Justin sat in the holding cell, wondering what the hell had happened. One minute, he as in the emergency room waiting area, the next he was in the back of a police car. He couldn’t believe how the day had turned out so messed up. Babies have accidents all the time. Everything he was supposed to do, he had done. It was a mistake leaving her on the bed, but this was extreme. Not only that, he still didn’t know how she was doing.

“Mr. Taylor,” a harsh voice said.

A sigh escaped him. Officer Logan gave him the creeps. Just something about the man that weirded him out. It wasn’t so much his smarmy smile or greased back hair. No…it was something much deeper. Like they man was ready to kill him at any moment.

“Please, how are my kids?” he begged.

Gus and Tommy had been holding on to him when the police put him in handcuffs. The nurse tried to intervene, demanding to know who called them. As he was leaving, he realized it that not been the hospital staff who called. But if they hadn’t, who had?

The answer was soon obvious as a face from his past walked in.

“Dad?”, he asked as he watched his father follow Officer Logan in.

“Justin, it’s good to see you again.”

Justin looked around at the other men in the cell with him. He wondered if his dad had fantasied about this moment. Seeing his face, he sure he had, dreams did come true. His father was absolutely giddy.

“I’m sure, it is.”

“True, but I didn’t expect you and Maxwell to play so easily into my hand.”

Officer Logan unlocked the cell, ordering him out. Stunned that his father was somehow involved his arrest, he numbly followed orders. The burly police officer grabbed him and led him out of the room. He thought it was about his going before the judge, but it wasn’t. He knew that as soon as he was tossed into the back of a van. ‘Not again’ was his last thought before the door shut.

Jennifer walked into the hospital after dropping her grandson, Tommy, off with Debbie. She hadn’t wanted to leave the night before, but the cops taking Justin talked about putting Tommy into care if she refused to leave. It all sounded very wrong but she was taught to respect cops, that they were always right. Now though in the light of day, without the screaming and intimidation, it didn’t make any sense.

“Excuse me, I’m here to see my granddaughter.” Her voice was a little rough, she had spent most of the night trying to calm down a child she had only seen a few times in a year. He had only calmed down once Brian promised him that he was coming home today.

“Name?”  

“Marissa Taylor.”

The woman typed into her computer. “I’m sorry, Marissa Taylor checked out this morning at six.”

“She checked out? She’s six months old.” What kind of place were they running here? They must have mixed her up with someone else.

“Her grandfather, Craig Taylor, checked her out.”

“Oh, God,” she whispered. This couldn’t be happening; her ex was sorry excuse for a father. The only time he even remembered his children was when it fit into his plans.

Something had been bothering Carl all night. When he asked to see Justin’s file, he was told he was interfering. That had never happened before, he was the most senior detective there after all. Then when he asked to see Justin, they told him he couldn’t because he was on personal time. In fact, Officers Logan and Terrell wouldn’t let him talk to anyone else. At the time, his mind was mostly on Jenny Rebecca, Deb was beside herself. Something just felt wrong now that he thought about it.

Not only that, but Gus had told them what really happened. The way Logan explained it was that they baby had been left alone for hours on the bed, with a dirty diaper that had put a sever rash on her bottom. But after talking to Brian the night before there wouldn’t be enough time. He fed and changed her before he left at noon. Jennifer was called by Justin at a half past seven.

Something was fishy was definitely going on. He needed to get to the bottom of it. He didn’t know Justin from Adam really, but Brian was sure there had to be something else going on.

“I’m looking for Justin Taylor,” Carl said to Trina, the desk sergeant.

“Who?”

“Justin Taylor, he was arrested last night for child neglect.”

“Sorry, Carl, I just entered in all last night’s arrests. No Justin Taylor.”

“That can’t be right, I talked to Logan and Terrell last night. He was brought in; I know he was.”

“Strange,” she said before her face lit up. “Oh, Logan and Terrell? You didn’t hear?” she asked, eyes giddy with excitement.

Police stations were worse than beauty parlors when it came to gossip. Especially, if it was something bad, and something about someone they didn’t like. No one liked Terrell and they just plain hated Logan. Logan was always too handsy with the women in the station, Terrell was just an asshole. They both had a few marks against them already, whatever the new story was probably wouldn’t be very hard to believe.

“No, what?” He had only run into them outside the station. Hadn’t been in the station for two days. Both men had been acting a little odd, but, when weren’t they?

“They up and resigned last night. Both of them, can you believe that? Rodriguez said they probably left their wives and ran away together.” she tittered.

“What time?” He had run into them at nine, about an hour after Jennifer said they left with him.

