And everything I can’t remember
As fucked up as it all may seem
The consequences that I’ve rendered
I’ve gone and fucked things up again, again
Why must I feel this way?
Just make this go away
Just one more peaceful day
– Been Awhile, Staind

---

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Drake Condo: Living Room

Robin pulled the door open just a little and offered a tight smile. “Hey, so slight adjustment to our plans. Patrick’s brother is here.”

“Oh, damn it, I forgot,” Elizabeth said at Jason’s side. He looked at her, frowned. “I sort of pushed Matt into being mad at Patrick, so they’d argue and, you know, make some progress. I wasn’t thinking that we’d have to talk to them tonight—”

“It’s fine, though. Matt’s going to help us.” Robin opened the door all the way, revealing the other doctor standing by his brother. Jason tensed, never a big fan of new people. Or just people in general.

“He was Jolene’s doctor,” Patrick said, grimly. “I was hoping to keep him out of it, but—”

“—but she’s my patient, and I want to know what’s going on,” Matt said. “Why do you all look so worried, and—” He hesitated. “Do I get to ask why Jason Morgan is involved with all of this?”

“No,” Patrick said shortly. “You want to help, okay, but you’re on a need-to-know basis. For your protection,” he added, and Matt made a face. “Get used to it.”

“Anyway,” Robin said, ignoring the scowl on Matt’s face. She stepped between the brothers and Jason. “You said you had something from Spinelli.”

“Yeah. He found footage of a nurse going into Jolene’s hospital room, about eight minutes after Nadine.” Jason turned to Elizabeth who was already scooping the folder out of her tote bag. He handed it to Robin, and she extracted the black and white photos. “The time stamps have her in there for a few minutes. She goes in with a full bag of IV fluids, and leaves with an empty one.”

“She wasn’t scheduled to have her fluids changed at that time,” Matt interrupted, then colored when everyone looked at him. “I—I know her routine. It gets changed every seventy-two hours.”

“And we do every long-term patient at once,” Elizabeth added. “To preserve the routine. It’s one of the safety checks we implemented when we started floating nurses everywhere. I was on that rotation right before my accident. We change them in the morning. First thing when the shift starts.”

“Whoever did this wouldn’t know that,” Patrick said. He gripped the back of a chair. “There’s always a hundred little routines that are unique to every hospital staff. So she’s not one of us.”

“Spinelli kept tracking her,” Elizabeth said, and Robin continued to flip through the photos. “She went to the elevator, grabbed her purse from a plant by the waiting area, and she changed on the elevator. Then walked out of the hospital.”

“So, the security,” Matt said. “Do they, uh, do anything? Or can anyone just—” He gestured. “Walk in and out?”

Elizabeth wrinkled her nose with some distaste. “I really thought we’d picked up the security since the time Helena Cassadine built an entire medical lab in the sublevel basements under everyone’s noses. That was when she brought Stavros back from the dead,” she added to Robin, who just nodded as if that was a perfectly normal thing to say.

Jason opened his mouth, but Elizabeth continued. “That was before you came back for good,” she clarified. “Listen—”

“Kind of a miracle GH has stayed open this long,” Patrick muttered. “Medical labs built by villainous psychos — that’s great.” He rubbed his forehead. “Okay. So security. That’s something new and terrifying to worry about. Did Spinelli see anything else?” he asked.

“He’s still looking through traffic cameras,” Jason said, “but there’s no point. It’s a professional hit.”

“I was gonna say that,” Robin said. She looked at Matt. “My parents are with the WSB, so I grew up with all of this.” She took a deep breath. “Okay, so we know that a nurse came in and did something. We won’t know exactly what until we get the autopsy back, but I guess now we know for sure something happened to Jolene, Epiphany’s suspicion about Johnny is back on the table.” She looked at Matt. “You talked to Nadine after her sister. You’re sure she didn’t call him?”

“No. I asked a few times,” the younger man said. “I didn’t want to leave her alone, but I had other patients. She told me she was fine. But then I saw them, so I figured she changed her mind.” He frowned. “We still don’t know that she didn’t.”

“No, I guess we don’t. And that’s something to think about, I guess. What I’m more concerned about is the timing.” Robin closed the folder of photos, set it on the coffee table. “This nurse could have picked any time. But she chose to go in while Nadine was visiting.”

Jason nodded. “Yeah, I was thinking about, too.”

