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THIRTY-SIX || lex talionis







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𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐘-𝐒𝐈𝐗

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The second Roman uncorked the bottle of wine, Cora screwed up her nose.

After an exhausting afternoon, they'd retired to the hotel room to freshen up for dinner. Even if Cora wasn't feeling resentful towards Roman, she doubted she would have had much to say. All of the travel in combination with the convention itself had left her flat, and she'd needed the icy spray of the shower to rinse herself clean of her reservations.

Roman too had been standoffish, surprising for how little he had wanted to shut up earlier. Their one conversation had been when she'd emerged from the bathroom, her still-damp hair wrapped up in white linen.

"How's the water pressure?" He'd asked, his eyes not so tired that he couldn't muster a wink. She'd whipped him with her towel, letting him scuttle off with a snicker.

The hotel room had what Cora would call a ' colonial flair' to it, she supposed to best match the attitude of the regular clientele. Different degrees of beige on stiff upholstery, the splashes of muted colour in the form of brocade curtains, gold and merlot. It would have all blended into one if the carpet had not been inexplicably royal blue, a cream coloured pattern of circles and stars imprinted on the tuft.

The suite had been named after a First Lady. Apparently this feminine naming convention was the hotel's way of saying 'this is the couple's one', since their sleeping arrangement was a long king bed. Cora cracked open her suitcase as she heard the shower start, glancing over her shoulder to see if he had decided to linger but she found only the closed door.

By the time he emerged, she had dressed in stiff boucle dress, round pearl buttons to match the studs in her ears. She sat on the edge of the bed with a compact mirror, dusting coral on the high points of her cheeks, glancing up just as there was a knock at the bedroom door.

"Did you order room service?" Roman queried, ruffling a towel against his hair. He had brought his clothes in with him, the cotton of his shirt slightly creased.

That was how they had ended up cracking up a bottle of Tom's wine, hand delivered by a skittish and wiry waiter. Roman poured them each a glass and brought it over to Cora as she finished with her mascara.

"It's terrible. Truly terrible." Cora muttered after taking a sip. There was something to unsettling in the palate, she couldn't quite put her finger on it, but it was the kind of thing one tasted on the wind while cutting through an alleyway. Notes of the back of a takeout store, a hint of the subway. She placed her glass on the low table at the end of the bed.

Roman screwed up his nose, placing his glass beside hers. "I'm not even going to bother. If the resident alcoholic's not biting."

Cora bristled at the word. She didn't like to think of herself in such stringent terminology. He noticed her flinch, catching her chin before she could turn away from him.

"What? Did I say something to upset you?" He questioned, cocking an eyebrow.

"Maybe not now." She replied curtly. "I thought it was a bit much, the tactical warfare with that, what, Mencken guy?"

"You don't think I'm a tradlife kind of guy? We were bonding." He replied.

"My bad, I guess I thought you saw me as a whole person." Cora remarked, pushing his hand away from her. His proximity had raised the hairs on the back of her neck, a nervous tremble running down her back. She turned to her suitcase to avert her gaze from him.

"Maybe we were both mistaken?" Roman said. Cora's ears pricked. She didn't know exactly what he was referring to, only that it was nothing good.

"I don't know what you mean." She replied, her hands jittery as she began to fold the clothes she had picked up and decided against.

"I know you've been sleeping with someone."

Cora froze. He had stolen the air from her lungs. She closed her eyes, her hand crushing the velvet of a shift dress between her fingers.

"And I don't care."

The deflection that had been forming on the tip of her tongue extinguished, Cora's eyes widening in surprise. She didn't know how to react, left frozen, her breathing curt and shallow. She searched his face for deception but found nothing, not even a hint of distress. Ok, so he knew, but he didn't know. Had she been photographed leaving a hotel? Had Olivia squealed? Did she even have enough power for the answer to matter anymore?

"Mostly because I just have this feeling about it." He continued, forcing a casual shrug. So maybe he was a little bothered on second assessment. "I just doubt you'd be acting the way you've been if it was at all scratching an itch."

Cora scoffed loudly. "And how do you figure that?"

Roman was wearing a small smirk, unnerving in its sincerity.

"Just call it a hunch. Am I wrong?"

