Chapter Four
A day had passed since Chloe had agreed to meet Kieran and talked to Philip so she could decide for herself if he was all the great things Lily had said. Honestly she hoped this meeting would go well for the sake of her daughter because Lily really seemed to like this boy and it was clear she was becoming besotted with him. Chloe could only hope that the feelings were entirely mutual.
Not wanting to intimidate the child with the expanse of the Kiriakis wealth she arranged to meet her daughter's young man at her former condo in the city. Although, she was fully aware that of all the reasons for this boy to be interested in Lily, her wealth or rather her parents' wealth was not one of them. Both of his parents were very distinguished in their respective careers and had a relatively fair amount of wealth between them that would undoubtedly be passed onto their son. So he was definitely not a gigolo in the making.
"Mom, he's on his way up." Lily called from below her on the first floor of the condo.
"I'll be right there." Chloe replied as she took one last look in the mirror to check her appearance. She'd decided that understated rules of fashion applied here with not wanting to intimidate Kieran. So she smoothed her hair back into a low chignon fashioned with an elegant, sliver clip. She wore a simple white pants suit, her arms left bare by the sleeveless blouse. Keeping her makeup light, wearing only eyeliner and a gloss of color on her lips Chloe achieved a look of understated beauty without even really trying. And with the exception of her white gold emerald cut diamond wedding ring, which had been redone two years before for her anniversary, and a pair of diamond studded earrings she wore no major jewelry. Releasing a breath she flipped of the switch to the bathroom and headed to the main floor of the condo where Liliana stood waiting for her.
"You're just in time Mom." Lily said to her mother as she opened the door after the doorbell buzzed again for the second time. She smoothed her skirt as she turned toward her mother. "Do I look alright?" She asked biting her lower lip in hesitation.
"Yes, you look lovely." And she truly did, wear a sleeveless gold halter-top and black and gold floor length skirt. It made her skin just glow, she looked beautiful. Immediately Chloe was struck by how fast Lily was growing into a woman.
Lily smiled and moved to answer the door. Taking one last calming breath she opened the door. "Hi Kieran, please come in." She shifted to the side to let him come in. As he walked into the apartment Chloe got her first look at the boy who had stolen her daughter's heart and she was taken by surprise by what she saw.
He looked nothing like what she had expected. He was quite tall for his age almost six feet, nearly as tall as Philip, by her estimation. He had an olive tone complexion that marked the mixture of his ancestral background with prominent cheekbones, full lips, and a broad jaw. He had blue-black hair with startlingly bright green eyes surrounded by absolutely to die for long eyelashes that no man—let alone a teenage boy— should ever have. He was slim and lean but with a somewhat muscular physique for a boy his age. Simply put, the boy was gorgeous.
"Kieran O'Neal, this is my mom Chloe Kiriakis. Mom," Lily paused looked back at Kieran with a tender smile, " this is my friend Kieran."
Coming out of her initial shock at seeing Kieran for the first time Chloe smiled kindly at him. "Hello, Kieran. It's a pleasure to meet you. Lily has told me so much about." She said offering her hand to him.
"It's nice to meet you too, Mrs. Kiriakis." Kieran replied shyly as he shook her hand with a smile that could melt even the coldest heart.
"Come let's have a seat and you can tell me all about yourself." Chloe gestured toward the sitting area and followed Kieran as he sat down on one of the chairs. Merely observing the Kieran polite gestures toward her daughter as he waited for the ladies to be seated before he sat himself, Chloe realized she knew exactly what had attracted Lily to him; it wasn't just how attractive he was physically but the whole package. It was proving to be a very interesting afternoon.
Philip and Lucas had returned to the Kiriakis estate after spending most of the morning going through all of the bedrooms in the rundown house belonging to the missing employee. They found that most of the rooms housed photos of some sort of surveillance of the Kiriakis family. Judging from the backgrounds in some of the photos it had been surmised that the pictures had been taken over the last several months. Some had even been taken overseas given that outside of Lucas none of Philip's other siblings lived in the US. So now the question on all of their minds was who took the photos and why?
