Julian jumped into his Porsche, the dream still lingering inside of his head. Imagine him, dreaming that Alexis had decked herself in some dark but figure hugging clothes to spring him from his own wedding. She'd look so damn sexy dressed in black and he'd fully believed inside his dream that she'd been there to rescue him from of all things his nuptials to Brooke. There were some fragments of his dream that he didn't remember mercifully enough but what remained when his eyes had opened was the taste of her mouth on his and the way her body molded so perfectly with his own.
He'd sat up in bed wrapped in his silken sheet wanting to understand the meaning of it until he remembered the reality. He wasn't the one getting married she was and he still couldn't understand what had driven her decision. As he'd returned back to town on business and read about it in his own paper.
What a difference two weeks could make.
Funny how a person could dream something that was a complete reversal of reality and have it make total sense until he opened his eyes. But him getting married in some church wasn't on the schedule in the real world. It was the mother of his first born, his daughter Sam who was set to get married on such short notice. He'd have thought Alexis would be sure to stretch the engagement out this time around to give her plenty of time to rethink her decision. After all she had been a no show at her first round at marrying the groom, the proverbial runaway bride, who fled the scene hitching a ride in a semi.
The front page photo he saw in the archives of his newspaper had shown an above the fold shot of her fleeing down a flight of steps, at full speed. The entire episode as reported by witnesses filled several pages. Naturally the stood up groom had little to say about it and the bride hadn't returned comment by press time.
The police department issued a statement that read it didn't send a search party out for adults unless they'd been missing at least 24 hours. Alexis had surfaced well before that at the household of her ex-husband Jasper Jacks.
Years later, the mother of his daughter was set to get married to Ned Ashton the so-called consultant to the titled CEO of ELQ which was Michael Quartemaine formerly known as Michael Corinthos. Though Julian and doubtless others believed Ned really pulled the strings behind the multimillion dollar corporation despite his public protestations otherwise. After all Michael wasn't smart enough to handle all the intricate dynamics of a corporation with such divested interests among its stock holders.
Michael and Ned for that matter weren't the only one who had a stake in ELQ. Jerry Jacks had secured stock in exchange for returning one of Tracy's ex-husbands to her, some drunkard disgraced conman named Lord Ashton. Julian knew more about the faux royal than his own son did and he wasn't as innocent as he appeared to be stumbling around sauced most of the time exchanging wit with anyone in his path.
Neither father nor son couldn't hit a target from 10 feet out, standing still. Ashton was more than the failed con artist and Ned had his own flirtations with the mob including the late and notorious aspiring king pin Faith Roscoe.
Back page photo of them going at it on the docks partially blurred in places had helped that issue set a circulation record that stood for nearly two years. PC Press readers liked their news on the salacious side.
His newspaper would be covering the Ashton/Davis nuptials and had no idea what he had planned. He didn't even know what his strategy would be when he got to the church but he had an hour to think about it.
His two weeks away from town had been productive and though Alexis had still been pissed off at him when he left town he'd hoped to track her down and debrief her when he got back. But she'd obviously been otherwise occupied. Marrying into a family that had been lured into a trap by old enemies including some that were still in the shadows.
The problem was, how would he now explain this to Alexis? After all, she was now preparing to walk down the aisle at a plush estate overlooking the Atlantic Ocean up near a town called Crystal Cove. The Quartermaines had property there that had hosted a few weddings and more funerals. Julian hoped that wasn't a bad omen.
He looked at his watch, which showed that he had just a couple hours to make it before she exchanged vows with Ned. If traffic cooperated, he might jet there in half the normal time so he kicked his sports car into gear and turned onto the coastal highway.
Sure enough the traffic was light in the direction he headed and he merged into the fast lane.
Alexis looked in the mirror dressed in her slip, which accented her tanned shoulders. She had woken up that morning alone in the suite because Ned had told her the previous night he had some business to attend to, but would be finished in plenty of time to get ready for their wedding. She fingered her engagement ring which was a diamond set amid sapphires, very elegant. It hadn't been on her finger long at all, about two weeks when he had proposed to her while they picnicked on the grounds of the Q estate near the boathouse. She hadn't told Ned that the building gave her bad memories because the last time she'd been there, it'd been to haul a bruised and battered serial killer named Franco away from two of her exes, Sonny and Shawn.
