A/N: Let me remind you guys that this is a Claudia Zacchara story not a ClauSon story. Read and enjoy:
"My darling daughter, why didn't you tell me I had a grandchild?" She looked at Sonny with fear. Her throat felt as if it was about to close, she felt as if she couldn't breathe. Everything she did to protect Cassie meant nothing, because now he knew.
"It was none of your damn business, and still isn't. Stay away from my daughter." She slammed the phone off, they only had a few minutes. Her body shook in fear and it wouldn't stop as she looked into Cassie's room. She jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Sonny's hand.
"Your father?" She nodded, as she pulled away from his grasp. His eyes clamped shut even though he knew he deserved the hate she showed him. "How long do we have?" She couldn't speak, fear was consuming her, making her mute.
"Not long. What are you guys gonna do?" Johnny asked as he watched his sister stand by his niece's window. He saw her visibly shaking and was worried about her. He saw a new light come to her eyes.
"I'm going to go sit with my daughter and let you two deal with this." She stopped as she touched the door handle. "And, Sonny, I'm going to make it quite clear to my father that I'm leaving the business." Both men watched as she disappeared into the room.
"You know I've always heard people say 'hell hath no fury like a woman scorned', but never believed it until now. What did you ever do to her?"
"Your saint of a sister didn't tell you?" Johnny shook his head. "When I got back with Kate, I decided that I, she, and Cassie would be a family. So I told Claudia that she wasn't welcome to see her daughter." Sonny explained.
"You bastard." Johnny said, wanting so bad to punch him in the face. "How could you do that to her. Cassie is her daughter too."
"I know, but you know your father knowing about her is one of the things we so desperately were trying to avoid. That's why she kept it from you, too. No one was supposed to think she was Claudia's."
"Wait, when she went to Uncle Rudy's, she wasn't really there." Sonny nodded. "She was at your place, having Cassie."
"Now you know everything, just help us protect Cassie."
"Look I'd help anyways since she's my niece. Call Alexis, while I try to stall." Johnny commanded, storming off to the lower level of the building. Sonny pulled his phone out to call Alexis to get a restraining order.
Cassie's room:
Claudia walked into the room, watching as Cassie's head shot up at the sound of someone walking in the room. Claudia smiled lightly at her, and sat down next to her. Cassie reached out and hugged her mother. Claudia felt the tears come, but held them back. Finally she had her daughter back. When they pulled away, Cassie reached at her neck, a shocked look appeared on her face.
"Where's my necklace mommy?" Claudia dug her hand in her pocket and pulled it out. She put it back around her daughter's neck. "Thank you." Claudia smiled.
"You are very welcome, angel. Cassie, I need you to know that when you get out of here, things are going to be different. You're going to have guards and people are going to see you different, but you need to know that you're still going to be the most important thing to me." Claudia explained, moving a piece of hair out of Cassie's face.
"You won't disappear again, will you?" The child asked fearful that her mother would turn and walk away once again.
"No way. Actually the business that was so dangerous for you to be around is no longer a problem, because I'm not doing that anymore. So, I'm going to be around you a lot more."
"Are you going to move in with daddy and me?" Claudia was not expecting that question, Cassie knew that her parents were not together.
"No, baby. Do any of your friends have parents that are divorced?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"You know how your friends spend one week with their mommy and the other with their daddy?" Cassie nodded her head. "Well that's what you're going to do with me and daddy. Is that okay?"
Cassie sat there in silence, contemplating the idea. Her whole purpose was to get her parents back together, but her mother didn't seem to want to go along with that. Finally Cassie just nodded her head.
"Yes, that's fine with me. As long as you and daddy are happy." The child smiled her biggest smile. Knowing that they were only happy when they were together.
Front doors of the hospital:
Johnny saw all the goons coming and knew this wasn't good, his father was going to try and pull something. He felt it. One rule that applied to Anthony Zacchara was to never, ever trust him. Johnny sent Sonny a text telling him there wasn't much time. Johnny was good at distracting his father, except when he was determined to get what was his. A fight was brewing as Johnny saw Anthony wheel in.
"Dad." He addressed as formal as possible.
"Son, how nice to see you. How's my grand-daughter doing? It's just like your sister for trying to pull this off."
"Claudia was trying to protect her from the likes of you. She didn't want her daughter growing up around you and still doesn't. Which means you are not going to see Cassie." Johnny told him in a strong voice, hoping to see Alexis walk through the door at any time now.
"Son, now is not the correct time to be saying this. That girl is the most powerful heir possible. She has Corinthos and Zacchara blood. There's a leader in there that this town has never seen and I plan to release it." Anthony tried to wheel past Johnny but he grabbed the arm of the chair.
"Dad, I said no."
"But, Johnny, I said yes."
Alexis couldn't get the restraining order, because the court ruled Anthony Zacchara as a safe person. Sonny couldn't believe it, Anthony was anything but safe and he had a chance of getting to his daughter. He and Claudia had to get downstairs and stop Anthony before he could come up and permanently ruin Cassie. He walked over to the door and opened it.
