President's Girlfriend 06 - The Sins of the Fathers (33 page)

There was no
entourage of aides and other staffers waiting for Dutch outside the press
room.
 
Just LaLa, at
his request.

“It’s done?”
she asked.

“It’s done,”
he said.
 
Then he put his arm around her
and they began that slow trek down the corridors of power.
 
For Dutch it would be his last walk this way.

“How do you
feel?” she asked him.

Dutch didn’t
have to think about it.
 
“Relieved,” he
said.

“It’s been a
tough road
sometimes,
Dutch, but you handled it all
beautifully.
 
Especially
after what they did to Gina.”

Dutch’s
heart squeezed at the mention of her name.
 
“If it wasn’t for you and Cray I don’t know what I would have done.
 
And Sam was a big help, too.”

“She
surprised me.
 
She’s not as oddball as
people think when you really get down to it.
 
But that daughter of yours, now that’s another story.”

“I
know.
 
She’s with Sam now.
 
But I don’t know how long that’ll last.”

“For her to
tell that reporter that Gina got what she deserved was a crying shame.
 
I never thought Jade could be like that.”

Dutch knew
she harbored resentment against Gina, but he, too, never dreamed it had been
that severe.
 
Besides, he still wasn’t at
all certain that she didn’t have a hand in what happened to Gina.
 
That was why he hadn’t spoken to his daughter
since the tragedy.
 
And wasn’t sure when
he could again.

“At least
she’s with her mother,” LaLa said.
 
“She
can handle her.”

It was the
monster Sam created, with an assist from him, so she understood her.
 
He wasn’t so sure, however, if she could
still handle her.
 
She’d crossed the line
when she made that public statement about Gina.
 
He could never cut her off entirely, and maybe, in time, they could
reestablish a relationship.
 
But not now.

“Oh, well,”
Dutch said, as they continued their slow walk.
 
“Life goes on.”

“Yes,
indeed.
 
Many of the reporters were
expecting you to announce that Marcus Rance had been found, if you can believe
that.”

“That would
have made my day.”

“Mine too, Dutch.
 
Then maybe we could find out the
whole truth.
 
Why would he target his own
sister when she was the only person who believed in him?
 
And he could tell us if he acted alone.”

“He’d better
hope the government finds him first, is all I have to say about it.
 
Because if my men find him,
and I have a team of them searching too, he won’t have time to say much of
anything.”

LaLa
laughed, certain that Dutch was kidding.
 
Dutch, however, didn’t crack a smile.

They were
about to turn the corner that would lead them toward the South Portico.
 
Dutch pulled LaLa back.

“Before I
take my leave and say goodbye to the others, I just wanted to tell you how much
I appreciate all you’ve done for me, Loretta.
 
I don’t think I could have made it without you.”

LaLa smiled.
 
She touched the side of Dutch’s handsome, but
worn, face.
 
This man had gone through so
much.
 
He deserved some peace now.

“My only
regret,” he continued, “was that it had to take such an awful tragedy to get me
to this place.”
 
Tears welled up in his eyes.
 
“I should have taken my family away from this
city a long time ago.
 
When Little Walt
was born in that hospital in Newark, I should have submitted my resignation as
I sat in that hospital room.
 
Maybe then
Gina. . .”

LaLa hugged
him, tears now in her eyes.
 
“It’s okay,
Dutch,” she said.
 
“You can’t look
back.
 
You served your country as best as
you could, and that’s all anybody could ask of you.
 
That’s all you can ask of yourself.”

They stopped
embracing.
 
Dutch stared at her, smiled
at her, and then gave her a kiss on the lips.

“You’re a
champ, you know that?” he said to her.

“A champ in
my own mind,” LaLa replied with laughter.
 

Dutch
chuckled too.
 
Then he looked at her
again.
 
“Let’s turn the page a bit, shall
we?
 
I understand you’re still staying at
your house in Georgetown.”

LaLa
exhaled.
 
That wasn’t just another page
they were turning.
 
That was another book
altogether.
 
“For now,” she said.

“You’ve
stood by Crader during this whole ordeal.
 
I was a basket case and he was essentially running the country even
before I resigned.
 
And you were right
there with him.
  
Even after the DNA
results confirmed that that baby is his, you stood by him.
 
You’re to be commended for that,
Loretta.
 
Many women wouldn’t do it.”

“Yeah, well,
it wasn’t as altruistic as it seemed.
 
I’m no better than Crader.
 
We all
fall short.”

“Amen to
that,” Dutch agreed.
 
Then he rubbed her
arms, contemplatively looking into her eyes.
 
“Christian is a good young man,” he said.
 
“I love him to death.
 
But even with your husband’s disastrous
faults, and he has many, Christian is no Crader McKenzie.”

LaLa stared
at Dutch.
 
Did he know about what she did
with Christian?
 
They both had agreed
that they would never tell it to anyone.
 
Crader knew she messed up with someone, but she never told him with
whom.
 
And, given his new
responsibilities and the care he was taking in keeping this family together,
albeit barely, he wasn’t asking anymore
.
 