“Eight last night. They came in this morning to release some kid that was out drinking late, his dad asked them to teach him a lesson.”

“What did this kid look like?” he asked, a sinking feeling in his gut that he already knew.

“White boy. Shaggy blonde hair, average height.”

Inwardly, he cursed. “And Logan and Terrell took him?”

“No, his dad. Tall, gray haired guy. I heard the boy call him dad, so it had to be true. Why? Something off?”

“Sign the paper and you’ll be released” his father said, shoving a stack of papers at him.

“What is this?” He couldn’t see what the papers said in the darkness of the van. His dad had a flashlight on the spot where he was supposed to sign.

“Just you giving up all rights to the baby, and giving me sole guardianship.”

“What? You’re insane. I’m not giving up my baby, and definitely not to you. Why do you even want her? You never cared about me or Molly.”

“You and Molly didn’t have half a multimillion dollar company.”

“What are you talking about?” Justin thought for a second. “Oh, you thought you could get her and have Maxwell’s stake in his company. You are insane if you think a paper that hasn’t been notarized or looked after by a lawyer would be the worth paper it’s written on.”

The door in the van opened, letting in some light from the overcast day they were having. It also revealed a new player in this game. One that he was quite familiar with.

“You have to be joking,” he said, looking between his father and ex-sister-in-law.

“Did he sign the papers?” she asked, ignoring him.

Gemma Venn was younger than her brother Maxwell. Justin had never liked the woman because she treated Tommy just as bad as Maxwell did. The only time she seemed to even notice or pay attention to her children was to when Tommy was around. It made him feel bad for them, a few days after his divorce went through he found out Gemma’s husband committed suicide, leaving them with just her.

“No, he’s being a brat…like usual.”

“What do you want with her? You don’t even like being around your own children.”

“Maxwell was so easy to play. Put something young and pretty in front of him and he goes for it.”

Things started to fall into place for him. It all seemed too Twilight Zone to him though. His father and Gemma had set this whole thing up, right from the very beginning. He wondered if he was already promised to Maxwell before he found out he was pregnant with Tommy.

“How long? How long ago did you sell me?” he snapped at his father.

“Don’t be so melodramatic. All I did was fix a problem. You were pregnant and unmarried. I set up a marriage. If by chance, I already knew about his unfortunate previous spouses, so what. I’ve known Gemma a long time, it seems she was tired of her brother throwing away what their father worked his whole life for. It’s simple really, I was promised a large incentive to help push things along.”

Gemma giggled, an honest to God giggle. “My poor brother really couldn’t help himself. I’m truly sorry your son was hurt, and that you lost the one baby. None of that was planned. He fired the maid I had paid to keep me in the know. I didn’t learn about your second pregnancy until it was too late. But you didn’t need us, you got Tommy and yourself out. Then gave birth to Marissa.”

None of this made any sense to him. “I don’t understand. Maxwell is never getting out of prison. Why all this cloak and dagger stuff?”

“Well, first my dear brother didn’t read the fine print in Daddy’s will. He would lose everything if he was convicted of a felony. Daddy always knew something was off about him. Will said that if Max had any children a portion of his share of the company would go to them. But he missed the part that said if he was convicted of a felony, his child or children would get his whole share. So now, Marissa owns fifty percent share of a multimillion dollar company.”

“I don’t understand, she’s just a baby. Doesn’t that mean someone will take over for her until she’s old enough?”

“Catching on, my boy. That’s why I need her. Taylor Electronics is in the red. But if I infuse it with money from Stevens Plastics, I can take both into the billions.”

Justin shook his head in the dim van. The only light now was from the flashlight and a light streaming in from the open door. “You want my daughter so you can have her share of a company?” Why did it even surprise him? “What do you get from this?” he asked Gemma.

“God, you really are stupid. I get total control of the company.”

“How?” The math wasn’t working out like they were saying. Not unless… “You two are together, aren’t you?”

“Finally figured it out? Good for you.”

“Well, I’m not signing anything. If you kill me Marissa will go to Mom. I’ve already saw the lawyer and signed the papers,” he lied.

“Shit!” his father cursed. “What do we do now?”

“He’s lying,” Gemma said.

“Good luck with chance,” he said, hoping she would believe it. “Listen, I think I can solve everyone’s problem here.”

“How?”

“Well, if we can get Maxwell to give up his rights to Marissa. I can have my fiancé adopt her. She would be a Kinney. The share would revert back to you, right?” He hoped Brian would forgive him for this fib, the funny thing is he knew Brian would adopt her. Even if it was just to get her away from all these psychopaths. He also had no idea if that was even possible for the law to work that way, it was worth a shot though.