“What?” Patrick asked. “Why does that matter?”

“Why leave a witness?” Elizabeth asked. “That’s a message, right?”

“Look how close I can get,” Matt said, and they looked at him. His cheeks reddened. “Sorry, it just—”

“It’s textbook. Whoever did this wanted to make sure Johnny wouldn’t miss it,” Robin said.

“That…” Patrick squinted. “Am I allowed to say that’s a little bit of a relief? Look, I’m not happy that it was Jolene, obviously, but they’re using a professional assassin. They didn’t try to hide it. I don’t have to worry about every single damn patient that goes through my hospital or needs medication. We don’t need Spinelli going through layers of code—”

“No, they’re taking advantage of hospital security which has never been great—”

“And isn’t under my control,” Patrick said, with an exhale of relief. “Not my fault. I mean, still bad. All of it—” He wiggled a hand. “But it’s someone else’s bad. Hell, we don’t even have to worry about Jason. Not that I was,” he added, with a wince.

“Matt’s not going to say anything,” Robin told Jason. “He and Patrick just figured out they’re brothers, and he doesn’t know this yet, but if he messes this up for us, I’m going to kick his ass.” She looked over at her future-brother-in-law. “And I have connections, Matt. Everything in this room—”

“Yeah, yeah, cone of silence.” Matt rolled his eyes. “Look, I’m a new member of this conspiracy, and I’m only here because Patrick can’t cover his own tracks—”

Patrick opened his mouth, but Jason interrupted before the conversation could get anymore derailed. “I’m not worried about anything,” he told the doctor, waiting until their eyes met, waited until the other man swallowed hard. “So now that we’re on the same page, Patrick’s right. This isn’t like what happened to Elizabeth. Someone used the hospital to kill Jolene because she was a patient here. They didn’t use the system in place.”

“Because we dismantled that system,” Robin interjected. “It wasn’t available.”

“Either way, it’s not anything more than a liability suit for the hospital. It doesn’t involve me. So if you want to go to the authorities,” Jason told Patrick, “you should do that.”

“Well, this might shock you, but I wasn’t entirely keeping quiet just because my best friend likes you,” Patrick said dryly. “You might be in the clear, which, sure, yay for you, but my hospital is still in the cross hairs. Maybe I’m not responsible for the security department, but—”

“It still makes GH look awful. We really need to gut the place,” Robin muttered. “How much money does it cost to buy out a hospital board? Because half of this is cost-saving measures to pay off the lawsuits, and the other half is those cheap ass bastards trying to turn a profit—”

“Let’s put a hostile takeover plan on hold,” Patrick told her. He looked at Jason. “I get if you want to be out of it, and I don’t blame you, but—”

“But it’s still the hospital, and my reasons for helping haven’t changed,” Jason said. “I just thought—”

“It’s time for us to make some decisions. We can get away with not telling anyone about Jolene for a little while because we’re conducting an internal review. And with Elizabeth, we covered our bases by telling the family,” Patrick said. He looked to Robin. “What about your mother?”

Robin lifted her brows. “What about her?”

“Well, she’s WSB, isn’t she? They don’t report to the federal government, so we might be able to keep this quiet.”

“You want to turn this over to my mother?” Robin wanted to know. “I don’t know. I just—” She chewed on her bottom lip, looked at Jason. “Is that something you’d be comfortable with?”

“I’m surprised they aren’t already sniffing around Port Charles,” Elizabeth said. “Andrei Karpov is an international Russian crime lord. Isn’t that literally the kind of thing the WSB was built to handle? His freighter getting seized by the DEA made national news.”

“We don’t know if it’s Karpov,” Jason pointed out. “It could be Anthony Zacchara’s enemies. He has his own long list of people who want him dead—”

“But Karpov wanted to make trouble,” Elizabeth interrupted, and he looked at her, not sure what she meant. “He wanted to drive Sonny crazy by framing Johnny for what happened to Kate. Maybe he’s trying to push Johnny into something by going after Nadine.”

“That’s…” A good point, Jason thought, though it wasn’t exactly a cheerful thought. Getting rid of Karpov had been one of the few things he thought he’d managed to handle. “That might be something worth considering.”

“I guess I can talk to my mom. See if the WSB can help,” Robin said. “Maybe it gets us nowhere, but if Karpov is tied to Jolene, then we can turn it over to her, and the WSB will keep it quiet.” She grimaced. “The thing is—”

“Nadine should know what happened to her sister,” Patrick said and Robin nodded. “But if we tell her the truth, she might tip off Johnny.”

