She Built Him, Then She Destroyed

rise, the woman who would make him mayor. But the one thing I didn't p

he didn't apologize.

aid. "She's not... c

necessary escape so he could

t on his mistress and used the deepest wound of my life-my b

rificed everything for, and warned

e scandal. I looked him

said. "I'l

ize I meant I

pte

Aceved

, every handshake, every lie. The one thing I didn' t plan for was t

ccharine, fruity scent you could buy at any drugstore for ten dolla

It was more like a slow, seeping cold that starte

alculated partnership and, once upon a time, love. Harman, smiling his

frame. My fingers traced th

prised even me, I hurled it

in the tomb-like silence of our home. Shards rained down on

icked, crackled through my phone' s speaker

arman' s biggest campaign rally-the one that would launch his

, talk

ght. My gaze was fixed on the wreckage of the photo. Harman' s smili

b fingers and clattering to the floor. I felt nothing and everyt

day of pressing the flesh and selling a version of himself that I had invented. His tie was

room, his eyes landing on the

d with concern. It was laced with annoyance, the tone

Even from across the room, I could see it. A faint, almost invisi

his irritation growing. "Are you going to

kind that frayed easily. I knew that thread. I had seen it just l

hinking it l

month ago when I' d pointed out the intern' s constant, almost worshipful presence at

was just "learning the ropes." He had praised her "fresh perspective" whe

the over-cautiousness of a seasoned pro. "You're

nd voters, had believed him. I had bought the lie because want

more often. Little complaints t

er down." He' d say it with a sigh, but there was a flicker of something else in his eyes. A hin

go. I had told him her constan

do, fire her because she admires me?" His voice was cold, dism

t a boundary, Har

Whatever you want. I'll have her reassigned." A sma

ust because you ask it to. It just gets better at

he demanded, his voice sharp

he numbness was receding,

sounding distant, foreign. "It's call

n his charismatic eyes. He was a good liar, but I was the one who ha

anger in his voice was a shield.

him, my phone in my hand. "You smell

ed in. It was a picture of the two of them, in the back of his car. Harman, with his eyes closed, and Kennedy, her face buried in

ructed mask of the rising politician shattere

-