After planting the bug, she decided to walk through the park before heading back to the hotel to listen in and see what she could use to finally drive a wedge between him and his wife. As she walked she spotted Kristen instantly, on the swings, her nanny on a nearby bench. She walked over to her and Kristen stopped swinging and looked up at her. "Hi, Kristen, are you here with your daddy?" She asked knowing full well neither Ned nor Alexis were there.
"I'm here with Aubrey." She said as she pointed to her nanny who noticed Jillian talking to Kristen and got up and started to walk towards them. "Mommy and daddy are working."
"Your mommy leaves you and works a lot, doesn't she?"
"No. Daddy goes away more than mommy." She innocently correcting Jillian. Her memory focused on the recent trip to London and the time he spent away when they lived at the Penthouse.
"Well that will change when your daddy and I are together."
"What will happen to mommy?" She asked, getting upset.
"Excuse me, but who are you?" Aubrey interrupted as she got to the swings and saw how upset Kristen was becoming.
"She works with daddy."
"I don't think Mr. Ashton or Ms. Davis want you approaching their daughter." She said taking Kristen by the hand.
"I was just passing through, no harm done."
"It was nice to see you again Kristen. Have fun at the park." She said as she walked off nonchalantly heading to the hotel to pull up the audio feed from their living room.
"Are you ok?" Aubrey leaned down and asked, "What happened?"
"I want to go home and see mommy." Kristen said to Aubrey, who agreed and assured her that everything was ok and not quite sure what Jillian had said that upset her.
After her meeting with Nikolas and his with his family, Ned and Alexis met at the house and poured over documents, planning a strategy when the door opened and Aubrey and Kristen walked in. "Did you go through the emails you sent during that time period?" She asked as she looked up and saw Kristen enter the room. "Hi sweetheart. Did you have fun at the park?"
"I'm working on that now." He replied and watched as Kristen came in and walked over to Alexis.
Alexis could tell something was bothering her daughter instantly and put down the contract she was reading and reached out and Kristen climbed onto her lap. "Did something happen?" She asked Aubrey as Kristen wrapped her arms around her mother.
"We ran into Jillian Trainor at the park. She said something to her, but she wouldn't tell me what it was. Just insisted I bring her home. I was watching her the entire time, I swear, but by the time I was close enough to intervene she had already upset her."
"This isn't your fault, Aubrey. Thanks for watching her for a few hours this morning. We've got it from here." Ned said as he got up and walked her to the door.
"I'm really sorry I–"
"It's ok, really. We will see you later this week. Thanks again." He said as he walked back into the room and sat across from Alexis and Kristen on the coffee table.
"Can you tell me what happened, baby?"
"Are you leaving mommy? I don't want you to go away." She worried.
"I'm not going anywhere. Why do you think I'm going away?"
"The lady. She said you work a lot mommy and she was going to be with daddy."
Alexis shot Ned a look, and then hid her anger at Jillian from her daughter as she comforted her. "I'm not going anywhere. Jillian is wrong and I'm sorry that she scared you. I could never, ever leave you."
"Because we're a family," she said.
"That's right. Me, you, daddy–"
"And my baby brother."
"Yes, and your baby brother. I love you."
"I love you, too, mommy."
"Krissy, if she tries to talk to you again about this or anything else, I want you to tell us, ok? And you shouldn't go anywhere with her."
At the Port Charles Hotel, Jillian sat with her laptop and clicked into the audio feed after putting on a pair of headphones. She was going to get the upper hand one way or another.
"Ok, daddy. She's not very nice, is she?"
"No, and she's not daddy's friend, so promise us that you will listen to whoever you're with if you see her again."
"I promise."
"Why don't we go outside and walk down to the lake and feed the ducks." Alexis said, trying to get her daughter's mind off of what she was told in the park. "What do you think?"
"Yes!" She said as she hopped off Alexis's lap and ran into the next room towards the backdoor.
Ned reached for Alexis' hand as she stood up, took hold and. squeezed it slightly before exiting the room. "This is going to end. I promise you."
"She told our daughter I was leaving her." She was horrified.
Jillian rolled her eyes at the remark. That was not what happened, but Alexis was a major roadblock that was standing in the way.
"Go continue to reassure Kristen everything is fine. I'll be here."
"We'll talk about this more later." She replied before leaving.
He stayed in the living room and continued to search email chains and press releases, while Alexis spent the next hour or so with Kristen. After lunch, Kristen fell asleep watching a movie upstairs and they both settled back into research and preparing to prove that Trainor Industries, and Jillian violated the law and at the very least should have her visa revoked and be sent back to London.
