The ballroom was packed with people who had poured in to watch Oliver Reed become Governor Reed.

Oliver spotted Lucille greeting guests and marched over to her. He pulled her away earning curious looks from many people. At this point, Oliver didn't care.

"Oliver are you crazy?", she questioned as he dragged her outside of the ballroom with a firm grip on her arm. When they walked through the doors she was faced with someone she hadn't seen in a long time.

She had to admit he looked well. She approached him.

"Aaron, what are you doing here?"

"Lucille you need to come with me", he said, his voice laced with angst, "it's Nanna Sarah." He reached for her hand but she yanked it away.

"What, what's going on?", she asked on the verge of tears. Her mind had already thought up the worst possible scenario.

"She's in the hospital. The police think she walked in on a burglary at her home but when they brought her into the hospital she was barely conscious. We need to go now."

Aaron reached for her hand again and she let him lead her out of the door. She took a moment to glance back at Oliver. The look of despair on his face said more than what words could ever say.

Lucille, at this time, thought this had happened by chance. Of course she wasn't thinking clearly at the moment and could only think about getting to her grandmother, but Oliver, he knew this didn't happen by chance. He knew those people were dangerous and he still asked Lucille to help him alter the results of the election. This was his fault.

--

Lucille and Aaron were now at the hospital in the waiting room. She wondered why no one had called her but she remembered she destroyed her phone earlier when she threw it into the wall.

They stood together when a doctor entered the waiting room.

"How is she?", Lucille asked.

"Your grandmother suffered from two stab wounds to the abdomen and lost a great amount of blood but she's stable. If she hadn't made it in so soon, she would've bled to death."

Lucille started crying. Aaron wrapped his arm around her shoulder trying to comfort her.

"Your grandmother is going to be fine", the doctor reassured. "But she's going to need you now more than ever. This type of traumatic experience can really scar someone." He patted Aaron on the shoulder before turning to walk away.

Lucille rested her head on Aaron's chest and started crying even harder.

"I should've been there", she said through deep breaths.

"Lucille this is not your fault", Aaron said running his fingers through her hair. "No one should be attacked in their own home."

Lucille pulled herself away and used the sleeve of her blazer to dry her eyes. They both took their seats.

"Aaron, I know things ended badly with us but you've always been there for us. For me and Nanna. I mean you're still one of her emergency contacts for Christ's sake."

Aaron smiled at that. "I care about y'all, a lot."

"I still care about you, too", she admitted. "But what made you feel like you couldn't talk to me about what was going on? I felt betrayed, Aaron."

He leaned forward in his seat, resting his elbows on his knees as he spoke. "The way I was raised, a man was supposed to do whatever he needed to do to provide for his woman. I've had that mentality my whole life so when I couldn't provide for you the only way I knew how, I got scared. I didn't want you to think less of me, you know?"

"Aaron, if you knew me at all you would know that never mattered to me", she said. "A relationship isn't one-sided, it's a joint effort. A woman has to take care of her man sometimes and that's okay. I mean it's more than okay."

Aaron smiled and shook his head. "I wish I would've told you this months ago", he said. "You know it sucks when your girlfriend is your best friend because it's like losing two people at the same time."

That tugged at Lucille's heartstrings. She stood up and gestured for him to get up too. She pulled him into a tight hug.

"I'm still your best friend and you'll never lose me", she told him. "As long as you're honest with me."

Lucille suddenly felt like a weight was lifted from her shoulders she hadn't realized she was carrying. Now she could honestly say she'd forgiven Aaron. Just as their kumbaya moment was ending, two police officers strolled in.

"Which one of you is related to the victim?", one of the cops asked looking between Aaron and Lucille.

"We both are", Lucille spoke up. "She's not up right now so she can't answer any questions but I can try and help in any way possible.

Both cops nodded. "So what does your grandmother do?", the same cop asked. It was obvious the other cop was just there for moral support.

"She's a retired school teacher but now she spends most of her time at church", Lucille answered. The cop who remained silent started writing the information down.

"You know anyone who would wanna hurt her? Maybe an old student she pissed off? An angry church goer?"

"No, of course not", Lucille answered. "Why are you asking this? I was under the impression this was a robbery."

"Well ma'am, nothing was missing from the home and there was no sign of forced entry. Whoever did this to your grandmother, walked right in through the front door."

Lucille's stomach started turning. Anxiety was building up inside. She feared that if she attempted to speak, she'd throw up. The feeling of uneasiness was apparent on her face.

"Is everything alright ma'am?", the cop asked.

"I.. need to be excused."

Lucille ran down the hallway to the bathroom. She leaned over the sink but her body was empty. She had nothing left to rid. She tried to steady her breathing so she could think clearly.

