Page 95 of The Hardest Hit
“What?” repeated Jackson, investigating the wine bottle and wondering how he was supposed to open it without a corkscrew. “I didn’t tell her. I assume she talked to Ella.”
“Of course, I talked to Ella,” said Dominique. “She’s a teeny-tiny bruiser and you turn up with bruises. It raises questions.”
Jackson bit back a laugh, and Aiden whacked him in the arm.
“My girlfriend is not beating me up! And that’s a screw top.”
“It could happen,” said Dominique, going back into the kitchen. “I don’t know why people get weird about it.”
“Well, she’s not!” Aiden yelled after her.
“Well, obviously not. But I don’t know why we have to wander around pretending you don’t do illegal fighting. It’s annoying.”
“Because I don’t want to talk about it!” snapped Aiden.
“I’m not saying talk about it, I’m saying just don’t lie about it. I think this family needs to work on not lying to each other.”
“It would be nice,” muttered Jackson, finally stripping off the wrapping and unscrewing the wine.
“OK, fine. Can we move on to whatever Grandma did now?”
“I’d like to,” said Dominique, returning with glasses. “I don’t know why we’re talking about this in the first place.”
Aiden gaped at his sister in furious astonishment, then turned to Jackson for support.
“I hear you,” said Jackson to the look that spoke volumes, “but there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“I give up,” said Aiden, throwing his coat down on a chair. “Yes, let’s talk about Grandma. What’d she do?”
“There was no early meeting at the DNC,” said Jackson. “I believe Eleanor ditched me to take a meeting with Ralph Taggert in which the two of them negotiated away Evan and Olivia’s future.”
“That bitch,” burst out Dominique and both men turned to look at her. “She was nice,” said Dominque, looking like she was going to cry. “She was nice to him at Christmas do-over, and she knew the whole time… I actually thought she might have started to come around. But no, she was just setting him up.”
Aiden took the glasses out of her hand and set them on the coffee table and hugged her.
“But setting him up for what?” demanded Aiden looking at Jackson. “What did she do?”
“Ralph has some unsavory photos of Evan. He wants Eleanor to back off the health care bill and he wants Olivia and Evan to break up. Guess which one Eleanor agreed to?”
“Why would Taggert care if they break up?” demanded Dominique, sniffing and pulling free of Aiden.
“Well, if anyone had mentioned Olivia to me, and let me run a background check, we might have known that Olivia is Taggert’s granddaughter.”
“Ohhhhh, God,” said Aiden, and he dropped down onto Dominique’s couch. He spread out, shoes on the sofa cushion, and Jackson watched Dominique struggle not to say anything. “Did she know?” Aiden demanded, sitting upright again. “If this Olivia woman thinks she’s going to take advantage of Evan, I swear to God I will figure out a way to sue the shit out of her.”
“I don’t think she did,” said Dominique, picking up a glass and waving it at Jackson. “I met her. She’s in love with him. She looks at him, and you can just tell that she thinks he’s amazing.”
“Awww,” said Aiden, obviously melting on Evan’s behalf.
“And,” added Dominique, “when I asked him about her before Christmas, he said that they met at a party and that she had no idea who he was or that he even had money.”
“I hate Grandma!” yelled Aiden, yanking off his shoes and flinging them in the general direction of the shoe rack by the door. “Why is she trying to ruin this? And why is Evan caving? He can’t really be that scared of Grandma.”
“No,” said Jackson, pouring the wine. “He’s not, and she prepared for that. She used a particularly talented and unethical Photoshop expert to insert Olivia into Evan’s photos. Then she told Evan that if he didn’t break up with Olivia that she would send those photos to Olivia’s workplace and her school mailing list.”
Dominique and Aiden stared at him in disbelief.
“She can’t,” said Dominique as Aiden stood up and stomped across the floor and stood staring out the French doors onto Dominique’s balcony. “That’s… She can’t do that. Olivia hasn’t done anything wrong. And Evan… She can’t do that.”
