The Longer The Fall by Aviva Gat (best new books to read txt) 📗

out the coffee machine in the trash. Then he added a new filter, filled it with the grinds and pressed the on bottom. With nothing else to do, he stood there with his hands on his hips facing Madeline. “So how’s Brandon?”

“He’s good, thank you,” Madeline responded. “Can we sit? I need to talk to you about something.” She felt awkward in front of him, her words felt jarring and coarse. It was hard to believe that once they were so close.

Hunter nodded and motioned to invite her to sit at the table in the middle of the room where JJ had filed his official complaint regarding the basketball court. Madeline took a seat, her back straight, legs crossed and hands folded in her lap. Hunter sat across from her, leaning back in the chair, pushing its two front legs up in the air.

“Are you moving back to New York? Setting up residency to run for office from here? I hear the governor race is pretty open for the next term. May be a good opportunity for you—”

“No,” Madeline stopped him, but he continued.

“So what’s the next step? Another senate term? There isn’t much else to go from there, is there? Maybe a cabinet appointment? You’d be great as Secretary of State.”

“Another senate term,” she responded. “I’m launching my reelection campaign in a couple weeks.”

“Great news,” he said, tilting his head in approval. “So what can I do for you? I assume you aren’t here for my endorsement.”

Madeline took a deep breath. She had been rehearsing different scenarios in her head for the last few days, what she would say to him, how she would phrase it. What she expected from him in response. But no matter how many different ways it played out in her head, she still felt unready and unsure what to say. The words felt like bricks needing to be squeezed through a tiny hole.

“Hunter, someone is trying to blackmail me,” she said, pausing for his reaction. He looked straight into her eyes, his head nodding slightly.

“What does it have to do with me?”

“They know.” Until that moment, Madeline hadn’t been able to admit it. Not to herself, not to anyone else that she had made a mistake. A huge mistake, one that could ruin everything that she had worked so hard to achieve. It was the kind of mistake that Madeline had promised herself she would never do. Until that moment, she had tried to erase that mistake from her memory. For a while, the mistake stayed like a stain that couldn’t be removed, even with vigorous rubbing, but over time, the stain faded. The edges began to blend and Madeline was able to pretend it wasn’t there. Maybe no one else would notice the stain, maybe no one was paying that close attention. But looking close enough, the stain was there. It was definitely there.

Chapter 19

Madeline was still working at the same consulting firm where she had started her career after college. But with 10 years under her belt, she was a partner at the firm, managing clients rather than spreadsheets, meeting CEOs instead of employees, and presenting findings instead of analyzing data. She was 31 and had just started planning her run for her first term in the senate. Winning a senate seat in California was a long shot, she knew, and that’s why she was trying to keep her day job as long as possible. There was no question she was overextended—her job required a minimum of 60 hours a week, as did the initial campaign planning. That left her very little for Brandon and her two young children, who were both at a very pivotal point in their development—Noah was starting pre-k while Adam was just learning his first words.

As usual, Madeline believed she could handle it all—the lack of sleep, the stress, the guilt that she wasn’t giving enough in each of the directions she was being pulled. She had to handle it all, to prove that she was who everyone thought she was—a successful woman, the kind that people knew would make it one day.

That particular week, she had been hoping to take a couple days off. A few of her projects at work had just been finished. The minimal staff who had started strategizing her senate run seemed adequate enough to handle things without her for a short time. She wanted to take the boys to the zoo, Noah had loved animals and it would be a great opportunity to teach Adam the sounds each one made. She made peace with her plan to take a break, she deserved it after all, she told herself when the guilt tried to creep in. But then she got a call from her firm’s CEO.

“You’re on the next flight to NYC,” he said when she answered. She tried to tell him she had already blocked her calendar off, that she was taking a much-needed vacation, but the CEO wouldn’t listen. Did she remember a project she had worked on when she was just a consultant in the New York Office? Back then, they were looking to improve efficiency in the procurement department at that banking company. Madeline had been in charge of interviewing employees, analyzing the data, and had proposed a plan that ended up saving the company almost a million that first year after the plan was implemented. Her firm was trying to win a new project at that banking company and the company’s new CEO had worked with Madeline on that project years ago. He had asked about Madeline, whether she was still working at the firm. As the firm was competing with several other consulting firms to win this highly profitable project, they needed to send Madeline to meet with the CEO. Her rapport could make all the difference! It could ensure that they would win this project, which