Chapter 21
James Lieman smiled. "Actually, here, I would prefer to go by Director Santos."
"And I would prefer for you to go to hell," Aiden said.
"Such language. You see Aiden, this is the perfect position for me, I can do anything I want-including killing you and the rest of the Cassadines- and I will be above suspicion because I am the director of one of the biggest intelligence agencies in the world and because James Lieman doesn't exist."
"So that's how you killed all of those agents, that was the connection Jones and Donelly were looking for."
"Yes, but they didn't find it because I secured all of those records."
"And by secured, you mean destroyed."
"Precisely."
"Mikkos will kill you for this," Aiden said.
"So be it, that is, of course, if I don't kill him first."
~~~
"What does that mean?" Stefan demanded from Andreas.
"It means," Andreas said, "that this is a very dangerous game with many players, all of which are fighting their own war. I am one of those players, as are you. My employers' pieces are in place now, and all shall be revealed soon." With that, Andreas pushed Stefan away from him and left the study.
~~~
Nikolas found Lucky and Carly in the park with Micheal. "Hey, I thought that I'd find you here." He sat down next to his brother.
"We should be going," Carly said standing up.
"You don't have to," Lucky said.
"Yes, well I need to get home and start packing."
"Why?"
"Sonny's taking me down to Puerto Rico for a vacation. Micheal's going to be staying with Bobbie."
Lucky nodded. "Have fun." He sighed and looked at his brother. "Are you going to tell Stefan and Alexis?"
"Luke and mom don't want me to and I can understand why."
"Well maybe you can explain it to me."
~~~
Sarah sighed and hung up the phone again.
"No answer?" Mikkos asked.
"No, I've tried both their cells and each of the seperate house phones. Something's going on out there."
Mikkos sighed. "And we don't have a way to get to Jones."
"Unless..."
"Out of the question."
She sighed and nodded.
"Okay, does anyone want to explain what's going on here?" Gia asked.
"Nothing that concerns you," Mikkos said coldly. Sarah groaned.
"We do not need to get into a debate right now," she said eyeing Mikkos. "We have to prepare for the fallout of refusing WSB assisstance."
"You are right, as always, Sarah," Mikkos said. "Ms. Campbell, Ms. Webber, I think that it is time for you both to leave."
"Not until we get some answers," Gia said.
"Well you won't get any here Gia," Alexis said coming downstairs.
Sarah sighed, this was really beginning to get out of hand. "Okay, Lizzie, Gia," she glanced at Mikkos, "go down stairs to my apartment and wait, I'll be down soon. I'll answer some of your questions then." She tossed Liz the keys before crossing the room to the door and opening it. Gia and Liz looked at each other before they both left.
She closed the door and turned to Mikkos who was standing in the middle of the room with his arms crossed over his chest.
"And what, exactly, are you going to tell them?"
~~~
Robert Scorpio took another drink from his coffee and sighed. He, Holly, Anna, Tiffany, Sean, and Luke had been over everything-which was very little- that they had found on James Lieman, identity unknown. Sean had gotten a mysterious call earlier and left the room to take it, but Anna, Holly, and Robert knew that it was either Mikkos, Sarah, or Melanie Cassadine. Luke was the only one who didn't know the truth and Robert and Sean wanted to keep it that way.
"Okay," Anna said, "what do we know so far?"
"That we're all tired and hungry and we're getting no where?" Luke asked grinning. Robert chuckled. Anna glared at them both only giving them reason to laugh more. Anna threw her hands up in frustration.
"Okay," Sean began. "if two people whom I will not name-Luke and Robert- would stop laughing, we could get on with this."
"Okay, okay," Luke said holding up his hands in mock surrender. Holly laughed. Anna and Sean sighed.
"Enough!" Tiffany said forcefully causing everyone to look at her. She motioned for Anna to go on.
"Thank you Tiff, now what do we know about James Lieman?"
"Absolutely nothing," Luke said. Anna glared at him. "What?" She sighed. "It's true, we've been at this for two hours and no one has found anything that we don't already know."
"He is right," Sean pointed out.
Holly was-for the most part- ignoring their Lieman conversation. She had a sinking suspiscion that she knew someone who was connected to Lieman and it really wasn't making her feel good.
