by Aviva Gat
Luckily, Brandon had also left a note in his envelope. Madeline pulled the piece of notebook paper out and gently unfolded it to reveal Brandon’s sharp handwriting.
Madeline,
Do you remember the first time we met? I’m not talking about the convention where we formally introduced ourselves and became a couple. Yes that is a beautiful and romantic story of our beginning but it is far from the truth. This picture is the day we met. We didn’t exchange names, or phone numbers, but it was the day that the rest of your life was decided for you.
I was visiting New York that day to speak with a group of potential investors for my new startup. It’s funny thinking of CyTech as a startup, but that is all it was back then. I walked into the auditorium at Columbia where the pitching event was held and I stood in front of the podium and told them about why CyTech would revolutionize the cyber world. They smiled and thanked me, but I knew they wouldn’t invest. Why? Because I bombed the pitch. I mean, it was horrible. I was probably one of the best programmers and developers around, but I couldn’t public speak for the life of me.
I stayed and watched the other startups pitch and when the event was over, I still stayed in the auditorium. I was alone, and it was nice to sit in the quiet, but then you came in. You walked in with your friends from the College Republican National Committee and started ordering everyone around the room. You saw me sitting in the room and you asked me if I had come for the mock election debate. I shook my head and you turned away and continued to explain to everyone their tasks to prepare for whatever this mock debate was you were planning. You had such presence in the room and everyone listened to you unquestioningly.
When you left the auditorium, I followed you outside and took this picture. It was then that I decided that I was going to marry you and you would be the presence in the world that I always wanted to be. It wasn’t hard to find out more about you. From your t-shirt I knew you were in the College Republican National Committee and since my parents were active in the party, it just took a few questions and I had your name and everything else you had written on your admission forms. I had never shown interest in the Republican Party before, so my parents were excited when I started attending events and asking questions. They had always wanted me to be a politician, but I knew that I would never be good at that. So I put all the expectations and eyes on you. It was me who brought your name forward to the party’s leadership. I told them to keep an eye on you, I told everyone that you were the star they needed to polish. And everyone listened to me because of my parent’s money.
While you were basking in the attention and your stardom in the party, you didn’t realize that you were being handed to me on a silver platter. Everyone knew I wanted to marry you and make you the leader my parents had wanted me to be. They spoke to you about me, placing hints in your mind and ensuring that you were single and already primed to be with me by the time we met. Meeting you officially was just a formality. Everything had already been planned.
Aristotle believed that we don’t really have free will in the way we believe we do. All of our actions and choices are based on sequences of circumstances around us, including the environment, others’ actions, and our own personality traits. Your every decision was determined by sequences of circumstances that I created for you. I recognized your love of the spotlight and I helped you get exactly what you needed so long as you continued making the decisions that I primed you to make.
You continued making all the right decisions, until one day you didn’t. I forgave you, thinking maybe it was my mistake that I led you astray. But that wrong decision has come back to haunt us and it threatened everything I had planned.
What I want you to see, is that you would have been nothing without me. Had I not seen you that day at Columbia, you certainly wouldn’t be a senator with eyes to the White House. Chances are your name wouldn’t have even been known in the Republican Party.
Today, what you want and what I planned for you are one and the same. So I want you to understand that your success isn’t possible without me in the background. You won’t win your election without me by your side. You won’t be vetted for Vice President and you definitely won’t be nominated for president.
You took me for granted. Everything I did for you, everything I made you achieve. You could have confessed and begged for my forgiveness. And because you didn’t, you lost everything. I’m done. I’m out.
Brandon
Madeline held the letter in her hands. She didn’t remember anything about the day Brandon had first seen her, but everything seemed to make sense. All the comments people made to her about Brandon before she met him, how she was simply picked out to run for leadership in the New York Chapter of the Republican committee. She had always done what she had wanted, had achieved everything on her own accord, or had she? Had Brandon been a puppeteer for her all along?
For many women, this type of revelation might induce fear or anger. But Madeline took it differently. Maybe it was because she was primed to feel that way, or maybe it was because Brandon had finally shown that his own strategic planning rivaled Madeline’s. Madeline was impressed. So impressed that it actually made her love him more, giving her another reason why she couldn’t let him go.
Chapter 44
She knew where she would find him, but she decided to wait until morning. Surely Brandon would expect her to come running to him right away and beg for forgiveness, but she had other plans. She didn’t think she needed forgiveness from him. Rather, she would go to him seeking something much more important for the long term of their relationship: compliance.