Philip and Lucas were in the library pondering that very question when Sami stormed in with two of her children following behind her. She was dressed as if she had spent a day in the office, power suit and all.
"Lucas why didn't you answer your cell phone? I called you several times." Sami started as she crossed her arms over her chest waiting for his answer as Aiden and Courtney entered behind her.
Lucas frowned glancing up from his position by the desk as he opened his jacket. "What are you talking about, Sami my cell phone hasn't got any calls." He took the cell phone out and handed it to his wife. "Look and see for yourself."
As Sami took the phone Courtney attempted to back out of the room behind her mother's back. " Courtney Elizabeth Roberts, don't you dare take another step out of that doorway." She addressed her daughter sternly not even bothering look at her daughter while she fiddled with Lucas's phone. "Well, Gee Lucas you're right your phone didn't ring at all."
"I told you," he sighed holding his hand out for the phone yet again.
"It didn't ring because someone forgot to turn his phone on." She told him handing back to phone to show him all the missed calls. "You know Lucas, all I asked you to do today was leave your cell on and you can't even do that."
"What happened, who's in trouble?" He sighed
"Who do you think?" She turned her gaze back on the two children by the doorway. " Do you want to tell your father what you did today to get kicked out of summer camp Courtney or shall I?"
Courtney gave her impression the often mistaken child by biting her lip before pleading her case. "But, M-om, it wasn't my fault." She cried, Courtney was the youngest of the Roberts brood at a mere ten years old. She was an exact replica of her nineteen-year-old sister, Aurora, or Rori, as she preferred to be called. Both of the Roberts girls resembled their eldest brother, twenty-nine year old Will with blonde hair. The only difference being that unlike Will and Aurora, Courtney had her father's brown eyes.
"So what did she do? Wait a minute do I even want to know?" Lucas hesitantly asked unsure if he was ready for another shenanigan that could very well involve seeing a judge to explain that not all his children were potential criminals. This was the third camp that his daughter had mysteriously gotten kicked out of in the last three years, which was really quite a feat. Of all of his children with Sami, Courtney was the only one who seemed to get into the most mischief. She'd been a tiny terror every since she first learned to walk. If there was trouble she was certain to find it and double the odds of it coming into play.
"But, Daddy, honestly it wasn't not my fault this time." Courtney cried this time putting on the performance of a lifetime as her eyes filled with tears and she ran to sit on her father's lap, her chin trembling for good measure.
"Oh give me a break, you Tiny Terror. Dad, the reason she got kicked out is because she started a fight at the pool." Aiden, third oldest child of the Roberts clan, Aurora's twin who unlike his other siblings had his father's brown hair, which was currently styled in spikes with blonde tips, and mother's blue eyes.
Immediately the crocodile tears and chin trembling disappeared as Courtney glared at her brother. "That's not true A-den and if you hadn't been flirting with Joe's sister and watching me like you were supposed to you would have seen Joe push me."
"In any case Courtney has been officially kicked out of summer camp yet again." Piercing her daughter's glare with a stern look she continued. "And I was called out of a very important meeting so that I could go get your daughter from camp. And now that she is home again I sincerely hope you can do miracles because it took a lot to get her into that camp and now its up to you." Turning to Aiden popping gum in the doorway she added, "And Aiden I hope you get a lot of rest tonight because tomorrow you'll be going to work with me as new summer hire."
"Mom come on—," Aiden protested.
"No, I don't want to hear it. Since you've been released from your summer job at the camp I won't have you staying home all summer wasting away. I expect to see you dressed and ready for work tomorrow morning at 6:30. And don't make me have to get you up tomorrow." And with that Sami stormed out of the room with Aiden on her heels begging not to have to go to work with her. While it was fairly evident that Sami was no push over at home, she was even worse at Phoenix Enterprises.
