"Did you hear me?" Nina Reeves hissed as she stormed up to Harmony. "I said take your filthy hands off of my daughter if you know what's good for you."
"What are you doing here?" Harmony asked, looking very displeased with Nina's presence.
"I was coming in here for lunch when I saw you manhandling my daughter," Nina snapped, reaching out and shoving Harmony's hands away.
Harmony stepped back, glaring at Nina. "I wasn't manhandling my daughter," she said angrily. "I was trying to talk to her."
"You were trying to force her to stay where she wasn't comfortable," the redhead retorted, maneuvering herself so she was standing protectively in front of Willow. The young woman behind her was cautiously watching them, hoping that neither of them instigated the other into starting a brawl.
"You don't have the right to come between me and my child when I want to talk to her!"
"She's not your child!"
"I raised her!"
"You failed her!"
"What could you possibly know about failing children?" Harmony demanded almost hysterically, taking a step closer to Nina. "You've never been a mother!"
Willow gasped when Nina's hand made contact with Harmony's face, the sound of the slap sharply ringing out in the tense silence of the diner. Patrons gaped in shock and the room came to a standstill as the CEO of Crimson and Dawn of Day's former second-in-command squared off.
"How dare you…" Harmony hissed in anger and indignation once she recovered from the shock of being slapped. One side of her face was bright red and tender from Nina's strike.
"No, how dare you," Nina snapped, moving one step closer to the other woman. The thunderous look on her face made everyone but Harmony and Willow cower.
"My daughters were stolen from me," Nina growled lowly, her fists clenched and her eyes murderously boring into Harmony's. "I never got to hold them, not even once, because my selfish bitch of a mother decided that money was more important than family. She put me into that coma and I lost all of this time with Willow and her twin sister. My little girls needed me and I wasn't there for them because I physically couldn't be! Madeline Reeves never gave me a chance to be a mother because she didn't care enough about her own daughter or grandchildren to let them live happily. If you ever bring that up to me again, I swear on my husband's grave that I will make you suffer more than just a slap." The dangerous, icy tone made Harmony swallow past the lump in her throat that had steadily been building with every word. The brunette took a small step back, seeing with great clarity now why people claimed that Nina never truly lost her crazy eyes upon waking up. The former Dawn of Day second-in-command was looking into them right now and they were terrifying.
Nina actually looked like she could kill her and not feel any remorse. Or, at the very least, seriously injure her.
"Nina," Willow said softly, seeing the fear on her adoptive mother's face. While she didn't want anything to do with Harmony, she didn't want anything to happen to her, either, and that included suffering the wrath of her birth mother. "Come on, let's go. She's not worth it."
Nina softened a little upon hearing Willow's voice and she replied to her daughter without looking away from Harmony, "You're right, honey. She's not worth it. She never has been."
Harmony watched with heartbroken eyes as the women walked out of the diner, Willow leading the way. Every step her daughter took away from her felt like a stab to her heart and she watched the child she loved so much increase the distance between them. Soon Willow would be completely out of her life and she'd be alone.
'No,' she thought desperately. 'No, I can't let that happen.'
"Willow!" Harmony finally called out, her voice cracking with grief as her feet finally started working again, carrying her towards the door that her daughter just exited. When she burst out of the diner, she could see her and Nina—that bitch Nina—talking as they made their way to another restaurant.
"Willow, please!" Harmony shouted, watching them stop and turn towards her, Willow with a wary expression and Nina with an enraged one. "Willow, please, I don't want our relationship to be over. There has to be something I can do to make this better!"
"The only thing you can do better is to disappear!" Nina yelled, stepping towards her as a protective rage overtook her. Willow moved with Nina in case she had to intervene.
"One more step, Nina, and I'm calling the police. Or better yet, the hospital. I'm sure they have a cozy little bed in the psych ward with your name on it."
"Go away, Ava," Nina snapped, turning to glare at the blonde as she approached the trio.
