| Chapter 3 Esme walked into the nursery and watched the twins sleep. They were so innocent. They didn't deserve what their parents' pasts would put them through. Esme' with Deke and later with Sonny and Marcus and Helena and Cesar Faison and the World Security Bureau. Stefan's with Helena, Mikkos, and Stavros. A combination like that was dangerous. Helena's words had brought back a lot of old memeories. Anna, Robert, Frisco, they were the happy memories. Faison and Helena were the bad memories. Esme' knew that Helena was up to something, but she didn't know what. She had hinted that it had something to do with the past, but which one, Deke? Faison? Briana? She sighed as she sat in a rocking chair that overlooked the west side of the island. /\/\/\ Robert laughed at his brother's expression. "Okay, so you're saying that Marcus Taggert, who is sitting right outside that door, slept with Sonny Corinthos' sister?" "Yeah. Appearantly, Esmealda and Sonny got into this huge fight about him wanting to put gaurds on her. She stormed out had a few drinks and went home with Taggert. Sonny came looking for her at the bar and had been told who she left with. Well he showed up at Taggert's apartment and..." Robert shrugged his shoulders. "Well Sonny carryed Esmeralda out of the apartment and they got into another big fight. She left and, as far as I know, hasn't seen Sonny since. That's why Taggert hates Sonny so much." Mac just shook his head. Robert's cell phone rang. "Scorpio." "Hey Robbie, it's Sean." "What's up?" "Frisco met with Lopez." "Who're the targets?" "Stefan Cassadine and Sonny." "Sonny makes sense, but why Cassadine?" "Appearantly Lopez has a deal going with Helena. Frisco is suppose to injure Sonny and Cassadine when Esmeralda is with both of them at the same time." "Why would she be with Cassadine?" "You really need to start paying attention. Esmeralda is married to him." "That'd be one hell of a family reunion. Why would she marry the son of the woman that killed her child and tried to kill her?" "I don''t know Robbie, but there's more. Frisco want you to meet him in the catacombs. Lopez is planning on kidnapping Esmeralda after the shooting takes place. Frisco's going to try to get her outta there." "Okay, Sean, I'll meet him there. Bye." "Bye Robbie." Robert hung up and lookaed at Mac. "Well Malcolm, I gotta go." "What's going on?" "Nothing tht you need to know about right now." Robert left the office. /\/\/\ Everyone at the dinner sat in silence as they all tried to piece together what had just happened. Stefan made a move to go after her but Alexis stopped him. She shook her head no, and turned to Carly and Gia. They both nodded and the three of them went to find Esme'. /\/\/\ Esme' stood from her chair and went ober to the bookshelf. There, behind Jared and the twins' baby albums, she pulled out another album. She went back to her chair and opened it. Pictures of her daughter, Brianna, and of her. Later pictures were of Robin and Brianna. Robert, Anna, and Brianna. She smiled at those pictures. She came upon the last picture in the book, this was the one that made her cry. It was the last one that was ever taken of Brianna. Esme' stood behind Robin who held Brianna in her lap. Robert and Anna were to Esme's left. Sean and Frisco to her right. They were happy that day. It was Brianna's first birthday. /\ Alexis, Carly, and Gia stood in the doorway of the nursery and watched Esme'. She hadn't even looked up at them. They stood out of sight and watched her. /\ Esme' stood up and went back over to the bookcase. She replaced the album and pulled out another small box. She opened it and took out a cell phone. She punched in a number and waited for someone to answer. Voice mail picked up. "Robert, it's Esmeralda. I need to talk to you...about Brianna. Call me when you get this." She held onto the phone for a moment and then slid it into its case and hid it behind the books on the shelf. She looked towards the door and saw Alexis, Carly, and Gia watching her intently. She rubbed her temples and walked out of the room, motioning them to follow her. /\/\/\ Robert walked into the usual meeting place for Frisco in the catacombs and wasn't surprised to see him already there. "Jones, what's going on?" "Sean fill you in?" "On some. What's your plan?" "Take the job. After I shoot, you go in there and get Esmeralda out before Lopez's men show up." "Sounds good to me," Robert said as they began to work out the quirks. /\/\/\ The four women walked into a room that Alexis recognized as one of the very few rooms that had no secret passageways. They all sat down. Esme' reclined in her own chair and wondered where to start her dark, twisted tale. "I guess I should explain everything that was said earlier, shouldn't I? Three months after I left Brooklyn, I found out that I was pregnant. I was in Paris at the time and had little to no money left. "I got a place to live and got a job at a local museum. Six months later I had my daughter Brianna. When Brianna was three months old, I met