Free Caught in the Act (The Davenports) by Kim Law

phone and jabbed at the screen.
    The message that came up froze her. It was from JP.
    The tabloids know there was a mistress.

CHAPTER FIVE

    T HE NEXT AFTERNOON, Cat stood in the midst of reporters and Dyersport city officials, smiling and shaking hands, doing whatever it took to make sure they knew she was there for the right reason.
    In reality, she was standing in the middle of a plot of land owned by her family for exactly the wrong reason. To take the focus off the paparazzi having a field day in Atlanta. Her father’s mistress from nine years ago had yet to be identified, but an ex–campaign manager had been unearthed, stating that he’d witnessed Jackson Davenport Sr., more than once, canoodling up to an underage volunteer.
    Pictures had been posted, but they’d been fuzzy.
    But canoodling with an underage volunteer was exactly what her father had done. Though the girl had been eighteen when she’d had his baby.
    None of it, however, meant that Cat or her family would lie down and declare the Harrisons the winner. They had an image to uphold—a political lineage—and she would do her best to help maintain it.
    Even if it did interrupt her vacation to do so.
    At least it hadn’t ended it. That had been her first thought. She would be needed at home.
    After saying a quick good night to Brody the night before, she’d gone inside the house and immediately returned JP’s call. She’d had her laptop open and was looking up flight schedules before he’d answered.
    But her brother had calmed her down. He’d reminded her that this was the first time she’d had to herself in years, and that he and their mother could handle things in Atlanta.
    They had come up with an alternative plan for her, though.
    Which was why she stood in front of reporters today.
    She, her mother, and JP had decided to dedicate a piece of land to the city for a multipurpose park. Given that Dyersport held decades of Davenport history, it would look good to give back. The only drawback for her was that her location would be publicized to the world. So much for her quiet little trip away.
    But still, this was their way of life. Thinking she could maintain her privacy for the full month had been a pipe dream, and she’d known it. No one in her family went anywhere for very long without being found out.
    The bigger issue was that they had exactly twenty-two days to get the park functional.
    And that there were more secrets in danger of being exposed.
    Her father had experienced a huge lapse in judgment in getting involved with Lexi Dougard, yes. But he’d made an even bigger one in getting her pregnant. And Cat’s mother had stood by him. She’d known about the seventeen-year-old. About the kid. She’d written out the million-dollar check.
    Thankfully, nothing about the money or the child had been discovered.
    Yet.
    Thus they needed to draw the attention north.
    The hope was that the rest of the world would somehow forget that there was a woman out there whom her father—Mr. High Morals and Family Values—had cheated on her mother with, while also helping to deflect many of the sordid questions the media was now firing at her mother.
    Cat nodded a greeting as yet another reporter joined the group, and silently expounded on the last thought to run through her head. Her father had cheated on her mother after over three decades of a seemingly perfect marriage.
    With a teenager.
    How did something like that happen?
    Other than the fact that power went to a person’s head, she could come up with no possible explanation. And now she worried that same power would change her mother as well. Maybe it already had.
    Emma Davenport hadn’t exactly been mother of the year as Cat and her brothers were growing up, but she’d been a good mom. They’d never wanted for anything other than a bit more time with their parents. But all Davenports understood that family came first. And the family was politics.
    Her dad had been involved at the federal level