Julian hadn't been in town when she'd accepted Ned's proposal. He had left town for unknown reasons. It's not like she kept tabs on the man since they broke up and he remained in the mob keeping the identity of his boss secret from him. Alexis had stopped asking difficult questions he clearly avoided by lying to her face. She'd kept herself busy in her new law practice finally free of that glassware breaking tantrum throwing mobster and she'd been furnishing her rebuilt house on the lake. Molly had legally emancipated herself from her mom and was bumming around Europe with Carson. Alexis missed her but knew that the two of them needed time apart from one another.
Life had other complications to share with her which she didn't want to dwell in right now since a lifetime of fixing things that were broken hadn't rewarded her with the skills to handle her reality now.
No, she couldn't think about it. She wanted to concentrate on her wedding day. She had spent the night at the estate in the west wing and Ned in the east wing, their so-called traditional night apart on wedding's eve.
Someone knocked on the door and Alexis knew it was Brooklyn, who'd be part of her wedding party given how close Ned was with his daughter. She knew Brook didn't approve of her marrying Ned thinking she'd never be able to keep him happy…unlike her mother Lois. Alexis didn't take her future stepdaughter's bait which irked Brooke to no end. Oh well, the fragile mental case of a daughter would just have to deal.
She tried to focus on the wedding ahead though her mind wandered to places she didn't want it to travel.
Then she remembered she wasn't supposed to think about him anymore…certainly not on her wedding day.
"Are you getting ready," Brooke asked.
Alexis still stood before the mirror.
"Not quite yet," she said, "I've got the dress out and ready but there's still time."
The other woman dressed in her bridesmaid outfit, a peace gown with puffy sleeves didn't hide her pout.
"If I didn't know better, I would think you're dragging your feet here on marrying my father."
Alexis frowned.
"I assure you I'm ready and willing to marry Ned."
Brooke waved her hand.
"You say…but you know what I mean ."
Yes, Alexis did, Brooke resented her involvement in her father's life. She also resented her for ditching Ned at the altar. A bit of a contradiction but that didn't seem to disturb Brooke in the least. Alexis couldn't win in this situation and had no interest in trying. After all, Brooke was a grown woman who had made questionable choices in her own life.
One of which had been to attend the nuptials of Carly and Franco with her friend Michael who would be best man. That wedding was next week's marquee event in PC at the Haunted Star, a jinxed venue if one ever existed but one that this insanely matched engaged couple seemed excited about along with everything else.
Alexis planned to avoid that wedding like the plague though Ned might pop in to support Michael. She imagined she and her ex Julian were likely the only two not invited to the wedding of the year.
"So you don't have an escape vehicle parked outside the gates?"
Alexis shook her head, annoyed with her. Brook had been behaving like a spoiled brat all morning and she didn't feel like indulging her. The girl had an easy life, growing up with a loving if flighty mother prone to histrionics and a father who supported her dreams. She had no concept of what an evil stepmother really entailed, no one had slit her mother's throat when she'd been a small child.
"I'm not going to bolt Brooke, I'm sorry you feel that way but no, I'm not bailing out on the wedding…you're just going to have to accept that."
Her scowl told Alexis that wouldn't come easily or freely but she knew that despite her animosity towards her, she did love her father and would try to please him.
"And if I ever find you have a lover on the side, I will make your life hell."
Alexis gave her a strange look. Now that was a bit extreme, she thought, she would never cheat on her husband…not even with…her mind lingered on another man, with dark hair and strong features right down to his muscular frame. Throw a chambray shirt or the black polo shirt and some rugged jeans …and it would start getting warm in here. But when she had walked away from him after the shit hit the fan so to speak, that had been it. She sighed, knowing she'd done what she'd had to do. She'd walked away from the man she'd fallen deeply in love with her who became the latest in a life of men who'd disappointed and devastated her.
