Chapter Thirty
Colton
My head is spinning as a member of my security detail ushers me off the stage and into a back hall that leads out to the town car waiting for me. My father and Al are already inside.
“What the fuck is going on?” I look at both Al and my father. “Why wasn’t I prepared for that ambush? What the hell were they talking about?” I shoot off questions not giving them a chance to answer.
“I don’t have a fucking clue,” Al says looking a little queasy. He turns his head to my father and both of us stare him down waiting for an answer. My father’s jaw tenses and his brown eyes look almost black.
“Father?” I ask, and he passes me his phone.
“This article is going to print as we speak,” he says not sounding very amused. On the front page of The Sun is Evie sitting in a coffee shop with Veronica. My initial response is what has my father done now? The picture shows both Veronica and Evie speaking with their elbows on the table as if to block outsiders from the conversation. My eyes drop to the headline Breaking Story: Sun Exclusive Just as Colton Mathis is about to announce his intention to run for president, his hot redhead fling conspires with the woman who ran off on him when he was a little boy. My heart falters as I read those first words and I know my father couldn’t have had anything to do with this. How could Evie be involved in this scandal? Had she set out to hurt me from the start? I didn’t want to believe the words I read but they were right there in front of me in black and white. I continue to read, unable to stop myself. Colton’s parents James and Victoria Mathis wed on June 5, 1983. James, a member of the renown Mathis family, fell in love with the up and coming actress Victoria Davis, a beauty in her own right. Off to the side is a picture of a younger Veronica. James Mathis, a prominent defense attorney and partner, at the Mathis and Lowry law firm in Chicago had political aspirations. The young Mathis family grew as Victoria gave birth to her first son Colton, and three years later to Jake James. They were a picture-perfect family on the surface. Wealthy, beautiful but there wouldn’t be a happily ever after for this family. James had been accused of having numerous affairs with other lawyers in his firm. We followed up with one of his ex-lovers a secretary from his firm yesterday and asked her to comment. She said, “James will always be special to me.” Did that confirm their love affair? We will leave it up to the people to decide. And Victoria. Rumor is she was having an affair too. Who knew there was so much drama among America’s wealthiest families?
The family faced a crisis in 1989 when a fire destroyed the family mansion. After that, any trace of Victoria Davis and her son Jake James was erased. James Mathis used his connections to erase the existence of his wife and son. We’ve consulted with an expert of the FBI who wishes to remain anonymous, and he admitted it was very easy to erase someone’s existence. In fact, this is a common occurrence within the FBI when an agent needs to go dark, or a person or family enters the witness protection program. Given James Mathis’s wealth and connections, he had all the right tools to make that happen, (FBI agent, Anonymous).
My heart is pounding as I read the article word for word. I wanted to stop but I couldn’t. I kept reading despite the fact that I knew that this particular media outlet had a reputation for delivering facts that were untrue and adding their own two cents on the issue.
Do you the people of the United States of America want someone from such a corrupt family running to be the next president of our great country? Think long and hard my fellow Americans. Don’t make a mistake that will bring our nation to ruin.
At the bottom of that paragraph is a picture of me leaving Evie’s house this morning. Jesus Christ! Evie…Veronica…Jake…what were the chances? Did Evie know? Had she done this to me on purpose? Was she hired by my opposition campaign to infiltrate my life and bring me down?
I whip my father’s phone back at him then yell at the driver to stop the car.
“No…” my father cut in. “This story is hitting the press right about now. You will be bombarded. We need to get you to a safe place,” my father says as if he genuinely has any concern for me. He is a fucking liar. Everybody around me is a fucking liar. I have to get away from them all.
“Stop the car now,” I shout. “Or I’m jumping out.”
My father lifts his hand to the driver to stop. Even now in my fucking demise, he is calling the shots. I can’t even look at him. I don’t know how much of the article I read was true, but I know it had shreds of truth and if that is the case, I hate the man sitting in front of me.
With the car stopped I ask my father a few more questions. “How did I have a brother and not remember him?” I snap.
My father shrugs his shoulders. “You were traumatized by the fire. Your therapist said that your mind blocked out the trauma. I guess somehow you blocked Jake out too.”