Because, you see, a marriage as successful as theirs isn’t based solely on love or passion. It is about two equals meeting and forcing each other to achieve their goals. This is what Madeline needed to do now. In the morning, after kissing her boys goodbye and promising them that their dad would be home for dinner, Madeline drove to Brandon’s office. It was still early, before other employees arrived and sure enough Brandon’s car was parked in his designated spot. Madeline parked next to him and let herself into the office building and up the elevator to the top floor where Brandon’s office was. She pictured him sleeping on the large plush couch he had there. That couch had once been in their living room before they replaced the furniture and Madeline had many memories of Brandon napping there.
Without knocking she entered his office and he was exactly where she had pictured him. Lying down on the couch, his head nuzzled in the cushions on one side. She sat at his desk quietly and waited for him to stir. It didn’t take long before his eyes fluttered and he noticed her. A grin peeked on his face and he slowly sat up.
“You’re too late,” Brandon said, rubbing the stubble that had grown on his chin overnight. “It’s over, Madeline.”
“Actually, I don’t believe it is,” she responded. “It is far from over and we’re going to finish what we started.” She paused. While she usually liked to wait to hear what others had to say, this was a time that Madeline knew she would be doing most of the talking. She would be telling Brandon how it would be and why he had no choice but to follow her. “You think that you discovered me, that you made me, and maybe you’re right. And if so, you need to live with what you made. I’m going to continue with the goals, I’m going to win my election and get into the White House and you are going to help and do what you are supposed to do.”
“I’m not, Madeline,” Brandon responded. “I’m done.”
“You are, and I will tell you why,” Madeline said. “Because you betrayed me as much as I betrayed you. Maybe I cheated, but you spied on me for years. My betrayal was wrong, but yours was illegal. Now there are two ways this can go right now. You can decide it’s over and that we’re getting a divorce. I’m sure both of our betrayals will be exposed in that situation. But only one of ours will have legal repercussions. Or the second option is that we continue focusing on our goals. From your letter, I learned something new about you. You crave power. Without me, you will
never be fulfilled again. You will never have any power.”
Madeline sat quietly at her husband’s desk as he absorbed what she said. She could see the wheels turning, his brain processing. His response was something Madeline never would have imagined. He stood up from the couch with his eyes focused on her. There was something feral in his look, something fearless and determined. Madeline held his gaze as he approached her in a way that he had never done before. Without looking away he walked around to the back of his desk where Madeline was still sitting. With one hand he grabbed the back of her neck, catching her hair in between his fingers. With gentle force, he pulled her up to standing. Madeline let herself be guided by him and starred into his eyes as he pulled her head toward his eye level. He challenged her to look away, to pull away, to give some symbol of her subservience, but she didn’t budge, challenging him right back. The moment was so intense that it sparked something inside Madeline that caused her to inch forward and bite her husband’s bottom lip. She bit down hard, causing him to start tightening the grip he had on the back of her neck. Before she could pull her lips away, Brandon caught them in his and pushed her down onto his desk. Madeline complied and braced herself with her hands as Brandon pushed up against her. She then bit his lips harder, signaling him to keep going. With his free hand, he fiddled with their clothing and fiercely pushed himself inside her. He thrust hard as she arched her back and let herself be taken over by Brandon.
Thirteen years of marriage and a year of dating before that and this was the first time they had sex outside of a bedroom. It was the first time Madeline had let herself feel dominated by her husband and it was the first time that she let herself go with him. When it was over, Brandon let go of her neck and stepped back from his desk.
She looked at him with new admiration as though she were seeing him for the very first time. Her skin still tingled from feeling him on top of her. She waited a moment before sitting up and fixing her skirt. Brandon had already tucked his shirt back into his pants and grabbed two bottles of water from the mini fridge in his office. “Now what?” he said as he handed her a bottle.
Madeline took the water and opened it for a sip. “Now, I’m going to go home, freshen up and get back to work,” she responded. “And I’ll see you at home this evening.” Without waiting for his reaction, Madeline left his office and walked through the halls to the elevator. Employees were starting to arrive, setting bags down in their cubicles and starting the roar of the coffee machine.
Epilogue
The hotel suite was silent except for the voices on the television. Madeline was sitting on the bed with her back against the headboard and her feet crossed with her shoes still on. She had that feeling, the one where her heart pounded like she was about to get caught, even though there was no reason she should feel that way. She watched the television intently as the newscasters continued talking without saying anything of substance at all.
