Alexis sighed as she closed the front door at last. The last guest, the most annoying of them all had finally left the building.
Olivia Falconari or Fuckanari as she was less affectionately called had insisted on gift wrapping the leftovers of her cannoli, while trying to tell Alexis how to run a family gathering. After waltzing into Alexis' house like she owned the place, she'd thrown a tantrum or two, engaged in a round of her petty adolescent behavior and then had commandeered the thanksgiving dinner while delineating the perimeters of their so-called family. Never mind that she was the one who had fired the first shot of discord in what had been a pleasant and relatively peaceful gathering.
Towards the end of Olivia's long winded speech, Ava and Alexis glanced at each other and Ava gave Alexis' hand a little squeeze. She saw the glint in the other woman's eye which reminded her that Julian's younger sister had a homicidal streak.
So did Alexis. She just hid it better, welding it only when it was truly needed.
Thank god, Olivia had finally stopped gracing their presence as she called it, and sauntered off with baby Leo, the baby sound asleep with little interest in the antics of his mother. Alexis returned to the kitchen, thinking that this idea of hers to invite her boyfriend's ONS piece of ass had been as unpleasant as she'd anticipated. But at least she'd survived it minus a side of culinary shaming which bonded Olivia with the killer of her cousin.
Or so Olivia thought.
Ava was difficult to read. Even for a Cassadine bastard who'd grown up depending on her ability to read people for her own survival. She knew Ava viewed killing Connie as a necessity for her own mission, but killing her annoying cousin might yield her more pleasure.
Olivia's last words had been along the lines, "are you sure you can manage without me" and Alexis had silently willed her to fall off of a balcony of the penthouse suite at the MC.
The suite on the 14th floor, where in the previous incarnation of the MC, one Luis Alcazar had met his maker, with the masterful Sting crooning his final theme song.
Alexis wondered not for the first time why she hadn't just smacked the heifer's face. She was a Cassadine, a bastard one but still, a member of a family that had planned vendettas while the likes of Sonny, Olivia and other ilk had been serfs in the fields surrounding the ancient castle good only for enhancing its wealth.
Natasha wouldn't ever stand for a lowly peasant by and out of a long line of peasants to hijack her own holiday dinner and outline the perimeters of what their relationship was to be, one Alexis hadn't even asked for, and just sat in muted silence. She'd have put her in her place reminding her she was her guest and that she shouldn't let the door hit her ass on the way out.
Damn she missed Natasha.
There was nothing left to do in the kitchen because Olivia had tried to bark orders at Alexis' two daughters also descendants of royalty to do the chores. Kristina had told her where she could stuff her cannoli which was the worst she'd ever tasted and that she had held her son hostage to insinuate an invitation to her mother's holiday dinner and it had worked. Molly found her Kindle and took it to her bedroom on the other side of the house.
Alexis was proud of her daughters noticing that at the moment, they had the voice that she somehow lacked because it had been her first holiday party in her new house and she'd wanted it to go if not perfectly, at least be about family rather than petty one-upmanship.
The doorbell rang suddenly. Julian had gone out on an errand, probably happy to get away from a room to the gills with estrogen. Alexis wiped her hands on a towel after washing them and went to answer the door.
She saw her eldest daughter standing on the doorstep, dressed in her favorite uniform of black pants and a black leather jacket. This told her that Sam had spent time with Jason.
Her daughter looked a little hesitant, flipping a strand of her dark hair back over a shoulder.
"Hi…I didn't mean to disturb you Mom."
Alexis smiled and gestured for her to come inside.
"You're never a disturbance. That…just left the building."
Sam frowned as she walked inside the warmth of the living room heated by the remnants of burned logs in the fireplace. She looked at her mom after sitting down on the couch.
"Oh yeah…you had Olivia here…"
Alexis's mouth curved into a smile.
"And Ava…who decided to crash the party using her child to do as Kristina called it, emotionally blackmail herself into getting an invite."
Sam winced.
"That must have been…something…given that Ava killed Connie to keep Dad's secret…so how'd it go?"
Alexis sighed.
"Like recess period on an elementary school playground or at least from what I read, not having that experience myself…"
No, she'd been tutored in a windowless room somewhere in the depths of the servants' quarters by mostly Stefan since Helena hadn't wanted to invest any time or energy in educating the daughter of her husband's insipid mistress.
Sam leaned back in the sofa.
"Well Mom, it wasn't much better at the Q mansion. Tracy's ex, Paul managed to fry the electric grid and yet another ruined dinner…"
Alexis shrugged.
"It's a tradition over there or a bad cliché. I haven't decided but at least there's no culinary shaming over it."
"Culinary…shaming…?"
"Never mind…it's a long story and I'd rather not recall it. So Sam…you look like…"
Sam blurted it out.
"Yes the Qs ordered pizza but it was Jason who told them to do it. Mom, it's one of his memories that he remembered on his own."