Cora wanted to force her walls back up, but her defences failed her. The air was taut as he surveyed her, eyes narrowed. Cora could feel her heart fluttering wildly in her chest. Roman reached down and pushed the suitcase out of the way, sliding it across the covers of the bed.

"Are you going to answer me?"

"I'm perfectly satisfied." She replied weakly.

"I know when you're lying." Roman replied. "But watching you try is fun."

"If you're trying to be charming, it's coming off as obnoxi-"

"See, Cora, here's the thing. I'm not trying to win you over. I'm not playing your game. You want me to hurt you in a way I'm never going to." Roman said, his voice softening. As he spoke, his hand drifted to her collarbones by way of her neck. A shaky sigh spilled from her lips. "I'm never going to give you what you want, not the way you've asked for it. But even despite that, I think I'm still going to win."

"What does winning here mean?" Usually this would have kicked her defensiveness into gear, but she felt lulled. He had been sorely correct, Cora was having the only reasonable reaction to the promise of a scratch.

Roman's tongue grazed his bottom lip. Imperceptibly he shook his head. "I don't know exactly, but what I do know is that this just keeps happening. You keep happening. You keep happening to me and I don't know how to make that stop."

He was leaning down and she craning upwards. Her heart was in her throat, words echoing in her brain, his voice becoming her own the more they circled the drain of her mind. You keep happening to me.

"Do you want to make it stop?"

"No." There was something almost despondent in the way he answered, as if he'd relinquished himself to something he had been running from for years. "I could never want to make it stop."

Roman bared down on her then, hands on either side of her as she collapsed back against the mattress. He didn't kiss her, hovering above as his eyes grazed her, reflecting the sudden hunger she felt for him. It wasn't lost on her how long it had been since they were this close.

Cora thought he would touch her, press his lips to hers or move his hand to her waist. Instead she felt his knee drift between her legs, softly batting them open.

Every inch of her body felt electrified, from frustration or arousal she wasn't sure, the two were inextricably linked at this point. Her sex life had become one of those triads where you could only pick two - whatever options she kept choose were evidently incompatible with Cora's physical gratification.

More than anything her encounters with Greg and Kendall had been marked by numbness, like she had held them at arm's length even as they had had their way with her, and certainly with Arthur time had leant a rote quality to their intimacy. It was not so easy to close herself to Roman.

"Don't say whatever you're going to say." He said quickly as she opened her mouth. Cora bit back the words as she felt the fabric of his pants graze her inner thigh. "Don't run from me. Just close your eyes, Cora."

Cora nodded weakly, allowing herself to fold.

She could hear his breathing hitch as his leg pressed against her sex. Cora gasped, her hands gripping the sheets below, a shudder running through her core. She felt like she'd downed the entirety of that awful wine, her head spinning as she felt herself melt against the mattress.

Roman grew suddenly very still. His voice was tentative as he spoke again.

"Show me you want me."

Cora's eyes remained closed, she didn't need him to explain himself. If she were to be honest with herself, she'd been moments from doing it anyway, had gotten a taste and needed more. She shifted her hips down further to better position herself, hesitant at first as she began to grind against him. Cora felt him shiver above her, aware of how he had tensed in response.

Roman's hand gripped her cheek. Her eyes fluttered open. His pupils had nearly enveloped the hazel of his irises, leaving only a slender ring.

"Rome," she breathed.

"Cordy." His fingers tensed against the side of her face. She was sure he would kiss her.

A harsh knock against wood cut through the tension in the air.

"I'm guessing that's the cue for dinner." Roman muttered, not moving his hand.

"I'm not hungry." Cora replied quickly. "We can run fashionably late. That's what real couples do."

Was that what succumbing to her desire for him meant? Was she, in a way, ordaining the lie? Before she could consider the answer, Roman was searching her eyes. Maybe the same thing had occurred to him too. Doubt pinched his brow.

"So you'd like to keep going?" He asked tentatively. "You want to skip dinner?"

"Yes." Cora muttered. Again there was another knock, she could tell by the cadence that it was Shiv. "I'd like that very much."

"Ok. Ok, I just have one ... more question." He said quickly. "Who was it?"

Cora laughed nervously. Instantly she knew what he was asking. "Uh, no."

