Jane looked at Jax, not bothering to mask her feelings of malcontent at his obvious displeasure over what they had hoped would be a welcome surprise.

“Oh, Jax, you aren’t really upset with us for planning this, are you? An innocent little party? We were all just so very excited to meet Justin, and we wanted to make his first day with us absolutely perfect,” Jane explained, her eyes seeking out the child, who was gazing back at her distrustfully. It was a bad way to start things off.

“His first day with me, Mum,” Jax corrected her. “I have my own plans, all right? This is my day with my son and this is very special to me. Making sure it’s absolutely perfect is my job, not yours.”

“We know that, Jax,” John assured him.

“Do you?” Jax said, pushing the 101 balloons out of his way again. “Then what are you doing here? Look, I know your intentions were good, Dad, but this really wasn’t a good idea. This is the first day that my son and I have ever spent together. Do you not understand how important this is to me? Come on, I want today to be about us - Justin and me. Not about toys and balloons and candy or anything else you can think of to buy his affections. You want him to like you and I understand that, but he should like you for who you are not because you can buy him an entire Toys R Us.”

“Jax, that’s really not what we were trying to do, I swear,” Miranda said.

“I believe that you meant well,” Jax said, “but this was just not a good idea, all right? It was not. And I wish you would have spoken to me about this.”

“Perhaps we were afraid that if you had any advance warning of our intentions you’d find a way to exclude us,” Jane said testily. They desperately needed time to begin forming a bond with the newest little family member.

Jax felt his son’s small hand opening and closing around his with nervous energy, and he refused to subject Justin to this little family disagreement. “Excuse me for a moment,” Jax said, lifting Justin up and taking him upstairs.

Miranda watched them go and turned on his parents with an angry frown. “I told you this was a bad idea!” she said. “Jax hates surprises. Everybody knows that! Yet you two, his own parents, don’t know that? Why do I even listen to you people?”

“Because without us South America would still be your home and Jax would be nothing but a memory for you,” Jane reminded her tersely.

“His reaction certainly was an unexpected one,” John muttered. He, like Jane, was already starting to feel Jax slowly distancing himself from them ever since Brenda’s reappearance.

“Oh, Jax’s reaction is inconsequential now. I’m far more concerned by Justin’s reaction,” Jane stated. “That was unusual, wasn’t it? What little boy wouldn’t be overjoyed and squealing with delight to see a room full of balloons and toys and sweets, all just for him? Yet that darling child acts as if we’re the big bad wolves about to gobble him up whole,” Jane noted in frustration. “God only knows what that horrible mother of his has told him about us in order to further her own agenda,” Jane muttered. And ruin ours, she silently added.

Miranda sat on the arm of the sofa. “What agenda would that be, Jane? What do you think Brenda wants?”

“Are you dense? She wants Jax back, of course,” Jane said. “And if she can use her son to get him back, I believe she’s not above doing that. She’ll just take a cue from that awful sister of hers, Carly Corinthos. I’m told that woman has always used her children to further her various agendas with men.”

“The only thing that Brenda seems to want is that Jax, the two of you, and Jerry stay far away from her and leave her alone,” Miranda said. “I’ve honestly seen no indication that she wants Jax back or wants anything to even do with him romantically, Jane,” she insisted.

John laughed humorlessly. “We all see what we want to see, don’t we? Tell me, my dear girl, do you think Jax shares that same desire to steer clear of Brenda and have nothing to do with her romantically? Because I can assure you he does not, and if you think he does, you are hopelessly stupid.”

“I am not stupid,” Miranda growled.

“Miranda,” Jane said, giving Miranda hard look, “if you are under the impression that you won’t have to fight to hold onto Jax, you are sorely mistaken,” Jane warned, fueling Miranda’s insecurities and hoping to incite in her the need to fight dirty if necessary to hold onto Jax. “Brenda Barrett is not an opponent to dismiss lightly, and there’s only so much we can do to help you. You must do your part and see to it that you and Jax are wed.”

“So she’s my opponent now?” Miranda said, clearly annoyed at all the difficulties Brenda’s reappearance was causing her personal life. “All right, let’s say she does want Jax. Why should I be so worried, like the two of you want me to be? Jax is engaged to me, remember?” Miranda pointed out.

“Engagements can easily be broken,” John said pointedly. “We cannot, however, allow him to break this one.” They needed for someone they could control to be Justin’s guardian. With Miranda as his stepmother, access to the child would be both constant and easy, which was exactly what they needed.

Miranda gazed at her ring and recalled the way Jax had looked at Brenda when he had first seen her in Paris - like she was his stolen treasure and he was going to get her back. Well, not if Miranda could help it. “This engagement won’t be broken,” Miranda assured them. “I won’t let it.”

“That’s the spirit, dear!” Jane said with a sly smile. “Jax is yours to lose, Miranda. You hold all the cards, and if you play them right and do exactly as we tell you, then come June 24th you’ll be gliding down the aisle and into his arms as planned. And Brenda will not be a factor once you are Mrs. Jacks. Then we will put in the next phase of our plan, which will be to secure you and Jax custody of Justin. Nothing is more important than that. We need constant access to the child - to bond with him, you understand,” she added quickly when she saw Miranda’s curious look.

“Now, the first thing you must do is plunge full force into all your wedding plans from here on out,” Jane continued. “Go mad with them! Get lots of press coverage about the event, stir up media excitement about the big day, so that everywhere Brenda turns she will be reminded that Jax is yours. Right now all the tabloids are filled with exaggerated stories of how Brenda’s return to Port Charles spells doom for you. We have to turn that thinking about and get your pictures in the papers instead of hers.”

Miranda nodded in agreement. She was already sick of seeing Brenda’s gorgeous face in every tabloid she passed in the newsstands.

“And if Jax ever tells you he wants to talk to you about something important, you bolt from the room, do you hear me? You make any excuse: you faint; you say you have a migraine; say you’re having flashbacks of the explosion; stir up his guilt and pity - anything - just get out of there because, chances are, what he’ll want to discuss with you is ending your engagement and just being ‘friends’.”

Miranda nodded, playing with her ring nervously. “What about Justin? I mean, he’s something I could never compete with. Jax’s first child. A son. A veritable replica of his father. He’s a bond Jax and Brenda will always share. How far do you really think Brenda is willing to use her son to get Jax back?” Miranda asked, trying to figure out just what she was up against.

“Oh, there’s no telling how far that girl will go,” Jane said with a sigh. “I’ve noticed she’s quite unpredictable and seems to be annoyingly resilient. Each time we think we’ve knocked her down, she gets back up again. But we’ll handle her; you just do as we tell you to, Miranda -and ask no questions.”

Miranda didn’t exactly like that, but she didn’t exactly feel as if she had a choice either. Not if she wanted to keep her future with Jax, which she most certainly did. Jax’s parents were acting oddly, but at least they were on her side.

Upstairs in his bedroom Jax had Justin seated in a chair by the window and was kneeling in front of him.

“I’m really sorry about that,” Jax said. “It wasn’t my idea. I had no idea anyone would be here when we got here.”

“I know,” Justin said.

“Are you all right?”

Justin nodded, but he looked bothered about something, and Jax really wanted to scream at his parents for ruining what had started out as such a perfect day.

“I would never let anybody hurt you, Justin. I would never make you do anything you didn’t want to do. I would never make you say anything you didn’t want to say. I don’t ever want you to be unhappy. Do you believe me?” Jax asked.

Justin hesitated, unsure, but then nodded again. But he still looked bothered and more and more like he wanted to bolt from the room - and Jax just didn’t know what to do to get him back at ease.

“Justin, what’s wrong? You can tell me. You can tell me anything. It’ll be okay,” Jax said, desperate to get back that connection he and Justin had that now seemed on the verge of disappearing.

“You won’t get mad at me?” Justin asked, chewing on his lip, his eyes lowered, staring at his father’s watch.

Jax swallowed, feeling his heart drop. Justin wanted to go home; that was what he was going to say.

“I… no, of course I won’t get mad. I would never get mad at you for telling me the truth. I want you to always do that,” Jax said, forcing his own hurt feelings and feeling of rejection to the background.

“But will you like me anymore?” Justin asked, a pleading note in his voice, and this time tears of worry sprang into his eyes as his father’s hurt feelings were already evident to Justin, despite Jax’s efforts to hide them from his son.

Jax went on instinct and scooped the little boy up into his arms and thought he would sink to his knees when Justin tossed his arms around his neck and held him tightly. Jax felt how desperately his son wanted him to love him and how scared he was to say or do anything to make his daddy stop loving him.

“Nothing could ever make me stop liking you,” Jax said soothingly. “I’m your father, Justin. You’re a part of me and I love you. I will always, always love you. Do you want to go home? Is that it? Because it’s okay, you know…”

Justin nodded. “You’re not mad if I want to go home?”

“No, I’m not mad,” Jax promised him, stroking his back and seeking to comfort and reassure him. “I’m not. Let me just send away the people downstairs, and then I’ll take you right back to your mom, okay?”

Justin pulled away suddenly, so that he could look at his father. “Those people aren’t staying here?” he asked, a flash of what Jax could only describe as a child’s depiction of huge relief lighting his blue eyes.

“No, they’re not staying here,” Jax said, a slow smile of understanding touching his lips. “So now, could I possibly get you to change your mind about going home?”

Justin nodded right away. “I want to stay here with you,” he chirped happily.

“As long as they’re not staying here,” Jax said.

Justin’s smile faded into uncertainty and he nodded guiltily, feeling panicky that this would upset his father, whom he had just found and didn’t want to lose. But it didn’t.