They found out. They found out about the information she gave to Jancy and this was their warning to her. It had to be him.

She left out of the bathroom and returned to Aaron.

"They said they'd be back later when Nanna Sarah is awake", he said.

"I need your phone."

As soon as he handed her the phone, Lucille dialed Lex's number.

"Hello?", her voice and lots of others echoed through the phone's speaker.

"Lex, this is Lucille. I need you to get to a private area where you can talk."

About a minute passed by before Lex spoke again. "What's up Lucille?"

"Is Jared at the campaign banquet right now?"

"Yeah, he just got back a little while ago", she responded.

"Do you know how long he had been gone?"

"Hmm", she pondered aloud. "I got back from lunch at around 2 and he was leaving."

Lucille took the phone away from her ear. It made sense. Nanna Sarah's incident happened between 3 and 4 o'clock this evening. She ended the call and returned Aaron's phone to him.

"I need you to look after Nanna for a while. I need to handle a few things. Can you do that?"

Aaron obliged and Lucille left the hospital. She was out for blood.

--

Back at the campaign headquarters, it was a huge celebration. People were now being turned around at the entrance by security. The building was at full capacity. It was official. Oliver was governor.

Lucille and Oliver locked eyes across the room from each other. She looked away. Any longer and people would surely get suspicious.

She spotted Jared and pulled him aside.

"I need help carrying the case of champagne from my office", she told him.

They walked into the office and the case of champagne was sitting in the corner.

"You know I've worked so hard to get to this night and now I just want it to be over", Lucille said.

"You don't mean that", Jared said. Lucille's demeanor was unchanged. "Well whether you mean it or not, you deserve to celebrate", he said.

"You're right. How about a celebratory drink before we take them all out there."

She opened the desk drawer where she kept her wine glasses. Jared handed her one of the bottles of champagne. She poured champagne into both glasses that sat on the desk. Jared took a glass. When Lucille went to pick hers up she knocked it over, spilling the champagne all over her desk.

"Shit", she cursed as she tried to soak it up with an old scarf she had at her desk. "Can you run to the bathroom and grab some napkins?"

Jared obliged, placing his wine glass on her desk. Lucille waited for the door to shut after him to make her move. She went into the pocket on her blazer and pulled out the dosage of vraxiniphrin into Jared's glass and hurriedly put the medicine canister back into her pocket.

The door opened and Jared came and patted that napkins down against the remaining wet spots on the desk. He threw the soaked napkins into the trash.

"Thanks", Lucille said. "Now, a toast to Governor Reed", she said.

"And his new Communications Director Lucille Johnson", Jared said.

He gulped all of his champagne down at once. Lucille took a sip from her glass and sat at her desk before speaking again.

"I don't know if you knew this but I used to be an investigative journalist", Lucille said.

"Uh", Jared let out a deep exhale. "No", another deep breath. "I didn't know."

"Well at first, I wrote a lot of nonsense but my first big break out story was on this pharmaceutical company", she said.

Jared walked over to the couch and took a seat. There was a strained look on his face.

"They were manufacturing this one agent, vraziniphrin, that if given in an unsafe amount, essentially caused heart failure."

"What?" Jared clutched his chest and started breathing harder.

"I was at the hospital earlier but you already know that. It's amazing how easy it is to swipe meds from a nursing station", Lucille chuckled.

"What's happening to me", Jared uttered as he stood. He fell right to his knees.

"You're having a massive heart attack."

Lucille poured herself another glass of champagne and walked over to him.

"I've never believed in the death penalty but I guess when something hits so close to home, you change your mind", she whispered more to herself.

She stood over Jared's body while he took his final breaths on the floor of her office.

If her grandmother ever found out what she did, she'd disown her. Nanna Sarah would have wanted to forgive him. But Lucille refused to stand by and let her family be used as a pawn in these people's game.

Lucille walked back to her desk and put the wine glasses back into the drawer along with the opened bottle of champagne. She took a look around her office making sure nothing was out of place.

She made herself start crying before running out of her office and down the hall. Once she got closer to where there were people she started screaming.

"Somebody help!", she gained the attention of security standing at the entrance of the arena. "Something's wrong! Please help!"

Two of the security guards ran in the direction of her office. She followed them, still crying.

One of the security guards checked for a heart beat. He looked up at the other and shook his head.

"No, no, no", Lucille cried out, collapsing onto the floor. She crawled over to Jared's body. "I can't believe he's gone."

"We need a medic on the first floor past the elevators", one of the security guards said into his walker talkie.

"Ma'am what's your relation to the victim?"

Lucille sniffled. "He's my brother."

--------------------------------------------------------------

Author's Note:

Looks like Lucille has a dark side!

Vote, Comment, Follow me :)