“Would that work?” Craig asked Gemma.

“I think so, it just says any children. If she wasn’t legally his child anymore the company would my mine and my kids.”

“Mine too, right?” Craig asked a little uneasily.

“About that, well…I don’t need you anymore. Sorry.” She then looked at Justin. “So we have a deal? You have her adopted by who-the-fuck-ever and I get my company back.”

“Deal. I don’t want to see any of you ever again though. That includes you, Craig. And make sure to call off your cops.”

“They already got their money, they’re probably already on a plane now out of the country. Leaving their wives and running away together, how quint.”

She held out her hand for Justin to grab. He grabbed it tentatively and she yanked him out of the van. His dad was bitching but didn’t stop them after she glared at him.

“You can’t just leave me,” he dad whined.

“Sorry Craig, it’s not you really. It’s just the thought of you touching me again makes my skin crawl and want to vomit. Have a nice day.”

“How did you know about the accident though?” he asked.

“Cameras. You might want to get rid of them,” she laughed.

“Wait…how did you get cameras in Brian’s loft?”

“Oh that, they’ve been there a long time. That friend…what was his name? Oh, yes. Michael. He installed them for us. Months and months ago, right after you moved in the building.”

When she offered Justin a ride he declined, he didn’t trust her. “Are you sure? I have someone in my car I think you want to see.”

As he walked to the car he could hear his dad speeding off in the van. Once he was beside the driver’s side backseat he saw her. Sleeping under a pink baby blanket, in a car seat that wasn’t hers.

“Marissa!” he yelled before trying to open the door. It took a Gemma a second to unlock the door. He didn’t waste any time pulling her out.

“I’ll walk,” he told the woman, not even looking. He headed down the sidewalk with Marissa in his arms. He had the blanket wrapped around her.

“Remember our deal,” she called out.

“I’ll remember.” He didn’t care about the money, he hoped Marissa wouldn’t either. All he wanted was for these people to be out of his life. He headed towards the city.

Erik placed a kiss on Teddy’s head before going back to the NICU. Arial Jane and Bradley Phillip were doing so well. But their little Carlotta Victorine wasn’t doing so well. Carlotta meaning Strong one in Italy seemed fitting. Ted chose Victorine, it meaning brave but also because of Erik’s father. While he had never known him, he loved to hear stories from his aunt and all Vic’s friends. He just wished he knew more about what had happened to his birth father.

He didn’t know what he would do if Carlotta died. It would feel like losing a part of them. She was so much smaller and more fragile than the others. He and Teddy had gotten to hold Arial and Bradley, but they couldn’t risk taking Carlotta out of chamber.  

It had been five months of intense physical therapy, but he was finally able to get around by himself. Yes, he still had to use a walker but building back muscle tissue was no easy feat. His parents had come to see him once since he awoke. They told him about everything that happened. He was an old man now, a lifetime had passed him by. They told him about his attack, losing the baby. He cried for hours. It broke his heart when they told him that Vic didn’t want anything to do with him after the baby was gone. But he didn’t blame him, Vic would have spent thirty years sitting by his bed waiting for him to wake up. That was no life to live. He hoped he had more children, found someone to love him. It still surprised him that he was in under a false name in the place. His mother explained they were scared his attackers would come and finish the job. Surely, after thirty years they would give up though.

When he told his parents, he wasn’t moving back in with them they left. He was fifty for crying out loud. It was a long shot but he hoped to find the only other one cared about him. He hadn’t seen her since they were barely nineteen but she would tell him what happened while he was sleeping.

“I called a cab for you Mr. Winters. I also looked up that woman, you’re lucky. She does live in Pittsburgh, on Liberty Avenue,” the kind orderly said.

Phillip had to laugh, of course Debbie came back home to Pittsburgh. He wasn’t surprised in the least that she moved to Liberty Avenue. He wondered if it was still where the gays went to be safe. There were only a few places that didn’t judge them and they were all on Liberty Avenue.

He was glad that the staff had gotten him some new clothes. That meant he wouldn’t have to meet Debbie for the first time in thirty years wearing a hospital gown or scrubs. He hoped she knew where the baby was buried, he wanted to see his last resting place. His parents had been less than helpful, but they were in their eighties now.

“Thank you,” he said the woman before getting to his feet.

Lindsay woke up to her sister calling her name. It all was very foggy. Finally, when her head cleared everything came back to her. Mel’s death, the police and her suicide attempt. Her sister was pushed aside and two women in suits started asking her questions. They turned out to be police, they explained that as soon as she was healthy enough to be discharged, she would be flown back to Pittsburgh. There she would stand trial in her wife’s death.