Chapter 10
|Harbor View Towers, Penthouse 2|
"Maximista?" Spinelli asked timidly, pulling himself up from the couch and slumping beside her.
She'd abandoned her friend the very second she realized he was just trying to distract her from hearing Jason and Elizabeth's conversation; sitting down on the couch and glaring expectantly at her best friend. And she'd remained exceptionally quiet as he'd patiently filled in the blanks, forcing her to swear on all things sacred between them that this conversation would never leave the penthouse.
Maxie was never this quiet.
"Please, forgive me for forsaking our trust, but this was the deepest of secrets to Stone Cold and-"
"I'm trying to process it all," she sighed softly, leaning back against the couch cushions. Her arms were folded over her chest, shoulders drawn tightly inward, and she appeared completely defeated.
"It wasn't that the Jackal didn't want to share everything with his Fair Maximista, but Stone Cold confided in me in ways that he did no one else. I had no choice but to honor that."
"I get that you lied because your friend asked you to," she said, shifting her eyes to his. "I just – Everyone thinks Jason is so noble and honest, so damn trustworthy, and this entire time-"
"Stone Cold is only attempting to protect the people he loves more than his own life. If he could control the danger, the fierce attempts that would be made on the innocent ones and his lady love's lives, then they would live together in marital and nuclear family bliss, but-"
"But he's protecting them," she grimaced, her lips curling in disgust. "I can't believe him."
"Oh, Maximista, he's doing what he believes is best-"
"He has a child," she interrupted, shaking her head as if nothing else mattered. "And he won't be a part of that child's life because he thinks it's not safe."
"You seem to get the gist of the Jackal's-"
"What if Lucky decides he doesn't want to play Daddy to Elizabeth's kids anymore?" she interrupted angrily. "What if something happens and Jake needs a blood transfusion or he catches some bizarre Quartermaine disease? What happens then?"
"Those are heightened situations of intense circumstances, and the Jackal believes that Fair Elizabeth and Stone Cold have weighed their options. They've examined the situation and agreed this was best. I suppose that while they were protecting Jake, it was more difficult to stay away from one another, to pretend as if they didn't share the kind of love that-"
"This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard," she interrupted, straightening up and glaring at Spinelli. "How can you support what they're doing? You're Jason's best friend. You have a brain – one that functions and isn't damaged and usually sees things for what they really are. How can you honestly look at what they are doing to that poor kid and think it's okay?"
"It's the only way to ensure that Stone Cold's progeny grows up safe from the darkness that invades his life."
"No," she corrected, getting up from the couch and putting her hands on her hips. "It's a way for Jason to cowardly avoid-"
"You know what happened to the former owner of the organization and his son – how their lives have been ripped apart and-"
"Jason isn't Sonny. He doesn't think with a hot head and do stupid things like slam exceptionally smart people into walls," she interrupted, frowning at him. "How can you honestly support this? One day Jake is going to learn the truth. Lucky will stop wanting to be Daddy. And patron saint Elizabeth will have to fall off the damn pedestal that everyone put her on."
He just looked at her, confused as to why she felt so deeply about people that she didn't even like. "Maximista, I-"
"Don't defend him," she warned, her eyes hardening as they filled with tears. She turned away and took a deep breath. "You can't honestly say that you support this, that this is good for everyone, Spinelli."
"Stone Cold is my best friend. I have to support his choices, Maximista. It's nothing I wouldn't do for you either."
"This is different," she argued, spinning around on her heels. "How can you – you just – you have no idea what it's like, Spinelli. How can you look at me – me of all people – and tell me it's okay to have your parents abandon you because it's safer?"
He clenched his hands into fists, holding them tightly at his sides, and knew she was right. There was no way for him to explain this from Jason's viewpoint, not when her own parents had abandoned her for their careers, for lives that she didn't fit into.
"My own father couldn't come to my sister's funeral because he was working, and my mother could barely take the time to stay. And to find out that she had been with him, Spinelli?" she muttered, sinking down on the couch arm and leaning forward. "I don't know what's worse; to have my parents completely abandon Georgie and meI or to know that they get to have a life together."
"Whatever, if you want to support Jason in this that's fine," she continued, getting up to grab her purse from the floor. "I'm sorry I got you into this whole mess by bugging him and insisting we find out who he was sleeping with. If I would have had any idea he was sneaking off for nookie breaks with this baby's mama instead of actually stepping up and being a father, I would have never bothered. This is far more information than I'd like to be privy to, Spinelli."