"I don't see anything that violates current regulations on ELQ's part. Did you turn up anything in the emails?"
"Nothing that reveals strategy, except for a string of emails between some upper level executives. It's possible that someone leaked them to my mother, who in turn sent it to Jillian, but I need our tech department to do some back channeling."
"Well, nothing implicates you and that's all that matters. I called in a favor and I'd say we have 24 hours 48 at best before the SEC descends upon us, but the focus is Trainor, just don't speak to anyone without me. The ELQ attorney is going to protect the company, let me protect you."
"Will they care about the sale to Conley Group? Everything was straightforward, but this can't look good for us."
"Conley Group?" She questioned "Wait–" The name was familiar.
"What, what is it?" He inquired as she pulled out a stack of contracts from her briefcase and started scanning.
"Yes, right here. Here it is." She passed him the contract and he looked at her puzzled. "I can't believe this."
"What am I looking at?" He asked as he read through the list of companies in the document.
"These are papers that transfer control of the Cassadine estate to Nikolas. Look, here, Conley Group is mentioned in a list of Cassadine interests. I don't know why it didn't register when you told me about the sale but it's a shell company Stefan liked to use when he would conceal Cassadine Industries in a buyout."
Listening from her hotel room, Jillian ripped the headphones off her head in frustration and threw them across the room. Cassadine. How did she not realize his wife was a Cassadine? She got up and grabbed her purse and flew out of the hotel room towards the pier. The Cassadine's owned Wyndemere on Spoon Island. She was going to face the people who were manipulating her fate and standing in the way of her achieving any forward progress with Ned.
"So are you telling me that Stefan bought out Trainer Industries?"
"It appears that way."
"But why? What motivation would he have?"
"Unless…no it's ridiculous, there's no way it could be…forget I said anything." She said as she got up and walked over and looked at the picture of Kristen on the mantle. Then, she spotted their wedding photo, suddenly back on the shelf where it had disappeared from weeks ago. Her train of thought was interrupted as he questioned her.
He watched her, she was piecing things together and her hesitation to share worried him. "No way it could be who? Who do you think bought out Trainer Industries?"
She turned to face him, knowing she needed to tell him. "Helena." She stated simply, cautious of his reaction.
"No." At first he didn't want to accept that this was a possibility. "Alexis…" He gave her a look that urged her to continue.
She inhaled and then told him. "She's back in Port Charles. I saw her at Wyndemere."
"And you said nothing?" He tried to stay calm, not let his own fear for her safety get the best of him as he got up from the sofa and walked towards her.
"It didn't really seem important in the grand scheme of everything else that has been going on." She said pointedly.
"That's an excuse and you know it." He briefly let his frustration show.
"I'm ok." She reassured him. They stood there in silence and he took her hand before she spoke again. "Can we please not dwell on the danger she poses and focus on what we're doing here? Especially after what happened today." She asked desperately to avoid fighting about her safety. Helena wasn't the only threat.
"So you think she bought Trainer Industries, for what purpose?"
"If she thought Jillian could be useful, then absolutely. She may have used what limited reach she has over the Cassadine holdings to acquire that company."
"You're going to have to connect more dots than that. How would she even know about Jillian or anything that's happening with us right now?"
"The day I left, after Kristen was kidnapped. I went to Wyndemere to see Stefan. She was lurking in the tunnels before she made her presence known."
"I really wish you told me about this. Whether she is connected to the sale or not, I just want to keep you and our family safe."
"I know. And that's what I'm trying to do as well." She replied as he reached out and pulled her close.
Jillian finally arrived at the pier and boarded the launch to Wyndemere. Stefan Cassadine had taken over her company and he needed to know she wasn't going to take it lying down. The more she processed this new information, she questioned it. She wanted to know why. Why would the Cassadines have any interest in Trainer Industries all of a sudden, especially with their existing international reach. The launch docked and she walked up to the large double doors and banged loudly.
Mrs. Landsberry answered, "Can I help you?"
"I need to see Stefan Cassadine."
"I'm sorry but is he expecting you?"
"He should be after what he pulled." Jillian said as she pushed past Mrs. Landsberry and stood in the foyer.
Suddenly Helena appeared from the hall, "Well, well, Ms. Trainor, I knew we'd be seeing you eventually."
Jillian was taken off guard by how someone could be so elegant and eerie at the same time. "And you are?"
"Your last chance to get what, or would that be who you want." Helena said.