“No problem then.” Jax set him down on the chair. “You stay here and don’t move. I’ll be right back.”

“Wait, Daddy. I forgot that Mommy told me to give this to you when we got to your house,” Justin said, pulling the invitation out of his backpack and handing it to his father. “It’s for my birthday party!” he said excitedly. “You’re comin’, right?”

“You bet I am,” Jax said, opening the invitation and seeing that there was a handwritten note from Brenda tucked inside. He opened the note with a mixture of trepidation and hope, having no idea what it would say. It said: Dear Jax. I would like to apologize for getting so emotional yesterday. You have to understand that I really don’t like discussing or reliving that time in my life, and I hope you will respect that and not ask me to do that again. But you and I have to forge a relationship, Jax. For the sake of our son, we have to try to get along and not let him see any animosity or tension between us. I would really like to try to find a way for us to get along and not be angry with each other - although, honestly, I really don’t know why you think you have any right to be angry with me since I’m certainly not the one who ended our relationship, but I won’t get into that for the sake of peace between us. I’m not sure we can be friends, exactly, but I would like us to have a cordial relationship that will make Justin feel at ease and comfortable. I hope you agree with me on that and will try, too. Thanks, and I hope you guys have a wonderful day together. Brenda.

Jax folded the note back and slid it back into the invitation, as he felt a wild rush of love for her wash over his heart. She was apologizing to him for getting emotional yesterday. She, who was the one owed a thousand apologies for the cruelties that had been played upon her and done to them. She, who thought he had callously cast her aside for another woman, was still willing to swallow her pride and make every effort to do the right thing to ensure the happiness of their son. God, he loved her so much - more than words could adequately convey. For things like this and for so much more. She was his Brenda. His love. His life. There was no one in the world like her, and he had to get her back.

“That man downstairs is your daddy?” Justin asked, interrupting Jax’s thoughts. Jax glanced up at the child, who was kicking his legs back and forth as he seemed to be trying to work something out in his child’s mind.

“Yes, he is,” Jax said.

“And the lady is your mommy?”

“Mmm hmmm.”

“Then I should like them, right?” he said, looking miserable again, because he didn’t like them at all, even though he knew he should. They were his grandma and grandpa. He had never had one of those and had always wanted to. But he didn’t like these people. And he knew his mother didn’t like them either. She had told him he was never to be alone with them.

“You don’t like them and that’s what’s bothering you?” Jax asked curiously.

Justin hesitated, as he considered lying so that he could stay in his father’s good graces and not hurt his feelings. But then he recalled that his daddy said that nothing could ever make him stop liking him. He decided to trust that.

“I don’t like them,” Justin confessed.

“Well, don’t worry about that. You don’t even really know them at all. Maybe you could give them a chance and you’d see that you do like them,” Jax encouraged, stroking the soft blonde hair and wondering if his own hair had ever felt like this when he was Justin’s age. It was like touching something spun from heaven.

“I won’t ever like them,” Justin predicted, his young eyes frank and honest as he tried to be as truthful as he could.

Jax raised a curious eyebrow. “Wow, you seem pretty sure about that. How come?”

“ ‘Cause they always make my mommy feel bad. They yell at her and say mean things to her. They make her get mad, and they make her cry, even,” Justin said, and Jax saw a flash of protective hostility in the aquamarine eyes. “They don’t like my mom and I don’t like them,” he said, more boldly now.

Jax nodded, realizing it would be an uphill battle for Justin to accept his family - that was a strange and sad thing to have to deal with because his family was so loving and outgoing that they never had any problems with people disliking them. This was all very strange to Jax.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to like them,” Jax said after a moment. “Not for my sake, anyway. The only reason you should like them is if you really feel it in your heart, Justin. You shouldn’t pretend, all right? Not even for me. And I’m not ever going to tell you who to like or who not to like, that’s totally up to you. I do think you should give them a chance, though, and then maybe you’ll change your mind about them one day, or maybe you won’t. I love my parents very much. And I would love it if you grew to feel that way, too. But even if you never ever did, that would never change the way I feel about you. Not ever,” Jax said, chucking him gently under the chin. “My love for you is unconditional.”

“What’s that mean?”

“It means that I will love you every minute of every day of the rest of your life, no matter what.”

Justin smiled, greatly relieved and reassured to hear that. He liked this unconditional love idea. That was the way he loved his mommy - nothing could ever make him not love her. And he was pretty sure he was going to love his daddy like that, too. And if he had a baby brother or a baby sister, he would love them that way, too, he decided.

Jax got up and headed for the door. “I’ll be right back. Don’t you get into any trouble in here. Just sit there and wait for me, okay?”

Justin grinned mischievously, causing Jax to hesitate. “Okay, so am I going to come back up here and find my room trashed and crayon drawings all over my walls?”

Justin giggled and shook his head. “I won’t move,” he promised. “Anyway, my crayons are at home.”

Jax laughed, marveling at the happiness that he felt just having this silly conversation with a nearly-four-year-old. Not just any nearly-four-year-old though. His nearly-four-year-old. And that was all the difference in the world. Justin was his. His and Brenda’s.

As Jax watched Justin, the boy’s beautiful, young face grew thoughtful. “Who’s that other lady?” Justin asked suddenly, as he picked up his electronic hockey game again.

“What?” Jax asked, pausing in the doorway.

“That lady with the short, black hair. Who’s she? ‘Cause I thought you said you didn’t have any sisters.”

“Oh, well, she’s not my sister,” Jax said. “She’s… my friend.”

Justin swiveled in the chair and looked at his father - an unreadable, startlingly assessing (for a four-year-old) glance - and Jax got the distinct, unsettling impression that Justin didn’t believe him and was waiting for him to elaborate. But then the child just shrugged and said, “Okay,” and turned back to his game.

Jax went back downstairs, where his parents and Miranda flew into a slew of apologies upon seeing him again.

“And we were most certainly not trying to buy our grandson’s affection,” John insisted. “Although, my boy, I must tell you how very disheartening it is to see that he’s obviously been turned against us by that mother of his.”

Jax gazed at his father. “You don’t know that,” he said, although the thought had crossed his mind.

“Jax, it is pretty obvious,” Miranda offered carefully. “Justin was not receptive to your parents at all. And it’s no secret that Brenda doesn’t like them.”

“Well, it’s no secret that they apparently don’t like Brenda either,” Jax countered. “Which is a complete about-face from how they used to feel about her, I might add,” he murmured, his eyes shifting over to his parents in an assessing manner similar to the one his son had just used on him upstairs.

“That was before she hurt you so terribly,” Jane pointed out quickly. “That’s why our feelings towards her have changed so much. We’re your parents, Jax. We could never forgive her for what she did to you.”

“But it’s not your place to forgive her; it’s mine. And I have.”

“The devil, you say!” John sputtered.

“Look, Dad, I know that Jerry told you the basics about why Brenda left. And now that you know the truth, you have no absolutely reason to harbor this animosity towards her. Don’t you think her own son might pick up on that and react to it? Why should he like you, Mum? Or you, Dad? The two times he’s seen you prior to this, you were yelling at his mother, insulting her, threatening her, and upsetting her and forcing her to leave Paris.”

“We got off to a very bad start with Brenda, I confess,” Jane said, “We will do our part to put our true feelings aside and be civil to her in the future for Justin’s sake, Jax. She is the mother of your child, after all, and we love our grandson. We have every right to be a part of his life, don’t we?” Jane hammered home.

“Yes, but I won’t have you forcing yourself into his life if he doesn’t want you there,” Jax informed her.

She looked stunned by that and was speechless.

John, however, had a response. “He’s not even four years old yet, my boy. You can’t allow him such freedoms of choice at his tender young age. We are his grandparents, and he must be told to accept us.” John insisted.

“Absolutely not. He has to accept you himself. It has to be up to him. That’s the way you raised me, and it’s the way I’m going to raise my son. He’s not my puppet who does whatever I tell him to, Dad, he is my child - who happens to be very intelligent for his age, whom I love and whom I don’t want to cause any unnecessary unhappiness to. I’d love him to accept you and Mum with open arms, but he is not ready to do that. And he may never be ready to do that.”

“If that innocent little boy holds us in such low regard without even knowing us, then you must realize it is his mother’s devious plotting that is the cause!” Jane said angrily. “And as our son, you must put a stop to her attempts at sabotaging this family.” Their bonding with little Justin was paramount! They had no time to waste on this. None at all. “We can steel ourselves and pretend to get on with her for your sake Jax, and for the sake of Justin. But it will be a great hardship to smile in the face of that woman when she is so obviously out to destroy our relationship with our grandson.”

Jax was both discouraged and highly aggravated by his parents’ attitude towards Brenda. Even after they were told the truth about why she had left him, they still remained so hostile and dismissive of her. It really bothered Jax deeply, and he couldn’t put his finger on exactly why. Perhaps it was because it was such a drastic change from how deeply they used to adore her. He was not about to subject Brenda to their hostilities, however. They were not bloody well going to cost him her. “Don’t bother pretending to be civil to Brenda,” he said. “If you don’t mean it, then just don’t bloody well bother. She’s not big on insincerity and neither am I. It would be best if you just leave her alone. You have no idea what she has been through these past four years.”