“I was thinking maybe, if Matt agrees—” Elizabeth looked at the doctor. “Maybe this woman said something to Nadine. Maybe you could tell her you’re running the full toxicology, maybe hint that there’s some question as to what happened to her. But if you’re not comfortable—”

“No, I—most of this is going over my head,” Matt said. He leaned forward, clasping his hands on the table. “And it’s obvious I’m walking in near the end of the movie, but if someone killed my patient, I want to help make it right. If we can do that in a way that keeps the hospital in the clear, then I support that. The rest of this — that’s all for you guys to handle. Yeah, I’ll talk to Nadine.”

Jason realized that he was really the only one in the room that hadn’t been assigned a task. Matt would question Nadine, Robin would bring her mother up to speed, and Patrick and Elizabeth would likely take on anything related to the hospital investigation.

It was the first time in a long time that the crisis didn’t center on the business or him. Or Sonny. It was concerning that Johnny Zacchara had been targeted by someone, and that Nadine might be in danger. She’d gone out of her way to keep things calm and peaceful, and she didn’t deserve what had happened to her. But if someone was targeting Johnny because of his father — there was only so much Jason could do to deal with that.

He pushed himself to his feet. “I’ll put out some feelers to see if anything is going on with the Zaccharas. If this isn’t Karpov, it’s going to be hard to get Anna involved, and I don’t want to tip whoever is pressuring Johnny off by confronting him. Not yet.”

“No, that’s definitely a good idea. Because once Anthony Zacchara gets involved,” Patrick said with a grimace, “you can’t really unring that bell.”

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Sweeney’s Funeral Home: Office

Nadine dragged a hand through her hair, then flipped to another page in the book. “We really don’t need all of this,” she told the funeral director. “I’m not expecting a lot of people. I don’t want a priest or religious person to speak. I’m not even going to talk—” She tossed the book aside, looked at Johnny. “Can you finish this? I’m tired of repeating myself.”

She stalked out of the office, leaving the director sputtering. Johnny dragged a hand down his face, faced him.

“Her sister is dead,” he said flatly. “You’re giving her exactly what she asks for and one more offer to upgrade for a discount, you’re going to regret it. Any questions?”

“I really don’t see how—”

“Sounds like a you problem.” Johnny got to his feet and went after Nadine.

He found her in the parking lot, leaning against the side of the car, her eyes closed, face tilted up to the ceiling. “It’s handled. And I’ll deal with him going forward.”

“Thank you. I just—I don’t want to do this in the first place, you know? But it feels wrong—” Nadine looked at him. “It feels wrong to just go pick up a box of ashes and that be it. Maybe if I do something that’s…that’s official, I’ll feel…I don’t know. Some sense of closure.” She sighed. “Stupid really. No one’s going to come.”

“I’ll be there,” he said, leaning next to her. She flashed him a half-smile, but it didn’t do much to make him feel better.

He didn’t know what he was supposed to do anymore. How could he go to Jason and ask to work for him, betraying his own father? But if he didn’t, Jerry Jacks had made it clear he didn’t consider Nadine untouchable. And he’d proved that Johnny couldn’t keep her safe on his own. He’d have to find a different way.

“I don’t blame people for not coming,” Nadine said with a sigh. “My sister wasn’t a good person, and any goodwill I’ve managed to create since I got here went out the window when I married you.” She winced. “I’m not blaming you—”

“This was my idea, wasn’t it?” Johnny reminded her, and she wrinkled her nose. “All of it. I came to the hospital that day, dragged you into my problems with Lulu and her brothers, and if I had just left you alone, you’d have gone home to sleep—”

“And maybe you would have been the one being sent to Silver Water. Tell me how that’s better, Johnny. Maybe Sonny catches you alone, and you’re not so quick,” Nadine said. She folded her arms. “I hate that it happened. I hate that we couldn’t just be honest about it. But it was him or us, Johnny. I’m not sorry it was us.”

In another place or time, they could have told the cops their story and gone their separate ways. Instead, six weeks later, he was standing with her in the parking lot of a funeral home after his family’s sins had caused the death of her sister.

And Nadine didn’t have the first clue about the truth about his family, or how he was to blame.  It was time to make some decisions. To grow up and stop running. If he couldn’t tell her the truth, he really only had one choice.