As Philip sat back and enjoyed the show he was reminded of his own family with Lily when she had been Courtney's age and basically getting into everything while trying to run the house. It was always fun watching his nieces and nephews attempt to get out of scrapes with Sami and Lucas as parents. It was rather ironic really that Lucas and Sami had spent the better part of ten years practically at each other's throats. Now, almost thirty years later, and four children they were finally settled into a relationship.
Although, not married they had a common law marriage by living with one another for the last eighteen years, which was an added twist to their extremely weird relationship in Philip's eyes. They even wore wedding rings to signify their relationship but had decided against actually getting married as they claimed it was too conventional for them.
"So Uncle Philip is Lily home yet?" Courtney asked as she settled more comfortably in her father's lap.
"Yes, she came home a couple of days ago."
Before Courtney could ask another question Lucas lifted her of his lap as they both stood up. "Court, before you invite yourself on a visit to New York you might want to remember that your mother's not exactly happy with you at the moment."
"Daddy you can let me go if you really wanted to then Mommy—,"
"I don't think so Courtney. If you want to go anywhere you have to get your Mom to agree first. So why don't you go bother your mother while your Uncle Philip and finish talking about some business."
"But D—addy," she wined.
Lucas pointed to the door. "Goodbye Courtney." He declared for the final tome watching as his youngest daughter turned around in a huff and left the room.
"I knew I should have gone to stay with Rei and Will." She mumbled under her breath as she went speaking of her eldest brother and his wife.
After she left the room Lucas shut the door behind her. "So your daughter's been kicked out of summer camp three times. Now isn't that surprising." Philip said as took a cigarette out of his case and lit it.
"You're one to talk Philip. It's just that girls are so much more difficult than boys. Honestly, I'm being to think that we should have just stopped at Will. It would have saved a lot of unwanted headaches."
Philip laughed heartily before taking a long puff from his cigarette. As he exhaled the smoke the door to the library opened by Rex along with his father and Shawn. He stubbed out his cigarette automatically and stood up. "So what did you fine?" He asked all traces of laughter gone.
Shawn stepped up and dropped some photos on the desk. "We were able to get into that little room hidden behind the one with all the photos. Most of the stuff we found was total garbage. But, whoever lived there has long since been gone, these pictures were left behind, maybe they're a message or something." He nodded to the ones that both Philip and Lucas were currently looking through.
"I don't get it. What's with all of the pictures of these landscapes and streets?" Lucas asked frowning at he stared at the photos.
Philip leaned over to see what they were and noticed nothing out of the norm with the photos. "Is that it? No clues or anything that gives us any idea who's behind this or why we were being watched.
Shawn shook his head. "None. But, my men are still going through the house as we speak. So if they find anything new they'll let us know ASAP."
"We've got bigger problems than worrying about someone taking pictures of us. Some has gone through the archives. They've been digging up all sorts of information on you, my father and Stefano."
Philip expression turned grim, as his eyes became cold silver. "I thought the archives were sealed."
"They were – are … someone opened them with the old combination. They apparently knew how to override the new system."
"How in the hell is that possible? No one is supposed to be able to do that, why the hell else would I have shelled out all that money on a shitty system that a hacker can bust into without a sweat." He responded angrily. In matter of several weeks there had been two breaches of security at the highest level and that was two too many. More importantly the archives had been breached and that was a serious matter. The archives were said to have contained some of the most damning secrets that Victor Kiriakis had ever had. Philip had only been to the archives once seven years ago just after his father's death when Stefano had needed to store information away. He'd never been much interested in any of the files there, so with the exception of that one time he'd never gone again. The true fact was that the file in the archives contained even a single bit of information that could ruin someone's life and for that reason alone he'd avoided it at all costs since he took control of his father's company. After Brady's break in he'd even had that archive move to a more secure location and any access codes changed. Thereby, making it nearly impossible for anyone to break in and use any of the information to ruin someone, or so he thought.
"I don't know. All I can tell you is that the silent alarm went off while I was at the house with my father. We checked the system it looks like the code they used was he same one Brady had when he was working for Titan." Rex explained.
