"Do I look okay?" Carly asked, holding her silver compact in front of her and fidgeting with her hair.
Courtney threw a glance over to the opposite side of the limo. "It's a mob meeting, not a dinner party," she said with no trace of amusement in her voice.
"Point taken." Carly snapped the compact shut and dropped it into her purse.
"Carly, what exactly are we going to say tonight?" Courtney asked.
"We're letting them know that none of them are taking over Port Charles," Carly said. "And that while ultimately you and I are in charge, for now all business will be conducted through Danny and Aidan." Danny and Aidan had been Sonny's top men next to Jason.
"Are they going to be here tonight?"
Carly nodded an affirmative. "Calm down Courtney, if you want, I'll do all the talking. We're going to be fine tonight."
Courtney sighed. "I'm just a little on edge, that's all. And I think that's a perfectly fair response."
"Everything will be fine," Carly repeated. "Just remember what I told you about the funeral. We're going to be facing the ones responsible for the explosion. This is the first step Courtney, we're going to go in there and show we're not scared of them and that we're not going anywhere. Once they see that, we're going to be off in the right direction.
"What exactly is your plan Carly? How do you plan on finding out who planted the bomb?"
"I'll tell you later, we're here," Carly said, dodging Courtney's question. She knew Courtney wasn't ready to hear all of the details she had carefully penned in that notebook still hiding in her desk drawer.
Aidan greeted them as they got out of the limo. "Danny's already inside, I wanted to wait out here and walk in with you though," he said, shutting the car door behind him.
"Thanks Aidan," Carly said, smiling her appreciation. "Is everyone else here?"
"No, Alcazar isn't in there yet." He held the door open for them and they walked into the Haunted Star where they were immediately greeted by Faith.
"My my my," she mused, looking over the two women. "Who would have ever imagined that the two of you would ever set foot in a mob meeting. Especially you, Miss High and Mighty," she said, rolling her eyes at Courtney. "Did you receive my card of condolence?"
Aidan stepped up but Courtney stopped him. "It's okay Aidan," she said. She smiled tightly at Faith. "Yes, it was lovely, but forgive me if you don't receive a thank-you note."
"Ladies, is everything okay?" Alcazar asked, stepping into the room.
Faith smiled brightly. "Finally, you're here!" she said. "We can get this over with."
Everyone seated themselves around a table, with Danny and Aidan standing behind Carly and Courtney.
"Well, first things first," Alcazar began. "Mrs. Corinthos and Mrs. Morgan are here on behalf of their husbands and will be treated with the same respect we would have given them." Faith snorted and Alcazar glared at her before continuing. "The main reason we've called this meeting is because each of us has prepared an offer for the two of you."
"An offer?" Carly repeated. "An offer of what?"
Faith rolled her eyes again. "Oh is this really necessary?" she asked. "These two have no idea what's going on here, couldn't we just tell them we're taking what belongs to us now?"
"Mrs. Corinthos," Marcus Del Rossi spoke up finally. "With all due respect, your husband's death, however unfortunate it may be, has provided you with the opportunity to become extremely wealthy."
"With all due respect," Carly said evenly. "Mrs. Morgan and I are already extremely wealthy."
"What Mr. Del Rossi means," Alcazar broke in. "Is that each of us have prepared an offer towards the two of you for the Port Charles territories."
"Ah yes, the territories." Carly leaned back in her chair. "Well as I'm sure you all know, my husband and Jason left those territories, as well as all of their business holdings, in the possession of myself and Courtney, and we are free to do whatever we want with them."
"However," she continued, making eye contact with each of them. "Courtney and I have discussed it, and while we appreciate any offer you may have come up with, we have decided that we won't be accepting any of them, and will keep them in our names."
"You're kidding right?" Faith scoffed.
"On the contrary, I'm completely serious," Carly replied. "At this time, Courtney and I feel that giving up any of the holdings would be a mistake."