"No, I won't go away. Not when I see you bullying Harmony," Ava replied to which Nina scoffed. The former Jerome Mob Princess turned to Harmony.
"Are you okay?" She asked the brunette, her voice softer than it had been with Nina.
Harmony couldn't speak; her grief was too strong. She nodded because physically, she was fine. Emotionally, however, she was devastated. There was no other way to say it. Her daughter didn't want anything to do with her and her daughter's biological mother was constantly monopolizing her time. She wanted to fix things with Willow so badly, but neither woman would let her. It hurt so, so much.
Ava knew that her not-quite-but-they-were-getting-there friend was undergoing some serious emotional turmoil, but that could wait until they were alone so they could have another discussion. For now, seeing that Harmony was physically unharmed, she turned around to deal with Nina.
"I won't allow you to hurt Harmony any more than you already have. Can't you see that she's suffering, too?" Ava asked.
Nina scoffed again. "Harmony is suffering?" She said incredulously. "Willow's suffered far more because of her. I don't have sympathy for the woman who allowed a psychopath to abuse my daughter just so she could be close to him!"
Willow winced in her peripheral vision and Nina grabbed her daughter's hand, squeezing it in apology for reminding her again of Shiloh.
Ava stared at Nina in disgust. "You're still the same crazy baby snatcher who had no sympathy for anyone, only instead of infants, you've targeted adults. I suppose that's an improvement, but not much of one," she said coldly, crossing her arms across her chest.
Nina returned Ava's poisonous glare with one of her own. "That's rich coming from you," she replied. "Given all of the people you've hurt since you decided that Port Charles was your next stop in your reign of destruction."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Ava snapped.
Nina let a dark smirk lift her lips. "You murdered Connie Falconeri and caused AJ Quartermaine's death because you made Sonny Corinthos think that he killed her," she listed, lifting her hand to count on her fingers. "You made Michael Corinthos hate Sonny and take Avery away from him when he found out what he did to AJ, which also led to his car crash after his brother Morgan drugged him in a misguided attempt to return custody to Sonny. Speaking of Morgan…you had sex with him several times, two of them while he and Kiki were dating, and then you switched his medicine—medicine you knew he needed for his mental health—with placebos because you got it into your head that you had to save Kiki from him…"
"He would have hurt her eventually!" Ava interrupted, fury and guilt building as she was reminded of Morgan. She cared about Morgan, even loved him at one point, and having his parents and siblings blame her for his death was bad enough. She could take that because they were his family, but this bitch pointing it out, too? She drew the line. "You didn't know what he was like when he went manic! He got Kiki shot when he was off his meds and doing something stupid, working for my brother! My daughter almost died because of him!"
"And Morgan died because of you!" Nina shouted, instantly silencing Ava. She watched in satisfaction as Ava recoiled at that. "It didn't matter what you thought would happen! Kiki and Morgan were both adults and if their relationship ended because of his bipolar disorder, that was their business! But you took it into your own hands and because you did, Morgan stopped receiving the help he needed! He stopped improving and he started being reckless again! He stole your brother's car that your deranged sister put a bomb in and it exploded with him nearby! Morgan got killed because of your actions!"
Ava swallowed, her throat dry. She felt tears pricking at the backs of her eyes, but willed them away. She wouldn't cry in front of Nina Reeves. She wouldn't.
"But Morgan isn't the one you did the most damage to, is he?" Nina continued.
Ava's eyes darkened and she growled, "Don't you dare…"
Ignoring her, Nina told her, "The one you did the most damage to is your own daughter. Remember Kiki? Your firstborn, the girl you loved so much? You treated her terribly, didn't you? You lied to her her entire life, first by withholding information about Franco, who was believed to have been her biological father at the time, until it suited you when you could get money for her signature in Tracy Quartermaine and Michael Corinthos' fight over ELQ. What makes that even worse is that you knew the entire time that Silas, my husband at the time, was her father. Then you had sex with Morgan during both of their relationships, the latter all while you were fooling that poor girl into thinking you were dead and watching her grieve while pretending to be the aunt she never had! But none of those times compares to the last time you ever hurt her, does it, Ava?"