"Cora, I can forgive anything." Roman said, his voice grave. They both knew it was a lie, but his voice was insistent. "If you just, I dunno, tell me the truth for once in your life, I promise I won't hold it against you. Giving you a whole lifeline and a half here."

It would break him. She could see it written all over his face. It would snap him clean in two.

Before he could stop her, she had raised her voice. "We'll be out in five!"

The knocking ceased. Through the door, Cora heard Shiv's voice say something, the deeper timbre of Tom's response carrying a muffled remark. Something about the wine?

Cora slid out from underneath Roman, forcing herself to her feet with a wince. The pain in her ankle was low grade, forever throbbing like a distant warning, but she had become married to the sensation by now. She had shed the compression sock before the shower and planned on continuing on without it, compensating with a pair of sensible mules.

Before she could move to the door, Roman had caught her by the arm.

"Last chance, Cora." His voice flat, lips tensed. "I meant what I said."

She couldn't make the words appear in her mind, much less her lips. She would sooner die with the secret.

"It was no one." Cora said with a shake of her head. "I didn't even know his name."

"Ok." Roman replied. "If you say so."

The lie churned in her stomach as they made their way downstairs. Regret hit her in waves, an icy blast to the chest that forced down into the depths of her own thoughts. She had done it out of survival, she told herself, but the reality had been that she simply could not live with whatever would have come after an admission of guilt.

Cora had denied the full weight of her actions, she had carved the truth into small pieces and washed it down with dark liquor and darker thoughts. Now it eroded her insides, so caustic was what she had done that she felt the pain viscerally, fists balled by her sides, her stomach stretched and knotted around itself.

She picked at her food after they had been seated, aware that Roman had done his best to angle away from her. Her invisibility became a gracious shield, the commotion around her a blur. She knew faintly that Shiv was building in hostility, but Cora couldn't hazard to guess exactly why, much less be of any use in the verbal sparring. The only thing that roused her was a buzz in her purse.

[TEXT: Kendall] Hey sorry about earlier

[TEXT: Kendall] Was distracted

[TEXT: Kendall] I'm in Virginia. We need to talk.

She wished she could have hurled her phone away, preferably at a moving target like Mencken, but chose the saner option of stashing it back in her purse.

Everyone suddenly rose and for a heartrending second, Cora thought perhaps they had all discovered her crime.

"Wait, where are we going?" She asked as Roman helped pull her chair out, lending his arm for her to stand.

"We're voting." He said simply. "Popping your cherry."

"I have a headache." Cora said quickly, ignoring the remark. "I think I just want to go to be-"

"Cordelia! Romulus!" Logan barked through the crowd. He gestured sharply towards them.

"Never mind." Cora mumbled, following after Roman.

Logan's suite was not named after a First Lady, which perhaps should have been the first warning sign.

"Right." Logan said, after he had seated himself in the centre of a embroidered chaise longue. "So, who's our money on? I need names."

"Do I get a vote?"

Cora jumped at the sound of Greg's voice, Roman easing her back against the settee by resting his hand against her leg as she craned her neck around. Greg gave her a quick nod of acknowledgment, face marked with excitement. It was entirely news to her that he was back in the good graces of Logan.

"I dunno, Greg, are you registered?" Roman asked.

"Uh, yeah I think I am actually." Greg replied.

"In the corner." Logan barked at his nephew. "And speak when spoken to."

"Right, yes, of course. I'll be in this ye olde corner over here, not making a peep." Greg replied, his tone almost gleeful.

"Well, he's a dark horse but I mean, Salgado?" Shiv began. She hadn't bothered seating herself when they had entered the room. Roman unleashed a harsh scoff and she shot him a venomous glare. "No. I already know who you're going to say, so don't eve-"

"I like Mencken. Yeah, I said it. What? Are you gonna cry about it, feminazi?"

Shiv turned sharply to her father. "Mencken doesn't even take you seriously, dad, we can't seriously consider handing the nuclear codes to someone whose philosophy begins and ends at playing 'devil's advocate'."

"Shiv's just scared he'll mandate a tampon ban." Roman replied. He pulled his hand away from Cora's leg, shifting his body forward as he eyed Logan. "I like him, dad. He's ... Outspoken. Unbridled from the polite agenda. Would really shake up Washington."

