Glory – Chapter 21

"Thanks for not giving me up," Brenda thanked Felicia as they waited for their lunch at the Outback.

"My loyalty is with my clients, regardless of how hard it is to keep a secret," Felicia assured her.

"I'm sorry I put you in such an awkward position. If I had just read the complete report." Brenda shrugged her shoulders.

"When did you tune me out?"

"As soon as I heard you say kidnap. I blanked and went into defense mode. I had to protect my babies."

Having two daughters herself, Felicia completely understood that. She nodded as much.

"But now that I've read your report, I understand what you were trying to tell me. I should have realized from the beginning. Glory was still very warm when I finally unwrapped the blankets which meant she couldn't have been on the porch for very long."

"Someone was watching you or the house," Felicia added.

"Which means whoever dropped her off at the house had to be connected or related to her?"

Felicia nodded, sipping her iced tea.

"Who do you think it was?"

"Definitely someone who loved her. The extra clothes, diapers, the note, all those little added details leads me to believe it was a female, most likely the birth mother or another close female relative.”

"The one woman who has the power to rip my life apart."

"Or to give you peace about this whole situation," Felicia countered.

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Pictures were spread out across the library table, as Tad walked in.

"Whatcha workin' on?" Tad asked, loosening his tie.

"Putting together a collage of the children who helped start the foundation," Anna replied.

Wrapping his arm around his wife, he kissed her temple and looked at the pictures of Leora, Carly, BJ, Kristina and another unknown baby. "Who is that?"

Anna stopped what she was doing and looked at the picture Tad was looking at. "Oh, that's Spencer Corinthos, Carly's and Sonny's son. Bobbie took this picture for Carly."

"You're making these kids proud, you know that?"

"I like to think so," she agreed, arranging the pictures.

"What's that?" Tad questioned, picking up a picture.

"What?"

"This," he answered, pointing to an oddly shaped birth mark on the small of Kristina's back. "This looks like Glory's birth mark."

"A coincidence."

Stepping away from his wife, Tad shook his head. "It has to be more than that. The same exact birth mark our granddaughter shares with another baby, the same sex as her, born around the same time and to a woman who was having a mental breakdown at the time. And you did comment that maybe Alexis could better deal with Kristina's death, if she had had a funeral or a memorial service, instead of just having the baby cremated," he reminded her.

"You're speculating, Tad."

"Did anyone see Kristina's body? How did she die?"

"She died from complications due to a premature bir- -"

"Dad said that Glory was premature and besides that's what Alexis told you- -"

"Ned, Stefan, nor Nikolas would go along with Alexis' lie about Kristina's death. And what would Alexis have to gain by lying?"

"Of course, they wouldn't. Well, maybe Stefan if it suited some dastardly Cassadine purpose, but if they all thought Kristina was dead- -"

"And once again what would Alexis have to gain?" Anna repeated.

"I'm not saying she did this on purpose, I'm just saying that we're taking the word of a woman about a period of time in her life when she had our daughter fighting for her life because she couldn’t remember that she killed that animal. If she could do that, then she could have gotten rid of Kristina."

Studying the picture, Anna didn't know what to believe. This was too bizarre for words. "We can't just go up to Alexis and ask, 'Did you tell people your daughter was dead, but instead you drove her to Pine Valley, waited for someone, and left her on our front door to raise?'"

"Oookaay, then plan B- -"

Anna followed his gaze to the coffee table.

"No, no we can't do that," she declared, staring at the coffee mug and shaking her head.

"For Glory?"

"When we find out you're wrong about this, you're going to treat me to a two week vacation with Alex and Dmitri," Anna said, opening a drawer and taking out a large Ziploc bag and a set of disposable gloves.

"Oh my dream come true to spend two weeks too long with stiff and stiffer."

"Hey, you can't talk about my twin that way."

"Yeah, the sister you blissfully lived the first forty years of your life without so don't try it."

Anna put on the gloves, poured the remaining coffee into a nearby plant, and placed the mug into the Ziploc bag. "They are a little stiff, aren't they?"

"You understated Brits. My Grandma Katie is livelier than those two and she's been dead twenty years."

"Tad."

"What? It’s the truth. And you know it. Add this to your collection."

Taking the Barbie hairbrush from her husband, she gave him a peculiar look. "Should I even ask?"

"Ha! Ha! I had to hide it from Glory; it was the only way to get her to quit playing beauty shop with me. And when we find out that I'm right. You. Naked. For two weeks on a little island in the South Pacific."

"You're on," she grinned.

"Now let's go, detective, turn me on by using your power to get these items processed on the double," Tad commanded, as he grabbed the Ziploc bags, his wife's hand, and took off like a bat out of hell.