“If you’re talking about why she left you, then, yes, we do know what she’s been through. As you know, Jerry filled us in, and he told us more than just the basics,” John said. “But you should also know that your mother and I don’t believe a word of this ridiculous story of Brenda’s, Jax. We think she’s lying to you. But on the off-chance that any of it is true, it’s a terrible thing, such a misunderstanding…”

“Misunderstanding? Dad, it was deliberate! I was set up. So was Brenda! She doesn’t realize that yet, but she will. And very soon, if I have anything to say about it.” Jax was amazed at how unfazed they were by the fact that someone had set out to ruin his life in such a malicious way. He supposed it was because the victim of the malicious intent was Brenda that was the cause for their lack of outrage at such a thing being done to their son. But that made no sense either, for even if they hated Brenda now because of some grievous offense they felt she had done to their son, they had not hated her then - they had loved her dearly and should be outraged at anyone doing this thing to her, as well. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you all to leave now,” Jax said quietly.

“Oh, darling, please let's not end this on a sour note. Couldn’t we at least stay and have lunch with you and little Justin?” Jane suggested. “We ordered a pizza - now surely he likes pizza, doesn’t he? All children do. And we really do need for him to get to know us a bit and to know how much we love him and to see that we’re not the monsters his mother has told him we are.”

“No matter how much Brenda may dislike you at the moment, she would never say anything like that to him,” Jax said. “And if you could get past your wall of anger at her, you would remember that you know her well enough to realize that yourself. Now, I’ll see you all later. Good-bye.” He opened the door to punctuate his point.

Jane opened her mouth to protest again, but John silenced her with a look, seeing they were pushing all the wrong buttons with Jax and had to tread lightly or invite disaster.

“Call us later on, my boy. Let us know how your day went, eh?” John said.

Jax just nodded, not saying a word.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Miranda said, kissing Jax’s cheek.

Jax looked at her. “Tomorrow? What about later today? After I take Justin home? I really do need to talk to you about something, Miranda,” he said, gazing into her eyes, and Miranda felt a zip of panic. That was not a come hither look, or an ‘I’m-dying-to-be-alone-with-you’ look that she saw in his gorgeous blue eyes. It was a look that told her he had something serious to discuss with her. Something serious and unpleasant.

“Oh, but, Miranda, you promised to come with John and me to the ballet tonight,” Jane said quickly.

Miranda nodded, shooting Jane a grateful glance. “Oh, that’s right!” She turned to Jax. “I’m sorry, Jax. I had forgotten I had plans.”

“Well, could you cancel them? There is… really… something I need to talk to you about… umm… it’s important, Miranda and…”

“Cancel them? Good god, boy, those tickets were 200 dollars a piece!” John said with a hearty laugh that sounded quite forced. “Come along, ladies,” he said, ushering them out of the penthouse quickly before Jax could say anything else.

Jax let it go for now. He shut the door and immediately perked up as he went upstairs, taking the steps two at a time. His son awaited him.

In the hallway, Miranda felt her heart hammering in her chest.

“He was going to do it, wasn’t he?” she said in a horrified whisper. “I could see it in his eyes. He was going to…”

“Yes,” John said, his tone icy. “He wants to break your engagement with all haste. At the very least, with the wedding only two months away, he’ll want to postpone it. The bottom line is he does not want to get married now, Miranda. Not since he found Brenda in Paris. Damn it all, this is unacceptable! He must marry you!” They had come too far to be stymied by the irrelevant emotions of these people.

“How can he do this?” Miranda demanded. “Jax is supposed to love me!”

“I’m sure he does love you, Miranda,” Jane lied. “But we cannot deny that there is someone else he loves more,” she added bluntly. “So we’ve got to move quickly. Once Jax has made up his mind that he wants something badly enough, by god, that boy seems to get it. And I’m afraid, Miranda, that what my son wants more than anything,” Jane’s tone was acidic, “is that Barrett woman.”

“Just tell me what to do, and I’ll do it,” Miranda said. “We all want the same thing, don’t we? A marriage between Jax and me? You, for your purposes - whatever they may be - and me, for mine. I can’t lose Jax, so I’ll do anything. Anything you ask.”

It was exactly what John and Jane Jacks wanted to hear.

“Hello, earth to Brenda,” Lois Cerullo said, waving a sheet of cardboard bathed in different hues of blue in front of Brenda’s distracted gaze. “Is this the shade of aqua you wanted for the backdrop of the bridal party photos?” she asked, pointing to the shade on the cardboard.

Brenda snapped out of her thoughts and grinned self-consciously. “Sorry.”

“You’ve been like this all day, Bren. Should I be worried?” Lois teased her.

“No, I’m sorry. I’m just… oh, I don’t know what’s the matter with me.” She took the cardboard from Lois, gazing at the aqua section. “Oh, yeah, this is perfect,” she said, handing it back. “I just have to make sure the lighting and lenses are right so we get that rippling effect, like an ocean.”

“Jax,” Lois said,

“Where?!” Brenda said, tossing the 8-by-10’s in her hand on the desk and gazing around, right and left.

Lois suppressed her laughter. “No, not where, Brenda - what. As in Jax is the what that is the matter with you,” Lois said, moving her laptop aside and then sitting next to Brenda.

“No, it is most definitely not Jax,” Brenda insisted. “It’s just… you know, I haven’t been sleeping that well since I got back here to Port Charles. And now I have to go house-hunting, like I have the time for that,” she sighed. “This Wallingford yacht wedding shoot you got me is huge - I can’t even work on anything else.”

“Are you still staying with Carly and Sonny?” Lois asked.

Brenda shook her head. “No, Edward all but begged me to move in here, and I think my niece, Becky, is going to give my son an ulcer, so I thought I’d better take Edward up on his offer. They’re moving our things in here, as we speak. It works out better anyway you know, because Sonny and… well, you know they don’t get along so…”

“Jax. You can say his name, Brenda. JAX. The universe won’t collapse at the mention of it.”

No, but my defenses may, Brenda thought worriedly. The last thing on earth she wanted to do ever again was succumb to the magnetic allure of Jasper Jacks. It was really bothering her how certain looks from him could still make her heart ache to surrender, and make her body… well… she didn’t even want to think about that. God, she was still so attracted to him that it was embarrassing! Yet she had sworn to herself that she would make every effort to get along with him and to even be happy for him and Miranda, even if it killed her! Alas, she feared it would kill her. The sheer effort to act unaffected about that horrible upcoming union was exhausting beyond anything she had ever imagined.

“I have a great real estate agent I can put you in touch with, Brenda. He does all the work, so you won’t have to. He’s also pretty cute and single, if you need to take your mind off of Jax.”

“Jax is not on my mind,” Brenda said.

Lois folded her arms and gave Brenda a ‘sure he isn’t’ look. And then said, “Would you like his number?”

Brenda looked startled. “Jax’s?”

Lois smirked triumphantly. “No, although that’s the one I would suggest you get. You obviously have a lot of unresolved issues with him.”

“No, I don’t. He told me to go and I did. He didn’t want me anymore,” Brenda said quietly.

“Yeah, I know that you told me that’s what happened, Brenda, and you know I damn well wanted to kill him when you first told me. But, Brenda, I’m thinking that maybe he just made some horrible mistake. We all make ‘em, you know.”

“He’s engaged to be married to the woman he sent me packing for, Lois. It doesn’t sound like he thinks he made any mistake to me.” And yet he told you he loved you yesterday, her conscience nagged her. That he always had; that he always would.

“Well, seriously, Bren, does he look or act anything like a man in love and joyously racing to the chapel to you?” Lois asked.

Brenda said nothing to that.

“Anyway, I was offering the number of the realtor. Peter Williams.” Lois pulled out her phone book and jotted the realtor’s number down on a piece of paper for Brenda. “You know, I probably can get Jax’s, too…”

“Lois Cerullo, if you value your life you will cease and desist this topic,” Brenda warned.

Lois laughed. “Well, don’t say I didn’t offer, girlfriend. I kind of like the idea of breaking into ELQ, like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible, and rifling through Jax’s huge CEO office to get all of his phone numbers. Isn’t that amazing that he runs ELQ now?”

Brenda shrugged. “Jax is brilliant. He always gets whatever he wants,” she murmured.

Lois rose an eyebrow. “Precisely,” she said smoothly, as she grinned and got up to sort through the pictures Brenda had dumped on the desk.

Upon Brenda’s return to Port Charles, she had gotten in touch with her best pal, Lois, about going into business together. Brenda had become a remarkable photographer and Lois was wonderful with creative ideas and getting clients, and together Brenda thought they could get lots of work, which was turning out to be true. And so they settled on the name, PICTURE THIS, for their freelance photography company, and were in the process of building a client base.

“Have we found out the mystery bride yet?” Lois asked. “As much money as that Wallingford guy shelled out for us to do the photos she must be either a member of some nobility, a movie star, or related to Bill Gates. I gotta admit, I love all the mystery.”

“Yeah, it is fun,” Brenda agreed. “I actually get to meet the mysterious Alfred next week. He’s coming to Port Charles to finalize everything for the bride. “Want to come with me?”

“I think I should,” Lois said. “Who knows, this Alfred guy could be some kind of homicidal maniac running around with a hatchet. I’d never let you go alone.”

Brenda laughed. “He sounds too old to even lift a hatchet, Lois. I think he’s the Wallingford’s butler. Or, oh my god, maybe he’s actually the bride? Eeeee!”

Lois laughed. “He sounds old? Brenda, voices over the telephone can be very deceptive,” Lois said, doing her best Sherlock Holmes impersonation. “Frankly, my dear Watson, he could merely want us to think he is some old geezer who is harmless. Yeah, it all makes sense now. He’s trying to trap us into thinking he’s an old dog who can barely move about, when he really is a young fella who’ll want to chase us around his decrepit, old mansion! I think, my dear fellow, that we should approach this with a proper amount of suspicion. And a goodly amount of… ahhhh… peppa spray.”