“Why did Jake and my mother have to leave?” My heart breaks as I ask the question, feeling nothing but pure contempt for the man in front of me. He sold himself as if he were my guardian angel giving me the best life and wanting me to succeed, but in reality, he used me to gain power. A game of chess where he knocked out all the players until he was the last man standing. That’s why he discussed the future with me last night. He told me he wanted to be my Chief of Staff if I won the presidency. My natural answer had been, of course. This man didn’t care about me. He was a power hungry selfish jerk. He wanted to rule this country through me, to achieve through me what he couldn’t do on his own. I felt sick to my stomach.
“She was having an affair, Colton,” he sighs heavily, trying to make himself look the victim. As if I should feel any sympathy for him. He was a good actor I’d give him that.
“Cut the bullshit Father so were you,” I spit back.
“Fair enough,” he shrugs. “But I wasn’t even sure Jake was mine. I don’t think he is.” My father purses his lips together. Jake’s face came to the front of my thoughts and hung there like a picture in a frame. My mind is reeling as I remember his facial features. He is my father’s son. He looks more like my father than I do. A cold shiver runs up my spine at the thought.
“So why? Why did you take her away from me?” I scream so loud it ached in the back of my throat.
My father’s face reddens as his words boomed through the car. “He was deaf Colton. There was nothing we could do to help him. I wanted to run for state attorney; only your mother couldn’t stand by my side because we had an invalid son she had to care for.” At those words, I am so repulsed I lunge forward and grip my father’s neck.
“And the truth prevails. You sicken me,” I say with my fingers digging into his neck. My loss of control terrifies me, but I’m so lost in the pain of all the years of loneliness, for all the pain I felt for a brother I didn’t know, that I wanted to kill my father. His face turns beet red and I know I am cutting off his oxygen.
“Colton, man, don’t do this.” I hadn’t realized Al was trying to pry my hands off my father until he said my name, but the anger and pain still ruled. I want him dead. All the years of guilt I felt over him giving up everything for me was a sham. A sham…and I was the fool who played the part. I was his ticket to the White House. A fucking means to an end.
“Colton ease the fuck up,” Al grits, finally ripping my hands off my father’s neck. I fall back in my seat in a heap of ragged breathes. Feeling like the walls of the car are closing in on me, I throw the door open and get out of the car. As my feet hit the cement, I can’t get away from the car fast enough.
Al comes after me. “Colton, wait,” he shouts, placing his hand on my shoulder.
I don’t turn around, I only bark, “Go the fuck away.”
“I didn’t know anything, man,” he pleads, keeping up pace with me. “I’m just as shocked as you,” he says, and I believe him. If anything, he had always been loyal, and he just saved me from killing my father. He stops following me. My mind is in a tailspin. I feel like I am walking through the eye of a hurricane. Everything is spinning around me with such force I don’t know which direction would be safe.
It is now mid-afternoon, and bright outside. Anyone could recognize me. Fuck, I need to make myself scarce. I just announced my candidacy, and to be hit with a scandal like this is terrible news. The media would be all over me. I lift the lapels of my jacket, hoping to cover my face a little but it isn’t constructive. I am shaking from the inside out. I need to get off the street before someone recognizes me. I go to hide in an alley which probably isn’t the smartest thing to do, but my mind and heart are aching as I think of Evie and Carter.
Evie had known the truth about my past and didn’t tell me. After all those late-night talks. The way she spoke about Jake and Veronica. She had to have known the truth. I had opened up to her about my past. About the pain I harbored; about my mother leaving, and not once did she say, ‘Hey, your family is right here in fucking front of you.’ She had so many opportunities to come clean. Dammit, so many possibilities… she chose to lie. They all lie. There was no one I could trust. Everyone wanted a piece of me. I walk away from the alley and back out to the crowded street. It was only a matter of time before someone recognized me and took a picture of my location. The media would be on to me like vultures asking questions I didn’t entirely have the answers for.
I call the only person I know won’t sell me out. She picks up after one ring.
“Cassy, I need you to come and get me,” I say before she could even say hello.
“Colton, for Christ’s sake where are you? This whole situation is awful.”
“Get a paper and pen and write down this address. I will meet you there in twenty.”
“On my way, darling. I’m so happy you called.”