“Shh, Carly, Morgan’s asleep. Leticia just got him down.”
He had hoped to tell her slowly, over a long dinner out, after a
few rather large drinks had gotten into her system. But fate had
conspired against him, as usual. Justus had learned from Dara that
the charges would be filed within the week. If he was going to marry
Alexis, Justus warned him, it had to be now.
That meant telling Carly.
“What the hell did you just say?” Carly demanded, still
at a decibel that could break glass.
“I have to marry Alexis. It’s the only way we could figure
to fight these charges.”
“Oh, I bet it was the only way she could think of…cuz
it gets her back into your bed!” Carly shrieked. “Isn’t
this a nice little turn of events: she talks you into marrying me
to save you from jail, and now she does it again with HERSELF starring
in the role of wife? No way, Sonny!”
His jaw tensed as he ground his teeth. “Alexis didn’t
even suggest it. Justus did.”
“Fine. Remind me to cuss him out, too, when I see him. But
the fact remains that Alexis loves this idea, doesn’t she?
She can finally trick you into coming back to her. The little witch.
Three words: No. Way. Sonny.”
Sonny wanted to grab her and shake her when she talked about people
that way…especially Alexis. “You and I are divorced. You
have no say in this.”
“Oh no? I have your children. I have custody. I have a say
in whether or not you see them,” she told him.
Sonny looked at her, a warning in his gaze. “Don’t try
to play that card, Carly.”
“I’ll do what I have to do. You marry that witch, you
won’t see them as long as I draw breath…”
“God knows, you shouldn’t tempt me like that!” he
retorted walking away from her.
Her eyes shrank to slits spitting wrath at him. “You will not
see them, Sonny. Do you hear me? You marry her you might as well
be in prison because I won’t have you near my children.”
If he ever needed proof that Carly knew nothing of real love, here
it was staring him in the face. “You’d really do that
to me?”
“You’re MARRYING another woman and you have the nerve
to act like a betrayed little boy with me? I’m the one who’s
been betrayed, Sonny!”
“We’re divorced, Carly! We don’t sleep together.
I live here for the kids. And damn it, that hasn’t even been
working cuz Michael’s only gotten more confused…and more
manipulative every minute. We should’ve been honest with him.
We should’ve helped him live with reality.”
“Reality? You mean like the fact that his father was sleeping
with a former hooker at the PC Hotel?”
“Or that his mama was doing the same with a drug dealer?”
Sonny sneered. “Don’t do this, Carly. Don’t play
this game. I’m much better at it.”
“Yes, yes you are. You are better at dirty, low-down betrayals…I
have the scars to prove it. Including one from walking in and finding
you and your future wife upstairs in my bed!”
“I got scars too, Carlybabes. Like the big one across my heart
when I realized you faked your death for days on end just to pay
me back for moving on with my life! Like realizing the woman I loved
and married could do something like that not just to me but also
to her mother and to her son. And damn it…even to Alexis.”
“Alexis?”
“She felt like she’d driven you off that damn cliff herself.
I watched her suffer for weeks. We both suffered!”
“She felt bad for sleeping with my man. You felt bad for defiling
our bed. Good for both of you. I could care less! The point is:
I have been through too much drama with you to just walk away the
loser now. I left Lorenzo to make our family whole. We were supposed
to stay together, you and me. Now you think you’ll just take
up with your former lover, and I’ll stand by and allow it?”
“There’s nothing you can DO about it, Carly.”
“Oh, sure there is! I wonder how little miss perfect will feel
when she realizes her current scheme is gonna rob you of your children?”
Carly’s lip curled venomously. “But then, maybe that’s
the point. To get you away from our kids.”
Sonny met her gaze coldly. “Alexis would never keep me from
my children!”
Carly said nothing for a moment. Then she opened her mouth and laughed
so long and so loud he thought she’d gone crazy. “If you
only understood how funny that was, hon’, oh my god…”
She sobered under his confused gaze, and wiped the tears of laughter
from her face. “It’s…like so ironic. And you don’t
even know it. Maybe I’ll let you…let you be blissfully
ignorant and marry her. Then she can hurt you deeply, mortally,
like you’ve hurt me. I think that would be perfect. A wonderful
lesson for you to learn at Alexis’ hands.”
She turned away from him, and began to pick up toys strewn around
the living room. It was then that he noticed that her hands were
shaking. Something like sympathy twisted in his gut.
He reached out, touched her shoulder. “Carly, I’m sorry.”
She turned to face him, her face emotionless. “Not yet. But
you will be.”