“I’m going to drive down to my father’s today,” he told her. “I want to tell him about Jolene, and, well, I haven’t seen him in a few weeks. He gets antsy. You okay to hang out here or…you could come—”

“No. I don’t think I’m up to dealing with your family right now. No offense,” she added, when he pulled open the passenger door for her. She slid inside.

“None taken,” Johnny replied, relieved. It had been an empty offer — he’d known she wouldn’t come.

He’d go see his father and do whatever Anthony wanted to keep Nadine safe.

General Hospital: Break Room

Elizabeth dumped the remnants of the morning coffee in the sink and switched on the faucet to refill it. “You sure you don’t want a cup?”

Robin made a face. “No. One of the benefits of maternity leave is not having to drink that poor excuse for coffee.”

Elizabeth smirked, finished setting a new pot of coffee to brew, then joined Robin at the table. “Well, if it wasn’t our award-winning beverage bar, what brings you to GH? I thought you were going to talk to your mom today.”

“I am. I’m going to call her.” Robin bit her lip, looked down at her engagement ring, twisting it. “I need a second opinion. From another mother.” She lifted her gaze to Elizabeth again. “You’ll tell me if I’m overreacting or just being hormonal. Because I might be, and if Patrick says so, I’ll deck him.”

Elizabeth tipped her head. “Is it about Emma?”

“No. Sort of. Yes. No.” Robin made another face. “It’s about my mother. And Emma. And me. And maybe I’m seeing things that aren’t there.”

“Or maybe you’re seeing things you don’t want to be there,” Elizabeth said, and Robin nodded. “Well, tell me what’s going on, and we’ll figure it out. It’s about your mother, so are you having second thoughts about the WSB being involved?”

“No. The WSB is perfect for this. They don’t give a damn about local laws, so Mom’s not going to care about Jason’s involvement. But I’m sure you noticed it was Patrick who brought up telling my mom, not me.”

“I didn’t, but since you’re pointing it out, that must be significant. Why didn’t you think you of talking to your mother about this before?”

“My mother…” Robin paused, twisting her ring. “You know our history right? Or maybe you don’t. I didn’t know she was my mother for the first few years of my life.”

Elizabeth blinked, sat up straight. “What? No, I didn’t—”

“I thought she was my aunt, and she didn’t tell my father about me, either. She had her reasons, and it’s not that I blame her or hold a grudge,” Robin added quickly. “She wanted to keep me safe—she was a double agent for DVX. The Lex Luthor to the WSB.”

“Luke told me about them once. I’m sorry — I didn’t know—”

“I found out when I was just a kid, and I was upset. I ran away, got into a lot of trouble, but it turned out okay. I got both my parents, and we were really happy for a while.” Robin bit her lip, picked up an abandoned water bottle and picked at the label. “But then the boat explosion happened, and I thought they were both gone. Mom—she didn’t have a choice to leave me, I know that. Dad—I mean, he had sort of a choice, but I get that he didn’t feel like there was one. They both ended up back in the WSB over the last few years.” Her smile was faint. “Mom tried to do the normal person thing again. Got married and everything. But then she had a little girl who passed away after birth, and well—” Robin took a deep breath. “Anyway. Mostly that’s not relevant other than to say I’ve spent more years apart from my mother than with her.”

She looked up, met Elizabeth’s eyes. “When she came to Port Charles last month, I was really happy. Excited. She said she was coming here to be closer to me. To be part of Emma’s life, and I really wanted it. It’s been great, and I thought, well she’ll get bored eventually maybe, but I’ll have this time. She came here to have this time with me.”

Elizabeth’s throat tightened. “You don’t think that’s true anymore?”

“I think—” Robin tensed. “If I think back, if I really think about it, there have been times when my mother’s seemed a little too interested in a few things. She asked questions about you — and I thought it was just idle curiosity at first. Because you came over, and we talked about your kids. And she asked about Jason, but it was always like connected to something else. Being glad that I was friends with an ex, you know? There always seemed to be a reason.”

She sighed. “I wanted to think I was overreacting or just being really sensitive, but yesterday, when Patrick got home from talking to Epiphany about Jolene, my mother was…asking him questions. And it just seemed…I don’t know. Pointed. And she looked interested. Curious. I thought maybe it was just that boredom. She was looking for something to do.” Robin pressed her lips together. “But then last night, you pointed out that Karpov seems like something the WSB would be into, and that thing about the freighter making national news—I realized that I had it wrong. My mother isn’t bored, looking for something to do. I think she came here because of Karpov.”