"Yeah, unbridled fascism." Shiv retorted. Roman ignored her.

"And the numbers he pulls on Youtube? His fanbase are foaming at the mouth to dunk their disposable cash into unregulated health supplements, who's to say they couldn't add some ATN merch to that shopping cart?"

"Cora." Shiv barked, wheeling around to face her. "You can't be seriously letting him say all of this shit."

Cora swallowed. She was stuck in a series of flashbacks to when past discussions like this would spiral out of hand. She shifted uneasily beside Roman, watching him from the corner of her eye before letting her gaze flicker throughout the rest of the room. She caught on Connor, who was hovering behind his father and looked very ready to enter the conversation.

"I-I think honestly, maybe, Connor would be a ... A nice pick."

"I always knew you were a Conhead, Cordelia." Connor replied, rubbing his hands together. She could feel the heat of Shiv's glare impressing itself upon her. "Yes, dad, I think I would make quite the nice pick."

"Keep things in the family." Logan mused, narrowing his eyes. As he considered this thought, Cora caught a glimpse of Tom darting from the room.

"Just need to take a call! Keep up the energy in here!" He yelled as he disappeared from view. She took the moment to sheepishly glance towards Shiv.

Shiv's cheeks were glowing bright pink against her pale skin. She mouthed 'really?' as she gestured her head towards Roman. He noticed, clutching his hand around Cora's knee. She waited until Shiv had shifted her gaze back to her father before shaking Roman loose.

"C'mon Shiv, would it really be that bad? Swallow your pride. Maybe Mencken can pass a couple prison reforms, get Tom one of those Epstein deals where he can treat his cell like a day job. Would it really be all that different?"

"Oh fuck you." She snapped in response. "And fuck you too Cora, for enabling him. I know you don't know the difference between the house and the senate but this is morally bankrupt, even for you."

"Ok, wow." Cora said, scoffing sharply. "If I know so little then why does what I have to say even matter?"

"Exactly, Siobhan. Why does it matter what she has to say?" Roman nodded. Cora had the overwhelming urge to stamp on his foot.

"Uh, it's the beauty of democracy." Greg volunteered, clearing his throat. "Even the village fool may participate in the, um, wheel of power."

"What are you even saying? Who invited you back here?" Roman said, frowning. "Actually, what am I saying? Greg, welcome back, I knew my shoes were getting a bit dull. Wanna come over here and shine 'em up for me?"

"I'm back." Tom announced. Cora sighed under her breath, thankful for the distraction. Her relief was short lived as she noticed he was staring directly at her. "You and I actually have to step out, uh, momentarily."

"Why?" Shiv snapped, her eyes wild. She quickly cleared her throat when she realised how harsh her tone had been. "Actually no, this is probably a good thing. Off you run, maybe you can brush up on the consequences of right wing authoritarianism while you're out in the hall."

Cora bit her tongue and stood wordlessly. Before she followed after Tom, she shot a quick look of warning at Roman, shaking her head curtly. His jaw tensed, nodding curtly in response.

Outside Tom quickly turned to her, his brows having descended above his eyes. He looked drained, exhaustion pulling at the edges of his brow.

"Kendall wants you to come with me." He said in a low tone that told her she didn't have much choice in the matter.

"Great." She replied with a sigh. "Night keeps getting better and better."

She had never really given Tom much thought before, even after she had repaired things with Shiv. Shiv had never been very open about her past relationships, Tom was the first partner of hers that Cora had ever met but this wasn't surprising.

Relationships had never been a popular topic of conversation between them, other than the odd passing comment about someone new the other was seeing. Roman was the most obvious reasoning behind this, but even when it came to Arthur, neither Shiv nor Cora had been particularly interested in letting the topic take up much time. What really was there to say? Cora could hardly have divulged the inner workings of her relationship, and even if she had been inclined to, she suspected Shiv wouldn't have known quite what to say.

Cora could at least express that she was surprised by the kind of man Tom was. She had always assumed that Shiv would gravitate towards someone more like her father, that was how these things worked, though what that meant for Cora remained a mystery to her.

The two didn't exchange a single word until they were in the backseat of the car.

