Scandal (h.s.) [ON HOLD]

Ch. 7

Once again, I found myself standing outside the office of the President, arms crossed and a not-so-pleased look on my face. The President's secretary called me in, informing me of an important meeting that I was supposed to attend. Honestly, you'd think I was back working at the White House considering the amount of times I'd been in this building for the past month.

Will appeared around the corner, and stopped in his tracks upon seeing me. "Rose? What are you doing here?"

I sighed and gave him a small smile. "I wish I could tell you, I was told to be here as soon as possible — but I have no idea what for."

He furrowed his eyebrows and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Well, I know the President and Niall have a meeting with the Attorney General in a few minutes, is that what you're here for?"

I stared at him blankly for a second while the gears in my brain started to turn. "Why are they meeting with Emmett? Is this about the Benson case?"

He was just about to respond when the door opened and the both of us turned to see Niall standing in the doorway. "Ah, glad you both made it." He said to us with fake enthusiasm. He ushered us inside and I saw Emmett sitting on the couch while Harry was leaning against his desk.

We had found Lisa Benson and stopped her before she carried out the largest drug deal of the decade. She and her conspirators were arrested and are currently in jail awaiting trial. If we were discussing this case even more with the President and his staff, there really wasn't more to talk about.

"What's this about?" I said, not even trying to hide the unenthusiastic tone.

"It's about you meddling with the federal government, Rose," Harry said, staring me down like a disappointed father. I desperately wanted to roll my eyes but I'd probably reached my limit for the week. "You gave Mr. Carver a faulty flash drive, fully preventing him from taking the case to the FBI, and interfering with a government agency —,"

"Her husband and daughter came to us first," I said. "They both asked for our help, and that's what we were doing for them. If they wanted your help they would've asked you —,"

"That's not what it's about, Rose," Niall said. "You lied, so we're shutting you down."

"Shutting me — what?" I dropped my arms, looking between the President and his Chief of Staff with wide eyes. I couldn't believe this. "You can't shut me down; my company isn't associated with the federal government."

"But you lied to a government official, Rose," Harry said. This was the first time in a very long time that I'd ever seen him visibly upset with me. It was a refreshing change after the many months of him confessing his love for me, as weird as it sounds. "Your firm is only going to be shut down for a few weeks, but in the meantime —,"

"A few weeks?" I chuckled, this had to be a joke. "You're going to shut down my firm because a family came to me for help before you? And I did my job by keeping other noses out of situations where they didn't belong —," I side-eyed Emmett for being his usual, nosy self. "— and I kept the case progressive and private so the family wasn't under the public microscope where we all know you would have put them."

Harry pressed his lips together, not even responding.  He knew I was right. He hated when I could do my job well because that made it less and less likely for me to return to the White House. Any way for me to lose clients and my business was like taking candy from a baby for him. Even though he "loved" me, he wanted me to fail so I would come crawling back to him.

"Anyone like to chime in and tell me I'm wrong?" I offered. "Or are you still going to shut down my business because I happen to be good at my job?"