CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN "She's on a case," Frisco told her. It was sort of true, he told himself. "Mommy goes on them from time to time. You know that."
"But she a'ways calls us," Georgie lisped, her baby lips pouting.
"She can't right now," Frisco explained. "But she's thinking about you and Maxie."
"And about you?" "Yeah," Frisco answered, hoping that she wasn't cursing his name. Hell, he thought. He wouldn't mind if she was doing that as long as it meant that she was alive......
"Where are we?" Carly asked Felicia as she struggled with Felicia's bonds. Carly had slipped out of hers minutes earlier.
"I don't know. Hurry!"
"I'm trying. Just hold still. There!"
"Ouch!" Felicia winced as she flexed her fingers and wrists. She untied her feet quickly. "Let's get out of here."
"Okay," Laura said to Luke, still trying to process the latest information about her husband's forbears and his problems. "So who wants to kill you?"
"I do!" Bobbie announced as she slammed the door to the Spencer house. Striding over to her brother, she slapped him with all her strength.
Reeling, Luke rubbed his cheek, his anger rising. 'I'm going to let that pass, Barbara Jean, because I don't make a practice out of hitting women, though, if you do it again, I might have to reconsider."
"How could you?" Bobbie snapped. "How could you do that to me?"
"Do what? Let you think that your daughter was dead? Would you rather I'd told you that the little tramp was humping your husband?"
"I wanted the truth, damn you! The truth. You owed me that much."
"Would it have made it better? Would your life have improved if you'd known? Then you could have been betrayed by your daughter and your husband. But, I didn't-I let you think the least painful thing."
"By whose standards? Thinking that my daughter was dead was supposed to be better?"
"You were able to move on."
"And Tony?"
"Who the hell cares about him? He betrayed you, didn't he? You obviously didn't care all that much, or you wouldn't have been fooling around with Damian Smith. You wouldn't have hopped right into bed and into marriage with Count Vlad!"
Shocked, both women turned on him.
"I'm ashamed of you, Luke Spencer," Laura admonished.
"You disgust me," Bobbie told him. "And I've been around enough to know. You make me wish that we weren't related."
"Well, you got half your wish," Luke shot back as he stomped out of his house.
"What?" Bobbie asked of Laura.
"Luke isn't himself," Laura explained distractedly, wondering what there was about that man that she could love even when he was being as unlovable as he was at the moment. "He' s just found out that he's your half-brother."
"You're kidding!" Bobbie's eyes opened widely, shocked. "I don't understand."
"Neither does he, but maybe we should both cut him a little slack. He's just learned that Helena is his mother. Sit down and let me explain."
Luke Spencer, cigar clinched between his teeth, strolled into Wyndemere, brushing aside the butler's and the housekeeper's objections. "Hey, don't go to any trouble. I'm just family." He helped himself to a generous amount of Stefan's finest brandy, and smiled as it went down oh, so smoothly. "Ya know, I think I'm gonna like this, bro," he remarked as Stefan walked in. "You-me-just hanging out together. Sort of like Nik and Lucky-The Previous Generation. Or, was that the Original Series? Whatever."
"I don't understand." Stefan observed Luke who was acting even more erratic than before.
"That doesn't surprise me," Luke grinned. "You never were that quick. Hell, Stefan, without all that loot, that Cassadine clout, you'd be just some average schmuck like me-having to live by your wits, which, come to think about it, would leave you at a serious disadvantage." He flashed another one of his taunting grins, and Stefan restrained himself. Going on, Luke added, "But, fortune has finally smiled on me."
"Whatever are you talking about?"
"Cassadine blood, my boy! I'm Helena's son, too. Daddy dearest broke the glad tidings to me just a day or so ago."
Stefan was utterly speechless, but not so Luke. He laughed out loud and continued. "See, I figure that I'm older than you by a couple of years-maybe more, and I figure that I ought to get a piece of the Cassadine action."
"You're mad!"
"No, just pi**ed. There's a difference. See, I could have gone my whole life without knowing that little bit of news, but since the fickle finger of fate flipped me off with it, I gotta figure-hey-there's a reason for me to know."
"You're drunk."
"No, just getting started." Luke took another swallow, and savored it. "Being rich definitely has its perks. You know, I could really get into this. It has also occurred to me, now that I've begun to consider all my options, that maybe I'm The Cassadine. I'm the oldest."
"This is a patriarchy," Stefan informed him icily. "Everything goes to the eldest, and then to his eldest son."
"Eldest 'legitimate' son," Luke corrected. "Which means that Lucky can't inherit this moldering monstrosity if you have other legitimate sons."
"He is my son."
"Not legally," Luke shot back. "And not in his heart of hearts. You may think that you can seduce him to the dark side by all your wealth and power, but when it comes right down to it, Lucky is my son."
"We'll see," Stefan told Luke.
"Yeah, we will." Luke glanced around himself, at the brooding, dark gothic atmosphere. "I wonder what we can get for gargoyles at a garage sale? You know, we've really got to redecorate this dump. It's so...yesterday!"
Yesterday. Luke's final word reverberated even as he left, and Stefan was forced to consider what Luke had said. Somehow, this didn't surprise Stefan. He'd known for years that there was something between Helena and Luke, something strange, but until today, he'd never really understood. Now, he did, and the truth was staggering.
Stefan looked at the medallion he'd been clutching during his conversation with Luke, and wondered if he'd be in time, if his careful plans were destined to fail. He'd been so methodical, so precise in determining what had to be saved, or destroyed. What or whom. Were the Fates even now laughing at him? Was this how Macbeth felt when he knew that he couldn't change what he'd done, that he'd been misled by some perverse, evil design bent on his own destruction?
But, the Fates had also dealt him a surprise, the gift of a son as they'd taken away his hopes that Nik had been his. Lucky Spencer, who should have carried the Cassadine name, who would be a Cassadine yet, regardless of what it took, was Stefan's son. He'd seen the shock of recognition in the boy's eyes, and felt the answering toll in his own.
Stefan could identify with that shock himself. He'd never forget the stunning surprise that Mikkos wasn't his father, nor would he ever forget the name of his real father. Nor, would he ever acknowledge that name. What he'd learned had been a life changing experience for him, the proverbial fork in the road, the day that the Fates had shown him the truth, and nudged him into making an irrevocable choice. It had been the first time he'd killed to keep that secret.
Her name had been Lesley Webber...........
"Daddy," began Maxie as she climbed into Frisco's weary arms in which lay her little sister, Georgie. Her daddy looked very tired. "Where's Mommy?"