"Well, it must be rather nice." Tom began, as if he'd held an entire conversation in his head with her before opening his mouth. Cora bristled at his tone. "Having all of your problems vetoed."

"Yes, it's rather nice." She said icily. "I bet there's nothing you would like more than to be the prisoner of Logan Roy."

"You're hardly a prisoner." Tom baulked, scoffing. "Look at what's been handed to you. A perfect storm gone poof just because you had the good chance of charming the right Roy."

Cora let out a harsh cackle that surprised even herself.

"I'm more than happy for you to have your way with Roman, I'm just not sure if your brand of pathetic-ness would be his thing." She mused, sucking in her cheeks.

"If that freaky little fucker wasn't all tease and no tango, I might just consider it. As it stands, I'm shit out of luck."

Cora had no idea what he meant, keeping her lips pressed in response. Tom detected the shift, arching an eyebrow, his blue eyes squinting, trying to discern whether he'd hit upon something.

"Oh, you didn't know, did you? That he doesn't screw? Is that why you're getting your grubby little paws all over Kendall?"

"I don't have my grubby little paws anywhere." Cora snapped, crossing her arms against her chest. "I'm sure Shiv's already spilled past ... Indiscretions. So I don't have any idea what you're talking about. I've had plenty of sex with my fiancé."

"The lady doth protest too much." He replied, a dark edge to his voice. "You and I both know a great many facts between us, none of which conflict, I promise you that."

"No wonder Shiv doesn't give a shit about you doing time. If this is what you're always like, it'd be a blessing." Cora retorted.

"Don't slobber over my wife. It doesn't become you, Vernon."

They settled into an uneasy silence, punctuated by the low hum of the car's engine and the odd muttering beneath Tom's breath. It had become perfectly apparent just what Tom thought of her, that she was just some spoiled brat who'd had the good fortune to ingratiate herself earlier than him.

The car pulled into a small parking lot. It brought Cora little relief to see Kendall waiting out the front of the grimy diner.

"Do me a favour and try not to brazenly flirt." Tom muttered in a clipped voice as his hand fell to the door handle. "I'm planning on eating."

"Wouldn't want to ruin your constitution." She replied, rolling her eyes.

Kendall greeted them both with a raised hand. He was dressed strangely, in a pair of jeans and a shirt that looked to be a few sizes too big, hanging baggy around his frame. Above his brow, a battered cap hung low. He smiled gingerly at Cora, though his expression faltered somewhat when he did not see the same returned to him.

Inside the diner was not much better, its outside appearances proved to not be deceiving. The interior of the diner was lit low to disguise the yellowed white of the tables and the greasy sheen of the floor. Patrons were scattered throughout, but the trio managed to find a secluded booth on the edges of the restaurant. Cora begrudgingly sat beside Tom, who immediately flicked open the laminated menu and began to peruse. She searched it from the corner of her eye to avoid Kendall's gaze.

A croaky voiced waitress arrived by Tom's side. He quickly shut his menu and reeled off an seemingly never ending order.

"And you?" The waitress muttered, glancing up from her notepad.

"A water?" She muttered.

"You barely ate dinner." Tom remarked. "She'll have a milkshake ... Vanilla."

"Thanks." Cora replied beneath her breath. "So now I'll be hopped up on sugar."

Tom ignored her, turning his attention to Kendall. "So, what is it?"

"You two." Kendall said, clasping his hands together as the waitress retreated from their table. "I have a, uh, a proposal for you both. But it only works if you're willing to cooperate."

"So it's dead in the water then." Cora replied. "Good chat."

"Go on." Tom's voice was measured. Cora narrowed her gaze as she watched him. "Say your piece."

"The way I see this, it's a win-win-win." Kendall began. "The both of you, testifying against my father. Tom, for your involvement in the cruises scandal. Cora, to highlight the corruption that runs deep within my father, so cold hearted that he would blackmail the step-daughter of his closest business partner."

"Roman said Frank was fired not too long before the whole ... coma thing." Cora interjected. "But I assume we're just going to leave that part out."

