“I don’t know who it is,” she said. There were so many people it could have been.
Muriel Sanz. Her friend Bette.
But Trevor had said they’d already ruled them out because his partners had slept with them. That was obviously how they conducted their investigation.
She wasn’t going to run hers the same way. She was going to investigate. She wanted to know. And she had one suspicion. But she wasn’t about to share that with Trevor. She didn’t want him to do anything that might require him hiring Stone as his criminal defense lawyer.
“You act like you don’t care,” Trevor said as if that was an accusation, as well.
She sighed. “I care.”
“Then why won’t you do something about it? Why aren’t you threatening to sue that reporter and setting the record straight?”
Like he had. She’d been standing behind him in the lobby and had heard his every word. Nobody had noticed her because they’d been so focused on him. He commanded attention and respect.
He really would make a great politician. If her mother had married him, she might have had her shot at being first lady one day.
But Allison didn’t even know where her mother was. Given her history, she was undoubtedly married again. She’d never been able to go without a man and his money.
Since she hadn’t inherited her father’s, she would have had to find another rich husband to support her expensive habits.
“Maybe the record is straight,” she said.
And he narrowed his eyes. “You said you’re not the mole.”
“I’m not.”
“But then how would the record be straight?”
“Karma,” she said. “I deserve some bad press for all I’ve given out. I deserve this because I have become my mother’s daughter.”
She’d started training her from such a young age to be a bitch like her, to take people down with backhanded compliments and mean smiles. She shivered as she relived the coldness with which she’d been raised. “My mother is not a nice woman.”
“Do you think she could be behind this?” Trevor asked. “Do you think she could be the mole?”
And Allison’s heart clenched before she laughed. “She would not waste her time with me.” She very rarely had.
“But you inherited from your grandfather and she didn’t,” Trev pointed out. “Don’t you think she might want revenge?”
Her mother always wanted revenge for every imagined slight against her. But Allison was still her daughter, although at her grandfather’s funeral, her mother had denounced her.
“But how?” Allison asked. “How could she be the mole? I haven’t talked to her in years.”
Trev glanced at the door. “I guess I should let you handle this,” he said. “Especially since she’s your mother.”
“Yes,” she said. But instead of feeling the relief she’d expected since he was backing down, she felt that achy hollowness inside again. “Thank you.”
“Like you said,” he continued, “I need to focus on revamping my image for politics.”
“And being involved with me is only going to hurt you,” she said.
He nodded in agreement.
And she felt a twinge in her heart. He was willing to step back. Running for office must have meant more to him than she’d realized.
“It’s good that nobody knows that I was even considering it,” he said.
“Your partners know.”
