Chapter 41 – Keeping Up with the Cassadines

Author's note: Due to issues with the way the formatting is modified when uploading the document, there are some graphics in this chapter that, while they display correctly in original Microsoft Word document, do not display correctly on here, and might be a bit difficult to make sense of as everything is all jumbled together. I can't say too much about what the problem is without giving away spoilers for the chapter, but you'll probably notice it once you get to the part of the chapter where it is. I have tried several times to fix it but have had no luck. I hope it isn't too difficult to read, and if anybody knows how to fix it so it displays correctly, please let me know (I'm still getting used to how everything works here). That being said, I hope you enjoy the chapter.


Esme threw up during the boat ride back to Wyndemere. She had a feeling it was due to the anxiety she felt after having been accosted by Nikolas. She hadn't expected him to be paroled, and while she wasn't afraid of him, she nonetheless was dreading the thought of him trying to get custody of Ace, unless he wasn't his father. If Nikolas wasn't the father, Spencer was. But now Spencer was declared dead, which meant that if Spencer was Ace's father, Ace would never know him, just like Spencer had never known his mother Courtney. She dreaded the thought of Ace having the same troubled childhood that Spencer had, with him only having one living parent who was absent for a good portion of his childhood, and who wasn't an especially positive influence.

She hoped she could be a good enough mother so that Ace wouldn't have anything to resent her for, but she had no parental figures who were good influences. Her adoptive parents were abusive, her biological father was a serial killer who took advantage of her, and she had longed to know who her mother was, but didn't meet her until after she lost her memory, and despite Heather's pleading to let her get to know her grandson, Esme was determined to keep him away from her. She was also worried that she wouldn't be a good influence due to the many horrible things she did, and even though she regretted them now that she had her memory back, she didn't entirely trust herself to make better choices this time around. While she was grateful to have Nelle's support, she longed to one day be able to stand on her own two feet. At the same time, she knew that at some point she was going to have to fess up to the reasons for why she framed Trina for revenge porn, and would likely have to do some jail time, which would mean having to leave Ace in Nelle's care, and trust that Nelle would be a good influence and keep him safe.

*Esme walks in through the front doors and immediately goes upstairs to her bathroom to brush her teeth. She then goes back down to the living room, where Nelle and Ace are playing*

Nelle: Hi Esme, are you okay?

Esme (sobbing): Do I look okay?

Nelle: What happened?

Esme: I threw up on the launch. I needed to brush my teeth.

Nelle: And I'm guessing that it wasn't seasickness?

Esme: No.

Nelle: Did Richard…?

Esme: I haven't seen Richard in days. Hopefully I never see him again. But I did see Nikolas. He's been paroled!

*While Nelle would normally be happy to hear that someone who was supposed to be incarcerated for a lengthy period of time had managed to get paroled, as she herself had done, she was hoping that Nikolas would remain behind bars at least until Ace was 18*

Nelle: No!

Esme: Yes. He tried to follow me onto the launch! I'm glad that you told the pilot that I could decide who comes with me on board.

Nelle: Yes. And I've also sealed off the entrance to the catacombs on Spoon Island. And now that Nikolas is out of prison, I'm going to instruct the launch pilots that Nikolas is not allowed on board unless he's been invited here.

Esme: Thank you Nelle. But what if he tries to sue for custody?

Nelle: The most he can hope for is supervised visitation.

Esme: Oh great, that's all I need. I already have my hands full with being a mom, being a student, even though I'm only taking the one class, and I seem to be being asked by the Quartermaines to babysit more and more often. Today Michael actually called me while I was on my way to PCU and asked me to babysit because Willow suddenly decided to go to the movies with a friend-

*Esme notices Nelle's reaction as she's saying this*

Esme: What?

Nelle: Nothing. I've just noticed that Willow seems to be increasingly less committed to her family. Though I'm not surprised as those Quartermaines really are a toxic bunch. I hope that if she ever decides to leave Michael, who likewise seems like he'd rather work than spend time with his kids, she'll take the kids with her and come here.