Next to her, Brandon lay down with his head on the pillow and his eyes closed. He was tired of listening. “Tell me when it is over,” he said and curled his hands under his cheek. Jane and Hunter were also in the hotel suite, sitting on the chairs stationed around a small table under the window. Their eyes too were glued to the TV.
“Early predictions show you’ll be two points ahead,” Jane reiterated for the fifth time that night as though saying it again could make it come true. Madeline would have liked a bigger lead, winning by two points was not the victory she had hoped for. Now, in the hotel room, just minutes after the polls had closed, the team waited to hear if she would serve her second term in the senate.
The newscasters continued showing predictions and maps with Madeline’s and Officer Austin’s faces opposing each other on the screen. There were clips from their election night events, which had started hours before and were still going on, waiting for someone to be announced the victor.
Officer Austin’s event was at the Fraternal Order of Police Headquarters, where uniformed officers were filmed drinking champagne from the early afternoon—when less than 20% of the population had cast their votes.
They deserved to celebrate, Madeline thought. It hadn’t been an easy campaign and Officer Austin had performed better than anyone could have expected. He held rallies in neighborhoods that had previously supported Madeline and had been eloquent when interviewed by journalists who were tough on police. Madeline had tried to focus her campaign on the SAVER Bill, which weeks before the election had passed in the Senate. She had made a few compromises, added a few pork belly line items in the bill, but the overall integrity of the bill had remained intact. It was now awaiting a vote in the House of Representatives, where congress members were trying to stall a vote until after the election. She knew there were congress members against it, who would try to shred the act apart, but with Madeline’s win, she was sure she could rally enough votes to get the bill onto the president’s desk for signature.
Madeline rubbed her hands together noticing the small bruise around her wrist. It made her smile, remembering the evening before. Her arms pressed up above her head, squeezed so tight that she almost lost the feeling in her hands.
The Madeline here was not the same Madeline that had existed months ago. To outsiders it might appear that nothing had changed—she still had her presidential presence, her quick wit, and her guarded smile, but those in the room had sensed the change. They had all changed.
Jane turned a cheek when gray areas were entered, lines crossed, and personal lives interfered with work. Hunter became used to back door meetings and strong-arming negotiations for Madeline’s support. His employment was as professional as anyone’s could be when being paid a large amount with no official title or job description.
Brandon may have been the one who changed the most, but it was the least noticeable. He was still the supportive husband, the strategic thinking CEO, and perfect political partner. But now, he wasn’t just the partner in public that Madeline needed him to be. The enlightenment of their power struggle had added new layers to their marriage, opening doors for them and helping them explore new ways to please each other. Madeline longed for him when she slept in her apartment in Washington DC. She dreamed of his touch, only to wake up covered in sweat. He made her feel submissive, unsure, in a way that she never felt in public. But it was what she needed and it thrilled her behind closed doors. She finally felt like they really were meant for each other.
The pictures, the blackmail, the adultery, it was never spoken of again and any remaining resentment or feelings about it had been blown away by the new dynamic. Hunter understood the dynamic. He too felt dominated by Brandon, afraid of his watchful eye and therefore focused more on his wife, who appreciated Hunter’s new job. Rhonda called Hunter the get-it-done-guy and noticed that he too seemed more in control than he had ever been before.
The four of them continued sitting in silence watching the news as the anchors started to become confident enough to voice their own predictions. “It seems that Madeline Thomas will continue to serve California,” one anchor said. “This is a landmark election for a republican senator in one of the most democratic states.”
“This only shows her potential,” another anchor commented. “If she can win California, we can be sure we’ll be seeing more of her.”
“The question is what’s next for Madeline Thomas,” said another. “If the Senate is just a stepping stone. If it is really possible for a woman to get into the White House.”
Smiles broke onto Jane and Hunter’s faces. Brandon started to look up from the pillow at the TV. But Madeline sat still. Jane flipped through the channels to see that other stations were also calling the election for Madeline. “A big win,” one called it. “A very close call,” another said.
Moments later Madeline’s cell phone rang. Jane jumped to answer and handed the phone to her boss.
“Congratulations, Senator Thomas,” the California governor said. “A very impressive win.”
It was impressive. And it wa
s only the beginning.
Did Madeline run for president? Did she get away with everything?
Go to my website www.avivagatauthor.com to get the FREE bonus chapter.
A note from the author
One of the themes that I thought a lot about while writing this book was the double standard for women. This double standard affects women in daily life, and even more so when women cross certain lines.