President's Girlfriend 06 - The Sins of the Fathers Read Online Free PDF Page A

From his tall, athletic body, to his rakish
smile and boyish good looks, she was still kicking herself for not seeing what
a prized catch he was all those years ago.  
    But she was
such an oddball then.   She didn’t want
any man in her life, let alone some hunky rich white boy like Dutch
Harber.   But she was so much older now,
and wiser, and, if truth be told, much lonelier.   So much lonelier.   When she was young, being alone was a badge
of honor to her.   She loved being all by
herself.   Now it just reminded her of all
she didn’t have.
    But what
Jade was talking about, with all of the game-playing and seductive tricks, she
wasn’t feeling, either.   Because she knew
what it took to get Dutch Harber, and it wasn’t going
to involve playing games.   He was too
smart for that.   Her best chance of
having him again, not to mention his untold millions of dollars that she
desperately needed, was to know his weakness.   He was a softie when it came to Jade.   All of those years where he wasn’t a part of Jade’s life, the guilt of
it, necessitated that.   Therefore, to get
him back, all she felt she had to do was to keep Jade under her thumb.   Which, even dumb Jade
didn’t realize, was exactly what she planned to do.   It was exactly why she came to Helsinki to
begin with.
    “I just
don’t see it,” she said to her insistent daughter.    “Why would he suddenly leave his wife and
young son for me?”
    “Because he loves you.   I just feel it in my
heart.   And because Regina Harber doesn’t
tolerate fools easily and she won’t allow any accusation to go unanswered.   She’s a fighter, Ma.   But she’s a street fighter.   She doesn’t know how to finesse it.   She always gets embroiled in some scandal or
another, I mean all the time.   The woman
can’t help herself.   But this will be
different.   It’ll go directly to her
character.   And Daddy will finally see
her for what she really is and drop her so fast you’ll get whiplash just
watching her fall.”
    “Oh,
please,” Sam said, unconvinced.   “They
tried all that shit before.   Dutch isn’t
going to fall for any of that bash Gina nonsense.   He’s not going to believe that his wife is
some drug addicted sex pervert who sneak men into the White House and---”
    “And that’s
not what I’m talking about, thank-you very much,” Jade pointed out.   “I know he won’t go for that.   She won’t be sneaking anybody anywhere.   This will be done in broad daylight.   That’s the beauty of it.   No sneaking at all.   In fact,” Jade said with a wry smile, “she
won’t even realize she’s destroying herself until she’s destroyed.   That’s the beauty of it, Ma.   I did my homework on that sister.    I know exactly how to push her buttons.”
    “Oh, yeah,
Miss Brilliant with the average IQ.   How
do you push her buttons, please tell me that?”
    Jade
hesitated.   She despised her mother’s
constant put-down of her intellect.   No,
she didn’t have the kind of pliable, brilliant mind her mother had.   But she was no idiot either.
    “Well?” Sam
asked.   “How do you push these buttons of
Gina’s?”
    Jade smiled,
remembering to not take any of her mother’s constant putdowns personally.   Sam was Sam and would always be odd that
way.   She learned to live with that sad
fact a long time ago.   “I’ll push her
buttons one brother at a time,” she said.
    Sam, who was
known for her keen intellect, stared at her daughter.   “Marcus Rance?” she asked.   “This scheme of yours involves her brother
Marcus Rance?”
    Jade was
impressed.   “You’re quick,” she
said.   “Yes, Ma.   He’ll be working with us.”
    “But why
would he want to do anything that could hurt his own half-sister?   What are you talking about?   Gina was the one who busted her butt to get
him out of prison.”
    “Daddy got
him out of prison, not her!” Jade said this angrily.   She hated when Gina got