“Okay. Good, that was smart of her, I’m glad to know she was watching out for you. Now I know which one of you to be mad at. Because, if you knew that, why the FUCK didn’t you tell me?” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “My apologies, sir. I didn’t mean to say that.”

He just looked at her.

“Yeah you did, don’t give me that ‘I’m sorry, sir’ bullshit. It happened when she was a teenager, and those records are sealed, so I thought it wasn’t relevant.”

Plus, he hadn’t wanted to make this whole thing even worse for her.

Kara sat down in the chair across from him.

“Sealing records means nothing if you have people who know and who will talk, which is I’m sure how this reporter got hold of this story. If only we’d known this, we could have prepared for it; I could have talked to Olivia in advance, we could have maybe even controlled the release, depending on what she’d said, but now … Do you know what people will say about your criminal justice bill now? Not to mention what will happen to her.” She let out a breath and stood up. “I’m sorry, I know you didn’t want to hear that, but I had to prepare you. At least the news cycle the rest of the summer will be so bananas that I think this might be a few days of stories and that’s all. But Ms. Monroe should know this is coming.”

He closed his eyes and nodded. Dread filled the pit of his stomach at the thought of telling Olivia this.

“I know. I’ll call her.”

Kara walked across the room and opened his door, but before she walked out, he raised a hand to stop her.

“Kara.”

She closed the door again and looked at him.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

She nodded.

“I’m sorry, too. I shouldn’t have said … most of what I just said. But …” She shook her head. “I’m just going to tell that reporter my standard ‘no comment,’ just FYI.”

He had to call Olivia right away. Before a reporter did. Or … oh shit, had a reporter already called her?

He picked up the phone.

She answered right away.

“Hey, I was just about to call you—I got a weird message from some reporter, and it’s been a few weeks since that happened, do you know what this is about?”

Shit, she sounded so relaxed and cheerful. How was he going to tell her this?

“Yeah, I know. Olivia …”

He should have told Kara. It didn’t have to be a big thing, he knew he could trust Kara not to tell anyone. He should have done everything in his power to protect Olivia.

“What is it? What happened?” He could hear the change in her voice.