"You don't have to go, Maximista," he said, getting up from the couch and following her to the door. "Please don't be upset with the Jackal for-"
"You're doing what you always do," she interrupted seriously, shrugging half-heartedly as she opened the door and turned around. "You're protecting Jason, which is fine. I get it, but I can't – I don't want to know anymore about it. If Jason wants to play deadbeat daddy of the year, fine, but I don't want to be a part of it."
"It's more complicated than that-"
"Of course it is," she interrupted, slinging her purse over her shoulder and starting for the elevator. "But it sounds to me like Jason and Elizabeth are doing what's best for them. He's too afraid to be a father, to have a child hurt on his watch, and Elizabeth is too afraid to get involved in his world. Well, they should have thought about that before they rolled between the sheets because, as everyone knows, there are consequences, and I'm not just talking about the kind you make up for attention like I would dome."
Taking a deep breath, she punched the elevator button and looked over at her friend. "And I know this sounds completely ridiculous, but I almost feel bad for Elizabeth. Sure, she lied to Lucky and she's done her fair share of screwing people over and being a complete bitch in the process, but she just sounds desperate to hold onto Jason in some way, and if she's not careful she'll end up just like my mother. Tossing her entire life to the side, which she's already started by having this stupid secret affair of theirs, in favor of having Jason – as much or as little as he'll give her."
"Stone Cold would never allow Elizabeth to give up her children to be with him. He loves them-"
"Loves them or her? Because from the way it looks he's spending time with her and not his kid, Spinelli," she interrupted, tapping her foot impatiently as she waited for the elevator. "And don't you even start crying danger, danger on me because my head will completely explode. Sure, Jason may love his kid, but how much? And is it fair of him to ask Elizabeth to be completely miserable? I just don't – Oh, well, look who it is."
She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Jason as he stepped off the elevator, his eyes red-rimmed and jaw pulled tight. "I can come back," he muttered, looking between the two of them.
"It's fine," she shrugged, forcing a smile at Spinelli. "I was just leaving, and before I do, I guess I should confess my loooong list of sins so you don't hurt him."
"Maximista, let the Jackal explain to Stone Cold-"
"We've been following you," she interrupted, glaring at Jason as she held out her hand and started to tick things off on her fingers. "Stalking actually, you know spying in bushes, listening in on phone calls, and tonight I put a bug on you. And before you start holding your breath and sputtering that you want me to go away, I'd like to finish."
"This whole thing started because you were being all secretive and stupid in that manly way that the male species gets when they think they are pulling the wool over everyone's eyes, only you're not very good at it. So, Spinelli and I deliberated, and we decided you were most definitely dipping your noodle in somewhere."
"Excuse me?" he growled, narrowing his eyes at her.
Spinelli started to panic, knowing this was not going to end well for anyone.
"I thought Sam, but Spinelli insisted it wasn't, so we played spies and tracked you down, and I never in a million years imagined you were hiding a lady and a baby, Jason," she hissed, mirroring his hard stare. "I thought it was some frivolous affair with maybe even Claudia Zacchara only to find out tonight, when I bugged you – yeah, I put a bug on you at the bar, but Spinelli figured out who you were meeting and why, and he tried to stop it, but we still heard everything."
"What the fuck," he spat through gritted teeth. Spinelli winced at the pulsing vein that was bulging out of his friend's neck, and he just knew that Jason was going to kill them both and throw them in the harbor. "This isn't some fucking game, Maxie."
"If I were you I'd watch my tone," she warned, putting her hands on her hips. "Because, lucky for you, I don't want any part of this. If I would have known you were hiding Elizabeth and your son, I would have never started this. I don't want to know that you of all people – the one person who is so damn noble and honest and trustworthy - is the least of all those things. And I hate that my best friend looks up to you when you're lying and sneaking around and hurting people that you supposedly care about."
