Chapter One:

The air was warm and inviting, promising Nadine a life of adventure. She didn't know that it would soon come in the form of a mobster child.

Her adventure unknowingly started at her twenty-first birthday party in which every citizen of Port Charles had attended.

For the party, Nadine personally invited her friends from the hospital. Elizabeth, Robin, Patrick, Kelly, Andy, Lainey, Leo, Cassius, Regina, Leyla, and even Epiphany had all come to celebrate with the peppiest part of their hospital staff.

She also invited her best friends, Spinelli and Maxie. The computer genius and the fashionista were always a pair these days but Nadine didn't mind, they were the two people who actually listened when she needed them to.

Nikolas Cassadine was also a close friend of the young blonde and attended, clad in one of his best designer suits, as always.

Since her mom was engaged to mob kingpin, Sonny Corinthos, he was also invited and so was his enforcer, Jason Morgan.

The blonde nurse didn't have a problem with the two men personally, actually, they were some of the nicest people she had ever met but they were mobsters. I mean, Nadine lives her life around saving lives not taking them away.

Also, much to her dismay, the Spencers were invited only because according to her mother it was "impolite and rude" to exclude them.

Though, manners be damned if horse-face Lulu got in her way. That girl got on Nadine's nerves since the first time she heard her screeching voice at the Black and White Ball and now, months later, she still hasn't improved in her books.

The Quartermaines attended also but I think the tragedy of their losses was the reason that they cut out early.

As evening flowed over the small town, more and more guests filtered into the Metro Court to catch a glimpse of what it was like to be Kate Howard's daughter.


The night was fun - for everyone else - but to Nadine it was just another photo opportunity for Kate Howard to promote her new magazine.

Or for Kate Howard to show off her shiny, new engagement ring.

Or for Kate Howard to show how generous she was for adopting a kid from the wrong side of the tracks.

Nadine's mother, her biological mother can't even admit to the world that she got knocked up at sixteen so instead she hid it from the world and covered it up with a story that made her look good.

She couldn't admit the truth because this was all done back in Bensonhurst, back when she could only dream of the fashion world and all it's wondrous qualities.

If this secret got out then Kate Howard and her career would be blown to pieces. So, Nadine had to stay quiet.

The only people who knew the truth were her grandma Rose, her mother, and herself of course.

Except, everyone knows that secrets don't stay hidden for long.

So here she was, celebrating her birthday, alone on the balcony of Metro Court looking out at the illuminated waterfront.

Well, she thought she was alone but a creak of the french doors and the slight sound of someone stepping out onto the balcony told her that she was not.