HEARING, THE by James Mills - FIRST EDITION BOOK

Judge Gus Parham is Alabama's favorite son, a man with a soaring career and a perfect marriage. To sweeten perfection, he has just been nominated to the United States Supreme Court by his old friend, the nation's President. But Gus has an enemy no man has ever successfully crossed: Ernesto Vicaro, an organized crime leader who, thanks to Gus's courage and resolve, is an inmate of America's prison system. Gus's political opponents uncover a daughter from a pregnancy Gus thought his wife, then his fiancee, had aborted twelve years before. The existence of Samantha, a lovely young girl with a troubled past, unleashes a media feeding frenzy that rocks his nomination. Gus has to handle a vacillating White House, unmerciful members of Congress, and a beautiful lobbyist whose agenda of compassion is fueled by a calculated ruthlessness. Then, beset by forces from both the left and the right, Gus and his wife, Michelle, are plunged into a world of blackmail, suicide, and terror. Now the nominee must make the most difficult decision of his life. Faced with two choices - to embrace a lie or do something he knows is desperately, unalterably wrong - he will make an astonishing decision.