"This is ridiculous," Faith protested. "Does anyone else see how ludicrous this is? The widows Corinthos and Morgan holding power in Port Charles? Any worth this town may have had is going down the drain as we speak! Mute Bunny over here goes running to the police every time she sees something illegal going on. How many times has she alone almost sent all of us to prison?" She glared at Courtney, who smiled at a memory of Jason complaining about Faith's theatrics at every meeting.
"Do I amuse you now?" Faith asked, seeing her smile.
"Faith." Roberto's voice had a hint of warning in it.
"I'm only saying what we're all thinking!" Faith protested. "We all know the only reason they're doing this is because they think they're going to find out who toasted their husbands."
"Did you have anything to do with it Faith?" Carly asked, her eyes flashing. Courtney shot a look at her, calming her down.
"No, I didn't."
"Then you don't have anything to worry about." Carly took a deep breath. "As it is, Courtney and I are not pursuing the people who murdered our husbands, we are leaving that matter to the police."
"Then why hold on to the everything?" Alcazar asked. "For as long as I've known the two of you, both of you haven't been exactly quiet about your distaste for anything related to the business."
"Selling our holdings to any of you would be a slap in our husbands' faces," Carly said matter-of-factly.
"Well don't hold back or anything," Faith said sarcastically.
"I mean no disrespect, but it is the truth," Carly said. "Now, we thank you all for your offers, whatever they may have been, but we won't be needing to hear them. We're not selling anything. For the time being, all of our business will be handled by Danny and Aidan," she said, gesturing to the two men behind her. "But ultimately, they will be running all decisions by either Courtney or myself."
"Are you sure there is no changing your decision?" Marcus asked.
"Our minds are made up."
"Looks like we'll be taking over the good old fashioned way," Faith said, her voice filled with mock cheeriness.
"That sounds an awful lot like a threat," Carly said.
"A threat, a promise, take it how you want it," Faith said dismissively. "You didn't honestly expect all of us to sit back and let this go?"
"Ladies," Lorenzo broke in, a hint of amusement in his voice. "There's no need for idle threats here tonight, this was meant to be a friendly meeting."
"And seeing as how we won't be wasting any more time by hearing your offers, then the meeting is over with, isn't it?" Carly asked.
"Already trying to run things, aren't you now?" Faith asked.
"Faith!" This time, Alcazar's voice was sharp. "Carly, are you sure you and Courtney aren't willing to at least consider the offers made to you?"
Carly shook her head. "We're not accepting any deals," she said firmly. "But we do appreciate the offers." She looked to Courtney who nodded in agreement.
"Well we respect your decision," Roberto said, gesturing around the table. "And on behalf of all of us, I assure you that you will be treated with the same respect as your husbands were." Faith snorted again, and this time was greeted with glares around the table.
"Thank you," Carly said, pushing her chair back from the table. "Unless there is anything else, we'll be saying our good-byes now."
"I think we've covered everything for now," Marcus said, looking around the table as everyone nodded in agreement. "Mrs. Corinthos, Mrs. Morgan, thank you for you time."
"And thank you for yours." Carly stood up, followed by Courtney. "Good evening." They walked out, Danny and Aidan following them.
"Good job in there, Carly," Danny said. "I think you might have found your calling."
"As mob boss?" Carly snorted, but they could see the satisfaction in her eyes. "We accomplished everything I wanted to today, and we pissed Faith off, which I see as a bonus." She turned to Danny and Aidan. "Thanks for having our backs in there tonight."
"Not a problem Mrs. C. Mrs. M." Both men spoke simultaneously which caused a chuckle from both Carly and Courtney.
"Carly, do you think Roberto is everything he seems to be?" Courtney asked as they walked back to the limo.
"I'm not sure," Carly said thoughtfully. "I think he's on the up and up, but I know better than to take everything on face value. We're going to have to do some research on our husbands' relationships with everyone there tonight."
"We can help with that," Aidan said, opening the limo door for Carly.
