Page 53 of The Illusion of Power (Passion and Politics #1)
I haven’t figured out how I’m going to get back at him yet, how I’m going to make sure that I still get everything I want out of this arrangement, especially with my leverage gone, but I will.
Jordan clasps her hands together and places them on the table, emerald eyes narrowed at me. “You’re right, the timing is convenient. How did you learn about the shift anyway?”
“President Sanders?—.”
Aubrey slams his fist on the table, cutting me off. “See! I fucking told you. She’s working with him.”
“Working with him? I just met the man for the first time last night. Do you seriously think we developed a take-down strategy over the course of a five-minute conversation?”
“No,” Jordan says. “Actually, I don’t.”
One of my brows lifts in surprise. “ You believe me?”
“I believe that this strategy was developed way before last night, probably by President Sanders’ team. I also believe you’ve played a key role in making it successful.”
“How? I just told you I don’t know the man. I didn’t give him those pictures.” My frustration pulls one last confession from me. “I don’t even know who sent them to me.”
Cordelia chimes in then. “But he knows you, or at least he thought he did. I’d bet my granddaddy’s farm that Sanders had one of the people on his opposition research team take and send those pictures to you.”
Jordan nods enthusiastically, eyes shining with understanding. “Of course, he did. He gets proof of the affair and sends it to you, hoping you’ll go to the public and blow up Aubrey’s campaign in its early stages, which keeps his hands clean.”
“Except you didn’t do that,” Cordelia drawls. “Why?”
No part of me feels like explaining my thought process and decision making to this woman, so I volley an inquiry of my own back at her. “Why are you here?”
“Because I asked her to be,” Aubrey says, glowering at me.
“No, I’m not talking about here, in this room, I mean here, in our lives. Why are you involved in this campaign? Why have you attached yourself to Aubrey?”
Instead of answering, the Senator just smiles and shakes her head like I wouldn’t understand her motivations even if she wanted to explain them to me. Maybe she’s right. Meanwhile, Jordan is still putting together the pieces of this puzzle. She shakes her head.
“I should have seen it before, really, I should have known when we couldn’t find out where the photos came from.”
“Why would your immediate assumption not be that they came from the opposition?”
“Because we thought they came from you. You’ve been against this campaign from the beginning. I thought it was a case of internal sabotage.”
I huff out an outraged laugh. “Right, let’s focus on the wife and not the man who’s competing against him for the most powerful office in the world. That makes sense.”
“Sanders isn’t known for dirty politics,” Cordelia says.
Aubrey pushes to his feet and begins pacing. “But he’s playing dirty now, which is a good thing, right? It means he’s desperate, means he knows I’m taking the fucking Oval.”
I want to tell him that he couldn’t even take the debate, but I decide not to risk his wrath again.
“So, I don’t go public with the photos, so he has to.
Only, he doesn’t send the press everything he sent to me.
He didn’t even send me everything he had.
I never saw the selfies in our bed or the picture at the park. Why hold back?”
Jordan shrugs. “It’s possible that he didn’t have those photos until recently. Those selfies would have been hard to come by, and the one in park wasn’t all that damning on its own. He probably didn’t think it merited sharing.”
“But he went scorched earth tonight,” Cordelia mutters. “Driving home all the points he made on that stage with visual proof.”
Jordan runs her hand through her hair. “Our only saving grace is that you two aren’t actually romantically involved anymore.”
My eyes fly to Cordelia’s face, and I’m not surprised to see that she’s not even a little caught off guard by that statement.
“How is that a good thing?” Aubrey asks.
“Because Sanders thinks telling Selene you’re going back on your word will cause a rift between you two that will be evident to the public and continue to feed into the narrative he established at the debate.
They’re counting on Selene being so mad she disappears from the campaign, and all the Black female voters who have forgiven you because she has, will disappear right along with her. ”
“But you can’t cause a rift in a thing that’s already been broken,” I say.
Jordan gives me a smile that’s half respect and half condescension. “Exactly, so despite his best efforts, Sanders hasn’t done any real damage. You two will continue to present a united, unaffected front, and it will carry us all the way to the White House.”
Aubrey claps his hands like everything is settled, but I’m skeptical.
“Unless Sanders realizes his plan hasn’t worked and decides to dig deeper.”
“Let him dig,” Jordan snaps. “Aubrey has told me everything, so I know there’s nothing left for him to find.”
I don’t like Jordan, but I normally believe her when she speaks. Two things keep me from doing that this morning: her stunning lack of awareness regarding Sanders’ plot to make me a pawn in his game and the look Aubrey and Cordelia share when she says there’s nothing left to find.