Elizabeth stilled. “What does that mean?”

“She showed up a week after Sonny’s shooting. Days after the freighter was in the news. I think the WSB sent her here to investigate Karpov, and that she used me as an excuse. A cover. No, worse, I think she was sent here because of who I am and my history with Jason. I think she’s been using me all along.”

Elizabeth inhaled sharply. “Oh, man. Robin—”

“And I don’t know if I’m just putting it all together under this umbrella and overreacting because I don’t know anything for sure. I don’t know. I’m feeling all this stuff all the time, you know? I cry a lot now. Emma just looks at me —” Robin took the tissue Elizabeth offered her. “And then I see Patrick and Emma together, and I’m just gone. So I know my emotions are really close to the surface, so maybe it’s nothing.”

“Maybe. But being emotional, Robin, doesn’t make things not true. You’re smart, and you know when you’re being played. I watched you duck and weave every trick in Patrick’s book until he was so crazy in love with you, he couldn’t function. If you feel like your mother’s questions pushed too hard, maybe they did.”

Robin closed her eyes. “Thank you. Maybe I’m wrong, but I feel better knowing that you don’t think I’m crazy.”

“I hope you’re wrong, obviously. I hate the idea that your mother came here to investigate Jason. I hate the idea that she used you.”

“It kills me, it really does. I just…I was so happy,” Robin murmured. “To have my mother back, to have my family around me.” She sighed. “But there’s only one way to find out.”

“What are you going to do? Ask her about it?”

“Maybe. Or maybe I’ll tell her about Jolene, and she’ll come clean. Or maybe I’ll find out it’s nothing.” Robin dug through her purse, picked out her phone. “Better to get it over with now.”

“Right.” Elizabeth watched Robin lift the phone to her ear.

“Hey, Mom. No, everything’s great. I was hoping we could get together for a late lunch. Maybe take Emma out for the first time to Kelly’s—oh? Okay. No, that’s fine. I’ll see you then.” Robin closed the phone, tightened her first around it. She looked at Elizabeth. “She said she was a little busy, but she’d be able to meet me later.”

“That’s good, but—” Elizabeth furrowed her brow. “You don’t look like it’s good.”

“I heard my uncle in the background. Why—why wouldn’t she just tell me she was with him?” Robin bit her lip. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Well, Mom thinks we’re meeting at Kelly’s in an hour. So she won’t expect me to show up at my uncle’s office in ten minutes, will she?” Robin slid her phone into her purse. “I’ll call you later.”

“Robin—” Elizabeth stopped her as Robin headed for the door. “I really hope it’s nothing.”

“Me, too.”

Crimson Pointe: Drive

Claudia sauntered out of the front entrance, a glass of wine in her hand as usual. Johnny slammed his car door and stood in the gravel driveway, glowering.

“This is a surprise, little brother,” she said, planting her free hand on her hip. “Where’s the wife—”

“I’m not in the mood for your games, Claudia.” He stalked towards her, his long legs angrily eating the distance between them. “You know damn well where Nadine is. At home, grieving the murder of her sister.”

“Have they determined murder?” she asked, lifting her chin. “I hadn’t heard—”

“Shut up.”

Claudia closed her mouth, taken aback by the fury mixed with disgust in her brother’s eyes. She swallowed hard, fumbled for her characteristic nonchalance. “You seem angry—”

“Jerry called me. Did you know that? He wanted to make sure I knew just how close I was to losing Nadine. She was in the damn hospital room,” he bit out. “Sitting right there when someone posing as a nurse gave Jolene the meds that killed her. He could have killed Nadine right then.”

“That…is unfortunate,” Claudia said delicately. “But I told you they were making threats—”

“Don’t you dare stand there and tell me that if I had just taken the deal from Jerry, Nadine would be safe. The man is a sociopath, Claudia. He’s using what you did to that little boy to control our lives, and I’m not going to let it happen—”

“What are you going to do—” The glass of wine fell to the ground, shattering on the concrete as Johnny charged past her and Claudia rushed after him. “John, John, wait—”

“I’m going to agree to whatever Dad wants so that Nadine is safe—”

“But are you going to tell him why?” Claudia demanded, jerking him back just as he reached for the front door. “John—”

“You mean am I going to tell him that you’re responsible for putting Michael Corinthos in a coma? No. Dad would kill you, and I’m not having any more blood on my hands, damn it.”