Courtney was about to get in the other side when she saw a figure coming out of the shadows toward them.
"Jack." Her voice was sharp as she called to him.
"Hey Mom," he said evenly. "Aunt Carly."
"Jack, what are you doing here?" She was fighting to keep her voice calm.
"Taking a walk. What are you doing here?" His eyes traveled towards the Haunted Star. "A meeting?"
"It's dangerous to be out here alone at night, you know that!" Courtney insisted. "Haven't you learned anything in the last month?"
"Haven't you?" Jack shot back. "What are you and Aunt Carly doing here?"
"Nothing Jack," Carly said, "We just had one meeting with everyone to let them know who was going to be handling the coffee shipments from now on. That's all." She was about to say more when her cell phone rang.
"You didn't sell it to any of them, did you?"
"Jack, please," Courtney begged. "Don't worry about any of this, we have it all under control."
"Oh my God, you did. You sold out to one of the other families." Jack shook his head. "How could you do that? Do you know what you've done?"
"Seems to me like you know way more than you're letting on Jack," Courtney said, her voice low. "And I don't even think I want to know what all you know, but I'll tell you this. Forget it all. Forget everything you're father ever told you."
"I can't do that."
"Court!" Carly snapped her phone shut. "That was my mom. Michael's awake!"
"Thank God." Courtney gave her a quick hug. "Go, take the limo. I'll walk home with Jack, and I'll tell Morgan. Call me when you get there."
She grabbed Jack's arm and led him down the street. "Apparently, you and I have some talking to do," she said through clenched teeth.
"Mom, I'm sorry," Jack said. "I shouldn't have snapped like that." He paused, trying to figure out the best way to say what he was going to say next. "Mom, you know I know what exactly Dad and Uncle Sonny did, right?"
She nodded. "Yes, but Jack—"
"When I found out, I had a lot of questions," he continued. "And even though he didn't want to, Dad answered them all for me. Sonny was doing the same thing with Michael too."
"What kind of questions?"
"They all started out easy enough. Why would they do that? How could the do that? Why were they never in jail? Before Dad could stop it, I was really interested in it. I would eavesdrop on phone conversations, listen in on meetings, pretty soon he had no choice. He started to show me how things were done."
Courtney's stomach turned to ice. She stopped walking and faced her son. "Jason was training you to take over?" she whispered incredulously.
"We didn't tell you because we knew how you would react," Jack said. "But Mom, he was keeping me in all completely legal business."
"It's never all completely legal, don't you understand that? My God! How could Jason do this?" Courtney sighed, closing her eyes tightly.
"He did it because he was a good dad," Jack said firmly. "He couldn't look me in the eyes and lie to me, so he told me as much of the truth as he could without putting me in danger."
"What about Jacob?" Courtney asked. "Did he know too? Is that why he was down there?"
Jack sighed. "I don't know why Jacob was there. I knew that Dad and Uncle Sonny said they had a meeting to go to, but I think Michael and Jacob just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"God, I hate this," Courtney said, opening the door to the penthouse. "I hate this so much."
"Mom, there's something I need to show you."
"What?"
Jack hesitated. "It's in Dad's office," he said quietly.
Courtney froze. She hadn't stepped foot in that office since Jason had died. "Jack," she whispered.
"Mom, please. You really need to see this. You and Aunt Carly."
"Alright," she said. "But first, we need to go talk to Morgan."
Jack nodded. "Let's go tell him the good news."
As they headed over to the other penthouse Courtney realized she was shaking. How much could Jason possibly have told Jack, and what did Jack know that she didn't?
Author's Note: Well that took about forever to write! I know, I know, it seems a little slow, but next chapter will be dealing with Carly and Michael, and we'll get to see a little bit more of Carly's plan, as well as what exactly Jack knows. I also have to give a major shout out here to Rheanne, for pretty much ensuring I was on the right track with this chapter, in detailing the meeting as well as starting to define Jack's role. Thanks!
