Pacing back and forth, Phyllis knew that Nick was watching her every move, that he was worried she would break.
"We don't have to do this today," Nick suggested. "The last few days have been … a lot … it's perfectly understandable if you need a few days to collect your thoughts."
"A few days is not going to change anything," Phyllis sighed as she stopped her pacing and leaned her hands on the bar, her back turned to him.
Nick knew she was right, that no matter how much time passed telling Summer what had happened was never going to be easy, he knew how much their daughter idolized her grandfather, how much she loved her mother and how hard it would be for to hear what had happened, but together, they had decided that she needed to hear it from them, that it would be whole lot worse if she heard it second hand.
"Phyllis," Nick breathed, the single word hanging heavily in the air as he watched her shoulders tremble, a sure sign that she was already struggling to hold it together and Summer was not even here yet.
Moving around to the other side of the bar he lifted a bottle of brandy from the shelf. "This might help calm your nerves a little."
Incredulously, she lifted her eyes to look at him. "It's not even 10."
"It's for medicinal purposes," he shrugged.
Lifting her body onto one of the bar stools she shook her head. "No. I need a clear head … after we have told Summer I have to go to the station and file a report … it will not appear great if I go there smelling of booze."
"Ok," Nick agreed, wishing there was something he could do to make this better for her, to take away the pain that she was feeling right now, pain that his father had caused.
He had never hated the man who had raised him more than he did right now, the very thought of the devastation he had unleashed into Phyllis and Jack's lives was eating away at him.
Last night he had not been able to sleep, his mind in overdrive as every time he closed his eyes, all he could see was her broken, pained face. Sage had asked him what was wrong, he had shrugged off her concerns and spent the rest of the night downstairs, alone.
His feelings for Phyllis ran deep, he loved her, he always would even though he was not in love with her anymore, so much of his past was entwined with her that she would never not be a part of his life, they shared a daughter together, a daughter that was about to find out that the man she looked up to perhaps more than anyone else was worse than all of the monsters she had feared as a child.
"What's the big emergency?" Summer asked, untying her scarf and leaning against the bar, her eyes flickering between her parents as she immediately picked up on the tension between them.
"Maybe we should sit down," Nick suggested.
Summer's eyes widened in alarm. "Oh no … please don't tell me that you two are …"
"No, no," Nick reassured his daughter. "Your mother and I are just friends, there's just something we need to tell you, something … hard and we thought it would be best if we did it together."
"Strength in numbers," Summer joked following her father over to one of the more comfortable leather booths.
"Something like that," Nick hedged as he took her coat from her and hung it over the back of the chair. "Can I get you anything? Coffee? Water?"
Summer's eyes wandered over to the bar where her mother still sat, as she realized that she had not yet said a word, almost as if she was unaware of her presence as she remained seated with her back to them, her posture tense and controlled.
"Coffee, please," Summer nodded, knowing her father as well she did, she realized that he was playing for time.
The next few moments passed in a nervous silence as Nick busied himself with making the coffees, placing the 3 cups on a tray as his eyes glanced nervously towards Phyllis.
"What's going on?" Summer worried, lowering her voice as she looked over towards her mother.
Nick smiled tiredly, placing a reassuring hand on his daughter's shoulder before he made his way back to the bar. "Phyllis," he gently coaxed, his hatred for his own father growing every time he looked into her broken eyes. "Summer is here, she's … waiting for us."
"I know," Phyllis breathed, her eyes still fixed firmly in front of her.
"Mom?" Summer's voice was awash with panic as it finally seemed to break through the haze within her. "Mom, please talk to me, has something happened … are you sick … Luka said he saw you at the hospital the other day, I didn't say anything because … well I don't know but if something is wrong then … you can tell me," she pleaded, her blue eyes wide and desperate, and in that moment, Nick was reminded just how young she was.
Phyllis's breath caught in her throat as she finally turned around, green eyes locking with blue as she once again wished she didn't have to do this, that she could protect her daughter from ever having to know what had happened, but she knew she couldn't, she knew that the minute she went to the GCPD that it would be front page news.
Something like this didn't happen every day, the media would be all over it, especially when it was revealed who the main players were. The battles between her husband and ex father-in-law were legendary.
"I'm not sick," Phyllis reassured her daughter, finally finding her voice.
