Free DUTCH AND GINA: A SCANDAL IS BORN by Mallory Monroe Page A

black than he looks white.   That photo therefore, in my opinion, does nothing to squash the controversy.   If anything, it has only fed the beast.   Because the fact of the matter is, if you look objectively at that child, he could be Roman Wilkes’ baby or any other non-white male’s child.   That’s not to say he couldn’t be a white man’s child, he could be.   But if by releasing this photograph the White House thought to curb the controversy, to somehow convince us that he looks just like his parents, it didn’t work.   He doesn’t look like either one of them, if truth be told.   Which begs the question: who, really, is this child?   Is he the product of a surrogate mother or was there some in vitro fertilization going on here?   This photo raises more questions than it answers.   Nothing short of a DNA test will curb this controversy.”
    They could hardly believe it.   Every one of them just sat there.   And then Gina, perhaps stunned the most, spoke up.   “A surrogate mother?   In vitro fertilization?   DNA?   Are these people for real?”
    “It’s economics,” Allison said.   “Scandals sell newspapers and drives viewership so they keep the controversy going.”
    “But there’s no controversy!” Gina said with anger.   “Dutch and I had a baby boy.   That’s all there is to it.   Why in the world would we go out of our way to have a child to live in this fishbowl when we don’t even want to live in it ourselves?”
    “But that’s the thing,” Max said, avoiding Dutch’s eyes, although Dutch was staring at him.   “The American people are wondering why you guys did it.   Why would you not use protection and avoid bringing a child into the fishbowl, as you call it.”
    “I forgot, okay?   After that attack in Texas I was so stressed out and I forgot.   But for them to suggest---”
    “They’re only suggesting the obvious, Gina.”
    “And what exactly is the obvious?” Gina asked Max.   She couldn’t stand him and she was convinced he hated her.   “Are you saying our child is some kind of mistake?”
    “Isn’t that what you just said?” Max said as he looked at her.  
    “I said I forgot to take the pill.   That’s all I said.”
    “And you’ll be wise to remember that,” Dutch said to Max.  
    Max looked at Dutch, and then clamed up.
    “Dutch said it wouldn’t work,” Gina said, oblivious to the tension that was swelling between her husband and his chief of staff.   “He said if we give those vultures an inch, they’ll want a mile.”   She knitted her brow, a worried look crossing her face.   “Nothing is going to satisfy them.”
    Dutch put his arm around her.   “That’s why we won’t try anything else.”
    “Won’t try?” Max asked.   “But, sir, you can’t just let this controversy stand.   We have the midterms coming next year.   The Democratic party has got to be strong next year, for our candidates to win.”
    “You mean candidates like you?” Gina asked.
    Max glanced at Dutch and then looked at her.   “I haven’t announced anything about running for public office.”
    “But that’s what they’re saying all over the internet,” Gina said.   “That you’re planning to announce it.”   Then she frowned.   “You would leave Dutch at a time like this to fulfill your own political ambitions?”
    “I didn’t say anything about leaving anybody,” Max snapped and his tone angered Dutch.
    “You had better watch how you speak to my wife,” he said to his friend.  
    Max stood up, agitated.   “We need to talk, Dutch.”
    “Not now we don’t.”
    “We need to talk now, Dutch.”
    Dutch looked at him, and it was only then did Gina, and everybody else in the room, see the tension.   “I said not now,” Dutch said in a tone that brook no debate.  
    Max stared at his friend, pain searing him, shame piercing him, and then he left.  
    Gina looked at Dutch.   “What was that about?”
    Dutch ran his fingers