"Hey," she said. She got everyone's attention, but she looked at Sean. "Melanie Cassadine."
"What about her?"
~~~
"Whatever I have to to get them to stop asking questions," she said as the phone rang. She picked up the reciever. "Hello."
"Hi mommy," came the sweet sound of a child's voice.
"Sabrina," she said in relief. "Where's your father?"
"He's out talking with the bad man."
Sarah's heart skipped a beat. "What bad man, honey?"
"The bad man that works with the mean woman."
Sarah closed her eyes. "Do you know his name?"
"Daddy called him Mr. Lieman."
"Anything else?"
"Uh huh, the bad man said he was going to kill Papa Mikkos and Uncle Victor and you. Mommy I'm scared."
"It's okay, baby. I'll be there soon."
"Hurry Mommy."
"I will. Sabrina does the bad man go by another name?"
"Uh huh."
Sarah let out a breath. "What is it?"
"Peter, I think. People are calling him 'Director'."
"Okay, baby, be good for your father."
"I love you Mommy."
"I love you too." Sarah sighed when Sabrina hung up the phone.
"What happened?" Mikkos asked walking over to her.
"WSB Director Peter Santos is James Lieman."
~~~
Nikolas looked at Lucky. "They want them to be safe."
Lucky shook his head. "Than why fake their deaths?"
"I don't know."
~~~
"She's connected to Lieman," Holly said.
"How?"
"Melanie had another son, a son that was taken from her."
"Wait, you're not saying..." Sean began.
"Melanie told me that her other son often went by his middle name which was-or is-James."
"But that doesn't make him James Lieman," Robert pointed out.
"I know, but it's worth looking into. We know that there is another connection between the Cassadines and Lieman. If he is Melanie's son guess what that would make him."
"Partial heir since it was arranged that Melanie got part of the estate," Anna said. "And if he isn't recognized as Melanie's son he gets nothing."
"But," Sean interrupted, "if the heir is dead and if every other Cassadine is dead..."
"Everything would go to Helena."
"And Melanie's son," Holly finished.
"Bloody hell. So where the hell is Melanie's son?" Robert asked.
~~~
"Where is he?" Mikkos asked.
"On the island." He sighed.
"Call Donelly."
Sarah nodded and dialed the familiar number on her cell phone.
~
Sean's cell phone rang. "Donelly."
"It's Sarah Cassadine, I know who Lieman is."
Sean sat up. "I'll put you on speaker." Sean put the phone on speaker and placed between everyone. "Who is he?"
Sarah sighed. "WSB Director Peter Santos."
"That's impossible," Robert interrupted.
"No it's not. I just got a call from my daughter who said that Helena was on the island and that the WSB showed up just in time including the director; He let Helena go."
"But it doesn't make sense," Holly said.
"It does if he wanted to stay above suspicion," Sarah said. "As the director of the WSB he would be above suspicion if he were to kill us all."
"How the hell did we end up in the middle of a Cassadine Empire feud?" Robert asked sarcastically.
"Only you can answer that, but I suggest that you find Frisco Jones and have him stop the trip to the island."
"What about Aiden and Sabrina?" Anna asked.
"We will take care of that since you don't want to get involved with us any more than you already are."
"You know that he's Melanie's son," Holly noted.
"Yes, we've know for some time that he was her son, we only just found out that he was really Lieman too."
Sean sighed. "What do we need to do?"
"Make sure that they don't go to the island. I have a feeling that we're going to be going down there ourselves to get Aiden and Sabrina."
"If you need help..." Sean began.
"We'll use our contacts. We can't risk word getting back to him that we're coming through WSB channels."
"Okay. Keep us updated."
"I will," Sarah said before hanging up.
Holly and Tiffany sighed.
"So does anyone want to explain what the hell's really going on?" Luke asked.
Robert and Sean looked at each other. "Well, Luke," Robert began. "We've been covering up the fact that Mikkos was alive for the past twenty years or so."
~~~
"So what now?" Sarah asked Alexis and Mikkos.
"Now we call our contacts and find a way to get on that island."
