The Oval Office ✓ (Book One)

Chapter Fifty

    Joe's P.OV

Sometimes I wish I hadn't taken this job when Kyle offered. As one of the youngest top attorney's in the country with three degrees- one in political science, and years of experience representing politicians, I was his first choice. For instance, if I hadn't taken it, I would probably be asleep by now, but at the same time I would never have met the people I consider to be my family.

   Kylie and James can fuck off and die for all I care, no matter how close we were. finding out that she was just a fucking monster who would do anything for money and to protect her own life immediately turned off any attraction I had towards her. I look at the picture of us on my desk now and sigh, throwing it in the trash that's supposed to be taken out tomorrow morning.  Watching the frame hit the bottom of the bag is satisfying. James's betrayal is more difficult to wrap my head around even though we weren't close and it doesn't really affect me; but Lauren and I are relatively close.

  He never told us about Emily- which I don't understand. We know now that he was trying to protect her, that her brother was a murdering psychopath, but we could've helped him if he just fucking said something. Still, something in the back of my mind tells me that if he thought telling us would put us in danger, then telling us would have put us in danger. The whole treason part is unforgivable in the eyes of the law, but at the same time they will have to consider that he was the reason she was found.

  Whether or not that'll defer his death sentence is unclear as that sort of thing is a grey area. The law does state that treason is punishable by death, but the death penalty, while not abolished, hasn't been used a single time during Kyle's presidency. Personally, I don't believe in the death penalty, but if there's anybody that does deserve it it's every last person that was willingly a part of the kidnapping plot. We've learned that a lot of them were recruited on threats of killing their loved ones if they talked or refused to join,so those individual's will probably get 30+ years in prison, but James is different, being the individual that was tasked with the actual kidnapping part.

"Mr.Norris?" An intern knocks on my office door, letting herself in after announcing her presence.

"What is it?" I sigh.

"You need to read Ms.Haines's most recent article. It's... concerning to say the least." The intern says. Great. Just another fucking thing for me to deal with.

  I open the weekly times app on my phone, almost wanting to just avoid it.

  Does The President Have a Criminal Past?

  According to our sources, whose names we will not mention for their safety, yes. Meg Haines will be following the report and details will come out as we receive them.

  Jesus Christ Kyle. As soon as my eyes scan over the words, my phone starts ringing too, and I immediately pick it up. "What did you do?" I ask, not stuttering.

  "I'm not telling you that." Kyle says. "I just have a question."

  "Shoot." I say, cringing at my choice of words.

"Are hush money payments legal?"

  "Sort of, if you call it a confidentiality agreement. I mean, you can specify in a contract the amount of years it's valid for and there's no cap on how much money you can pay them but if they decide to say anything after the contract term is over there's not much you can do about it." I state.

  "Is it legal to to put forever somewhere in there?" He asks.

  "Not really." I say. "The maximum cap on confidentially agreements is seventy years but realistically speaking, the weekly times's entire staff of reporters and producers are all over thirty, they won't live that long. Forgive me if I'm out of line but.. you'd be dead by then too so it wouldn't really matter at that point."

  "Okay- thank you." He hangs up. The same intern looks up from her phone, rubbing her temples.

  "Meg Haines is looking to get a statement out of you on the White House's radio silence today." She says.

  "Tell her she'll have to wait until tomorrow." I sigh. "I'm going home for the night. You should get some sleep too."

"I need ten more hours before wensday to put 'White House intern' down on my master's application." She replies. "I can't."

"That's fucken ridiculous-"I say. "You've worked, what- 200 hours this month?"

"Well, yes sir but-"

"Here." I print out her clock-in hours, adding ten onto it myself. "You've worked your ass off- now give yourself a damn break." She smiles, hesitantly taking the papers.

I grab my work bag and ID, getting ready to head out the door, and I'm pretty close to it before I bump into Marisol again. "Well hello." I say.

"Do you have a minute?"

"I was about to go home but-" She pulls me into another room before i can answer.

"My oldest daughter kicked the shit out of some kid at school earlier." She sighs.

"Did the kid deserve it?" I ask.

"What do you mean?"

"Did your daughter hit first or did the other kid do it?"

"She hit first but the other one was being a little asshole."

"Okay-" I say. "That would still be assault since she..hit first. She could have claimed self defense if she let the other kid throw the first punch."

Marisol bangs her head against the wall. I can almost hear her saying "why the fuck are my kids like this?" She is an amazing mom when she's there- but about forty percent of the time and a lot more this past week, the nanny's the one taking care of them, and from what she's told me they don't exactly like the nanny, since the last one let them do whatever they wanted whenever they wanted to do it.

"Look-" she says. "It's just... My ten year old needs a lawyer."