"Good, that's good," Summer breathed, relieved that nothing was wrong, physically at least. "But the hospital …"
Phyllis bit her bottom lip as she slowly stood up, willing the room to stop spinning around her. "I will explain, I promise, but first you father is right, there's something we need to tell you, something that might be hard for you to hear, but you deserve to hear it from us, from me."
"Are you and Jack getting a divorce?" Summer wondered, trying to keep her voice free of any accusation.
"Summer, maybe you should let your mother explain everything before you start interrogating her," Nick suggested, his voice softer than his words might suggest.
Nodding, she watched as her parents sat down opposite her. "Sorry."
"It's ok," Phyllis reassured her daughter, reaching out and resting her hand on top of hers.
"Mom, you're scaring me," Summer whispered, obviously having not heeded her father's suggestion.
Phyllis could feel the panic starting to overwhelm her, she couldn't do this, her daughter didn't deserve this, she didn't deserve to have her whole world implode once again. "I can't … I …"
Standing up she grabbed her coat and headed for the door with Nick hot on her heels, it took him just seconds to catch up with her as she scrambled for her keys.
"Phyllis," he carefully approached her, watching as she leaned heavily against her car.
Phyllis looked up at him, her eyes bright with unshed tears. "Summer, she doesn't deserve this, she has been through so much already, when we tell her it's going to change everything."
"She's going to find out soon anyway, even if we don't tell her, this isn't going to remain quiet forever," Nick reminded her, his eyes soft and caring as he watched her push herself into a standing position.
"Only if I go to the GCPD, if I don't then …"
Nick could see what she was thinking and as much as he wanted to make this easier for her, he knew there was no way he could. "You can't let him get away with this."
"He's your father Nick, Summer's grandfather," Phyllis worried.
"He didn't care about any of that when he did what he did, if he had then he would not have put you in danger like he did, he would not have hurt you the way he has, hurt Jack," Nick fumed, the anger he was feeling evident in every word.
Phyllis looked down at the ground. "Maybe this isn't the way."
"It's the only way," Nick countered.
"Is it?" Phyllis wondered.
Nick was silent for a few seconds as he considered her words, he knew that going public with everything that had happened would be hard, that there would be days she would regret her choices, but he also knew that it was the only way she could ever truly begin to move on.
"Phyllis," he exhaled, reaching out and wiping at her tears. "I have no idea how hard all of this must be right now, how hard it has been, keeping everything inside … how getting through every day must be … unimaginable right now … but what he did … the pain he has caused … that is never going to go away … but you can take back control of your life, he deserves to pay."
"Who deserves to pay?" Summer asked, coming up behind her parents, her eyes fixed firmly on her mother's pale face as she watched her wipe tiredly at her eyes.
Ever since Summer was a little girl her mother had always been one of the strongest people she knew, she knew she was not perfect, far from it, but she was perfect in little Summer's eyes. She was the hero in every fairytale that would always slay the dragon, the princess in the castle that could overcome anything.
But now, as she looked at her mother; pale, shaking and barely holding it together she knew that something big must have happened, something that had changed her in ways she couldn't even begin to imagine.
"Mom," she breathed, her own voice thick with tears. "Someone hurt you, didn't they?"
"We should go inside," Nick suggested, knowing this was not a conversation that they should be having in the middle of a parking lot.
"Ok," Phyllis agreed as she allowed Nick to gently lead her back into the bar, sitting down at the table she cradled her now warm cup of coffee between her hands.
Summer was the first to speak. "Mom, who hurt you?"
Licking her lips, Phyllis looked up at her daughter. "Sweetheart, you have no idea how much I wish I could protect you from all of this."
"I'm stronger than you think I am," Summer tried to reassure her parents.
"Darling, I know how strong you are, how strong you have had to be, but it's my job to protect you, not cause you more pain," Phyllis tried to explain.
Nick could hear the guilt in her voice, and he felt sick to his stomach that she was blaming herself, not when there was only one person to blame for all of this. "None of this is your fault," he told her.
"Dad is right," Summer agreed. "Mom, if someone hurts you, that is not your fault."
"I should have known," Phyllis whispered.
"Should have known what?" Summer wondered, trying to put together the small pieces of the puzzle she was getting.