Alexis heard the excitement in Sam's voice that tempered the heartbreak that she'd experience once she learned Jason was alive but he didn't remember anything about her. She put up a hand.
"That's good…honey but…you need to be careful how you proceed with this because I don't want you to be hurt. "
In the past Sam might have rolled her eyes at her mother's concern. So often the dialogue seemed to be about Alexis having a hidden agenda for keeping her and Jason apart but after he'd "died", the adversity she faced had matured her, so that she understood her mother had just wanted her to be happy and safe.
"Anyway Mom I had other news…It's about Helena…"
Alexis shook her head.
"I read about her death in the New York Times and I don't believe it. Evil like her never dies, it just provides time for an intermission in the production of her miserable life, a chance for those she's tried to destroy to just breathe again…"
"Mom…she cursed us…"
Alexis' eyes narrowed and she leaned closer.
"Really? It'd been a while since she's done that. I mean cursing people was like breathing for her. It gave her miserable body life…in between cryogenic freezing."
Sam bit her lip.
"I did it…I told Helena that no one ever loved her…that even her husband had left her for my grandmother to get away from her…"
"Ouch Sam. But it's true. Mikkos in his own complicated, slightly sociopathic way did love your grandmother. I and my poor sister Kristina were living proof of that and unfortunately, homicidal impulses don't just lie on the Cassadine side of the family…"
"I told her she'd burn in hell and I'd dance on her grave…and I would for all the hurt and pain she's brought to our family…Luke and Laura's family…even Liz's."
Alexis knew that wasn't easy for her daughter to admit given her history with Liz. But Sam had a large enough heart to have compassion even for those she disliked when they were in pain.
A gift from her grandmother Kristin Bergman, who through her DNA muted some of the insanity and sociopathic personality that ran through her diabolical family like a curse. It had even proved that in her case, perhaps nature trumped nurture given the hell she'd endured at the hand of the Cassadine household while hiding in plain sight from her own true heritage.
Just like Laura Spencer's gentler genes had softened the harshness of Stavros, the offspring of two of the most warped individuals on the planet. Even Stefan had fought his war of good against evil inside his heart, not that it had done him much good in the end of his tragic existence.
"Mom….I meant it. I would dance on her grave…I will for what she did to the people I love and loved."
Alexis softened from her own reverie, seeing that Sam looked troubled by her own words.
"I feel the same way Sam…but mostly I feel that her death if it sticks this time means that Kristin prevailed against her in the end…because her children lived at least to adulthood and she's got three beautiful, smart and compassionate granddaughters not to mention the sweetest great-grandson in Danny…"
Sam nodded.
"Yeah…and what's left of her family line is Nikolas and Spencer, although her grandson is appealing to his darker nature…though Spencer's over his diva stage."
That news about Nikolas troubled Alexis because she'd seen it even though she hadn't for some reason had time and opportunity but she knew she'd have to talk with him soon. She'd heard rumors that there wasn't much of the Cassadine fortune left, that it'd been siphoned by Helena and Mikkos' sole surviving brother, Victor to fund their crazy attempts to reverse the permanence of death, at least as permanent as it proved to be.
Yes she was definitely going to have to have a talk with her nephew. His mother, Laura had fallen strangely silent after attempting tough love with him.
Bless her little heart, but Laura wasn't strong enough to handle a son sired by the likes of Stavros.
She wasn't a Cassadine.
Julian drove from the house to the store which was the focus of his errand. A light snow had started to fall, its flecks visible in the glow of the street lights. He'd enjoyed the first holiday he'd spent with his family in a few decades.
He found a parking spot in the lot near the deserted marina. It appeared even the criminals were spending the night elsewhere. He put on his pea coat and scarf and started walking towards the store.
Something stopped him. Someone he knew was there before he heard the melody of a female voice that caused him to turn around and look.
A woman stood near the edge of the docks and looked at him. She looked to be younger than him, in her early twenties at most. She wore a dress, and a thin sweater, her hair tucked underneath a hat.
"Excuse me…"
She smiled at him.
"You look like you're lost…"
He shook his head, wondering what led a stranger to say such a thing.
"I'm not lost. In fact, I had business down here not too long ago…"
She nodded.
"I know…one of the warehouses, which merely serve to hide illegal businesses behind so-called legitimate ones. Unfortunately, it doesn't work if the one criminal's enemy is out to get the other one…"
Julian felt confusion fill him. He didn't get what she was saying, didn't like the implication that she knew he was a criminal. He wasn't…and she must had read it on his face.
"The fact that my observation bothered you just means you're moving away from that dark and violent life."
His eyes sharpened.
"And what do you know about that life…my life…"
She chuckled.
"I just do but that's in the past…and I've moved on but I keep watch still over the town that I knew briefly and last…"
Now he was totally lost.
"What…?"
She removed her hat purposely, long hair the color of fire flowing over her shoulders, her green eyes pierced with interest and intelligence.
"I've come a long way and I have something to say to you…"