The Offices of Kopf & Bradley were on the fortieth floor looking down on Madison Avenue. It was Election day in the off-year as Susan Singleton and three other partners met with Edward Kincade; his executive assistant, Carrie Wilson; and Tony Greco, the governor's political advisor.
Fred Bradley as the senior partner present was summarizing what the parties had agreed would be the ongoing strategy.
"Susan will be on leave of absence for the next year through the gubernatorial election. She will be exclusively employed by the committee to re-elect Kincade. Tom and I will form a presidential exploratory committee and begin raising funds. This committee will be totally separate and will have no relationship with the governor or his re-election committee. "
"When do you think that you can dispense with Susan's services?" Kincade asked.
"Well, hopefully, we can have her other clients transferred by the first week in December," Tom replied.
"Good, the exploration committee should be set up and ready to go by Christmas. That will give us two full years to prepare for the first primary," Tony said.
Throughout the meeting, Carrie was respectfully quiet. She had nothing to add to the conversation and was merely taking noted for her boss. However, there was this nagging feeling that the whole presidential campaign might yet be stillborn. She had been sleeping with Jimmy O'Reilly for well over a year now. She had decided to press her advantage when his wife left early to pursue her Doctors Without Borders mission.
Jimmy was the man she wanted for herself, and she had enlisted him in the mission to avoid the festering child sex abuse scandal. It was a story that could undo all the governor's grand plans, or at least that's what Ed Kincade told her. If Jimmy could succeed, everything could work out for Kincade and by association for herself. She could make sure that Jimmy was properly rewarded and tie herself closer to her lover than she already was.
The trouble was Jimmy did not seem to be succeeding. He had hit a stone wall with some woman in Brooklyn, and he was getting stiff competition from the husband of the only other woman in the room. Carrie didn't understand how Susan could sit discussing a presidential bid ignoring what she must know about a scandal that involved the governor's father and her husband. Steven Fitzgerald was actively trying to blow the thing up. Wasn't he?
This morning she was worried about the grilling she had taken the night before from Jose Martin-Prez. The assembly majority leader knew too much. He knew Susan Fitzgerald had been hired. He knew that Steven Fitzgerald was working on something significant and most troubling he knew that Jimmy O'Reilly was working for the governor. The man who wanted to be speaker was no friend of the governor. How could Mrs. Fitzgerald sit there so calmly?
For her part, Susan could actively feel the eyes of the governor's assistant on her. She thought that perhaps the girl was bothered by her relationship with Tony. She had been actively discouraging the man for the last ten months. But Tony would not take no for an answer. In fairness, it was a no laced with a lot of highly protected sex.
Susan was determined to save her marriage and get pregnant. The two were not necessarily connected, but they ran along parallel lines. Was it too much for Mr. Greco to understand that she was ready to settle into domesticity with the man she was actually married to? Did Carrie know something about Tony's intentions that might upset the plan for her to join the current gubernatorial campaign and eventually the presidential bid? It was troubling, but Susan would have to wait and see how matters fell out.
Carrie Wilson was only a secondary concern. While she kept a smile on her face, Susan was sick at heart. She could not push from her mind, the worry that something was about to happen to her husband. She felt helpless all the more because she could not discuss the problem with her husband for fear of disclosing that she had been having him followed.
How had her life come to this horrible place? Her husband had been keeping the secret of his childhood sexual abuse from her, and now he was sleeping with another woman. Susan had no illusions; this Lynda person was intent on stealing her husband. But, all that paled at the thought that something might happen to her Steven.
Another woman might have blamed Steven for placing himself, so unnecessarily, in physical danger but not Susan Singleton. She had her faults, but cowardice was not one of them. If Steven was taking a risk, then there was a good reason for it, and it was her job to support and protect him.
"Susan, are you good with that?"
Susan realized the governor was speaking to her, "Can you make the move to my staff by the end of the year?" the governor asked again.
"Yes, that should be more than doable."
The meeting eventually broke up, and Susan's partners were well pleased. Neither Carrie nor Tony looked happy. As Carrie left with the Governor, Tony lingered. He followed Susan to her personal office, and as soon as the door closed, he grabbed Susan and kissed her.
"Please, someone could come in. My secretary doesn't always knock before she sticks her head in," Susan said.
'That's just an excuse. When are you going to stop fighting the feelings we have for each other?"
"When you acknowledge that I'm married."
Tony was frustrated. The woman refused to abandon her current spouse. The hatred that Tony had for Steven Fitzgerald grew more intense each day.
"So, you're refusing to marry me?" he demanded.
"I can't do otherwise. I swore until death do us part. Steven has done nothing and can do nothing that would cause me to take back that commitment. "
"Fine, have it your way. Till death do you part," Tony said and stormed out of her office.
Carrie had used the opportunity of Tony's absence to question the governor, "about the matter that you have Jimmy investigating," she began as they entered the elevator alone.
"Worried, are you?" the governor replied.
"Yes. The majority leader knows that Jimmy is working for you. I fear that I may have let something slip in front of Ray."
"Carrie, don't worry and have faith. We have done all we can. Now it is up to Jimmy. If the good Lord wants me to be president, he will succeed."
And that, as far as the governor was concerned, settled the matter.
After she divested herself of Mr. Greco, Susan called to make a lunch date with her sister. Mary Singleton did not often have lunch with her younger sister. The two had never been close. The age difference was nearly fourteen years. Moreover, Susan knew they had been raised quite differently. Mary was the oldest child. Her parents had hovered over her until she was a late teen. Puberty, their mother Kathrine would say, was hard on Mary. By which she meant that even among the sex-crazed DeVoe's, Mary DeVoe Singleton was a notable libertine. Then she met her husband, and things seemed to change, and she became the faithful wife and mother of three beautiful and brilliant daughters.
A wall street lawyer in one of the top three firms, Mary was respected, admired, and envied by all. But, the perception of Mary as a faithful wife was far less than accurate. Mary as an adult used her exceptional looks first to get ahead in life and later to stay ahead and ease the boredom that can come with success. She had the perfect life until she didn't. Like her sister, there existed only one small wrinkle; she was married to a good man and one she loved deeply.
The sisters had their lunch date in an inexpensive Greek restaurant near Chambers street. Coming into the restaurant, Susan found her sister already waiting.
"You look like I feel," Susan said taking in the thin, drawn countenance of her older sibling.
"Well, I have an excuse what's yours?" Mary responded.