Brenda would have laughed at Lois’s amusing skit, but she couldn’t seem to get past Lois’s mentioning that voices over the telephone could be very deceptive. Her mind drifted back to yesterday - to Jax’s adamant denial that he had ever made any phone calls to her from South America. I was in the jungle, okay? The* jungle*, sweetheart. There were no phones there, I told you that…

“Brenda? Geez, was my impersonation that bad? Too much Brooklyn accent in old Sherlock?”

Brenda came out of her thoughts again. “Actually, yes,” she joked, silently chastising herself for wanting Jax so much that she was desperate enough to actually consider believing the nonsense he had told her. “Don’t quit your day job, Sherlock.”

Lois’s cell phone rang then, and it was a prospective client calling to tell her she would meet her for lunch at The PC Grille.

“Gotta go,” Lois said. “It’s Skin Diver magazine, they want to discuss a possible shoot in the Florida Keys. Good luck house hunting, Brenda. Oh, and Peter really is a cutie. A very nice guy. Of course, he doesn’t really even compare to a certain drop-dead gorgeous corporate raider, but…”

“Out,” Brenda said.

Lois laughed and waved as she left. Then she paused before leaving. “Are you coming down to the Manhattan office tomorrow? Everything’s all set for you. Nice huge office, right next to mine. I converted my L&B office space for our new gig, and everything looks great.”

“Yes, I guess it is about time I settle in over there,” Brenda agreed.

“Wow, you sound so enthusiastic,” Lois teased. “You miss London?” Lois guessed. “You know, Julia may miss you and Justin, but she’ll be fine.”

“I know. But I just don’t feel like I belong here,” she sighed and waved her hands. “Nothing is the same, and… oh, just ignore me, I don’t even know what I’m saying.”

“I’ll be back in a couple of hours - I have to pick up Brook when Ned gets back with her,” Lois said, as she waved again and left the Quartermaine mansion.

Brenda lay her head on the armrest of the couch and stared at the pictures of the wedding party clothing she had assembled in order to ensure she would pick out a backdrop for the shoot that wouldn’t clash with the wedding party. The colors were truly beautiful. A deep, regal-looking lavender. Brenda reached out and brushed her hand against the photo, watched how the sunlight from the open windows of the den set off shimmering sparkles from the jeweled bodice, depending on how she held the picture.

Brenda let out a little sigh and closed her eyes, feeling the sunlight from this very warm April afternoon caressing her face. She was so sleepy. It was true that she hadn’t been sleeping well at all since returning to Port Charles.

There were so many memories here. And Jax was here; the living, breathing reminder of everything she had ever wanted; everything she had ever had, and everything she had lost. It was screwing up her life, and she knew she had to find a way to deal with all of this. She had to find a way to be able to look at Jax and feel nothing, to be able to hear his name and not feel twisted into knots. To be able to look in his eyes and not want to melt into the ground. To be able to go to sleep at night and not wish with all her heart that he was there with her, holding her, kissing her, making love to her, making her laugh, making her feel so cherished and adored, like he used to.

And she simply had to get rid of this deep physical longing she still had for him - the magic that stirred all around them whenever they were together - the connection that locked her soul to his and refused to go away - that was the worst part of all. It was like being trapped in the space just short of heaven. You could see it, almost touch it, almost taste it, almost feel it, but you could never have it.

I’m through with love; I’ll never fall again
Said adieu to love, don’t ever call again
For I must have you or no one
And so I’m through with love

“Oh god, what is wrong with me?” she groaned. Maybe Carly was right that it was high time Brenda get herself back out on the market where men were concerned? Easier said than done though, as her interest in men had plummeted after things had ended with Jax. Her friend, Colin, had been the only man she’d spent any significant time with, and they were just that - friends. He was Julia’s friend, actually - a professional race car driver, who was also a photography buff, and he’d taught Brenda all about the tricks of lighting and shading and lots of great advice on how to make her photos the kind that people would pay for.

Maybe she should call this realtor guy? Brenda relaxed even more, as the warm sunlight kissed her skin. She curled up on the couch and wondered what Jax and Justin were up to about now? She hoped they were having a wonderful time. She hoped Justin was happy and laughing. And she ignored the dull ache in her heart at the lost chance for the three of them to ever be together like a real family. And she wondered how she could feel this… how she could feel all of these deep feelings and aching desires and passionate yearnings for a man who had never loved her at all? A man who felt all of those things for someone else?

“Something really must be wrong with me,” she decided.

“Oh, I’ve been saying that for years, honey,” Carly said, entering the room. “So, you’re really leaving me and moving into this upscale version of Ferncliff?” she said, plopping down on the couch next to Brenda.

“Edward actually let you in here?” Brenda asked with a grin.

“Well, I told dear old Eddie that if he didn’t allow me to make sure you were okay I was going to call the police and tell them about all the bodies he has buried in the basement. He muttered something under his breath about wishing my body were one of them and told me I had better be gone in 30 minutes.”

Brenda laughed and gave Carly a hug. “Well, I’m glad to see you.”

Carly gazed at the scattered pictures, noticing there were pictures of that band Brenda had been working on in Paris there among other photos. She picked them up. “You are still workin’ on this thing? God, Brenda, what are you working with one hand tied behind your back, or what?”

“Give me a break, I’m almost done,” Brenda said, grabbing the photos out of her hand. “Lois booked me this amazing wedding shoot on this yacht -and having it thrown at me in the midst of the album cover is kind of hectic. I kind of have to put everything else on hold for a minute.”

“Have you seen the daily rags?” Carly muttered, tossing a few out on the coffee table. “You’re all over them. ‘Model fiancée of corporate billionaire playboy resurfaces to find him on the verge of saying I do to his ex.’”

“Okay, I am going to officially gag,” Brenda muttered.

“Well, they use some gorgeous shots of you,” Carly said. “From one of your Deception photo shoots, I think. They also mention Justin, and how he’s the trump card since he is ‘the lone heir to the vast Jacks empire’ right now and how Miranda Jameson must be shaking in her boots.”

“God, don’t these people have a life? You know something, if one of those paparazzi clowns ever tries to sneak around and take a picture of Justin and exploit him, I will kill them!” Brenda vowed.

“And when you’re done killing them, I’ll kill them again,” Carly assured her. “So where is my gorgeous little Romeo anyway?”

“It’s Jax’s day to have him, remember? Their first day,” Brenda said.

“Oh, yeah. How’s that going?”

“Well, the two of them were basically instantly crazy about each other, and so far I haven’t gotten any emergency phone calls from Jax, so I think all is well.”

“Well, that’s good. Sonny’s pretty bummed that you guys moved out, you know.”

“Oh, I’m sure he is. Now he can’t torture Jax with that anymore,” Brenda said.

“Oh, it wasn’t just that, although okay, yeah, he did enjoy it. But you know Sonny adores Justin. And Johnny really liked having you around,” Carly said, raising her eyebrows.

“Please, I am so not interested in your bodyguard, Carly,” Brenda said, bashing a red velvet throw cushion against her sister’s head.

Carly cracked up. “I know that. But I just love the look on your face every time you catch him mentally undressing you. Sometimes you look like you’ll clock him on the head with Michael’s baseball bat and other times you just blush scarlet and look like you’ll swim all the way back to London. But I tried to let him down easy. I told him you just weren’t into the strong, silent type. You seem to prefer them wild, unpredictable and highly athletic, crazy, and you’re very partial to accents and baby blues.”

Brenda gave Carly a look. “Please, please, please can we not talk about Jax right now?”

“Hmm… I know that look. That look means you’ve been thinking about the damn man all day,” Carly sighed.

“Guilty as charged,” Brenda said, shaking her head in self-disgust. “Can you please just tell me why, out of all the men on this entire planet, he has to be the one who is everything…”

“You’ve ever wanted? You’ve ever dreamed of? Your heart’s desire?”

“Yes!” Brenda said angrily. “All of those things! And I just want to know why? Why me? Why him? Why can’t I just… forget him? Or hate him so much that it never goes away? I mean, I have every reason and right to hate him, don’t I?”

“Hell, yeah,” Carly said.

“Or why can’t I at least feel absolutely indifferent to him, you know? Or… I don’t know… anything, but want him so much that I want to die because I don’t have him! I don’t want to want him. I don’t even want to care,” Brenda groaned in frustration, tossing cushions around the room before plopping back down on the couch. “I don’t think I can do this, Carly. Live in the same town where he does. Seeing him everyday, married to her, making a life with her. Having kids with her. I thought I could do it but… I can’t, Carly… I mean I can’t do this…”

Carly draped a comforting arm around her sister. “Brenda, the answer is so simple. You need to get over him. Find a guy that will make you say ‘Jasper who?’ Let me take you out. We need to go out on the town, flirt up a storm, meet your Mr. Right!”

But Brenda knew she had already met him, and that he was the only one. How sad was that? Her life was conceivably over now, wasn’t it? She was going to live and die loving that one damned man. Still, going out with Carly sure beat sitting around here thinking about Jax.

“Why don’t we just go out to lunch right now,” Brenda said. “You can kidnap me and take me out on the town to meet Mr. Right tomorrow.”

“Great!” Carly said, dragging Brenda to her feet. “There’s this new restaurant on Park Street, it’s Italian and the owner is really cute - he’s a friend of Sonny’s. And he just got divorced so…”

“Oh god,” Brenda groaned, as she allowed Carly to lead her out of the mansion.

The moment John and Jane got back to their hotel suite John disappeared into the bedroom and got on the phone, while Jane and Miranda sat in the living room and set about calling magazines to set up interviews about the upcoming Jacks-Jameson wedding, which Miranda had previously declined to do any interviews on.