Shawn tensed clenching his hands into fists by his sides. "If Brady has people watching over us I want to know why. I refuse to let that SOB destroy my family again." Although seven years had passed Shawn would never forget that his own brother in law had set him up. Despite, his reconciliation with his parents and Belle's parents after giving them the ultimatum of just dealing with them working for Dimeras or forget about seeing their grandchildren again, he and Belle had yet to mend ties with Brady. As far as they were both concerned it would be a while before they were ready to take that step.
"Brady won't destroy anything again most especially not anyone in this family. I'll see to that myself. If he is unfortunate enough to have a hand in this he'll be taken care of." Philip stated as he headed toward the door. "But, just to be on the safe side I'm going to the archives to see what was breached." He left the room, leaving the other men to follow him as he headed for the archives.
An hour had passed since Kieran had arrived to meet Chloe in the New York apartment. During that short time Chloe was absolutely charmed by the young man. He was extremely polite with a certain quality of shyness about him. He was everything Lily had said and of course as enthralled with Lily as she was with him. His personality was the complete opposite of Lily's very gregarious personality. Chloe would be very interested to see how her husband would react to seeing someone so blindly interested in his daughter as Kieran clearly was. But, it would only be fair for her to warn Kieran of what to expect when he finally met Philip. So she sent Lily down to meet her brother with Mimi and Xander so she could privately talk with Kieran.
"Mrs. Kiriakis, are you aware of who my parents are?" He asked from his position across from her on the couch after Lily left.
"Yes of course, your mother is a wonderful dancer. I've been to several of her shows many times. But, I've never met her in person. And I do believe I did meet your father years ago at a gallery opening." She answered.
Kieran relaxed then sitting back against the chair. "And you don't mind that Lily wants to date me."
"Of course not why would I? Let me put your mind at rest Kieran the fact that your heritage is mixed is of no concern to me. Nor will it be to my husband. To be blunt if my husband were not to like you it would be because of you and what you represent in Lily's life, our family life, not your lineage. I doubt however that it will even be an issue since, I like you Kieran."
After Chloe's profound statement Kieran put his mind at rest. But, he felt the need to explain why he had inquired as to whether she knew about his parents. "I didn't mean to be rude, Mrs. Kiriakis, I—"
"You weren't rude at all. I understand perfectly why you asked the question you did. It's perfectly natural."
"It's just that it's been my experience that people seem change their opinion of me when they realize that I am mixed. I'm not ashamed of my heritage and I just wanted to make sure you wouldn't hold that against me because I really like Lily." His mother was African-American and his father was half Native American and half Irish so people generally were surprised when they saw the family together.
"Well, I'm sure you know that the feeling is entirely mutual with my daughter." Chloe responded as Lily reentered the apartment with Mimi, Xander, and Nicky. She stood with Kieran. "Kieran allow me to introduce you to my cousin and Lily's godmother Mimi Dimera and her son Alexander. You already know my youngest, Lily's brother Nicky." She said moving to stand behind her son gently touching his soft blonde waves of hair.
"Yes, its good to finally meet you Kieran. Lily has been just raving about you." Mimi said when she shook the hand of the teenager. Heat flushed into his cheeks causing him to blush under her compliments. "I can certainly see why she like you, you're very handsome." As Kieran face bloomed redder, Lily's cheeks turned pink.
"Aunt Meems," Lily sternly called out before facing Kieran. "We're going out to lunch would you like to join us?"
He declined the invitation.
"I can't I'm helping my Dad at the gallery today." He explained as the red heat of embarrassment faded away.
"Oh then let me walk you out." Lily grabbed Kieran's arm as the headed for the door. "I'll be right back, Mom."
"It was nice meeting you Kieran. I hope to see you again."
"Nice meeting you too Mrs. Kiriakis." Kieran replied before the door shut and he and Lily were gone.
"I can see why Lily's anxious to keep him all to herself. If I was her age and I had a boy like Kieran interested in me, I would do anything for a chance with him. Boy, is he a cutie too."
"And nice Mimi – he couldn't have been any sweeter." Chloe added she went to get her purse.
