A shocking offer
“All this would happen if your father gets into congress this fall.” Gilbert Dankworth said, looking at Myra, and she almost smiled because what in the name of exaggeration was that?
But she kept her face blank as she watched him.
“And Tyson Shaw is banking on YOU to help him get in.
“What?”
“I spoke to Sutherland last night. We are not exactly friends, but we went to the same college and headed the student union together.”
“You spoke to my grandfather?” Myra’s jaw fell as she stared at this congressman.
She kept forgetting that he was an important politician. Just how much power did he have then.
And what would be the cost for him to save her from her father, because if he was going to these lengths, it meant he planned to.
But at what cost?
“Yes. I had to run the idea I had in mind through him." The congressman said, watching her.
"Did you know he changed some things a few years ago? Despite the restriction Sutherland had put in place to make sure your father never inherited anything from his daughter, it was beginning to seem like your mother would find a way to give them to him anyway, so he made you his direct heir. Your mother is merely managing these things in your stead.”
Myra stared at him, not believing a word of what he said anymore.
This all sounded fantastical.
How could something so huge happen, and she did not even have the faintest idea about it?
Neither her mother nor father told her, and most importantly, her grandfather did not let her know.
“I am no liar, Miss Shaw.”
She focused her eyes on the congressman’s face now. “I have known that since the first day we talked.”
“Then why do you doubt my words? You can ask him when we go visit him sometime this week.”
“We are visiting him?”
Gilbert Dankworth nodded, turning away, and she heard the sound of a drawer opening again.
“Why did you say my father is banking on me to help him win?” She asked, going back to the first question.
“He is,” the man said, pulling a file out and opening it. “From my conclusions, after reading what he did to Miss Steels, he has laid everything out so that he wins regardless of the outcome of your mission."
"If you get evidence against Cal, he rides on the scandal to win the election. If you fail to, he puts you in jail and becomes responsible for your assets.” The man looked up.
“When he has all that money, Brienstein would be too pleased to back him up to get into the congress.”
“Who is Brienstein?” Myra asked, remembering she had heard that name when she bugged Cal’s office on her first day at the penthouse.
“A devil. The very reason why we cannot let Tyson win.”
“I don’t understand any of this,” Myra said, shaking her head, suddenly very confused.
She was supposed to be a detective. Why was her brain feeling so slow today?”
“Andrew Brienstein is a fellow congressman who has been in the Congress longer than I have. He is friends with every business person, and has tea with every new Hollywood sensation."
"He is sociable, all these people have his ears, and he believes in looking out for his friends. In his books, the best way he can support their careers and businesses is by supporting legislative motions that would favor them.”
He stopped, and Myra nodded to show he had all her attention.
“That is how he started. But now, he is a real walking devil. In the past eight years he has been trying to pass a bill he calls the Secure Voting Initiative.” The man laughed with mirth at this now, shaking his head.
“But he really is just trying to make sure only candidates who the rich vote for can get into government.”
“How?” She asked, and as Gilbert Dankworth explained how the bill would work, everything he had been saying finally made sense.
When only the rich had voting power, they would give those votes to people they were sure would pass laws to help them make more money.
This was all so sneaky and ugly.
They were not coming outright to say you cannot vote, they would make it seem like voting was accessible to everyone, but one of the requirements to be a registered voter would be out of reach to people below a certain tax bracket.
“Your Ciaran Complex is an example of what the country would be like,” the man said, and Myra grimaced.
She hated any association with that place. But she was a resident, so, of course, to an outsider she was part of them.
“I agree now that we can not let my father get in. But there’s nothing else I can do. If he never finds out about my relationship with Cal, there is no way he can smear your name, or send me to jail. And I am working with the press to make sure I do not suffer for taking on the mission in the first place.”
“So you plan to not pursue a relationship with Cal then?”
“Of course I do,” she said as she felt a blush spread on her face as she thought about her last moment with him.
“And you think when Tyson Shaw finds out, he would not figure it out that you have been in that relationship for a while?”
“He would be unable to do anything against you with that information if we wait till the elections are over to make our relationship public.”
“Cal will not be that patient, and unless you plan to tell him why you’d prefer to keep it private, you may have to break up with him.”
Myra looked away as her mind went back to that bedroom, and how hurt Cal's eyes looked because he thought she was ashamed of their age gap.
That was clearly an insecurity for him, and he would not believe any other flimsy excuse she gave.
“Do you have any other solutions in mind, Miss Shaw?”
“I don’t,” she said, in a quiet defeated voice, because at the moment she could not think of anything.
Not with all the information she had learned in such little time.
“I do,” The congressman said, and she looked up at him with hopeful eyes.
He nodded and said, “Run against your father for congress.”