“Yes, I will sponsor the entire race,” John was telling the party on the other line. “No, no, the cost is not an issue. My only stipulation is that I want Mr. Christopher to do a private autograph signing at Disney World on the 27th of April. No, no, it must be the 27th of April or the deal is off. Yes, bill everything to me - Jerry Jacks. Very good then.” John hung up and went back into the living room where the women were. “Well, that’s settled. Justin’s birthday bash is going to have quite a surprise for his dear mother,” he sneered. “Let’s hope she will find it a most pleasing surprise and that Jax will back off in his quest for her once he sees her attentions focused on another man. There’s more than one way to wreck this love train.” And there was the added benefit of Jax thinking Jerry had set this all up and thus putting them at odds, which ought to derail the brothers’ little investigation into the past.

“I hope so,” Miranda said. “Although even though this is what I want, I still can’t stand the thought of Jax getting his heart broken again. If Brenda’s not lying, then someone deliberately set out to break them up four years ago and tried to make them hate each other. And he’s just found all of this out and has to deal with that. If any of this is true, who do you think would ever do that to Jax? You know, I bet it was Sonny Corinthos. He hates Jax enough to do something like this. Although, would he really do that to his wife’s own sister? I mean, think about it, someone had to really hate Jax to have done something like that to him.”

John and Jane just exchanged unreadable glances. Miranda knew nothing about the full extent and scope of their machinations. She knew nothing about the true plan. All she knew when they came to her in her hideaway in South America was that they suddenly wanted her and Jax together. They desperately wanted her to give Jax a son. The entire thing had confused Miranda, since it had been Jax’s parents who had taken care of her after the explosion and financed her many surgeries and her recovery and settled her in South America. They had made it clear that they thought it best that Jax think she was dead and go on with his life and that they never wanted her to contact him or Jerry. And when Brenda Barrett had come into his life, they had told her how happy he was and insisted now more than ever that nothing from the past should come up to ruin his life and his happiness.

So it was quite a shock to be approached by them with this plan for them to have Jax and Jerry “find” her and for her to reunite with Jax. Miranda suspected that Brenda must have fallen out of favor with Mom and Dad Jacks somehow. It didn’t matter to her; she was thrilled by this reversal and the chance to let everyone know she was alive and to be with Jax again. She really was clueless to the fact that she was a mere dupe being used to facilitate a much grander scheme by two people, whose eyes were focused solely on the final goal.

“It would be to your benefit for our plan to work, Miranda,” Jane told her. “You are currently not in the best of predicaments with Brenda back in Jax’s life. Your entire future with him is in jeopardy.”

“I just can’t stand the thought of Jax being jealous of Brenda being with someone else," Miranda confessed.

“Can you stand the thought of him as Brenda’s husband?” John countered. “Because if this does not work, that prospect becomes more and more of a reality. Never forget that.”

“Well, we’ve set up the interviews,” Jane said. “Starting tomorrow morning there will be so much publicity about the wedding that that in itself will defeat any aspirations Brenda may have of reclaiming Jax for herself. All the publicity will also make Jax hard pressed to simply call off the wedding. He’ll think twice about doing that now, which is what we need. Now, John, what about what we had planned for next week? Have you convinced Jerry to secure the property we spoke about?”

John shook his head, a disgusted look on his face. “Jerry! Jerry is useless. He hasn’t been returning any of my calls. I haven’t been able to reach him, and, damn it, I think he’s doing this deliberately. Even Bobbie doesn’t know where he is, or so that idiotic woman claims. So I’m going to have to secure the property myself. But everything else is in place. If it all works out, it should knock back any progress Jax has made in his plans to reconcile with Brenda.”

Jane nodded. “This has just got to work. We are running out of time. Each day we are prevented from bonding with Justin works against us.”

John nodded in agreement, and Miranda looked at them both, wondering what they were really up to? Wondering why little Justin Barrett was such a priceless commodity to them? If she could find out, she could use the information to her advantage. She was under no delusions, John and Jane Jacks did not like her - they were merely using her since they seemed to prefer her to Brenda as a potential daughter-in-law. They could turn on her at any moment; she felt that with certainty.

“You both do realize Jax will hate you if he ever realizes what you’re doing?” she pointed out to them.

“He’ll hate you, too, my dear,” John said coolly. “Make no mistake about that. If we fall by the wayside, you are going to go with us. So it is in all of our best interests to work together to make certain that Brenda stays gone from Jax’s life and that he is never any the wiser as to how it happened. Understood?”

“Fine by me,” Miranda said with a shrug.

And it was in that moment that Miranda began to entertain the unspeakable possibility that Jax’s own parents, and not Sonny, could have been the ones responsible for deliberately turning his life into a living hell four years ago. And if they were capable of that and she could prove it, she would have something to hold over them and even out this so-called partnership of theirs. Then again, if they were capable of destroying their own favored son’s life to get what they wanted, god only knew what they were capable of doing to her if they decided she was no longer useful to them.

Jax led Justin into the Xtreme Sports Shop, as the little boy gazed around in fascination at the motorcycles and All Terrain Vehicles, dirt bikes, jet-skis, and waverunners.

“Wow, what are you gonna buy?” Justin asked excitedly, gazing at a rack full of motorcycle helmets with cool racing logos emblazoned on the front. “A motorcycle?” he asked, walking around his father in a circle as he gazed about.

“No, I already have one of those,” Jax said.

“You do?!” Justin looked so thrilled that Jax had to laugh with delight.

“I take it you like motorcycles, huh?”

Justin nodded enthusiastically. “And race cars, too.” He switched directions and began to circle his father the other way.

“Oh, yeah? Me, too. What about boats, do you like those?”

“Yep. I even have a sailboat that really floats. I play with it in Uncle Son… I mean Sonny’s pool. Do you want me to call him Sonny?”

“How about you call him whatever you want to. He is your aunt’s husband, so he is your uncle, whether I like it or not,” Jax said softly, suppressing his grin at how Justin was so cognizant now of this ‘Uncle Sonny’ thing. “Ever been on a real sailboat?” Jax asked.

Justin shook his head. “Are you gonna buy one here?”

“No. I have one of those already, too. I’ll take you sailing one day soon, if it’s all right with your mom. You can swim, right?” he teased.

Justin laughed. “I told you already! Really good,” he bragged, the dimple popping into his cheek as he grinned. “So how come we’re here then if you already have a motorcycle and a boat? What are we gonna get?”

Jax loved that Justin had automatically slipped into the ‘we’ terminology. It was incredible the happiness this child could inspire in him. Jax felt a flash of bitterness that someone had robbed him of this for four years, but it passed. “Hey, Daddy, are you listening to me?” Justin demanded, tugging on Jax’s hand impatiently.

Jax laughed. “Yes, of course, I am.”

“So then, what are we gonna get?” Justin repeated.

“One of those,” Jax said, pointing to a sapphire blue waverunner up on the elevated dais.

“Whoa!! That? Really?” Justin squealed with excitement, running over to where the waverunner was and up the ramp so he could touch it. He gazed at every inch of the water sport vehicle. “Wicked-cool,” he murmured in awe, tracing his fingers along the silver YAMAHA SPORT logo. “But where are you gonna put that?” he asked in bewilderment. “You live in a hotel,” he reminded his father.

“Yeah, but I told you I was making some moving plans, remember?” Jax said, as he indicated to the salesman which waveruner he wanted and then took Justin to the cashier to pay for it.

“But you’re not moved yet. So where are you gonna keep it now? In the loo? In the bathtub?” Justin joked, his adorable laughter making the girl behind the cash register smile.

“You think you’re so funny, don’t you? Don’t you?” Jax said, poking Justin in the ribs as the child’s peals of laughter echoed throughout the store.

“He has got to be the cutest kid I have ever seen,” the cashier said.

“Yeah, I think so,” Jax agreed, sliding his credit card over to her. “I’m going to want this delivered,” Jax instructed her as he wrote down the address.

“To your bathtub?” the sales girl teased, giving Jax a flirtatious smile.

Justin giggled and Jax knocked him playfully beneath the chin. “See what you started?”

“Daddy, where does the name Jax came from?” Justin wanted to know.

“Nowhere, really. It’s a nickname. My real name is Jasper.”

“Hey, I have that name too! Justin Christopher Jasper.”

Jax smiled. “Yeah, I know that.”

“And I have nicknames too. Aunt Carly calls me lots of them, and Mommy and Aunt Julia call me JC sometimes.”

Jax nodded. “For Justin Christopher.”

“Yeah. Are we going to the carnival now?” Justin asked, as Jax got his receipt, slid his son onto his back for a piggyback ride out of the store, and headed back to the SUV.

Jax checked his watch. “Yes, we are. We just have to make one stop first. I want to show you something.”

Jax drove into Port Jefferson, the town right next to Port Charles. As they drove along a scenic street, passing an elementary school and entering a picturesque block, Justin was doing his usual fooling around with the radio stations while Jax was scanning the houses in search of a certain one. Jax became distracted by the sound of his son’s voice as the child began to sing along with a Queen song that was playing. Jax gazed over at Justin in astonishment, as the child sang the words perfectly without missing a single one, and in a voice that was perfectly on key, no less, and very pleasing to the ear.

“Can anybod-eee find meeee somebody to-ooo love. Each morning I get up I’m tired, can barely stand on my feet. Take a look in the mirror and cry Lord what’re you doin’ to me? I spend all my years believing you, but I just can’t get no relief. Lord somebody, oooh somebody, Can anybody find meeee somebody to love.”

“You know this song?” Jax asked incredulously.

