Chapter 38

Britt paced her room waiting for her lunch. She had been confined to her room ever since Robin had had her baby and Britt's deception had come to light.

Flashback

Britt was working in the lab when a guard came in with a laptop. He opened it up and she saw Nikolas staring back at her. "Well, well Britt – it seems you pulled a fast one on us."

"Whatever do you mean Nikolas?" Britt watched the guard out of the corner of her eye.

"You know, I have to admit, I wasn't quite sure how you pulled it off until I remembered that you had full access to all Cassadine Industries resources. Came upon it by accident didn't you?" Nikolas smiled at her.

"Yes though I have to ask how you had it." Britt still hadn't figured that out.

"Patrick helped a friend out by taking part in a research study regarding male fertility when he was doing his residency in Atlanta - this was shortly before he met Robin." Nikolas smirked. "Fortunately for us, the study the friend was doing was for one of our subsidiary companies. As soon as Patrick became involved with Robin, Helena ordered everything on him be collected and stored at the facility you are at – you never know when something might come in handy."

"Well it did. Let me guess, the kid looks like Patrick." Britt couldn't help but smirk back at him. Nikolas had forced her to create and implant the embryo so she had taken great pleasure in making sure the child was Patrick's.

"No, luckily for you she is the spitting image of her mother but we will need to fake some DNA tests in order to finish my plans." Nikolas smiled at Britt. "Do you think your friend Brad cares enough about you to help me?"

Britt's smirk disappeared. "You can't be serious."

"I can and I will be contacting him as soon as possible to make the arrangements." Nikolas went to cut off the connection but Britt stopped him.

"You're going to keep Patrick's daughter away from him?" Britt couldn't believe that she had once agreed to marry the man she was now staring at.

"He turned his back on Robin and allowed this to happen to her. He should pay a price for that." Nikolas reached for the power button. "Don't worry – I will take care of her as if she were my own."

End Flashback

After the screen turned to black the guard grabbed Britt and threw her into her room. She hadn't been allowed out since that day. Her meals were brought to her three times a day and Nikolas had her files from the lab brought to her so she could continue her work. She had no idea if Patrick and Robin had figured out the truth yet or not but she knew one thing – she had to escape before Nikolas decided she was just another loose end that needed to be cut off.

If Britt died, the truth about who the father of Robin's daughter is might die with her.

"Dr. Drake?" Epiphany snapped her fingers at Patrick, trying to get his attention. Patrick had been staring at the phone for a few minutes now and Epiphany was sick of it. "Dr. Drake?"

Patrick put down his cell phone and looked at Epiphany. For some reason, he couldn't stop looking at the picture of Hope Sam had sent him. "Yes Epiphany?"

"The surgery for Mr. Curtis has been postponed – he has a fever." Epiphany shook her head at him. "So why don't you go home and deal with whatever has you so distracted."

"Thank you." Patrick left the nurse's hub and walked back to his office where he pulled out the phone and stared at the picture once more. He reached over and picked up a picture of Emma and opened up the back. Patrick was one of those people who just added the picture to the top of the stack and left the other pictures behind it. He carefully removed all the pictures from the frame.

Patrick took the pictures and spread them out on his desk. He arranged them in order from oldest to newest. The oldest picture in the group was Emma's newborn picture, taken at the hospital just hours after her birth. Patrick hadn't been there when it was taken because Robin had developed a clotting disorder and almost died right before his eyes. Unable to pull himself away from her side, he had missed his daughter's first picture.

Not that anyone had blamed him – his love for Robin was something no one had doubted, at least that day. Since then Patrick had given her family plenty of reasons to doubt his love for Robin but the truth was that he had never fallen out of love with her. He would prove that to her once he got her and Hope away from Nikolas.

Patrick opened up the picture of Hope once again and set it down next to the picture of Emma as a newborn and began comparing the two pictures.