“Then—”

“But just remember, I know your secrets. And if it comes down to choosing Nadine’s safety over yours?” Johnny leaned in, his eyes dark and fierce. “You’re not going to be happy with the outcome.”

PCPD: Commissioner’s Office

Anna paced the length of the office, then whirled back to face her former brother-in-law. “They’re getting nervous. Something happened yesterday. Patrick went to the hospital, he came back and closeted himself in the nursery with Emma—”

“Anna—”

“And after I left last night, they had visitors—”

Mac blinked. “Wait. How do you know that?” When Anna just lifted her brows, he scowled. “You’re having the building watched?”

“Jason Morgan and Elizabeth Webber came to see them—”

“To see Emma maybe—”

“Matt Hunter came over first. Another doctor from the hospital. He and Patrick are not close, so don’t try that—”

“Anna.” Mac took a deep breath. “We have been over this. Again and again. Just because you think there’s something going on at the hospital that might be connected to your case, that doesn’t give me probable cause to do anything.” He shook his head. “I really think you’re barking up the wrong tree—”

“Am I? How about this? My usual sources can’t get into the hospital records. What kind of encryption level does a hospital need? The best minds at the WSB can’t get in—”

“If you’ve hit roadblocks at the hospital because of the computer security, then that’s Spinelli. Maxie said he was working on something for Patrick—”

“Well, that’s proof right there—”

“That Patrick put his security in the hands of a qualified computer tech? So talented that even the WSB can’t break his firewalls? Yeah, let me haul him right in.” Mac sat back, sighed. “Anna—”

“Robin’s meeting me at Kelly’s in a little bit, but I don’t want to keep pushing her. She’s too smart for her own good,” Anna muttered. She tapped her fingers along the top of the chair. “You’re telling me that you’re not the least bit suspicious about anything I’ve put together in the last month. I find that hard to believe—”

“I didn’t say I wasn’t suspicious. I said that I didn’t know what I could do with what you gave me. Not legally. I could maybe get Jason in here on a pretext. He was taking meetings with Karpov and his lawyers before the DEA raid. But I don’t know what good it would do since he wouldn’t say anything to me, and you told me you didn’t want me to tip Jason off that we were looking into Karpov. Has that changed?”

“No. The WSB’s never been interested in Morgan,” Anna replied, then furrowed her brow. “Though he might be useful in other ways. Perhaps if I offered him some sort of deal — we can make arrangements with the government, layers of protection, if he agrees to cooperate with WSB operations. We don’t have much use for his smuggling routes — though he’d have to start them back up again.”

Mac blinked. “What?”

“You haven’t noticed the lack of international shipments running through the warehouse in the last few months?” Anna asked, her brows lifting. “We keep tabs on it, but it’s never been of much interest since it was mostly South American products. That’s CIA territory. In July, it started to trickle down from a few shipments every week to one or two. Then in September, around Kate Howard’s shooting? Nothing. It looks like those routes have shifted to Buffalo and Rochester.”

“That—would explain the decline of some petty crime down near the waterfront. What are you saying? With Sonny out of the picture, Morgan’s looking to get out?”

“Robin said he did it before. Now, he may continue with the gambling, I wouldn’t have a way to know that. All I can tell you is what our research is showing.” She tipped her head. “You think he’d be interested in a deal?”

“I—” Mac paused. “Maybe. But if he’s closing those things down and getting out, it’s because he’s got a family now. Elizabeth Webber, her boys. It tracks. Are you really going to drag him back into it so you can get to Karpov?”

“I’m not ruling anything out. Andrei Karpov is dangerous,” Anna said, getting to her feet. “If we can’t get to him through Patrick and GH, then I’ll use anything else I’ve got. If Jason has a family, then he has something to lose—”

“I knew it.”

Mac jerked to his feet, and Anna whirled around, her eyes widening when she took in the angry expression on her daughter’s face. Neither of them had heard the door open.

“Robin—”

“I knew it. I knew you were only here because of your job. And now you want to force Jason to put his kids in danger? You wanted to go after Patrick?” Robin’s eyes filled with tears. “How could you?”

“Robin—”

But she was already gone.

← Chapter 51 | Chapter 53 →