Justin nodded. “Aunt Julia plays this all the time,” he explained. “Mostly when her friend Colin’s around.”

“Julia? Really?” Jax asked in disbelief. He could not for the life of him even imagine the fairly conservative Julia Barrett blasting Queen. “She’s always seemed more the Barry Manilow type to me,” Jax murmured.

“Who’s Barry Manilow?”

“Never mind,” Jax chuckled.

“Colin’s a racecar driver, Daddy. D’you know him maybe?”

“Wait - you don’t mean Colin Christopher, do you?”

Justin nodded. “Yep, that’s his name.”

“Hey, is he the one that you got your middle name for?” Jax asked suddenly.

“Yep,” Justin answered in the affirmative. “But one of my middle names is for you, too,” he reminded his father.

Jax smiled. “But why did your mom give you ‘Christopher’ for a middle name? Is she close with your Aunt Julia’s friend?”

“He was the one who was with my mom when I was born,” Justin said. “He got Mommy to the doctor real fast.”

“Oh, I see,” Jax nodded slowly, feeling inexplicably upset by this piece of information. So the famous racecar driver, Colin Christopher, had been present at the birth of Jax’s son, and Sonny Corinthos had forged a relationship with Jax’s son years before Jax even knew of the child’s existence…

Uncannily sensitive to his father’s moods and feelings and wanting to make him feel better, Justin added: “But Mommy probably wished it was you who was there though. But you were too far away. And you didn’t know about me - she told me that. It wasn’t your fault you couldn’t be there if you didn’t even know, right?”

Jax felt incredibly moved at his son’s amazing ability to read him so well and his sweet efforts to try to offset any negativity.

“Do you know this song, too?” Justin wanted to know, trying to shift the subject away to something less serious and more fun.

Jax nodded.

Justin grinned. “Then sing it,” he challenged with a mischievous giggle.

Jax laughed. “Are you throwing down the gauntlet to me?”

Justin looked perplexed. “What’s that mean?”

“It means: are you daring me to do it?”

Justin laughed and nodded. “Yeah!”

“Okay, well, it just so happens that I never back down from a challenge. But I have to tell you, there is no way I’ll sound half as good as you do. I may brag about a lot of things that I can do, but singing isn’t one of them.”

Justin laughed. “You sing bad?”

“Badly,” Jax corrected.

“You sing badly?”

“I didn’t say that,” Jax said. “Did I say that?”

Justin laughed again. “Okay, c’mon, sing this part, Daddy,” Justin said, indicating the part coming up, as he turned up the radio. “This part, this part.”

And so Jax obliged, as they turned off the picturesque block and onto one even more picturesque.

“That was good!” Justin said, clapping. “You don’t sing badly; you sing pretty goodly,” Justin said, with yet another play on words. His son obviously liked to do that. It was very endearing.

Jax laughed. His kid was a riot. “Well, thank you.”

“Not like Aunt Carly,” Justin said. “She can’t sing… Uncle Sonny, he says she sounds like dying cats in an alley!”

Jax snickered. “Yeah, well, so does he.”

Justin, recalling hearing his Uncle Sonny singing “happy birthday to you” last year at his party, had to agree with his father’s assessment on that one.

“Hey, what do you think of this house over here?” Jax asked, a look of excitement popping into his eyes as he slowly drove past a big house at the end of a cul-de-sac of lakefront property.

“Wow, that’s pretty. And big,” Justin said. Then his eyes grew wide. “Is that a horsey over there?” he asked.

“That’s a horsey over there,” Jax confirmed, drinking in Justin’s wide-eyed excitement. “You like horses?”

“Mmm hmmm. Mommy lets me feed them but not ride them, but she can ride a horsey really good. You should see her, Daddy. She beats Aunt Julia and Colin all the time.”

As if it weren’t impossible enough to imagine Julia Barrett jamming to the music of Queen, now Jax had to imagine her racing a horse with carefree abandon across the hills of England. He just couldn’t picture it. And why was this Colin guy spending all this time with Brenda anyway? If he was Julia’s friend, why did he seem to be with Brenda so much? This whole Colin Christopher thing was irritating Jax a little bit.

“Well, no offense to your Aunt Julia or her friend Colin, but I’m not surprised Brenda could beat them. But guess what? She has never beaten me,” Jax said with a wink.

Justin turned to gaze at his father. “You used to race her?”

“Oh, yeah. We used to do that all the time. Ned and AJ would be with us a lot of the time. Your Aunt Carly tried once and no horse would have anything to do with her,” Jax said, watching his son’s lips quiver with mirth. “That horse you’re looking at is my horse Thor. I have another horse, too. Tal. He was your mom’s favorite.”

“Am I too little to ride a horsey?”

Jax considered that. “Well, I was riding a horse when I was four, so…”

“I’m almost four!” Justin announced excitedly.

“Yeah, I know that,” Jax laughed. “That was my point, actually.”

“Look how big that tree is, Daddy,” Justin said, pointing to a huge, perfectly trimmed oak tree towards the back of the property. “A tree house could prob’ly be up in that tree, right?”

“No, not really. That tree’s too high for that,” Jax said. “A tree house could probably be in that tree over there though,” he said, pointing to a smaller one.

“When I still lived in London, I wanted a tree house like my friend Marcel had, but my mom wouldn’t let me have one. She says I’ll fall out and that it rains in London too much anyway. I think it’s ‘cause she just doesn’t know how to make one. ‘Cause, I mean, she’s a girl, you know?”

Jax laughed softly. “Yeah, I noticed. I would give anything to see Brenda attempt to build a tree house,” he murmured, envisioning his enchanting ex-fiancée poring over instructions, gazing at a hammer and nails in vexation, and tossing slats of wood all over the lawn in frustration, while she talked to herself and paced back and forth. “But I agree with her, I think you’re still too young for a tree house right now. But when you’re a little bit older, I’ll build you one myself,” Jax promised. “Or you and I can build it together - even better, right? And we’ll give mommy the easy task of painting it or something that doesn’t involve a hammer and nails.”

Justin nodded eagerly. “When I’m five?”

“Maybe six. Actually, maybe seven. Actually…”

“Daddy,” Justin groaned, as Jax moved past the house and headed back towards Port Charles and the waiting carnival he’d promised to take Justin to.

“So that was what you wanted to show me? That big house by the water?”

“Yes.”

“I like it.”

“Good,” Jax said, gazing over at him in amusement.

“And so that’s the house you’re gonna move to when you get moved out of your hotel?” Justin asked several minutes later.

Jax gazed over at him again. “Yes.”

“I like it a lot.”

Jax laughed. “I see. Think you’d like to live there maybe?”

Justin gazed up at Jax and smiled. “Yeah.”

“Yeah,” Jax echoed, plans for the future filling his head and his heart.

“I think maybe my mommy would like it, too,” Justin added.

“I know she would,” Jax said with a cocky grin.

“How d’ya know that?” Justin asked. “She never even saw it before.”

“How do you know that?” Jax countered, tapping the child’s forehead fondly.

Jax knew Brenda would like it. It was the very house that he and Brenda had looked at the day after he asked her to marry him, nearly five summers ago. After spending the entire day looking all over Port Charles, they had driven into Port Jefferson and that was the house that Brenda had loved. Jax decided that the fact that the house was for sale all these years later, and, according to the realtor, had gone up for sale the very day Jax was in Paris finding Brenda, was a sign. A sign that everything that was made wrong that summer was going to be made right this summer. Jax was going to do everything right this time; courting her, the proposal, the wedding, carrying her over the threshold of this very house, giving Justin a brother or sister, or both…

Someone had stolen Jax’s future from him once, but miraculously it was within his grasp again, and he wasn’t going to let it slip away this time, or let anyone take it from him either.

When Jax pulled into the Quartermaine driveway at 7:25, Brenda was on the porch swing, waiting for them. Justin raced out of the SUV, carrying goodies from the carnival and blurting out to his mother what a great time he’d had with his father.

Brenda smiled down at him and then bent to give him a kiss on the cheek. “What have you got there, JC?”

“Oh, this is for you, Mom,” Justin said, handing her a pretty, red balloon in the shape of a heart. “Daddy took me to the carnival, and we went on all the water rides. I got so wet!” he said with a giggle of delight. “And we went on the bumper cars, but I was too little to drive - Daddy had to drive. And look, I got a tattoo of a tiger! It’s not real, Mommy - the lady told Daddy it just washes off. I made Daddy get one, too, see?” Justin said, pointing to the tiger on the back of Jax’s left hand. “And then Daddy showed me how to shoot the ducks…”

“Shoot ducks? Oh, he did, did he?” Brenda said, gazing at Jax.

“It was just a water gun thing, cardboard duckies - perfectly harmless,” Jax explained, trying his best not to stare at her, but he couldn’t help it. She looked delicious in a body-hugging, long, black skirt with a very high, enticing side-slit, and a snug, tiny, red tank top, her hair in a ponytail. He would give up all of ELQ and all of his holdings just to slide her into his arms and hold her right now.

“Daddy is so good! He never misses!” Justin bragged proudly. “He got all the ducks all the time. And he showed me how to do it like him - and, Mommy, I kept winning! I won this!” he said, showing her a stuffed giraffe. “And this, too!” he said, showing her the purple lion (which was nearly bigger than he was) he was holding under his arm. “And Unc…umm…Uncle Sonny was there with Carson and Becky. We saw them.”

“Uh-oh,” Brenda said, biting her lip and looking at Jax.