"I'm warning you, Nina!"
"The last time you hurt her, you were being a hypocrite! You got angry about her sleeping with Griffin Munro while you two were dating and you were so willing to write her off as some slut who did it on purpose as some kind of revenge scheme for the past when it was just a one-night stand she instantly regretted, not the disgusting affair you had with Morgan where you two just could not keep your hands off of each other! You told her to keep her legs closed and then you wanted to forbid her from going to anything that had to do with Avery! For God's sake, Ava, you even threatened her by saying that if you could do something as terrible as expose your boyfriend and cause his medical license to be suspended, imagine what you could do to your own daughter! Maybe it's a blessing in disguise that she was killed by your psychotic ex-lover; at least now she's resting in peace and won't have to deal with your crap!"
"Shut up, you bitch!" Ava screamed, lunging towards her only to be restrained by Harmony.
Willow grabbed both of her mother's hands and began pulling her away. "We need to go now, Nina," she urged her, an apprehensive look being sent towards Ava, who looked like she could skin Nina alive in that moment.
Nina just glowered at Ava as she allowed her daughter to drag her away, all while Harmony was still holding Ava back.
"You didn't have to do that, Nina," Willow told her mother after they walked out of sight and hearing distance. "I know that you were defending me from Harmony and you and Ava have bad blood, but you can't lose your temper like that and rehash all of the reasons you and Ava hate each other."
"I know," Nina groaned, scrubbing at her face with her hand in an attempt to stave off the headache that being around Harmony and Ava always gave her. "I know. I shouldn't have done it, but seeing Harmony grab you like that made me so furious and I just acted on instinct."
"And what about that…spat…with Ava?"
"Ava pisses me off," Nina replied, lowering her hand and turning to stare at her daughter. "She's always so quick to jump on me for my past actions while ignoring her own. I do realize, though, that as much as I hate Ava, I had no right to steal her child from her, just like my mother had no right to steal mine from me. And bringing up Kiki like that…" Nina winced as she remembered the cruel but truthful words she threw at the blonde woman. "That was nasty."
"So why did you do it?"
"Because Ava had never paid for anything in her life! She causes problems and then she walks around town as if she has any room to talk about anyone's lack of morality!"
Willow sighed and reached out to take her mother's hands into her own. "I understand," she said softly. "Speaking from experience, it's infuriating to see someone who hurt you and have them tell you about your problems when they have no room to talk, but you should have stopped when Ava warned you about her daughter."
Nina sighed and hung her head slightly. She did feel shame for ignoring that warning. "You're right," she murmured, much calmer now than she was only minutes ago. "I hate Ava and I wanted to hurt her in that moment, but using Kiki was uncalled for. Ava does love her children, just like I love you and your sister. I wouldn't want anyone to use either of you as weapons to hurt me." She squeezed Willow's hands. She spent so long without her daughters and even treated her own like she was dirt beneath her shoe before she realized who she was…she had so much to make up for and she didn't want anyone to throw it back into her face like she just threw Kiki back into Ava's.
Willow smiled softly at her and gave her hands a final squeeze before dropping them and telling her, "Come on. I was going to get something for lunch at Kelly's and then that happened. I also thought about going to another restaurant, but now I'm thinking that we can just eat something at Chase's apartment."
Nina perked up. "We?" She asked, unable to keep the hopefulness out of her voice.
Her daughter nodded. "Yes, we," she answered. "I can make some lunch for you, Chase, and I, and we can all sit and eat together."
Nina smiled widely. "Really? I'm not imposing on you?" She asked.
Willow shook her head. "No, of course not."
"Okay…lead the way, then, sweetheart."
Onward to Chase's apartment they went.
