Dance with the Devil: Chapter 14

It had been a long, emotional day for Viki and all she wanted was a quiet dinner out with Clint. While Tina, Cord and Sarah had gone to a little Italian restaurant and brought Sam along with them, Natalie and John had taken Liam the Kelly’s and Blair and Starr headed back to the hospital, she and Clint looked forward to a quiet dinner alone in the hotel’s dining establishment. Dorian had to get back to Washington, but insisted on being kept informed as to Todd’s status.


As the two enjoyed a quiet dinner, Clint was momentarily distract, but pointed to the man who had just stepped off the elevator. Viki turned and saw Ric Lansing approaching the bar. He sat down and angled himself to face the elevators. After a few minutes, the young woman who had brought Jack to the hospital the night of the shooting stepped forward.


Molly scanned the room, but before seeing her father, she noticed Todd Manning’s sister at a table. She moved over to her as her father’s gaze followed her. “I just came from seeing your brother. I brought him some books, if he was bored, being cooped up in the hospital,” she told Viki.


“That’s very sweet of you,” Viki replied as Ric approached.


He tapped his daughter‘s shoulder and she turned to embrace him. However, for the moment, his attentions were elsewhere. “Mrs. Davidson, what an unexpected pleasure. What are you doing in Port Charles?” he asked.


Viki eyed the attorney carefully as Molly looked at her father. “My brother was shot two days ago,” she explained.


Ric’s eyes widened. “I was in New York City for the past week, coordinating some moving out of storage there. When I last spoke to him, he mentioned something about maybe needing me up here quickly, but he didn’t say why. I told him I’d be getting to town today and he seemed fine with that.”


“Wait, Dad, your client is Todd Manning? Is that the murder case you were telling me about on the phone?” Molly asked.


Ric turned to his daughter. “Ah, if you would excuse me,” he said to Viki and Clint.


As he and Molly moved off, Clint raised an eyebrow when his fiancée turned back to him. “Well, Todd’s attorney has a daughter who lives in Port Charles?” Clint questioned.


Viki let out a sigh. “Well, that explains something, at least.” As she scrutinized him, she explained. “After he was acquitted, I went to see Todd. He was crowing about how his attorney’s strategy work. Then he told me this guy looked him up, that he hadn’t gone out and found Lansing. It made me curious so I did an internet search.” She pointed behind her to Lansing. “His daughter isn’t the only family he has in Port Charles. Sonny Corinthos is his long-lost brother, and get this, they have just about as cozy of a relationship as my brothers did.”


As Viki filled Clint in on more of what she had learned about Ric Lansing, the man was sitting down to dinner with his daughter. Molly looked from Viki back to her father as she asked, “How did you become Mr. Manning’s attorney? I thought you were in Los Angeles.”


“Well, Mr. Manning was looking for a high-profile attorney when he was charged with murder and, I guess he read about some of the cases I had won. Plus the fact that I was a former prosecutor and knowing how they would go about presenting the case from their side appealed to him. He called me up and offered me the case.” Like any slick attorney, Ric had an amazing ability to lie through his teeth, even to his unsuspecting daughter. “I was eventually able to prove that, because he had been kidnapped and held prisoner for eight years, he was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and that, couple with the fact that he came home to find a hitherto unknown brother had replaced him caused him to kill that brother.” As he took a drink of the scotch he ordered, he smiled at his daughter. “Now that he’s moved to Port Charles, he put me on retainer and I’ve moved here.”


While Molly was a little suspicious about her father, she was just so happy to see him that she didn’t continue the discussion. “He was pretty badly hurt from the shooting and is still in the hospital. I was visiting him when you called.”


Ric looked up from his menu at his daughter. “You were visiting him?” he asked.


“Yeah, I met his son and we’ve talked a few times. In fact his son told me today that he’s going to remarry Jack’s mother.” As Molly perused the menu, she added, “Did you know his father was Victor Lord, the publisher of The Banner? I brought him one of the books from Wyndamere and he told me that it was about his father.”


Ric smiled at his precious daughter. “Yes, I know all about his family,” Ric said, his eyes sliding over to Viki and her companion. “So, he’s remarrying Blair Cramer, huh? I will need to go talk to him first thing in the morning about that.”


As Ric and Molly were catching up, Blair and Starr were sharing burgers and french fries from Kelly’s while Todd was looking at his hospital food with disgust. He eyed their food with envy. “You know, it has been proven that the cholesterol in fries is really good for people recovering from multiple gunshot wounds,” he tried, laying it on with a charming smile.


Unfortunately, his smarty-pants daughter was having none of it. “Dad, they need to make sure you’re eating properly!” Starr exclaimed as she swatted her dad’s hand away from the fries.


“What, one fry won’t kill me,” he said but he got no response from the mother or daughter. He decided to change the subject. “So, Jack seems real excited about us getting married,” he said dully.


Blair grimaced at the memory. “I guess I was so excited, I didn’t think how Jack would…”


Todd looked away. “He’s never going to forgive me, not for any of it. Not that I can blame him.”


Blair turned to him. “Todd stop that now!” she ordered. When he gave her an exasperated look, she said, “Stop with the self-pitying tone of voice. Did you screw up? Yes. Have you screwed up worse before? Absolutely yes and you’ll probably screw up again. But Todd, you have to let it go just as much as Jack does.” She touched his face. “And I know you will. You both will.” She planted a kiss on his lips.


It would have been longer had their daughter not cleared her throat. When they turned to face her, they both had sheepish, teenagers-caught expression. But Starr topped them. She had that same scheming smile that had first reared its head when she was a little girl. “So, can we at least start to plan the wedding. Because, if we don’t, you know Aunt Dorian will,” she finally said to them.


