never forget the name of the man who had ruined her life.
Brian White had been a campaign manager for the opponent in her father’s last attempt at higher office.
The phone rang again and she knew it was him. She didn’t want to answer it but she was at work. There was a chance that someone was calling about a loan. So, squeezing her eyes shut, she answered.
“Ms. Murray—I believe we were disconnected.”
The bottom fell out of her stomach and she sat bolt upright at her desk. “What do you want?”
“Ms. Murray. There is no need to sound alarmed,” he went on in that slick voice, which of course only scared her more. “Your father has asked me to reach out to you.”
“Oh?” Her voice wavered, darn it all. “He couldn’t bother to call me himself, I guess? I’m only his daughter, right?”
Mentally, she high-fived herself. She was still getting used to standing up for herself. She was not going to cower before political consultants or campaign managers or even her father.
That victory was incredibly short-lived because she realized a call from a campaign manager could only mean one thing. One terrible, awful thing.
“Your father is going to be running for the US Senate seat in the state of Missouri—were you aware that it recently became open?”
Christine did not throw up all over her desk. Score one for adulting. “I was not.”
“Sex scandals are such a tricky thing to negotiate. And the people of Missouri are going to be looking for someone with an unimpeachable character and record—someone like your father.”
Maybe she was so tired that she had fallen asleep at her desk and was having a nightmare. Wake up, she told herself.
Brian White kept talking. “What we’d like to do is make you a part of this campaign. A redemption story, if you will.”
Oh, God. “No, I don’t think I will.”
Because she had a very good idea of what a redemption story would look like to her father. There would be a public confession of her many, many sins. Probably something resembling a walk of shame. And that was just for starters. Her father would expect her to go on talk shows and accompany him on the campaign trail. Knowing him, he would expect her to find a nice man and then make Marie legitimate by getting married.
Her heart was going to beat itself right out of her chest. She had to physically hold on to the desk to keep from falling out of her chair when Mr. White said, “Oh, I think you will. You’re a very important part of your father’s campaign and he insists on bringing you back into the fold.”
She hadn’t heard from the man since his last concession speech—a garbled screed against sin and the devil where he had apologized to his faithful believers for his daughter, who had stained his quest for truth, justice and the American way. “He’s had almost two years to bring me back in the fold and he can’t even bring himself to do it. He has to get his lapdog to call me.”
White chuckled. “I can see this is a bad time. I’ll call again in a couple of days, when you’ve had time to think the proposition over. You are going to want my help, Ms. Murray. Because without it...”
It wasn’t so much a threat as a statement of fact. She was about to lose control of her life all over again and for what? For her father’s misguided attempts at winning a political office?
Last time had been bad enough. Her every misdeed, her every bad picture—all that had suddenly become fodder for the gossip mill. The television commercials had been the worst—her photos had been distorted so she looked like a stupid cow chewing cud instead of a woman who was six months pregnant. It had been the darkest time of her life.
This time would be so much worse because they wouldn’t just come for her. She had survived that kind of attack once before. It was awful and painful, but she had survived.
No, this time they would come for Marie. Her precious little girl.
Christine hung up the phone and somehow made it to the ladies’ room. She locked herself in a stall and sobbed. Why was her father doing this? Why was he doing it to her? She knew Clarence Murray didn’t love her. But surely he had a little human decency—just enough that he would want to shield his only granddaughter from the media?
Oh, who was she kidding? Her father had never considered anyone else’s needs. The only thing that mattered was what he decided God had meant for him to do.
“Christine? Are you okay?”
It was Sue, a teller who was Christine’s best work friend. How long had she been in there? She dried her eyes on industrial-grade toilet paper and opened the door. “I’m fine.”
But even as she said it, Sue gasped and recoiled in horror before throwing her arms around Christine’s shoulders and hugging her. “Oh, honey—who died?”
Christine almost laughed because if she didn’t, she would start crying again. “It’s nothing.”
The ramifications of her father’s latest campaign began to spin out for her. The bank’s owner, Mr. Whalen, would not appreciate this sort of attention. She might have to uproot her life. Go somewhere new and start over.
The prospect was daunting. With what money? She had a couple hundred socked away in the bank, which was not a heck of a lot. She didn’t want to have to give up her life, her identity—to say nothing of her privacy and sanity—just so her father could lose a campaign again.
What was she going to do?
One of the reasons she had moved to Denver was that fewer people knew who she was. Murray was just another last name here.
So Christine did what she had to do—she lied again. “I’m hormonal and Marie is teething and I’m so tired.” Not that it was much of a lie. She merely left out the bits about political intrigue.
“Here, let me fix you up.” Sue produced her purse, which was sixty-three percent makeup. Christine felt a moment of longing for those days. Currently, her purse consisted of diapers, wet wipes, bibs, crayon stubs, random Cheerios and things she didn’t want to think about. Glamour and beauty were low on her list right now.
Still, there was something comforting about letting Sue apply under-eye concealer and powder her face, especially since Sue was relatively close in coloring to Christine and was only a few inches shorter—they’d been able to swap clothes a few times.
“Am I in trouble, do you think?” She had no idea how long she had been hiding in the ladies’ room. All she knew was that Brian White and Clarence Murray and the media couldn’t reach her in there. If she did not have to pick up Marie tonight from day care, she would never leave the ladies’ room. This place was her sanctuary.
Except for the small detail that she was still at work. “There’s some guy out there waiting to talk to you.” Christine must have looked stricken because Sue quickly added, “He’s not mad or anything. He’s hot. Tall, dark—extremely handsome. I didn’t see a ring.”
It was all she could do to get her mouth closed. “You checked him out?” But even as she said that, she felt the weight on her
