived on the street, who could no longer come and go as they pleased, and then local poli cians got involved on their behalf and turned a visit by the president into a charged confronta on regarding the rights of the federal government, versus state’s rights.

But through all of the craziness, through the constant barrage of cable news coverage and local news coverage and police sirens blaring to force people further back in an effort to shore-up the barricade, Dutch and Jade sat in her bedroom and talked.

It was a small room, at least compared to bedrooms Dutch had known all of his life, and it was painted in girly pink and bright yellow with bold pastel borders that made him feel as if he was si ng in a child’s room, rather than the room of a twenty-three year old.

They talked and talked for nearly three solid hours, and during their conversa ons she no ced how he couldn’t seem to stop glancing around the room.

“Interes ng color choices,” he finally said with a smile.

She smiled too. “Mom’s idea,” she explained. “It’s been my room since I was a kid and she didn’t see any point in changing the general color scheme now that point in changing the general color scheme now that I’m no longer that age.”

“You’ve always lived at home?”

“Always. I went away to college, to Chapel Hill, but Mom made sure I came home every weekend.” She sat on the bed, her legs too short to touch the floor, and Dutch sat, leaned forward, in the small desk chair in front of her. Because of the smallness of the room, his presence seemed to overwhelm it.

“Your mother did a wonderful job rearing you,” he said, as yet another series of sirens blared.

It was exactly what he was trying to avoid. But Sam had unthinkingly text one of her employees at the bookstore, telling her that she would be late and men oning, off cuff she claimed, that she had the POTUS in her livingroom. The employee, a er asking a friend what POTUS meant, was so thrilled that she passed the word around. And the word got around.

“Your presence creates quite a s r,” Jade said with that sweet smile of hers that was already mell ng Dutch’s heart.

“So it would appear.”

“You’re used to all of the a en on now, aren’t you?”

“I hope not. They’ll lose interest in me once my term is over. But enough about me. I want to know everything there is to know about you,” he placed her hands in his. “I want to know all of your likes, your dislikes, your favorite food and color and clothing; what makes you sad, what makes you silly.” Jade grinned.

“What makes you Jade,” he finally said.

It sounded heavenly to her.

“For example,” Dutch went on, “your mother mentioned this Henry fellow. Who is he?”

“Henry Osgood,” Jade said. “He’s a surgeon here in town. A very good one.”

Dutch stored the name in his memory. He would seek an extensive background on him.

“Is he your boyfriend?”

“Yes,” she said, although less assuredly. “We aren’t engaged or anything, but we’re . . . yeah.”

“You sound disappointed you aren’t engaged. Are you?”

“No, my goodness no. I’m not ready to marry anybody.”

Dutch smiled. “Good. Keep it that way. I say you shouldn’t worry about boys until you’re, oh, forty or so.” Jade laughed.

“By then I should know all I need to know about you,” he said, regret in his eyes.

“I already know all there is to know about you,” Jade said, oblivious to his regret. “I’m a big supporter, especially of the First Lady’s, although I had no idea that we, that you and I were related.”

“I know. And thank-you. And my wife thanks you.”

“She’s really very spectacular, isn’t she?”

“Yes,”

Dutch

said.

“And

spectacularly

misunderstood. She is absolutely nothing like the public image they’ve tried to put on her.”

“You mean she’s really a dove when they’re trying to claim she’s a tiger?”

“A dove? Gina?” Dutch grinned. “I wouldn’t go that far. She has a good heart is what I mean.” Knocks were heard on the door. Dutch playfully rolled his eyes, causing Jade to laugh.

“Yes?” he said.

Chris an peeped in. “Excuse me, sir, but the Vice President is on the line.”

Dutch’s jaw tightened. “What does he want?”

“He says he’s concerned about you and wants to make sure you’re okay.”

Dutch wanted to say what Shelly Pra could do with Dutch wanted to say what Shelly Pra could do with his concern, but he wasn’t about to say that in front of Christian and Jade.

He stood, kissed Jade on the forehead, and headed for the exit. He knew he was affec onate with her, but he couldn’t help himself. She was now as much his baby as Li le Walt was, and he refused to be deprived any longer of knowing his own child’s smell.

When he le , Chris an stayed. “I just wanted to say,” he said, “that I didn’t mean anything by it.” She looked at him, puzzled. “When I said you were short for a schoolteacher. I was thinking about high school kids.”

“I know that, Chris an,” she said with a smile.

“Your face reveals it all. I know you didn’t mean any harm.”

Chris an smiled too. He was almost as smi en as the president. Only the president was cap vated like a father for his daughter. Chris an’s cap va on was far more carnal.

“Are you coming to Washington?” he asked her. “To the White House with the president, I mean.”

“He’s asked me to. He says otherwise Secret Service agents will have to camp here with me forevermore now that the word is out.”

“Yeah, you’re now and will always be known as the president’s daughter. Everything you do will be like,

‘Jade Redding, the president’s daughter, did such and such today.’ Or when he’s no longer in office it’ll be,

‘Jade Redding, the daughter of former President Walter Dutch Harber, did such and such today.’” Christian smiled. “You’re eternally branded.”

“I know,” she said, concern crossing her face.

“But don’t worry,” Chris an said. “I’ll look a er you.”

“Yes, he told me.”

Christian was puzzled. “Who told you?”