Esme: I hope so too, as they are good kids.

Nelle: They are. Anyways, we're talking about you.

Esme: Yeah. I would not want to be obligated to have to set aside time so that I can supervise Nikolas with Ace.

Nelle: You wouldn't necessarily have to do that as the court usually appoints someone else to supervise the visitation. In fact, I might be able to do that. And that way, you can focus on your assignments.

Esme: Maybe, but honestly, I wouldn't trust Nikolas to not try to somehow take Ace and run off.

*Nelle is reminded of her own multiple attempts to kidnap Wiley, none of which were successful*

Nelle: Well, he wouldn't be able to get very far. But let's not even go there right now. I think it's time you had a look at the results of that DNA test you ran several weeks ago.

Esme: *Sigh* I was dreading this. If Nikolas is the father then I'm going to have to put up with him attempting to see Ace, and if he's not the father…

*She finds herself tearing up*

Esme: It means that Ace's father is dead!

Nelle: I know, it sucks. But the longer you put this off, the more anxious you'll be.

Esme: You're right.

*She takes a deep breath*

Esme: Do you have a letter opener?

Nelle: It's in the office upstairs. I'll go get it.

Esme: Okay.

*Nelle goes upstairs to get the letter opener. Esme looks at Ace's cute face. He would be one year old in less than a week. She had seen plenty of Spencer at that age, and was trying to determine whether he looked at all like Spencer. She had seen a few pictures of Spencer's mother, Courtney Matthews, but she thought Spencer looked much more like Nikolas. Thinking about Spencer brought tears to her eyes. She picks Ace up and holds him close*

Esme: I'm sorry I'm crying Ace. Mommy is very sad right now.

*Nelle comes back with the letter opener*

Nelle: Ready?

Esme: No, but I know it has to be done.

*She puts Ace back down, then starts searching through her purse*

Nelle: What are you doing?

Esme: Looking for the envelope with the results.

Nelle: Wait, you never took them out of your purse?

Esme: I don't think so. Unless…

*She looks in her backpack. She didn't think it was likely that they'd be in there, as she had yet to sign up for her classes when she had gotten the test, and sure enough, the only things that were in there were her textbook for her psychology class, her laptop, and some pencils*

Esme: They're not in here!

Nelle: Is there anywhere else they might be?

Esme: I may have put them in the drawer in my nightstand.

Nelle: Alright, well let's go check in there.

Esme: Can you please carry Ace up with you? I don't want to leave him unsupervised.

Nelle: Of course.

*Nelle hands the letter opener to Esme, then picks Ace back up and accompanies Esme as they head upstairs to Esme's room. Nelle sets Ace down in his playpen in the room across the hall from Esme's bedroom. Esme opens the drawer in the nightstand. It was mostly empty save for her passport, a few Euro coins, an old diary from before she lost her memory, some pens, and a spare phone charger*

Esme: It's not in here!

*She goes to the walk-in closet, where she kept her various dresses and coats, as well as several shoeboxes, most of which contained expensive Cartullo heels (and even though she had her memory back, she no longer felt the desire get a new pair every year), but one box contained, among other things, letters from her father and her old nanny Maggie, as well as the pills which she used to drug Trina. She wondered, since most of the items in here were important things that she knew she had to keep but avoided looking at due to the unpleasant memories she now associated with them, that perhaps she put the results of the DNA test in here. She looks, but can't find them*

Esme: It's not in here either!

*She puts the box away in the closet, and sits down on the bed*

Esme: I'm pretty sure I kept them in my purse! I couldn't bring myself to look at them.

*She looks through her purse again, but can't find them*

Esme: Right when I finally decide to read them them, I can't find them! WHERE ARE THEY?!


