Read 3 Thank God it's Monday for Free Online Page B

and
exhaustion.
    “You have to do what I cannot. You have to stop them.”
    “Why me?”
    “If you don’t they will use you.”
    “Use me for what?”
    “Jake, they want you to assassinate your father.”

Chapter 5

No Sunshine When She’s
Gone
    T hey drove in silence for almost a half hour before he said
what was on his mind.
    “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.
    Hallie did not move. She stared straight ahead.
    “I thought you knew,” she said. Her voice sounded hollow.
    Jake shook his head. He was not angry with her, he just did
not understand how something as important as Oh, by the way, you almost
killed your dad, the President , could get left out of the conversation.
    “I knew nothing. I had my memory wiped, remember?”
    “President Vine is your biological father. He was at our
wedding. When your memory returned, I assumed you had made the connection. I
figured it was why it was so hard for you to adjust. I gave you extra time and
extra space because I felt you might be upset because, you know, he is your
dad,” Hallie explained. She sounded defeated.
    “I was upset because I didn’t know who I was,” he said. He
did his best to keep the anger from his voice. He just drove the Suburban
through the humid North Carolina afternoon, the sun setting to his left. He was
grateful for the window tint. His arm and the left side of his face was hot
enough.
    “I know you don’t share a last name, I understand that it
could throw you off. I just can’t understand how you haven’t recalled your
father? He’s the reason we were able to both work for the Service. He’s the
real reason you joined Galbraith in the first place.”
    “I just didn’t remember. I still don’t. I don’t remember Mom,
either. I have tried, believe me. I don’t know if they are buried deeper in my memory
or if they have been removed completely. When the senator first mentioned that
this consortium wants me to be the one to assassinate him, it didn’t connect. I
didn’t believe it until he showed me that picture from his campaign for
governor when I was fourteen.”
    “We have pictures of your mother and father all over the
house.”
    Jake gritted his teeth. Sometimes the truth was awful.
    “The house is foreign to me. It is like it belongs to
someone else. I feel like I am living someone else’s life. If most of my
memories hadn’t returned, I would tell all of you that you were nuts. I didn’t
live this life. I didn’t live in this house. My father isn’t the President of
the United States.”
    She turned and looked at him then. Her eyes were rimmed with
tears. He knew he had hurt her. He couldn’t retract it now. The damage had been
dealt.
    “That’s just the thing, Jake. All those things are true. You
did live this life. With me. In that house. You were always distant from your
parents, but it seemed natural considering your job and their divorce. You
never bonded with his second wife and never forgave him for your mother’s death.
They transferred you out of Washington the day your father began his campaign
for President. Surely you remember all of that.”
    He shook his head. The pressure behind his eyes made him
want to cry.
    “How could they make me kill my own father? Who are these
people that can control me this way?”
    Hallie touched his cheek with hands that were cool. Her
caress made him close his eyes for just a second and blink away tears. His
frustration and turmoil raged in his chest. He needed her touch to ground him. He
glanced at her, his vision blurred by the tears.
    “These people cannot beat you, Jake. Only you can.”
    He kissed her fingers and tried to keep the SUV between the
ditches.
    “Don’t give me false hope,” he said.
    She leaned back, her hand patting his leg.
    “Not false hope, honey. A promise. I won’t allow them to
control you anymore.”
    “I am not the only one, though, am I?”
    Hallie was silent.
    “The senator said that they had operatives just like me all
over