“No, it was all right. Really,” Jax said, shooting her a smile that, to her consternation, absolutely melted her heart. “We just saw them as Sonny and his kids were leaving. I would have even forced myself to say hello, but your son seemed to have an aversion to being seen by Sonny’s daughter, so they never even knew we were there.”

“And Daddy bought the coolest thing today! One of those water things. What’s it called again, Daddy? You gotta see it, Mommy! And Daddy has a pinball machine right in his house even! He let me play with it, but he had to pick me up ‘cause it was too big for me,” Justin said, barely stopping for a breath as he rattled off his day to his mother.

“Okay, okay. You go on inside and wash your hands and ask Reginald to help you put your goodies in your room, all right?” Brenda said.

“My room? Here?” Justin asked, confused.

“Umm…yes. We’ll be staying here until we get our own house, okay?”

“Wicked,” Justin said with a pleased grin that he was escaping the clutches of his cousin Becky. Then he turned to Jax. “Daddy, don’t leave yet, ‘kay?”

“Okay,” Jax said.

Justin raced inside, yelling for Reginald.

Alone on the porch, Brenda and Jax exchanged a lingering glance. The magic swirled.

“He never sits still. His energy is boundless,” Jax commented.

“Yes, it is,” Brenda agreed, feeling all the awkwardness of being on a first date with the cutest boy in school.

“And he’s so curious about everything.”

Brenda nodded. “Yeah, he’s got a very curious nature. That actually reminds me of you,” she said quietly. “He… ummm… you should see him, he takes apart all of his toys all the time to see how they work.” She laughed a little.

Jax gave her a disarming smile. “Does he really?”

“Yes. And I swear to you that he will sit there all day, trying to figure it out. When he wants to be, he is the most focused four-year-old I have ever known.” She didn’t tell Jax about Justin’s musical talents, wanting him to make that wonderful discovery on his own.

“So you’re living here now?” Jax said, continuing to try to relax her and engage her in conversation with him.

Brenda nodded. “Edward and Lila sort of insisted. I also thought it would be easier for our arrangement for you to be able to pick Justin up here all the time. He seems to really have had a wonderful time with you today, Jax. You’ve made him very happy. Thank you,” Brenda said sincerely.

“No, thank you,” Jax said, “for giving me that beautiful little boy, Brenda. And for giving me the chance to know him and to be a father to him. He’s the one who makes me happy. He’s everything I have ever wanted,” he said, but he was looking at Brenda when he said it and the impact of him saying those words while looking at her sent shivers of delight running through her, making her crazy and annoyed.

“He is pretty wonderful, isn’t he?” she agreed. “I can tell he’s crazy about you. When I finally told him that you were his father, I had no idea how he would react, but he was… well, I guess ‘thrilled’ would be a good way to describe it. He couldn’t stop talking about you, wanting to meet you, hoping desperately you would like him.”

“Thank you for telling me that,” Jax said softly, touched. “And the feeling is mutual - I adore him, you know - everything about him,” Jax said and then sat next to her on the porch swing, noticing that she moved away to the other end, as if disconcerted by his sudden nearness. “Thank you for your note, too,” Jax said. “I want the same things you want, Brenda. For us - you and I - to get along and for Justin to feel no tension. I’d like for you and I not to feel any tension either. You think we can’t be friends, but I know we can be.”

“Well, Jax, that’s not going to be easy for me,” Brenda confessed. “But I’m going to try; I really am. I want Justin to have both of us in his life in an atmosphere free of stress and unease. I don’t want him to ever feel like he has to take sides between us or choose one of us over the other, or get messed up in his young mind over any of this. I just want him to be happy. And to be able to love us both and know that we both love him, regardless of the fact that we… don’t love each other - you and I, I mean.”

Jax was extremely tempted to correct her. To tell her that he did love her. With all his heart. And that he knew damn well that she loved him, too. But he kept his thoughts to himself and just gazed at her, not saying anything; just drinking her in with his eyes. She felt herself blushing and felt like a fool for reading anything into his unwavering glance. And yet, she had a feeling his fiancée would not be too pleased to see him looking at another woman in this particular way.

“Soooooo,” Brenda said, finding the silence, the warm evening air, and his beautiful eyes far too intoxicating and needing to get some chatter going. “Tell me all about everything you did today.”

“Didn’t our son already do that?” Jax teased her.

Brenda grinned, unable to help herself. “Did he take a nap at all today?” she asked, keeping her eyes focused on the string of the balloon Justin had given her.

Jax nodded. “He fell asleep in the car on the way back from the carnival, and I had to carry him inside. I loved every minute of it. I loved watching him sleep. Is that crazy? I think I just sat there for hours, staring at him.”

Brenda smiled, knowing the feeling.

“Did you guys have dinner?” she asked.

“Hot dogs,” Jax said.

Brenda’s eyes flew to his, and she started to laugh as she saw the wicked playfulness in his eyes.

“Very funny,” she said. “And did you have eels for dessert?”

“Gotcha,” he murmured, and Brenda felt herself melting like butter. Damn! She had to find a way to deal with his unsettling effect on her. He was making her feel so light-hearted and happy right now. And that wasn’t right, was it? It was as if one look from him could erase the past and make her forget all he had done to her. Make her forget it all and jump right back into the fire and make a complete and utter fool out of herself all over again. No, never again, she vowed.

“Did anything happen today that I should know about?” Brenda asked, trying to be business-like now.

“Well, my parents ambushed us at the penthouse when I arrived there with Justin. They apparently had some surprise in mind with toys and balloons and cake, but Justin wasn’t very receptive. Neither was I, actually. I asked them to leave.”

Hearing of John and Jane’s blatant and sneaky-sounding attempts to ingratiate themselves with her son upset Brenda. “I won’t have them pressuring him, Jax. I mean it,” Brenda said firmly. “And I won’t have them trying to buy their way into his life. Your family’s money cannot buy my son,” she informed him.

“Brenda, it’s okay. I happen to absolutely agree with you,” he assured her, not liking that he had upset her. He sought to find a topic that they could talk about that would not hurt her in any way or lock down her defenses. “So… you know that I run ELQ now, don’t you?”

Brenda could not suppress her smile at his grin of pleasure. “Yes, I know all about it. Edward thunders on and on about it. I still think he can’t believe it’s true. I always knew you would do it though.” She felt this was a safe subject, and so she asked Jax to tell her about how he managed to pull it off and finally take ELQ over.

As Jax was filling her in, Brenda’s sleepiness from her inability to get a good night’s sleep in days, caught up with her and she fell asleep on the porch swing. Jax was in the middle of telling her about the drama of the board meeting that had ushered him in as CEO when he felt her head bump his shoulder.

“You know, as I recall, my business conversations always did have this effect on you,” he teased. But she was fast asleep and did not respond to his teasing bait. Jax gazed at her and relished the fact that he now had a legitimate excuse to touch her. To lift her into his arms and feel her against him. Of course, he could just wake her up, which she would probably prefer. But Jax was not about to let go of the first real excuse he had to hold her. He gently shifted her onto his lap, cradling her in his arms, sliding one hand underneath her knees and smiling to himself as she automatically slid an arm around his neck and nestled her head against his chest. She looked extremely content, he noticed. It had always been his contention that the unguarded moments in people were the moments of real truth, and he knew… he knew that Brenda still loved him - that a part of her still wanted back what had been taken from them four years ago as much as he did.

That she could still love him and want him, after everything she believed he had done to her, made him want to kiss her into breathlessness. Jax rose, carrying her to the front door of the Quartermaine mansion and inside.

“Oh, good lord, he’s gone and badgered the sweet child to death!” Edward accused, glaring at Jax, and completely ignoring the fact that far from appearing ‘dead,’ Brenda appeared to be quite cozy and at home there in Jax’s arms, her head resting on his shoulder, one arm entwined with an obvious familiarity around his neck, her long lashes touching down against her lovely face peacefully.

Emily walked into the living room, carrying a plate of Cook’s chocolate chip cookies, with Justin right behind her, running around her in circles and whooping like a warring Indian warrior. “Brenda’s actually been having trouble sleeping since she came back to Port Charles,” Emily said quietly.

“Why?” Jax asked, concerned.

“I don’t know, but that’s what Lois told me today. So we shouldn’t wake her up,” Emily suggested.

“I wasn’t going to,” Jax said. “Although your grandfather’s inane rantings might. Which bedroom is Brenda’s?”

“None of your business; now you unhand her this instant!” Edward said. “Reginald can carry her to her bedroom. I’m sure she would not appreciate you pawing her!”

“Oh, Edward, do be silent, dear,” Lila said. “Brenda’s room is up the stairs to the right, Jax.”

“I’ll show you, Daddy,” Justin offered.

“No, I will,” Edward said. “I’ll make sure this Australian shark behaves himself.” Then Edward turned to Justin. “As for you, young man, don’t you have an appointment with a bathtub?”

Justin gave Edward an endearing grin that made the old man smile warmly. “But my mommy’s sleeping, so she can’t give me my bath,” he pointed out, trying to escape having to take his bath.

“But I’m not sleeping,” Emily said, chasing him around the living room. “I can give you a bath. Or Reginald can. Either way you’re getting a bath, buster.”

“My daddy can give me my bath. Right, Daddy?” Justin said, still eluding Emily, as he raced about the room using his father as a shield.

“Oh, he doesn’t know the first thing about raising a child. He’ll drown the poor little tyke,” Edward muttered.

“Edward!” Lila snapped, exasperated.

“Well, for heaven’s sake, what does he know about being a father?” Edward whispered to Lila defensively.

Jax rolled his eyes. “I’ll give you a bath, Justin. Just let me get your mommy in the bed first, okay?”

“‘Kay!” Justin squealed, as Emily had caught him and was tickling him.