"So what did you think about him other than that's sweet?"
"Well, he likes Lily so that's a plus. He's bright, nice and very grounded in my opinion. He didn't let me intimidate him – also another plus factor. And most importantly, he's a calming influence on my daughter. So as far as I'm concerned he can definitely date Lily."
Mimi nodded. "Hmm, so what about as far as Philip is concerned, will he like him."
"He'll hate him." Chloe answered promptly.
"I figured as much. So what are you in the mood for?" She asked grabbing Xander's hand.
"Something light but I say let's let Lily decide."
"Sounds like a plan to me."
Lily decided that they should eat at Le Bistro, a diner near the penthouse apartment. She was even willing to eat at the outside tables, which for her was a big deal. If there was one thing that bothered Lily about her mother's celebrity status it was the interruptions during a meal. She didn't mind photographers snapping photos but she absolutely abhorred to have random people interrupt her when she was with her mother for autographs or what not. It was as if she wasn't even there and that annoyed her to no end.
But today she simply didn't care because she was on a high, a Kieran O'Neal high after not seeing him for three days. The minute her mother sat at the table Lily simply jumped to hear her opinion of Kieran because she knew that if her mother liked then there was only one more small —very substantial— roadblock for her to pass before she could freely date Kieran, namely her father.
"So Mama, what did you think? Wasn't Kieran the absolute best? He was great wasn't he, just like I told you he would be. I mean Mama come on you liked him right?"
"Yes, Lily I liked him, very much in fact. I thought he was a very nice well put together young man."
"See, I knew you would like him once you met him. He's the best. Now, will you help me convince Daddy to break that ridiculous rule?" She pleaded not touching her salad until she was assured Chloe would help. "Please Mom, I'll even baby-sit Nicky for free."
"You already baby-sit him for free. Frankly, Chloe if I were you I'd holdout for something more lucrative." Mimi added between bites of her sandwich, a small smile playing on her lips.
"Aunt Mimi, don't joke, this is serious. This is my potential social life we're talking here, my first date." Lily protested not for a second wanting anyone at the table to take the subject of her first date lightly at all.
"Momma, Xander and I wanna go to the park. Can we?" Nicky chimed in from his seat beside the other little boy in a booster seat.
"We'll have Lissette take you after lunch sweetie, okay?" Chloe replied turning her attention to her son as she took a napkin and wiped away the residue from his lunch. Lissette was Nicky's nanny she'd been with the family since Nicky was a baby.
"Alright, Momma." Nicky answered using his own hand to wipe his mouth after she finished.
"I needa' gwo to the bah-room." Xander said as he tried to get out of his booster seat.
"I'll take you sweetie, here let me get you down." Wiping her hands on her napkin Mimi stood and lifted Xander from his seat taking his hand. "Nicky do you need to go to?"
"Nope."
"Okay, I'll be right back then." Mimi said then headed with her son in the direction of the restaurant.
"So Mom what's the answer, are you going to help with Daddy or not?"
Chloe raised her brow at Lily's question. Her daughter was certainly unrelenting on this issue to get her first date. As she thought about it, Chloe realized that she really liked Kieran. She believed he would be a good influence on her daughter if and/or when they began to see one another. On the other hand, Lily was only 14 going on 15, even though more often than not it was more like 14 going on 30. Still, she was much too young to have a relationship with any boy beyond that of friendship, at least in her eyes. She wasn't altogether against Philip's reasoning on not allowing their daughter to date just yet, but she also knew that while she may have just a few reservations about her dating, Liliana had none. If Chloe were to refuse to help her then Lily would find some other way to get what she wanted. So all things considered she'd made up her mind. "Okay, so I will speak with your father about this when he returns home. Let me make myself perfectly clear here and now, Liliana Jade Kiriakis, I'm not promising you anything one way or the other, only that I will talk to him. And if he sees reason we will let you date Kieran with some ground rules in place."
She had barely finished her statement before Lily bounded up out of her chair and hugged her mother as a woman around Chloe's age approached the table.