"Hey Cassie. Claudia there's a problem downstairs that we need to deal with together." Cassie waved at her father, making him smile. He watched as Claudia kissed her daughter goodbye and followed Sonny out into the corridor.
"My father, right?"
"Yeah, Johnny's fending him off, but I can't get a restraining order, because the courts declared him safe to be around." He took note of tears forming in he eyes. "You okay?" She shook her head at his concern, then she wiped the tears away.
"Yeah, it's just he always seems to mess up my life. I mean if it weren't for him me, you, and Cassie would be a big family, but instead look at us."
"I know, but if we can just stop him. It'll be okay." Claudia nodded.
"Let's go."
They took the elevator, horrified at the scene that the doors opened up to. Johnny was screaming and holding Anthony's chair back, while Anthony was screaming back at him. There were a few nurses trying to help the situation not realizing how badly they were hurting it.
"Everyone just stop!" Claudia yelled. No sleep for a few days had made her very moody. Everyone stopped and looked up at her. "Now dad, you are not seeing my kid. You can leave now." He got his evil grin on and started to speak to her only.
"No, you can go now." She was confused until Anthony grabbed his gun and pointed it at her.
Cassie sat in her room all alone, bored out of her mind. She decided to grab the wheel chair and go downstairs to see what Claudia and Sonny were doing. What was this problem that her dad had spoken about? She had always been curious and she wanted to know. She wheeled herself to an elevator where she pressed the first floor button and felt as the elevator came to a stop. She gasped to the scene that was before her. Her mom had a gun pointed at her and the rest of the people were trying to stop the old man with the gun.
"Anthony you don't want to do this." Sonny told him, inching closer and closer to Claudia.
"I do, this girl has been a nuisance to me since the beginning, and it's about time I got rid of her." Cassie wondered how a person could say that about her mom.
"Dad, don't do it." Johnny told him. Cassie realized she hadn't been noticed as she inched closer to the scene.
It all happened so fast, the sound of the gun made Cassie jump, she watched as her dad jumped in front of her mom to protect her. Sonny was lying on the ground with a hole in his chest as people held Anthony back.
"DADDY!" Cassie screamed, trying to wheel herself closer to her parents.
"Johnny get her out of here." Claudia commanded. Johnny ran up to the girl, picked her up out of the chair and ran down the hall to another room, where she cried profusely on her uncle's shoulder.
**********
"Sonny don't you dare die on me." Claudia whispered. She was on her hands and knees, wiping the sweat beads off of Sonny's forehead. She kissed his cheek, trying to get a response out of him. She was totally unaware that the nurses were paging doctors left and right. Or that Anthony had been carted out of the building.
"Claudia." He croaked out. She grabbed his hand.
"I'm here, hold on, please." She begged, he was the only one she would ever do that to.
"I……can…'t.….I will always…..love…..you." His ragged breaths scared her.
"No Sonny, don't please." The breaths stopped. "No, Sonny!" She screamed, trying to do CPR. Robin rounded the corned and ran down to the level Claudia was on.
"Move!" Claudia moved and watched as Robin tried to give him CPR as well. It didn't work and Claudia knew he was gone. Robin got up and looked Claudia in the eye.
"I'm sorry, the bullet it hit a internal organ. He'll be moved to the morgue, but you can have a few minutes with him there." Claudia nodded, speechless. She followed the men that carried Sonny's body to the morgue. They left her to be alone with Sonny. She pulled the sheet off his face.
"You gave me Cassie and for that I will always be grateful to you. Sonny, I loved you so much and I always thought you'd be there. I was so wrong." She cried. She bent down and kissed his lips, they were becoming cold to the touch. She cried over him for a little bit longer before leaving the morgue. She realized she had to call Carly. After it rang for a few times, Carly picked up her phone.
"Hello."
"Carly, it's Claudia-"
"Did something happen to Cassie? Is she alright? Sonny told me she woke up. Did she fall back into the coma?"
"No, Carly, Cassie's fine. It's Sonny."
"What's wrong with Sonny?"
"My father shot him and he's dead." Claudia sobbed. "Look I need you to get everything ready for a funeral. I would do it, but Cassie saw it happen and I have to check on her. Please Carly just do this for me."
"You got. Tell Cassie her brothers love her."
"I will." With that Claudia hung up and went to find her daughter.
*********
"Mommy, is daddy okay?" Those were the first words Claudia heard when she walked into the room that held her daughter and brother. Johnny held his niece tighter seeing the tears well up in his sister's eyes.
"No, baby he isn't. The wound was too much and he stopped breathing. He's dead, baby, I'm so sorry."
Cassie ran into her mother's arms. She felt as if she was going to collapse and Claudia felt the same way. When both of them fell asleep in the chair, Johnny put a blanket over them and told the nurses not to disturb.