Sarah nodded. "I still to need tell Liz and Gia something. I'll go downstairs and make some phone calls." Mikkos nodded as she grabbed her things and left.
A few minutes later sahe walked into her apartment to find Gia and her sister waiting for her.
"What took so long?" Liz asked.
Sarah closed her eyes for a second before looking at them. "My daughter called."
"Daughter?"
"It's a long story," Sarah said. "I got married a few months after I left Port Charles."
"Well, who did you marry?"
Sarah smiled slightly. "Aiden Cassadine."
~~~
Stefan sat in his study trying to figure out what was going on. He knew that his daughter was alive but he didn't know where she was. Luke probably knew. Robert Scorpio definately knew. He neded to find Jordan and Zander.
A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts. He looked up.
"Hello Stefan."
"Uncle," Stefan replied.
~~~
Melanie sighed and hung up the phone. Her son had tried to kill Zander and Jordan. All because of money. He wanted to eliminate every other Cassadine to get to the estate. He was cold, even more so than Helena ever thought about being. He would kill her the second the heir was dead and he was the only one left the get everything.
She shook her head. Her brother had pulled off the perfect con. He'd made sure that the heir was protected at all costs. He'd made everyone suffer because of it.
Hell, he'd made her give up her son and raise his daughter as her own to fool Helena.
He knew that Helena would kill her daughter so he'd come to her asking if she would give him her son in exchange for his daughter. She wanted to know why couldn't he fake the girl's death, tell Helena that the child died. He wouldn't do that. Eventually she let him take her son while she took his daughter and niether child would know of ther true parentage until adulthood.
She did consider Fiona to be her daughter and Stefan was her son. Genetics didn't mean a thing, they were both still Cassadines.
No one else knew about what happened that day when she'd agreed to give her son away. No one knew that Stefan wasn't the son of Mikkos Cassadine nor of Helena. Melanie had watched from afar as Stefan and Alexis grew up on the island. Helena was abusive both mentally and physically and in a way she saw the reason why Mikkos had wanted a son rather than a daughter. Helena would have either killed her or made her just like her. And that was a frightening thought.
James Lieman smiled. "Actually, here, I would prefer to go by Director Santos."
"And I would prefer for you to go to hell," Aiden said.
"Such language. You see Aiden, this is the perfect position for me, I can do anything I want-including killing you and the rest of the Cassadines- and I will be above suspicion because I am the director of one of the biggest intelligence agencies in the world and because James Lieman doesn't exist."
"So that's how you killed all of those agents, that was the connection Jones and Donelly were looking for."
"Yes, but they didn't find it because I secured all of those records."
"And by secured, you mean destroyed."
"Precisely."
"Mikkos will kill you for this," Aiden said.
"So be it, that is, of course, if I don't kill him first."
~~~
"What does that mean?" Stefan demanded from Andreas.
"It means," Andreas said, "that this is a very dangerous game with many players, all of which are fighting their own war. I am one of those players, as are you. My employers' pieces are in place now, and all shall be revealed soon." With that, Andreas pushed Stefan away from him and left the study.
~~~
Nikolas found Lucky and Carly in the park with Micheal. "Hey, I thought that I'd find you here." He sat down next to his brother.
"We should be going," Carly said standing up.
"You don't have to," Lucky said.
"Yes, well I need to get home and start packing."
"Why?"
"Sonny's taking me down to Puerto Rico for a vacation. Micheal's going to be staying with Bobbie."
Lucky nodded. "Have fun." He sighed and looked at his brother. "Are you going to tell Stefan and Alexis?"
"Luke and mom don't want me to and I can understand why."
"Well maybe you can explain it to me."
~~~
Sarah sighed and hung up the phone again.
"No answer?" Mikkos asked.
"No, I've tried both their cells and each of the seperate house phones. Something's going on out there."
Mikkos sighed. "And we don't have a way to get to Jones."
"Unless..."
"Out of the question."
She sighed and nodded.
"Okay, does anyone want to explain what's going on here?" Gia asked.
"Nothing that concerns you," Mikkos said coldly. Sarah groaned.
"We do not need to get into a debate right now," she said eyeing Mikkos. "We have to prepare for the fallout of refusing WSB assisstance."