"Right, right." Kendall replied, a little thrown by her remark. Cora swore she could see his eye twitching. "Uh, so yeah. We go into this, burn this fuckin' house down, and rebuild from the ashes. Tom doesn't go to prison, I get the company, Cora escapes the clearly fake engagement that no one is buying."

"And when it inevitably backfires?" Tom pressed. He sounded almost bored.

"See, that's the thing. It won't."

"Will the power of friendship prevail?" Cora asked, snickering beneath her breath. "Will the evil be vanquished once and for all?"

"If I were you, I wouldn't be so cavalier about my situation." Kendall replied sharply. "I don't think you realise how royally fucked you are, Cordelia."

He halted the conversation as the waitress reappeared with a platter of food. The turnaround had been so quick that Cora wondered if they had had it waiting on stand-by. Maybe that was what places like this did. She found herself envisioning a rotating cabinet of greasy diner food, kept at a cool 155°F.

As Tom began to dig voraciously into a heaped plate of pancakes, Cora stirred her milkshake pensively. Her eyes were trained on Kendall, he seemed to be daring her to speak. She sucked at her straw. It tasted thin and sickly sweet.

"I can't." She said, shaking her head. "It'll be a royal fuck up. I can already feel it. I'm done playing these games. Fate can take the wheel."

"Right. Of course. I should've guessed." Kendall snapped. "No stomach for the mess you've made."

"No stomach for bullshit." She replied. She would sooner lie through her teeth than relent at this point. She was sick of being jostled around at everyone else's whim. Better to embrace it at this point. "I'll find another way and let you figure this out. It's really not as dire for me as you're making it out, an-"

"And what, Cora? Frank's been in that coma for months. His shares, his seat, they're all gonna fall to you when the inevitable happens, and then dad'll really owe you. It's obvious how this shit's gonna play out to everyone but you, so just, fucking, take the lif-"

"I'm not taking any alleged lifelines, ok? I don't trust any of you. Den of fucking thieves. Genuinely Kendall, who's to say I wouldn't be in the exact same position if you were CEO." Cora spat, shaking her head. Impulsively she grabbed Tom's fork from his hand and shoved the chunk of syrupy pancake into her mouth.

"I'm sick of being Crimea. I'm Switzerland, from now on, alright?" She said, chewing angrily. When she was done she thrust the fork back to Tom, his eyes widening as he stared at the silver prongs.

"Yeah, sure, Switzerland. If only Crimea could self-affirm itself out of being Crimea." Tom muttered, cautiously taking it from her.

Kendall was eyeing her darkly, his eyes narrowing sharply. She could tell he was itching to cut her down.

"You know he's never going to let you get out of this?"

Cora didn't want to ask who he meant. She sucked in her cheeks, looking down at the cracks in the vinyl seat cover. "I don't care what you have to sa-"

"He's going to own you, Cora. Totally and completely. I don't know if you know what happened to our mom when she tried to get a divorce, but it wasn't fucking pretty."

"I just won't walk down the aisle." Cora snapped.

"It's as good as over." Kendall said, ignoring her. "I can see it written all over your face. You've thrown in the towel. You've lost. I guess the one consolation is that at least whatever slimy offspring you're popping out will be way of IVF."

"Jesus Ken, a little decorum." Tom said. Cora stood abruptly, knocking her knees against the underside of the table. She blinked back tears of pain that threatened to break, steadying herself against Tom's shoulder.

"Throw a fit as much as you want Kendall, but like you said, it's as good as over." Her voice was icy, only thawing as she turned to address Tom. "I want to go, thanks."

Tom sighed heavily beside her, setting down his fork. She let her hand fall away from him as he rose. Cora expected him to simply make way for her to shuffle past, but instead he started heading toward the exit. She limped after him, aware that Kendall's eyes were on them. Wordlessly the pair returned to the car. Despite their earlier tiff, Cora was grateful that he had allowed her to leave with some dignity in tact.

As they neared the side of the car, there was a sudden burst of white light and the sound of a camera's shutter.

"Oh nice. What's the spin here? An elicit rendezvous with Tom fucking Wambsgans?" Cora said, turning away to face Kendall. She felt her blood freeze in her veins.

Kendall was holding his phone upwards to encompass all three of them, the button of the camera bright red to indicate that he was recording. She could see his crazed expression on the screen of his phone, her heart sinking. Cora turned her body towards Tom, trying to shield herself from the eye of the lens.

