I own nothing. Carly Spencer is the single mother of three and the owner of the hit Metro-Court Hotel. Jason skipped town when he found out that Jake was really neither his nor Lucky's son. He was Ric's, but he didn't leave town without one last night with Carly, leaving her pregnant. She left Jax and moved on with her life, but everyone knows she still loves Jason. Even if they don't know who her youngest's father is. Robin Scorpio-Drake is struggling through being a mom, a doctor, and a wife while dealing with her husband's infidelity. She knows Patrick loves her. She just can't trust him anymore. Sam Spencer has a wonderful husband, but raising another woman's son is beginning to take its toll on the raven-haired beauty while she struggles through the difficult transition of adopting. Maxie Jones has more than she ever hoped for in Nikolas Cassadine and their life together, but BJ's heart may not be enough to get her through the birth of their daughter. And Nadine Crowell is hiding a secret from the love of her life, Johnny Zacchara. Only a handful of people know that the child she is carrying isn't Lucas Jones' child. Her baby belongs to her ex-lover Johnny, but he doesn't have a clue.
Never consider any one unworthy. Because you might wake up one day to realize that you have lost a diamond while you were too busy collecting stones.
Chapter One
Port Charles, New York
2011
The Metro-Court's restaurant was usually one of the most popular in town, but everyone knew to avoid that place like the plague before noon on Saturdays. Saturdays were the days that the self-proclaimed "Five of Diamonds" had their weekly breakfast to discuss their entangled lives out in the cobwebbed world of Port Charles.
It was a tradition over the past two years that each woman had come to look forward to attending. It was nice to have a centered table of friends to bounce ideas off of and discuss the things that truly mattered to them.
The group itself was an eclectic mix of women from every nook and cranny of the Port Charles social circle and family tree, but as it was, theses days it all came back to two families: the Spencers and the Cassadines.
Carly Spencer was always the first to arrive and the easiest to explain concerning the familial connection. She was a Spencer. The infamous Luke's niece and Bobbie's wild child that reeked havoc on Port Charles for over a decade before settling down in a comfortable niche that still allowed Carly to be the bad girl on occasion.
As the tall blonde walked into dining room, reading another contract, it was plain to see that the years had treated her well. As she now neared forty, Carly looked better than she had in years. Lainey Winters was helping her through most of her issues and with finding peace amongst enemies. Lainey had taught her to channel her anger into running, and Carly had plenty of anger.
Surprisingly, the single life agreed with her. She had found joy in the happiness of her children and her family. Carly was the happiest person at her mother's wedding to Noah Drake which brings us to the next member of the exclusive club to show up on Saturday mornings.
Robin Scorpio-Drake wasn't the most receptive to her new step-sister-in-law. It was a well known fact in Port Charles that their feud rivaled that of Scott Baldwin and Luke Spencer. Bobbie embraced both Patrick, Robin, and their son like children of her own, and seeing Carly with her own children and her mother softened Robin's heart. Without Jason around, their reasons for feuding seemed futile.
Running into the dining room, checking her pulse from her morning run, she plopped down in her seat and smiled at Carly's obliviousness of her arrival as she reviewed the contract before her.
Carly, Lucas, and Patrick had embraced siblinghood immediately which shouldn't have surprised Robin. After all, Jason and Sonny were both out of her life so she had no one to throw her loyalty and useless advice onto, and her two brothers took that spot gladly. Robin learned to accept her mistakes of the past, and so did Carly. Neither one of them were innocent in their feud. Robin just figured that realizing the mistakes of your youth was part of growing up, and truthfully she was glad to have someone as passionate as Carly in her corner.
"Carly, hi. Welcome to the world."
"Oh, hi, Robin. I'm just going over the contract for the new boutique manager. She's trying to swindle me."
"Really? Or are you trying to swindle her?" Robin asked, knowing the blonde a little too well.
"Carly's a Spencer. We scheme. We lie. It's what we do." The lyrical voice of the third woman to join the crowd forced Robin and Carly to turn around to see Sam Spencer holding the newest member of the Spencer clan: Laura-Lee. Laura-Lee had came all the way from China to be adopted by Lucky and Sam and come live with them and Cameron, and the transition hadn't been an easy one.
But the one-year-old had the entire clan around her pinky finger. Just the way Sam had wanted it to go, but her step-son Cameron was the one who was having none of it. His mother had lost full custody of the little boy almost two years ago, and sometimes he didn't understand why he nor his little half-brother Jake Lansing couldn't live with her like they used to. Not that he loved Sam or Lucky any less. Cam just knew that after Jake was born his stable home had become not-so-stable anymore, and he was putting that off onto Laura-Lee.