And then this golden opportunity arose when Ned returned in her life as if he'd been waiting in the wings. She had gravitated towards him and he'd been cool with her using him to move on from her latest…no her original bad boy. She had been baffled by her own actions because she'd never done this before, never fled to another man to get over her current one. She knew if she tried to analyze this uncharacteristic behavior in her, she'd get a headache. Their romance if not based on love at least had brought some semblance of stability into her life since their lifestyles meshed so well. She had tried to contact Julian and tell him of her plans but he was unreachable, probably off being a mobster somewhere else. She knew she'd at least found peace with a man who wouldn't get her house blown up and herself and her family nearly incinerated.
Well, Julian would know that she had gotten married soon enough when he returned. But for her, marriage would change a lot because she would be rebuilding her life.
She looked over at her dress lying on her bed, creamy white with nice cuffs on the sleeves and a lengthy train. Not exactly her style but Olivia had recommended that he use the designer who had worked on dresses for the brides in hers and Sonny's family.
Then she sat on the bed to think of someone, not her future husband but the man she'd left instead despite her promises to herself to leave that part of her life behind.
Julian stopped while the elderly man herded his ostriches across the road to the other side. He had heard of the giant birds being raised on farms and harvested for their meat but the sight in front of him made him shake his head. Nothing, not anything, would replace cattle in his mind as a form of succulent meat.
He looked at his watch and figured he had dressed up in the right attire to be unnoticed in the crowd. The "smaller" ceremony advertised on the invite still would involve over 100 guests.
The road finally cleared and Julian wondered if he had lost valuable time to get to the church. But he figured, weddings never started exactly on time did they? In the mafia they started late usually due to last minute changes to tighten security details.
He thought back to the desperate actions of Alexis in the dream where she had used of all things, smoke bombs to end his own ill-advised wedding but what would he do to stop hers?
He had packed heat and had used it but he didn't have any other weapons in case those who might oppose his actions might take a shot at him in order to keep the wedding on track.
No matter, he had to stop it because Alexis just couldn't marry the prepster, who could never give her what he could. He knew that if he could just find Alexis and talk to her, talk her out of this crazy wedding then she would be fine and they could return back if not to PC which was under a lot of heat now, someplace else. Still he knew that she might not go for any attempts he made to tell her what to do, like not get married to the man she rekindled things with. He ran through all kinds of plans and scenarios in his head minus a few that involved hiring mercenaries to help him in case he could think of one that might work.
After all, he knew it had been his fault, because he hadn't been honest with her for too long and then it'd been too late. He'd wrestled with what to tell her and Sam, lost sleep over it but still didn't own up to his family when it counted.
Changes had occurred during his brief advance in the landscape of PC including assigning special marshals to ensure no more violence affected innocent residents and certainly not the tourists. Mayor Felicia Scorpio met with Anna, and DA Scotty Baldwin to work together to restore order in the town. So things had quieted down for the past few months and a couple of mobsters who wouldn't be named decided it was past time for vacations. But what the people who'd taken these drastic steps hadn't realized was that the few mafia left in upstate New York were the least of their problems.
Lord Ashton for starters, and his old gang.
Alexis had ran off and gotten herself engaged to someone she had barely been seeing again for a month. He had returned to the new reality and then had checked his phone messages and emails for the first time in a while and had found a lot of them asking him how he felt about the big news about the engagement…including from Ava.
What engagement, he had asked himself until his eyes widened when he saw it was indeed true especially after seeing the headline in his own newspaper.
He flashed back to seeing Lord Ashton in photos with a capo or two from his pre-PC days on some deep sea fishing trip which probably involved pulling fish out and throwing some bigger ones with cement flippers into the water. Alexis really had no idea who she was marrying today, the son of one of the most notorious criminals who'd set foot in PC and he was just the beginning.
Julian looked at his watch as the time continued to elapse without mercy and pressed the accelerator making the car roar. He had to make it to the church on time and time was running out.
Alexis wandered back into the suite to find her shoes, the pair she would be wearing for the wedding and that's when she saw the folder on the floor, half hidden beneath the bed.
She pulled it out curious, and opened it before wondering whether she should or not, before she could chastise herself for snooping on her soon to be husband. After all she wasn't Carly who had been overheard gossiping to Olivia that she'd been a little suspicious of Franco.
And that's when she saw the photos.