"You are right, as always, Sarah," Mikkos said. "Ms. Campbell, Ms. Webber, I think that it is time for you both to leave."
"Not until we get some answers," Gia said.
"Well you won't get any here Gia," Alexis said coming downstairs.
Sarah sighed, this was really beginning to get out of hand. "Okay, Lizzie, Gia," she glanced at Mikkos, "go down stairs to my apartment and wait, I'll be down soon. I'll answer some of your questions then." She tossed Liz the keys before crossing the room to the door and opening it. Gia and Liz looked at each other before they both left.
She closed the door and turned to Mikkos who was standing in the middle of the room with his arms crossed over his chest.
"And what, exactly, are you going to tell them?"
~~~
Robert Scorpio took another drink from his coffee and sighed. He, Holly, Anna, Tiffany, Sean, and Luke had been over everything-which was very little- that they had found on James Lieman, identity unknown. Sean had gotten a mysterious call earlier and left the room to take it, but Anna, Holly, and Robert knew that it was either Mikkos, Sarah, or Melanie Cassadine. Luke was the only one who didn't know the truth and Robert and Sean wanted to keep it that way.
"Okay," Anna said, "what do we know so far?"
"That we're all tired and hungry and we're getting no where?" Luke asked grinning. Robert chuckled. Anna glared at them both only giving them reason to laugh more. Anna threw her hands up in frustration.
"Okay," Sean began. "if two people whom I will not name-Luke and Robert- would stop laughing, we could get on with this."
"Okay, okay," Luke said holding up his hands in mock surrender. Holly laughed. Anna and Sean sighed.
"Enough!" Tiffany said forcefully causing everyone to look at her. She motioned for Anna to go on.
"Thank you Tiff, now what do we know about James Lieman?"
"Absolutely nothing," Luke said. Anna glared at him. "What?" She sighed. "It's true, we've been at this for two hours and no one has found anything that we don't already know."
"He is right," Sean pointed out.
Holly was-for the most part- ignoring their Lieman conversation. She had a sinking suspiscion that she knew someone who was connected to Lieman and it really wasn't making her feel good.
"Hey," she said. She got everyone's attention, but she looked at Sean. "Melanie Cassadine."
"What about her?"
~~~
"Whatever I have to to get them to stop asking questions," she said as the phone rang. She picked up the reciever. "Hello."
"Hi mommy," came the sweet sound of a child's voice.
"Sabrina," she said in relief. "Where's your father?"
"He's out talking with the bad man."
Sarah's heart skipped a beat. "What bad man, honey?"
"The bad man that works with the mean woman."
Sarah closed her eyes. "Do you know his name?"
"Daddy called him Mr. Lieman."
"Anything else?"
"Uh huh, the bad man said he was going to kill Papa Mikkos and Uncle Victor and you. Mommy I'm scared."
"It's okay, baby. I'll be there soon."
"Hurry Mommy."
"I will. Sabrina does the bad man go by another name?"
"Uh huh."
Sarah let out a breath. "What is it?"
"Peter, I think. People are calling him 'Director'."
"Okay, baby, be good for your father."
"I love you Mommy."
"I love you too." Sarah sighed when Sabrina hung up the phone.
"What happened?" Mikkos asked walking over to her.
"WSB Director Peter Santos is James Lieman."
~~~
Nikolas looked at Lucky. "They want them to be safe."
Lucky shook his head. "Than why fake their deaths?"
"I don't know."
~~~
"She's connected to Lieman," Holly said.
"How?"
"Melanie had another son, a son that was taken from her."
"Wait, you're not saying..." Sean began.
"Melanie told me that her other son often went by his middle name which was-or is-James."
"But that doesn't make him James Lieman," Robert pointed out.
"I know, but it's worth looking into. We know that there is another connection between the Cassadines and Lieman. If he is Melanie's son guess what that would make him."
"Partial heir since it was arranged that Melanie got part of the estate," Anna said. "And if he isn't recognized as Melanie's son he gets nothing."
"But," Sean interrupted, "if the heir is dead and if every other Cassadine is dead..."
"Everything would go to Helena."