Taking a long deep breath, she readied herself for the inevitable. "I should have known that it wasn't Jack. That he was …"
"I don't understand," Summer said, looking to her father for clarification.
Wordlessly, Nick looked to Phyllis for permission to continue, off of her gentle nod he turned his attention back towards his daughter. "Summer, you know that things have been … strange around here for a while, that people have not been acting themselves."
"People like Jack?" Summer wondered, reading between the lines.
Nick nodded, suddenly realizing why it had been so hard for Phyllis and Billy to tell him the truth, how do you explain a situation so absurd, how do you put the unthinkable into words. "When your mother and Jack were on their honeymoon, something happened, something unimaginable and it took a long time for the truth to come out but when it did …"
"It wasn't Jack that came back with me Sweetheart, I didn't know it then but on my wedding night Jack was kidnapped and …"
"The man that came back was a stranger, someone that none of us knew. He looked like Jack, he even sounded like him, but he wasn't Jack," Nick continued, grateful that even after all of these years and the time and space apart that they could still work together as a team, especially when it came to their daughter.
"The Jack we know, the Jack we love was gone … he was being held hostage somewhere so that this … other man could take control of his life, his company and put into motion things that my Jack never would have done," Phyllis tried to explain.
Summer looked between her parents, her eyes wide with disbelief as she tried to comprehend what it was they were saying. "How could something like this happen? I mean how does someone with Jack's face just wake up one day and decide …"
"Because someone was pulling his strings, Marco Anicelli … that was his name, he was a criminal, he was serving time in a Peruvian prison when someone tracked him down and brought him here, planted him in our lives, in your mother's life," Nick stopped himself from going any further, he could see that Summer was already putting the pieces together, she didn't need him to spell it out for her.
Summer frowned. "I saw the pictures of Marco; he didn't look like Jack."
"You saw what someone wanted you to see Sweetheart," Nick informed her.
"Who?" Summer demanded to know. "Who did this? Who would do such a horrible twisted thing," she cried, looking up towards the ceiling the pain in her own mother's eyes so raw that it was physically impossible to look at her right now, not when she was still trying to wrap her head around everything she had just heard, something that she was not sure would ever really be possible.
When neither of her parents made a move to answer her, Summer searched out her father, his eyes had always given so much away. "No," she cried, realization hitting her.
Nick reached out towards her. "SuperGirl."
"No," she repeated. "He would never do that."
"Summer. I am so, so sorry," Phyllis cried, hating that in a way she felt responsible for putting her daughter through this, if she had just been able to move on, to put it all behind her and pretend it had never happened then no one would have ever needed to know.
Without her saying a word Nick could immediately sense what she was thinking, Phyllis was a force of nature, she made mistakes and was often unapologetic for them, she owned them, but this was different, this time she was blaming herself for something she had no control over, because of what it was doing to the people around her.
"Phyllis, no," Nick gently tried, needing her to know that she was not to blame for Summer's pain.
Turning his attention back to his daughter he squeezed her hand. "Summer, I know this is hard to understand, I have known just a little longer than you and I am still struggling to understand how he could do this to your mother, to Jack."
"Mom," Summer cried. "What happened to you … that was ..." she couldn't bring herself to say the word, not when it was linked to her own mother. "Is that why you were at the hospital?" she asked, putting the pieces together a lot quicker than Phyllis had expected her too.
Nick's head whipped around, he had not even considered the physical consequences of what had happened, not until now. "Phyllis?"
"Yes," she admitted, her voice nothing more than a whisper. "But I am ok, he didn't hurt me, at least not in that way, I just had to make sure …"
"Mom. Granddad he would never …"
Nick could see that she was trying to think of a plausible excuse, that there must be something else at play here, something that none of them had considered and he could understand why, he could understand that reconciling the man she had loved her whole life with the same man that had put her mother through something so unimaginable was a hard pill to swallow.
For so long Victor's family had forgiven him for his multitude of crimes, for playing God with their lives, no matter the cost, but not this time, this time he had not just crossed the invisible line but he had demolished it.
"Mom, Dad, please …"
"I am so sorry Summer, I know how much you love your grandfather but there's no excuse for his actions, not this time," Nick softly declared. "Look at her," he added, gently guiding her gaze towards the woman in question. "Your grandfather did that and I am going to make sure he pays, he's not getting away with it, not this time."