The Bed You Make
Chapter 24, continued

Back when she'd been with the Port Charles' District Attorney's Office, the mention of Helena Cassadine's name hadn't evoked more than a roll of the eyes from her. Despite the woman's brushes with the local authorities, Dara never believed the larger than life stories Mac Scorpio and Marcus Taggert recounted. To listen to the two men talk, you would believe that Helena possessed the flexibility of Catwoman, the ingenuity of MacGyver, the imperturbability of James Bond and the icy cunning of Hannibal Lecter. No one, Dara had scoffed at the time, was all that. Now that she'd had her first tete-a-tete with her husband's mother, the lawyer could better understand their claims. She owed both men an apology.

Dara walked out onto the balcony. She knew that all she would see was the darkness of the waters surrounding Spoon Island. The Cassadine family wing faced away from the launch. Whatever was going on between Stefan and Helena would remain hidden from her sight.

The woman had ice water running through her veins, Dara marveled. Helena hadn't been disturbed by Stefan's sudden appearance or his demand that she leave Wyndemere and Spoon Island. She'd chosen instead to push the limits of Stefan's patience by stating her preference of Cassadine guards to escort her from the grounds

Dara replayed the encounter in her mind, trying to capture the moment when Helena entered the darkened bedroom suite. There were windows of opportunity for her to have done so, but they were very small. Still, Helena had made her way into Wyndemere, aided by the small contingent of Cassadine employees either loyal to her or too afraid to defy her.

Dara was almost sorry that Stefan hadn't taken his mother up on her request to deal with Yuri Petrov. She was a bit surprised that Helena had managed to so easily get past Yuri's security. Stefan considered the man without equal when it came to matters of security. To be fair, though, it probably wasn't easy to secure a place when there were insiders weakening the lines of defense. It probably hadn't helped, Dara admitted fairly, that Yuri's attention had been even more divided by her decision to move out of Stefan's suite.

Dara took a deep breath. It was obvious what her next course of action should be. There was no delaying the inevitable. It was still several hours before daybreak. There was no way she was going to climb back into that bed and try to sleep. Not after Helena Cassadine's midnight visit.

The lovely lawyer grabbed a handful of things from the dresser and made her way through the open door and back into the suite – and bed - she originally shared with Stefan.