"Maxie, you don't know what you're talking about," Jason snapped, clenching his fists tightly at his sides. His eyes flashed to Spinelli. "This is why she's not allowed in my penthouse. Ever. Or else." His gaze shifted back to Maxie. "And if you plan on telling anyone, if you can't keep your mouth shut as Spinelli's friend-"
"I'm not going to tell anyone," she interrupted, waving her hand at him. "Besides it sounds like everyone in town already knows, which leaves me to wonder what happens when someone slips up. Because like I told Spinelli, one day Lucky will not want to play Daddy and live in your shadowoulder or Ms. Goody Goody is going to go all noble and tell her son the truth – or worse, Jake is going to grow up and realize that his parents lied to him his entire life. That everything he knows is fake and they didn't even care-"
"We're doing this because we care," Jason insisted, shaking his head at her. "You need to leave."
"Oh, I'm leaving, and I won't be back," she replied smugly, hitting the elevator button. "I just hope that when Jake is twenty-two years old, and he learns that his parents had some secret relationship without him, and that his daddy was strong enough to run an entire town, but too pathetic to be a father – I hope that he can forgive you and he doesn't turn into some attention starved brat who wants nothing more than to be loved – honestly loved by someone. Because if he doesn't, you're going to have a hell of a time on your hands, Jason Morgan."
"Well," she sighed, brushing her bangs from her face as the elevator doors opened, "I have to go. Spinelli you know where to find me if you want or need to talk to me, and if you feel obligatedion to stay and look after your friend, I understand. I just hope you realize that not everything Jason says or does is golden, and I would hope that you'd never do something like this to me if we were put in the same position."
She stepped onto the elevator and hit the button for the parking garage, and flashed a grin as the doors closed. "Night, Spinelli. See you never again, asshole!"
He was torn between following after onehis best friend and staying with his other, not sure which needed him most, and it was going to be impossible to simply sit this one out. "Stone Cold, if I may have the floor to explain-"
"You told the one person with a mouth as big as Carly's," he cried, storming into the penthouse. He shrugged off his jacket and slammed it down on the desk along with his gun. "I can at least trust that Carly won't say anything, but Maxie? Spinelli, what the hell were you thinking? And how in the fuck could you follow me? Listen in my on my conversations? Bug me? Do you realize what kind of-"
"Stone Cold, Maximista isn't going to tell anyone. She's too heartbroken over how close to home this is and-"
"I don't care. You broke my trust, Spinelli. You took the one thing I trusted you with and you told…" He trailed off and threw up his hands as he stalked towards the kitchen. "I don't even care anymore."
Sighing, Spinelli reluctantly followed after him, hoping that when Jason had downed the beer that he was surely going after, they could talk this through. "She thought it was something silly and fun," he murmured, pausing in the doorway to the kitchen. "I was afraid you'd fallen beneath the spell of Vixenella. Had I known you were secretly seeing Fair Elizabeth, I would have never allowed Maximista-"
"You shouldn't have allowed her to do this in the first place," he hissed, slamming the fridge shut and opening his beer.
"The Jackal is deeply apologetic, and he wishes he would have controlled Maximista's hold on him."
"Exactly," he muttered, taking a swig from the bottle and setting it down on the counter. "She gets you to do things you wouldn't normally do, and it gets you into trouble." He glanced at Spinelli over his shoulder and shook his head. "You're the one person I can count on and trust, Spinelli. This secret is everything. It protects Elizabeth and Jake and if she tells…"
"She won't."
"How can you be so sure?" he insisted, snatching his beer from the counter. "Maxie does what she wants."
"Because – because her parental units left her with the overprotective uncle to keep her from harm's way and they had an entire life of their own together," Spinelli answered honestly, wondering if maybe Maxie was onto something. "Maximista may not have the best of feelings for Elizabeth or you, but she feels things deeper than most people see. And this – what her parental units did broke her heart, and all she could talk about was how one day it would break Jake's. And I think, if the Jackal may be so honest, that you're wearing thin, you and Fair Elizabeth, because Maximista may actually be onto something. So many are already privy to knowledge that should have remained between you and your beloved, and it is only a matter of time before…"
Jason's face softened for a moment as if Spinelli's words were actually sinking in, and he turned around and busted the beer bottle in the sink before storming past his friend, muttering something about going for a bike ride. He lingered in the penthouse long enough to threaten Maxie and Spinelli's lives before slamming the door hard behind him.
Sighing, Spinelli retreated to the living room to clean up the mess from the computer, hoping that Jason was more upset about being wrong than being right, and that, just maybe, something good would actually come from this.