Blair sighed, agreeing somewhat with her daughter’s thoughts. “You do have a point there sweety.”


Todd shook his head. “The wedding won’t be for a while.” When Starr stared at him, he said to her, “I told your mother we won’t be getting married until I can walk again. And look, I know I’m in for months of therapy after the surgery. So for once, I don’t see a need for to rush.” He leered back at Blair. “Though, I do throw one hell of a wedding last minute.”


While Todd was enjoying the time with the love of his life and their daughter, at Kelly’s his son was still at the counter of the now empty establishment. Luke Spencer had been in the back helping out when he had heard the conversation between the young man, MacBain and a redhead. He spied the boy still out there and flashed back to the painful memories of the time Lucky refused to acknowledge him. Though not usually the meddling type, he figured that he would at least check up on the boy. “Well, young Master Manning, what’s got you in a snit?” he asked.


Jack look up at him. “I don’t want to talk about it,” he said curtly.


“I kinda of got that impression from hearing you,” Luke said gently. He nodded his head. “I’ll respect your privacy but, from what I heard, I think I know what you’re going through with your dad.”


“How would you know what I’m going through?” Jack asked snidely. “Do you know my dad kill my uncle and got away with it. Or that my dad gave me away because he didn’t want what he thought was another guy’s kid around. Or how about the fact that I’m the son of a rapist?”


Luke took a deep breath. “Well, Todd Manning lives up to his reputation, I see. For the record, I actually do know something about a number of what you said.” Luke reached into his pocket and pulled out a picture. It was of a wedding party, with Luke standing with a lovely blonde woman who was obviously the bride. Two you men and his daughter Lulu were smiling along with another woman who looked like the bride. “This was a picture when I remarried my first wife.” He pointed to Lulu and the man standing in the back. “These are our kids, Lulu, who owns the Haunted Starr and Lucky, Lucas, Jr. actually. And that guy is my stepson.” He sighed. “I hated Nikolas, that’s his name, from the minute I met him. He represented at time that I was apart from Laura. Believe me, I played every fantasy out in my head about shipping the boy and his demented uncle back to where they came from. It hurt Laura a great deal.”


“What happened?” Jack asked.


“I got over it. I learned to live with Nikolas, because he was Laura’s son,” Luke explained.


Jack could feel the tough guy bravado slipping but he fought to hold on. “Yeah, well I really am Todd Manning’s son, and he didn’t want me.” Jack looked down as he explained. “My mom was afraid that if he learned she was pregnant by him, he’d take me away from her like he was taking my sister at the time. She eventually ran away to Mexico and he followed and after he deliver me, he gave me away to have her all to himself and told her I was dead.”


“Did he eventually learn the truth?” Luke asked gently, as the boy slowly opened up.


“Yeah, but when he brought me back, he said I needed to be adopted. It was only months later he confessed the truth,” Jack told him.


Luke nodded as he went on with his question. “How long have you known about this?”


“For a few years,” Jack admitted.


“What brought it up now? Cause he killed your uncle?” Luke thought he knew where this was going, but he would let the young man talk it out.


“We thought my uncle was really my dad for the last eight years. Then, one night, in walks Scarface and the world just…” Jack tried to explain. “And then, my uncle was shot dead and it turned out that after months of more lies, Scarface did it, but they couldn’t convict.” Jack looked up. “Not guilty by reason of insanity.”


“So you found another reason to hate him. I can see your point.” Luke moved around behind the counter as Jack followed him with his eyes.


“You said there was another point that you saw my way. What, did you kill your brother?” Jack asked curious.


Luke shook his head. “No, I don’t have a brother.“ Luke decided how to proceed on this topic. “No, it wasn’t that point.” With that, he could tell Jack knew what he was talking about. “Lucky learned the truth when he was a little older than you are now. It nearly destroyed him. He always saw me as some big hero and when the truth came out…Not that you ever seem to have seen your father as a hero.”


Jack let out a chuckle. “No, but my other dad…I screwed up real bad last year and he help me out of it. I owed him so much and then he’s not my dad. It was all confusing. Then ‘Todd’ started trying to talk with me and I just really didn’t want to hear it. Then there was everything with the murder of my uncle and I…I don’t know what to do!” He shouted.


“What about your mom? What do you think she would say? Can she help?” the older man asked.


“Yeah, she could help, if she hadn’t agreed to remarry him today,” Jack huffed.


“So, she’s forgiven him? For all of it?” Luke said with amazement. “Wow, some woman.”


“My sister used to tell me how they couldn’t be apart,” Jack began, unburdening himself. “Before she was born, my mom thought that my dad had died but eventually he came back to her. Then when I was a baby, he vanished again. When ‘he’ came back, he had a different face. That turned out to be my uncle. This will be my parents’ fourth marriage.”


Luke was impressed. “Soulmates, or gluttons for punishment?” Jack looked at him in askance. “What’s the matter, kid?”


“What should I do?” he asked. “What did your son do in the end?”


Luke shrugged, “My son, after a time, forgave me. We still have a pretty good relationship, when he’s in town. And I’ve done other things since then.” Luke leaned on the counter. “Mr. Manning, I usually don’t do this, but I’m going to give you some advice.” Jack sat back and listened. When Luke finished, Jack left to the diner and headed to the hospital. In Todd’s room, he saw his mother and sister laughing with him, basking in his presence. He quietly walked into the room and his father immediately turned to him. “We need to talk,” Jack said simply. When Blair and Starr made a move to leave, he stopped them, saying. “I think we all need to.” Blair looked from Jack to Starr and finally to Todd. Todd grew very quiet.
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