Nikolas slowly walked away from the pier with his head held low. He knew he had messed up badly as a father. If he could go back in time to 2016, he would've tried to find a way to let Spencer know that he was still alive after being shot by his uncle Valentin and fallen off a balcony to his presumed death. At the time, Valentin believed himself to be the son of Mikkos Cassadine and an unknown woman, and the rightful heir to the Cassadine fortune. Mikkos had two other sons, Stavros (Nikolas's father) and Stefan Cassadine, with his wife, Helena. With Stavros and Stefan both deceased, this supposedly left Valentin as Mikkos's oldest living male heir, and thus, the Cassadine fortune was rightfully his.

Unbeknownst to everyone at the time, Nikolas survived, and had been searching for a codicil to Mikkos's will disinheriting Valentin. Three years after his supposed death, Nikolas revealed himself to be alive. In addition, he revealed that Valentin was actually Helena's son, and therefore Nikolas was the rightful Cassadine heir all along, and the fortune belonged to him and to Spencer. (Valentin's father was later revealed to be Mikkos's brother, Victor Cassadine).

Not long afterwards, when Nikolas paid Spencer a surprise visit at the boarding school in France which he was attending at the time, Spencer was initially overjoyed to learn that his father was alive. However, once Nikolas revealed the reason why he let everyone including his own son believe he was dead, Spencer's feelings towards Nikolas completely changed, telling his father "Stay the hell away from me!" Nikolas did not see Spencer again until two years later when Spencer returned from France and brought Esme with him. Spencer still hadn't forgiven his father and had seemingly teamed up with Esme to ruin Nikolas's marriage to Ava. And even though Spencer and Esme's own relationship was pretty much over when it happened, Nikolas's affair with Esme, in addition to ruining his marriage to Ava, ruined any chance of Nikolas and Spencer ever reconciling, especially after Esme revealed to him that she was pregnant. Determined to not let anyone, including the police, from harming his unborn child, he locked Esme in the tower. He didn't care at all about what happened to Esme once she gave birth but was determined to hold onto his second chance at fatherhood.

Yet, none of this mattered now, as Spencer was dead, and unlike Spencer's mother Courtney, whom Spencer never knew as she died shortly after he was born, Esme was very much a part of Ace's life, and even though her memories seemingly had returned, her determination to be a good mother was very real, as opposed to bringing him into the world to use as her "ace in the hole" (the original reason for the name she had chosen for her then-unborn baby). And Esme not only wanted nothing to do with Nikolas but seemed genuinely afraid of him, so afraid that she didn't notice the piece of paper that flew out of her purse as she ran away from him.

Nikolas didn't notice it either, which was why he was shocked to find an envelope with Esme's name on it lying in the gutter. What's more, the envelope had the logo of the General Hospital lab on it in the upper left corner. The envelope was rather crinkled, which he wasn't sure was a result of it having been in her purse for an extended length of time or lying in the gutter, though since it wasn't smudged and smelled rather perfumy, he assumed it was the former. One thing he did notice was that the seal on the envelope was partially broken. Furthermore, the envelope had no address on it, and instead appeared to have come directly from the hospital. But it wasn't until he noticed the words "DNA Paternity Test Report" at the top of the page that curiosity got the better of him. Was the reason for this paternity test Esme wanting to know who Ace's father was, or was she perhaps curious to know who her own father was? Either way, curiosity got the better of Nikolas. So what if it was an extreme violation of privacy? He already had been in prison and at this point felt that, since he most likely would never be allowed to see Ace if he was the father, he had nothing to lose.

He took the envelope and went to an area where no one was likely to see him. He then tore it open the rest of the way, pulled out the document inside, and read it.


DNA Paternity Test Report

Case Number: 369123874

Mother: Esme Prince Child: Ace Cassadine Alleged Father: Spencer Cassadine

Genetic Markers Tested:

Locus Mother Child Alleged Father
D3S1358 15, 16 16, 17 16, 17
VWA 16, 19 15, 19 15, 19
FGA 22, 24 21, 24 21, 24

AMEL X, X X, Y X, Y

Combined Paternity Index (CPI): 17,356.6

Probability of Paternity: 99.99%

Interpretation:
Spencer Cassadine is not excluded as the biological father of Ace Cassadine based on the genetic markers tested. The probability of paternity is greater than 99.99%, indicating that Spencer Cassadine is the biological father of Ace Cassadine.