Edward followed Jax up to the bedroom and stood there like a stone-faced sentry, while Jax gently set Brenda down on the bed, taking the heart-shaped balloon from her relaxed fingers and tying it around the bedpost. He slid her shoes off and then contemplated if she’d be more comfortable out of her clothes.

“Don’t even think about it,” Edward said, reading his mind. “You know, young man, you’re very fortunate that Brenda will even give you the time of day after what you did to her. She’s told me, you know; she’s told me everything about why she left that summer.”

Jax said nothing; not in the mood to get into it with Edward.

“The smartest thing she ever did was to decide against leg shackling herself to you under the guise of marriage, although apparently you didn’t give her much choice in the matter, did you?”

“Edward,” Jax said, getting annoyed, “there are circumstances in play here that you have no idea about, and they’re none of your business, so I don’t intend to enlighten you. But you may as well know that I love Brenda, all right? I have always loved her. And I will get her back. And I am going to marry her. So whatever celebrating you were doing when you thought Brenda would never be with me again were premature,” Jax said, and then he walked out of the room to go and give his son a bath as a shocked Edward stared after him.

Having given Justin a bath and gotten soaked doing so, Jax now had the little boy tucked into bed.

“I thought I was the one who was supposed to be giving you a bath,” Jax said, as he ran a towel through his damp hair and glanced down at his damp shirt.

Justin laughed. “Did you like my swimming frog? His name’s Tek.”

“Yeah, well Tek splashes way too much,” Jax said, tapping the tip of his nose fondly.

“That’s what Mommy says, too,” he said. “She keeps hoping the wind-up button will break.”

Jax laughed and kissed his son’s golden hair, which was scented of Johnson’s baby shampoo.

“Daddy?”

“Hmm?”

“Could you tell me a story, so I can go to sleep? Mommy always does that. Even when she’s tired, she never forgets.”

“Okay,” Jax said, tapping his forefinger against his chin thoughtfully. “How about a musical story, would you like that?” he said, because, in truth, he was abysmal with fairy tales and bedtime stories. He didn’t know any, to be quite frank. His mother had raised him and Jerry on the tales of the wilderness. His dad, on the other hand, used to sing him animated Beatles songs, which Jax used to love.

Justin let out a little yawn and nodded in approval.

“All right. Ready?” Jax said, as he quickly scanned his mind to think of something to sing that would be entertaining for a four-year old-and could qualify as a story.

“Ready,” Justin said, with a firm, little nod.

“Okay, I’ve got it,” Jax said, rubbing his hands together with a grin. “This is a silly song with a silly story, so I think you’ll like it. My dad used to sing it to me all the time when I was a kid.”

     In the town where I was born lived a man who sailed to sea
     And he told of us his life in the land of submarines

“Submarines!” Justin piped up excitedly. “Oooh!”

Jax grinned over his enthusiasm and continued:

     So we sailed out to the sun till we found the sea of green
     And we lived beneath the waves in our yellow submarine

“They lived there? Under the water? All the time? Wicked -cool!” Justin said, wriggling around in the bed.

     We all live in a yellow submarine
     Yellow submarine
     Yellow submarine

     We all live in a yellow submarine
     Yellow submarine
     Yellow submarine

     And our friends are all aboard; many more of them live next door
     And the band begins to play
     We all live in a yellow submarine
     Yellow submarine
     Yellow submarine

     And we lived a life of ease; every one of us has all we need
     Sky of blue and sea of green
     In our yellow submarine

By the time Jax got to the last chorus, Justin was singing along with him and breaking out into soft, little peals of delighted laughter.

     We all live in a yellow submarine
     Yellow submarine
     Yellow submarine

“Could you do it again, Daddy? Please, please, please? ” Justin pleaded.

“Nope, sorry, little man,” Jax said, “you need to get to sleep, and look at you yawning and rubbing your eyes like that,” Jax said, brushing his fingers across Justin’s forehead. “You’re sleepy. And you should be; we did a lot today.”

Justin yawned again and tried to clap his hand over his mouth to disguise it, but his father just gave him an “I saw that” look and a smile.

“All right, I’ll tell you one more story,” Jax relented, scratching his head as he tried to remember at least the fragments of some kind of fairytale to base his story upon. He had a child now - so he supposed he’d have to go out and by a book of legit fairytales to read or memorize. Or he’d have to ask Brenda to get him up to speed on the latest children’s bedtime stories.

“I’m really glad you’re here,” Justin said with a sleepy laugh, after Jax had finished making up a hysterical bedtime fairytale about a troll prince named Outback Bubba and the princess he wanted to steal named Rapretzel, which had Justin in stitches.

“There’s no place I’d rather be,” Jax said, stroking his hair and watching him, at last, begin to drift off into sleep.

“I wish you were here all the time,” the child murmured.

“Me, too,” Jax said.

“Can I get a yellow submarine?”

“Not a real one,” Jax laughed. “I’ll get you one you can play with in the bathtub.”

“Can I see your boat?”

“The next time you see me.”

“When’s that gonna be?”

“Thursday, I think.”

“Could you live here with us?” Justin asked.

Jax kissed his forehead, not wanting to make any promises right now. “Go to sleep now, okay? I love you.”

“How come I can’t see you tomorrow? Can I see your motorcycle, Daddy? Can we go on it? I won’t fall off… I’ll hold on, I really will… I promise…”

But Justin was asleep before Jax could even answer him. Kissing the top of the sleeping boy’s blonde hair, Jax got up and then went to the room next door, where Brenda was. Thankfully, no Quartermaines were lurking, keeping watch at her door, like guard dogs. Jax had her alone for a moment, finally.

Jax knelt next to the bed, gazing at the sleeping Brenda, deep blue eyes riveted to her. He reached out and caressed a loose strand of her hair, bringing it to his lips and kissing it. “Your hair is so long now,” he murmured, entranced by the tall, dark curls. “Beautiful… just like you.” Then he stroked his fingers along her face, feeling his heart thunder silently as he touched her.

“I love you, Brenda,” he whispered. “And I’m going to find out who did this to us and make everything all right for us again, I promise. Just don’t give up on me.” He then leaned forward to steal a kiss from her sleeping lips.

The moment his lips brushed down against hers, he shivered at the sensual promise that radiated in their kiss. The certainty of an ecstasy he remembered only too well; that love spell that wrapped itself around them like magic whenever they were near each other.

Nothing had changed. Kissing her was still like tasting paradise. Achingly sweet, unbearably arousing. Jax broke the kiss before he lost himself to it completely and woke her in the process.

He gently traced the outline of her face and wondered why she was having trouble sleeping?

He slid his hand into hers, linking their fingers and drawing her hand to his lips, brushing his lips sensually across her slender fingers and smiling over the little “mmmm” she murmured in her sleep. He stayed there for several moments, just gazing at their entwined fingers, unable to move - unable to look away, wishing that the last four years had never happened, hating whomever had done this to them.

Touching her was such heaven, that he almost couldn’t bring himself to let go of her, but he forced himself to do it somehow. He placed a gentle kiss on her temple and left the room, encountering a scowling Edward.

“Trying to sneak in there and drop some twisted love potion in her water to make her fall in love with you again? Stop wasting your time, Jax. Brenda is neither that desperate, gullible nor masochistic. And any time she softens towards you, I’ll be more than happy to remind her of what you did to her,” Edward warned.

“You think she doesn’t love me?” Jax asked, his calm demeanor making Edward irate. “I think she does. Eventually, we will see who is right, Edward. But remember, you never thought I’d get ELQ either, did you now?” Jax winked at him and headed downstairs towards the front door.

Edward followed the young ELQ CEO, grumbling all the way. “You are really a piece of work, Jasper Jacks! What - do you intend to start your own personal harem? Or have you forgotten that you have a fiancée that you quickly appropriated once you had dumped Brenda! You plan to have both Brenda and that Miranda woman killing themselves to be the one to win your affections? Have you no shame!” Edward snapped.

Jax paused at the door with a tolerant sigh. “Edward, for your information there is no competition for my affections, and I am not trying to incite one. I love Brenda. Only Brenda. That is the simple truth, all right? I love Brenda. I want Brenda. And I have every intention of doing everything in my power to get her back. Is that clear enough for you now? Although I do begin to wonder just how far you’d go to keep her from me, old man?” Jax said, wondering if Edward should be on his list of suspects for what had happened that fateful summer.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Edward said.

“We’ll see,” Jax said, leaving. He left the Quartermaine mansion more determined than ever to get Brenda back and make a life with her and their son, and sooner rather than later. As he headed towards his SUV, he pulled out his cell phone and called Jerry, leaving him a message asking how far he’d gotten in checking into all the deals they had been involved in four years ago. Then he called Miranda, leaving her a message asking her to have breakfast with him tomorrow at the PC Grille, as he had something very important that they had to discuss and it could not be put off any longer.

As Jax got into his SUV and pulled out of the Quartermaine driveway, a figure, parked in an immaculate black sedan across the street, watched his every move; the perfectly manicured fingernails of the slender, aging hands drumming against the steering wheel in time to the opera singer’s “Rapsodia” playing on the radio. The sharp blue eyes gazed at him intently as the fingernails drummed on. “What is it about you, Mr. Jacks,” she murmured “that has my pathetic excuse for a brother-in-law keeping secret files on you under lock and key in his study?”

Soon her people would break into Max’s study in Athens and get their hands on those files and uncover whatever secrets they held. But in the meantime, she would keep an eye on young Jasper Jacks. She couldn’t imagine why her dead husband’s brother would take such an interest in this young man - but she intended to find out.