a man named Cesar Faison. He helped me, but after a few weeks I began to think that he wasn't telling me everything. I confronted him about it, and, of course, he denied it. Later that night I walked into my apartment to find four WSB agents. "Robert and Anna Scorpio, Frisco Jones, and Sean Donelly. They wanted me to help them arrest Faison. Well I did and less than six months later they had him but not his partner. "When word got out that Faison had been arrested and I had a part in it, I started to get threatening letters from Faison's partner, Helena. I contacted Robert and he, Anna, and Robin came back to Paris. Nothing happened for a while, until Brianna's first birthday. "Sean and Frisco had showed up and we had a small party. Around midnight Brianna started crying. Robin went to get her and as she was coming out of the bedroom the front door of the house flew open and eight men came in brandishing guns. They grabbed Robin who was still holding onto Brianna. They held their weapons on the rest of us as Helena walked in. She threw around her normal threats and ordered her men to take Robin and Brianna out of the house. "We found them three days later, both alive, but Brianna was sick. We got her to the hospital and after a week she hadn't gotten any better. Anna finally got me to leave the room. We weren't gone ten minutes. When we got back the nurse informed us that Brianna's 'grandmother' stopped by to see her. Later that night, Brianna died. I left Paris and never went back." Esme' was now crying. Carly for once was speechless. She had no idea that anything like this could have happened. Alexis and Gia didn't know what to do. /\/\/\ The next day Esme' had left the island before Stefan woke up. She didn't want to face him or Sonny. She had fallen asleep the night before, before he could ask her any questions. She had gotten her other phone from the nursery before she had left and waited for Robert to call her back. She walked along the docks alone when she bumped into someone. She looked at the man's face and gasped. "Marcus," she whispered. "Esmeralda? What are you doing here?" Esme' smiled. "Visiting my brother and his family." "You look good," Taggert said sadly, noticing her wedding ring. "You too." "Who's the lucky man?" Esme smiled again, but before she could say anything Helena approached them. "Hello Esmeralda. So nice to see you again." /\/\/\ Robert smiled sadly at the massage from Esme' and slid his phone back into his pocket. He would call her later. He and Frisco had gone over the plan again and again. It was almost flawless. Robert's phone rang again. Checking the caller id, he smiled. "Hello Beautiful," he said. "Hello to you too," the woman replied. "How's Brazil?" "Hot and lonely." "Sorry." "You better be. How is everyone?" "Great. Mac going on and on about not being able to catch Sonny, which he has been doing since I come home." "Have you told him about..." "Part of it. He was shocked to say the least. Did you know that Esmeralda married your cousin?" "Which one?" "Stefan." "No, why would she marry him?" "I don't know, but I'm supposed to meet her later, I'll ask her then." "She's in Port Charles?" "Yeah, she arrived yesterday with her husband and three kids." "I don't know Robert." "I don't either. Listen, Luv, I hafta go." "What's going on there?" "I'll tell you later Luv. Bye." "Bye." She hung up on him. He slid the phone back into his pocket and turned to Frisco. "What?" Frisco couldn't hold back his laughter any longer. /\/\/\ "What do you want Helena?" Esme' asked. "To see all the Spencers and Scorpios dead, but for right now I just want you and my worthless son out of my life." "Too bad for you Helena." "We'll see about that." Helena started to walk away. Esme' grabbed her arm. "What is that supposed to mean?" "Brianna," was all she said. She pulled away from a pale Esme' and walked back to her yatch. Taggert saw the look in his one-time-lover's eyes and he knew that she was about to do something crazy. He took her arm and led her to a bench and they both sat down. "What was that all about?" "Helena wants m dead. What else can I say?" He sell phone rang. "Esmeralda Cassadine." "Jared has fallen ill," Stefan said. "What's wrong with him Stefan?" "I don't know and niether does the island doctor. He recommended taking Jared to the hospital..." Esme' no longer heard what he was saying. Her mind was in a place many years before. ******** "We need to get Brianna to the hospital," Anna said. Esme' picked up her one-year-old daughter and held her close as they left the warehouse. ******** Then her child died. She wouldn't be able to go through that again. Into the phone she said, "I'll meet you there." She hung up the phone and let the tears flow down her cheeks. Taggert watched her face. The only time that he had seen her this hurt was when she had gotten into a fight with her brother. He couldn't believe that she had married a Cassadine, let alone have children by one. Not knowing what else to do her held her as she cried. |
| A Family Divided |