Nikolas read and re-read the document several times to make sure he was understanding it correctly. Unless there was a mishap in the lab, or the results were tampered with somehow, according to this document, Ace was not his son. He was his grandson.

He put the document back in the envelope and buried his face in his hands. His mind was a mess of emotions. Not only had he lost another son, but he also lost out on the opportunity to bond with the only grandchild he likely would ever have. And he had no one to blame but himself. But, he reminded himself, he was a Cassadine, and so was Ace. Regardless of whether or not Ace was his son or his grandson, he was still his flesh and blood. He was going to do whatever it took to have a place in Ace's life!


THE NEXT MORNING

Ever since coming back from Paris, Trina had understandably been a wreck. Even though her on-and-off relationship with Spencer was an emotional roller-coaster ride, she still loved him, and her only other serious relationship with Officer Rory Cabrera, whom she had dated while still in love with Spencer (and who, ironically, was killed by the Hook) felt like a mere distraction. She knew it was a cliché, but she felt like a part of her died with Spencer, though she held onto hope as his body was never recovered.

She currently wasn't on speaking terms with Joss, who was her best friend. Joss nearly caused both of them to get beaten up by Esme when Joss punched her, and the only thing that prevented this from happening was the revelation that Esme was pregnant and that "Spence" was the father, which gave her a whole new reason to resent Esme. However, unless Esme tried to physically attack either of them, she never would've punched Esme, and therefore, she felt like Joss was fighting her battles for her.

She felt similarly about her mother, Portia. Even though Trina loved her mother, Portia still somewhat treated her as if she was a rebellious teenager, even though she was 22. Portia seemingly didn't trust her to make good decisions with her life as a young adult, and this may have been influenced by Portia's own bad decision of not being honest from the get-go that she wasn't sure who Trina's biological father was. And since coming back from Paris, Trina and Portia seemed to be arguing non-stop. Portia was so worried about Trina's emotional state that she insisted that Trina live with her and Curtis until she was "recovered" from her grief, even though Portia never approved of Spencer in the first place.

Ava was of course happy to have Trina back at the gallery, but even though she too thought Trina was better off with somebody other than Spencer, she understood Trina's grief, and told her that if she needed to talk, she was there for her, but if Trina needed to take some time off, she understood.

Hence, Trina spent most of her time when she was at home in her bedroom, holding the porcelain turtle dove Spencer had given her. Her fights with her mother were getting more frequent, which was why she was absolutely dreading the conversation she needed to have with her mother, and needed help doing so.

*Portia Robinson is in the kitchen cooking breakfast when she hears the doorbell ring. She opens the door to see someone she wasn't expecting, Marcus Taggert!*

Portia: Marcus! What are you doing here?

Taggert: I'm here to see my daughter.

Portia: Does she know you're coming?

*Trina comes down the stairs*

Trina: Yes, I do. I asked him to come over.

Taggert: Can I come in?

Portia: Of course.

*She motions for him to come inside with a worried expression on her face before shutting the door. Curtis, still not fully recovered from his paralysis but making progress, carefully walks over to them with his cane*

Taggert: *Nods* Curtis.

Curtis: Taggert, what brings you by?

Taggert: I'm wondering that myself.

Trina: He's here because there's something important I need to tell you all, and it's going to be difficult.

*Trina looks around*

Trina: Is Aunt Stella here?

Portia: She's at work, where I also need to be soon. Trina, what's this about?

Trina: I think we should sit down.

*Trina sees the worried expression on her mother's face as they sit down in the living room. She looks down, sighs, then looks back up at her mother and her two dads*

Trina: Mom? Dad? *She pauses, then looks at Curtis* Curtis?

Taggert: What is it?

*She looks down again*

Trina: *Sigh* Congratulations, you're going to be grandparents.

*She looks back up at them and is not surprised by the expressions on their faces showing their clear lack of knowing how to feel, and the awkward silence that followed*