"Uh yeah, so Shiv, Rome, these are your perfect little fuckin' ... Whatever. Just look. Judas 1 and Judas 2." Kendall said, his voice off-kilter. "Tom's skulking around for an excuse to plunge a knife in your back, by the way Shiv, just so you know?"

"Really, Kendall?"

"And Rome, buddy, I hate to be the bearer of bad news here." It was clear that he felt quite the opposite. Cora braced herself for the inevitable. "I, uh, yeah, I fucked her. I fucked Cora. So whatever bullshit she's been feeding you, because she would be doing that, I can see it on her face, it's all fuckin' lies."

"That's enough." Tom said sternly, but they all knew the damage had been done. He let out a heavy exhale, manoeuvring the door open for Cora to slip inside. "This is low. Really, very low ... "

Whatever else Tom had to say was drowned out by the sound of Cora's blood circling her ears. She collapsed against the seat of the car, swaying forward. Her breath came in sharp bursts, fighting against the constriction of her chest. The effect was dizzying, her brain feeling waterlogged as she struggled to think straight. She closed her eyes to stop the car from swirling around her.

"Are you alright, miss?" She heard the driver say faintly but before she could respond, the sound of the passenger door's lock clicking into place cut through the din.

"Three sounds." Tom's voice filled hear ears, he had leaned down, his hand encircled her back. "Name three sounds you can hear."

Cora's mind raced, unclear to what he meant. He repeated himself, slower, coaxing her.

"Th-the car." She started, her breath continuing to catch in her throat. She felt like she was going to be sick. "U-Uh, I-I don't kn-"

"Can you turn on the radio?" Tom asked the driver. The skittering sound of an electric guitar filled the car, breaking the quiet.

"M-music." Cora continued, squeezing her eyelids. "Y-your v-voice ... "

"Name three things you can see. You have to open your eyes for this one."

The car had stopped careening around her, but her vision was blurred. She blinked rapidly. Her breathing had begun to slow, she was able to catch gulps of air. Slowly she looked around her.

"S-seatbelt." She said, reaching for it. Tom took it from her, plugging it in beside her, the sound reassuring. "U-um ... Seats. The driver."

"Ok. Good." He murmured. "Name three things you can feel."

"I ... I feel dizzy." She said. "My stomach's in knots. I can feel my hands shaking."

"Yeah, well, standard. All things considered."

"And I feel like ... " Cora continued, before she could stop herself. Her voice lowered into a whisper. She closed her eyes again as her bottom lip trembled. "I feel like my heart is breaking."

Tom sighed deeply. "I know what that feels like."

He let her sit in silence for the rest of the ride. While her breathing might have calmed, her mind was in a frenzy. Maybe Kendall hadn't sent it, maybe he had realised it was a stupid and awful thing to do. Her phone wasn't buzzing with a frenzy of texts from Shiv or Roman. Maybe they hadn't checked their phones. Maybe they were still too caught up in debating who would be the next president. Maybe this was a nightmare she could wake from.

She could come clean, put her cards on the table. He said he could forgive anything, right?

People were filtering out of Logan's suite when they arrived back in the hallway. Cora vaguely recognised a few of the presidential hopefuls, grateful when Tom distracted Greg with a greeting so that she could slip by unnoticed. Shiv barely looked in her direction as she passed her, a grimace set on her tight features. Foreboding rumbled in Cora's stomach.

Her head bowed, she almost collided with one of the figures. She stopped to mumble an apology, only to be greeted with Mencken's sly grin. He paused, narrowing his eyes at her.

"Your mascara's running." He said simply. "Have a nice evening."

She found Roman in the hallway of Logan's suite, leaning against the wall, his phone in his hand. Cora stopped short, not needing to linger on the screen to know what he was looking at.

"Roman, I-"

Her voice was halted as he placed a hand on her shoulder. His touch was heavy, yet the look in his eyes was miles away from her. She took in a ragged breath.

"Why didn't you listen?" The note of betrayal in his voice threatened to strike her down. "I said last chance, Cora. I meant it."

His hand fell away from her shoulder as he pushed past her, leaving only absence in his wake.

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