Of course, he couldn't be told any different either. Adopted or not, he was just like his daddy. Stubborn to a fault.
And nothing was ever easy for Sam. Of course, the biological parents of her little girl were beginning to have second thoughts. It was really hard time for both her and Lucky.
"Lemme see her!" demanded Carly, scooping her little cousin out of Sam's arms before looking back at Robin. "I might be trying to swindle her a little, but it's business. All's fair in business and war."
"I don't think that's how the saying goes, Carly." Robin laughed as Sam rolled her eyes at Carly's antics. Carly wasn't paying any attention to them though. She was busy making faces at Laura-Lee.
"Don't bother trying to explain something to Carly. It goes in one ear and out the other." Maxie said as she and the equally pregnant Nadine came in completing their group. Before brunch the two had attended a Yoga class for Moms-To-Be, attempting to keep their bodies in shape while six months pregnant. Their connection to the Spencers and the Cassadines were cut from the same cloth. Maxie's baby was a Cassadine and she was soon-to-be one herself. She and Nikolas were thrilled with their life together with Spencer and the little girl on the way. If only BJ's heart will last…
Nadine, on the other hand, has a more difficult story that only five people know about. Four of them were in this room while the other was Carly's brother, Lucas Jones. They were platonically living together and he had agreed to be her baby's father. As far as anyone knew, that baby was a Spencer.
Carly rolled her deep azure eyes, crinkling her nose and pursing her lips in a half-attempt to act annoyed. She motioned over her assistant, telling the nervous college student to safely take her cousin's baby to the playroom with her own 2 year old named Macy Jean Spencer. Her Uncle Luke was never as proud of her as he was the day she gave her daughter a Spencer name.
Almost made Carly change it, but the name stuck and little MJ was as much a spitfire as her mama.
"Oh, thank God." Maxie exhaled, practically throwing her Marc Jacobs bag into Robin's arms as she collapsed into her seat. "Yoga sucks. I so quit."
"You can't quit," Nadine countered, gingerly sitting her equally pregnant behind in her seat and sitting down her purse beside her. "Yoga does remarkable things that allow for an easier delivery. It also keeps you in shape and does amazing things for your complexion. And if I do recall, health is a major issue for you right now."
"Maxie! What issue? I thought Uncle Mac said you were fine," Robin sat up straighter knowing first hand how testy Maxie's heart could be.
"As far as he knows, she is." Nadine quipped, reading the menu. Carly, Sam, and Robin sent her confused and worried glances while Maxie herself was sending one more along the lines of sudden death.
"You got a big mouth, Crowell. Maybe I should return the favor and call up Johnny Zacchara…" Maxie turned on the other blond. Nadine looked aghast while Maxie held a smug look on her Tinkerbell-like features.
"You wouldn't do it, and you know it." Carly battled back unconcerned with the passing remarks of subterfuge.
"You calling my bluff, Spencer?"
"You know it, Jones." Carly smiled back with her own smug look as Maxie looked more along the lines of the annoyed and pissed off, but they all knew that was just Maxie.
0 to Bitch in 3.4 seconds.
"Ok, fine. I'm bluffing. Are you happy now?"
"Well, I am." Nadine said, before looking sympathetically at Robin. "How are things at home?"
"Nice subject change to the both of you." Robin said first, looking at Maxie and Nadine. "But things aren't so bad. Patrick moved back."
"That's great, babe, but are you ready for that?" Sam asked, placing her hand over Robin's. Sam knew first hand what it felt like to be betrayed like Robin had been, and she also knew what it felt like to be the betrayer. She just wanted to be sure her friend knew what she was getting into by allowing him back in her inner circle.
"He's sleeping on the couch, and I basically ignore him outside of our therapy sessions." Robin shrugged. "I just can't look at him without seeing him and Liz Webber…"
"Doing the horizontal tango?" Maxie bluntly threw in.
"Thanks, Maxie." Sam said, nudging the younger blonde. Carly looked at Robin intensely.
"I've definitely been where you are, Robin, and I know that you love your husband. My brother's an idiot, but he does love you, too. He just wasn't thinking with his head or his heart."
"He was thinking with the little head and made an ass out himself," Nadine said, her character-like bluntness not shocking the table at all. As innocent and naïve as she could be, Nadine was as equally abrasive and all about telling-it-like-it-is.
"I don't know. I know that he made the mistake, and I'm the one that is miserable." Robin said, and then she shrugged. "There's nothing I can do, but let him earn my trust back."
Carly smiled sympathetically at her while thinking…
This meeting has officially started.