"Please excuse me I don't mean to be interrupt. But, are you Chloe Wesley by any chance?" The woman was wearing a tight A-line lavender skirt that ended mid-thigh with a white sleeveless top. She had straight auburn hair secured in a clasp by her nape. She looked to be somewhere in her late thirties at least.
Looking up, Chloe smiled. "It's Kiriakis, and yes I am."
"Of course, oh my goodness what you must think of me. I'm sorry. It's just that I've been a fan of yours for years. And I was just so surprised to see you here. I just saw Phantom of the Opera a few days ago and your performance was a breathtaking as it usual is on stage. I don't want to be a bother, but I was wondering if I could perhaps get your autograph. I'll understand if you say no being that you're here with your children and all." She smiled broadly at Nicky and Lily, as she frantically waved her hand about searching for a piece of paper in her purse as she pulled out what looked to be a receipt to a bookstore. "You don't mind, do you?"
"No, not at all. It's always a pleasure to meet a fan." Chloe took the pen and paper out of the woman's offered hands. "So who should I make this out to?"
"To Stephanie, please."
"Alright, Stephanie, here you go. Now you have a nice day." Chloe signed the paper like a pro and handed back to woman within seconds.
"Thank you Ms. Wesley – I mean Mrs. Kiriakis." The woman took the paper and stroll away with out a backward glance.
Lily stared after her for a minute. The woman walked to a tall blonde man dressed in an expensive suit waiting on the street. She didn't know why but for some reason that woman stuck her as being rather strange for a fan. Lily had been around when Chloe gave autographs so she saw a definite range of fans we were bold enough to ask for autographs, some were very shy, some were fumblingly nervous, and some were bold and direct. But, that woman was neither, hers was more of a feigned nervousness and besides that what kind of supposed fan forgot the person's name. It was just plain weird.
Philip, Lucas, Rex and Shawn arrived at the secured location for the archive with the thought that anyone who knew the secrets Victor Kiriakis kept would be a very dangerous enemy to have. For that reason alone, Philip had all the archive's information stored into a place where presumably no one would ever look – The Kiriakis family mausoleum. The idea being that then all of Victor's secrets would be taken to the grave with him.
As he enters the mausoleum the other men followed behind. He headed to the faux doorway, which opened to an undercover office like room. Philip keyed in the codes on the keypad and then accessed the final lock to open the doorway. It was clear that someone had been there.
"What the hell?" Lucas exclaimed looking around the small robe.
"Who is that and when were they taken?" Shawn asked turning around in the room shocked by what he saw.
"It's Mimi and Alexander," Rex answered softly.
"No it's my family." Philip said, as he looked around the room to see photos ... hundreds of black and white enlarged covering the every inch of the wall. Standing in the center he looked at the photos closely recognizing that they were of his wife, children, Mimi and Xander walking down the street, eating, shopping or just plain having a private moment in general. His blood boiled as he thought about someone following his family, watching them.
"Philip," Rex called as stared at a small photo on the desk.
Philip walked over to Rex and saw the photo. It had a knife, which stuck it to the desk. Yanking the knife out of the desk he lifted the photo up and turned it over to see a small red arrow indicating that there was something to be seen on the back. In bold print, it was written: THE PAST ALWAYS COMES BACK TO HAUNT YOU WITH SECRETS AS DANGEROUS AS YOURS. YOU SHOULD ALWAYS KEEP YOUR FAMILY CLOSE TO YOU. I'M WATCHING THEM RIGHT NOW, PHILIP. WHERE ARE YOU? DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR WIFE AND CHILDREN ARE?
"What do you think it means? Shawn asked hoping that it wasn't what he thought it meant.
"I don't know but I'm not staying here to find out. I'm going home, now. I will kill anyone who tries to hurt my family, anyone." He stuck the knife back into the desk with one deadly stabbing motion. He turned and then everyone saw his eyes that glittered dangerously, molten sliver. This Philip Kiriakis was the one you didn't want to cross.