So who told Dutch, she wondered.

“Nobody told
me,” Dutch said, when he saw the baffled look in her eyes.
 
“Nobody had to tell me.
 
Crader had mentioned there were some issues
in that direction, another man perhaps, but he didn’t know who.
 
I just happened to see the gleam that came
into Christian’s eyes whenever he mentioned your name.”

LaLa shook
her head.
 
“That boy,” she said,
prompting Dutch to laugh as they began their final walk toward the exit.

Crader and Christian stood across from each other as they,
along with all of the senior aides and cabinet secretaries, waited for the
president in the corridor just inside the South Portico.
 
It had been a long month.
 
Crader was catapulted from the vice president
who signed documents all day, into the lead role while Dutch stepped back and
recovered.
 
Although the DNA test
confirmed that Crader was the father of Elvelyn’s baby, and he still didn’t
know who LaLa had had an affair with, the stress of taking on a hundred more
duties, with LaLa at his side, changed them.
 
They could not look back.
 
His mistakes,
her mistakes, were to be for another day.
 
Time did not permit them to focus on anything other than holding it down
while Dutch got it together.

And now this.
 

Dutch met
with them the night before and informed them of his decision, propelling Crader
into the presidency with the stroke of a pen.
 
The shock was still there for Crader, as he stood along that wall
waiting to see Dutch Harber off.
 
The
thought that he was now responsible for running the entire government, that he
was now the leader of the free world, was as terrifying as it was exhilarating.

Dutch and
LaLa appeared in the corridor and the entire hall began to applaud.
 
Dutch struck a tall, elegant pose as LaLa
held back and he made that solitary walk for the last time.
 
He walked lighter now, even more sure-footed,
as he approached his friends and colleagues with hugs and kisses.

It took a
long time, but he eventually made it out onto the south lawn, Crader at his
side, as the entire White House staff, hundreds strong, applauded him.
 

Christian
stood beside LaLa at the entrance door, and watched as the new president
escorted the former president to the helipad.
 
It was a passing of the baton, and the press would later play it up that
way, but Dutch was thrilled to pass it on.

Christian looked
at LaLa.
 
“You’re the new First Lady
now,” he said.

The idea of
it still stunned LaLa.
 
“Yes, that’s
true.”

Christian
immediately saw her differently.
 
But he
still couldn’t help his feelings.
 
“Jade
finally signed the divorce papers,” he said.

LaLa looked
at him.
 
“You’re okay with that?”

“It’s what I
wanted, yes,” he said.
  
Then he
paused.
 
“What about you, and Senator, I
mean Vice, I mean President McKenzie?”

LaLa looked
at Crader, as he and Dutch talked at the helicopter.
 
“I’m going to hold on, Chris,” she said, “and
see what the end is going to be.”

Christian’s
heart dropped.
 
“But he cheated on you,
La
.”

“I cheated
on him.”

“It’s not
the same.”

LaLa looked
at Christian.
 
He looked so young to her,
right then and there.
 
“Yes, it is the
same,” she corrected him.

“But you
don’t have to stay.
 
Why are you staying
in such a troubled marriage?”

LaLa started
to give the usual reasons people stayed: because she loved him, because he was
the father of her baby girl.
 
But she
thought about what Dutch had said.
 
“Because he needs me,” she said, instead.

Christian
had to think about this.
 
And then he
responded.
 
“But what do you need, La?”

La thought
about this.
 
“To be needed,” she
admitted.

It would not
be long before the chopper landed on the back side of the Harber estate in
Newark, New Jersey.
 
Dutch stepped off,
saluted the pilot one last time, and made his way across the property.
 
It was a gorgeous piece of land, with a lakeside
view that seemed panoramic.
 
But the best
view of all for Dutch was when he walked along the home’s colonnade, onto the
front side of the property, and saw his wife and son playing catch on the
lawn.
 
And when they saw that Dutch had
returned to them, they took off running for him.

Dutch stood
there, in awe.
 
He couldn’t help
himself.
 
This was what life was about to
him. Not being the most powerful man in the world, or commanding attention just
by walking into the room.
 
But to see the
smile he put on the faces of his family just by coming home, was pure happiness
to him.

He swept
Little Walt up into his arms, and then he placed his arm around Gina, lifting
her too.
 
But they weren’t heavy.
 
They were his responsibility.
 
And he embraced them heartily.

“I saw it on
TV,” Gina said as she swept his hair out of his face.
 
“You looked great.”

Dutch looked
at her.
 
She wasn’t a hundred percent
yet, but she was close.
 
No permanent
damage, at least not physically.
 
“And
how are you doing, young lady?” he asked her.

“I feel
wonderful, Dutch.
 
Glad to have you
back.”

“Glad to be
back,” he said.

Early in her
rehab she used to ask him, every night, if they had found Marcus Rance
yet.
 
And every night he had to tell her
no.
 
But time was a wonderful ally.
 
Dutch had hired the best investigators he
could find.
 
Time would find that bastard.
 
And then he would have an appointment with
Dutch.