"And Melanie's son," Holly finished.
"Bloody hell. So where the hell is Melanie's son?" Robert asked.
~~~
"Where is he?" Mikkos asked.
"On the island." He sighed.
"Call Donelly."
Sarah nodded and dialed the familiar number on her cell phone.
~
Sean's cell phone rang. "Donelly."
"It's Sarah Cassadine, I know who Lieman is."
Sean sat up. "I'll put you on speaker." Sean put the phone on speaker and placed between everyone. "Who is he?"
Sarah sighed. "WSB Director Peter Santos."
"That's impossible," Robert interrupted.
"No it's not. I just got a call from my daughter who said that Helena was on the island and that the WSB showed up just in time including the director; He let Helena go."
"But it doesn't make sense," Holly said.
"It does if he wanted to stay above suspicion," Sarah said. "As the director of the WSB he would be above suspicion if he were to kill us all."
"How the hell did we end up in the middle of a Cassadine Empire feud?" Robert asked sarcastically.
"Only you can answer that, but I suggest that you find Frisco Jones and have him stop the trip to the island."
"What about Aiden and Sabrina?" Anna asked.
"We will take care of that since you don't want to get involved with us any more than you already are."
"You know that he's Melanie's son," Holly noted.
"Yes, we've know for some time that he was her son, we only just found out that he was really Lieman too."
Sean sighed. "What do we need to do?"
"Make sure that they don't go to the island. I have a feeling that we're going to be going down there ourselves to get Aiden and Sabrina."
"If you need help..." Sean began.
"We'll use our contacts. We can't risk word getting back to him that we're coming through WSB channels."
"Okay. Keep us updated."
"I will," Sarah said before hanging up.
Holly and Tiffany sighed.
"So does anyone want to explain what the hell's really going on?" Luke asked.
Robert and Sean looked at each other. "Well, Luke," Robert began. "We've been covering up the fact that Mikkos was alive for the past twenty years or so."
~~~
"So what now?" Sarah asked Alexis and Mikkos.
"Now we call our contacts and find a way to get on that island."
Sarah nodded. "I still to need tell Liz and Gia something. I'll go downstairs and make some phone calls." Mikkos nodded as she grabbed her things and left.
A few minutes later sahe walked into her apartment to find Gia and her sister waiting for her.
"What took so long?" Liz asked.
Sarah closed her eyes for a second before looking at them. "My daughter called."
"Daughter?"
"It's a long story," Sarah said. "I got married a few months after I left Port Charles."
"Well, who did you marry?"
Sarah smiled slightly. "Aiden Cassadine."
~~~
Stefan sat in his study trying to figure out what was going on. He knew that his daughter was alive but he didn't know where she was. Luke probably knew. Robert Scorpio definately knew. He neded to find Jordan and Zander.
A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts. He looked up.
"Hello Stefan."
"Uncle," Stefan replied.
~~~
Melanie sighed and hung up the phone. Her son had tried to kill Zander and Jordan. All because of money. He wanted to eliminate every other Cassadine to get to the estate. He was cold, even more so than Helena ever thought about being. He would kill her the second the heir was dead and he was the only one left the get everything.
She shook her head. Her brother had pulled off the perfect con. He'd made sure that the heir was protected at all costs. He'd made everyone suffer because of it.
Hell, he'd made her give up her son and raise his daughter as her own to fool Helena.
He knew that Helena would kill her daughter so he'd come to her asking if she would give him her son in exchange for his daughter. She wanted to know why couldn't he fake the girl's death, tell Helena that the child died. He wouldn't do that. Eventually she let him take her son while she took his daughter and niether child would know of ther true parentage until adulthood.
She did consider Fiona to be her daughter and Stefan was her son. Genetics didn't mean a thing, they were both still Cassadines.
No one else knew about what happened that day when she'd agreed to give her son away. No one knew that Stefan wasn't the son of Mikkos Cassadine nor of Helena. Melanie had watched from afar as Stefan and Alexis grew up on the island. Helena was abusive both mentally and physically and in a way she saw the reason why Mikkos had wanted a son rather than a daughter. Helena would have either killed her or made her just like her. And that was a frightening thought.