Chapter Eight

Johnny moaned when Claudia banged the door of his garage open. He was not in the mood for her problems with Sonny, or for another lecture about his relationship with Olivia. He really should have invested in a lock for that door, because if she slammed it one more time, it would probably come off its hinges.

"Johnny, I need professional help," she said, clacking over to him in her black boots and throwing her black clutch onto one of the work tables.

"No arguments here," said Johnny, coming out from under the hood of the car he was working on, his hands black with motor oil. He wiped them on a rag as he asked, "What's up?"

"My entire life just got turned inside-out in twenty-four hours," fumed Claudia.

Johnny shook his head and laughed. Claudia was probably just blowing everything out of proportion. Again. "What, problems in paradise?" he asked, referring to Claudia's not-so-charmed life with Sonny.

Claudia scowled. Couldn't Johnny just attempt to be sympathetic towards her, just once? She actually had a reason to need his support right now. "No, Sonny and I are fine—well, he's kinda mad at me, but that's to be expected—"

"Why, Claudia?" sighed Johnny. "What did you do this time?"

"Why do you automatically assume I did something?" asked Claudia, offended. Johnny just bore his eyes into hers, and she continued. "Okay, fine, I did do something, but it happened, like, a million years ago, and it's just coming back to bite me in the ass—"

"Claudia, what are you talking about?" asked Johnny, half amused, half totally lost.

Claudia sighed. Telling Sonny about Adriana was one thing. But telling Johnny was something completely different. They had shared everything as kids. He'd really hate her for keeping this big of a secret from him. "Okay, what I'm about to tell you is huge. Life-changing. And you'll probably hate me forever for not telling you."

Now Johnny was worried. What had Claudia done now? "Claudia, please just tell me what's going on."

Claudia took a deep breath. She didn't want to tell the entire story over again. She didn't think she had the stamina. Luckily, Johnny knew the first part of it. "You remember the reason Daddy kicked me out of the house, right? There was that whole thing with Trevor Lansing—"

"Yeah, I know, I know," said Johnny, holding up his hands. He had put a mental block on the entire situation. It was disgusting. "What about it?"

Claudia bit her bottom lip nervously, staring right at her brother. "I got pregnant."

The rag Johnny was holding dropped to the ground, and his mouth opened in shock. She got what? "You got what?"

Claudia covered her face with her hands and shook her head. "I know, I know. I'm so sorry I didn't tell you."

Johnny felt his face turn red with anger. Why hadn't she told him about this? He had a right to know. She was his sister, for God's sakes. She didn't have the right to keep this big of a secret from him. "Why the hell didn't you tell me?"

"Johnny, let me explain," begged Claudia. Johnny took a couple deep breaths to calm himself down as Claudia continued. "Look, you know what I did and why. And you know that the plan totally backfired, in more ways than one. I got kicked out of the house, and I got pregnant. The only person besides me who knew about this was Uncle Rudy. He supported me the whole way. I gave the baby up for adoption, because I didn't want her growing up like we had grown up. I found the nicest family to raise her, and I knew she'd be safe."

"So, why are you telling me all this now?" asked Johnny spitefully. "Did the secret become too much? Thought you were gonna explode?"

"Let me finish," implored his sister. "Her name is Adriana, and I saw her down at the harbor yesterday. She was here with her parents from England. Her dad was on business." She took a deep breath, ready to rehash this part of the story. "Her parents were murdered last night."

Johnny couldn't believe it. This story just kept getting more and more complicated. "By who?" he asked.

"I don't know," said Claudia. "The police are working on it. Anyway, Mac somehow got a hold of the adoption records. They called me down to the PCPD, and I took Adriana home."

"So, just like that, you're her mom again?"

"No," explained Claudia. "She asked to stay with me for the night, then decide what to do in the morning. She's pretty mature, for sixteen." Claudia beamed with pride.

Johnny noticed his sister's smile, but he didn't see a reason to join her. "Claudia, you're talkin' about this like it's completely normal for long-lost kids to just come out of the blue. What happens if one of Sonny's enemies finds out? What are you going to do then?"

Claudia sighed. "You sound like Lucky," she said with a quick chuckle. But her face turned very serious again when she continued. "Everyone seems to think that everything I've done is for me. I give up Adriana so I don't have to deal with her. I take her back to prove that I'm not a bad mother. Won't someone just consider the possibility that everything I've done, everything I'm doing now, is for her? Is it too hard to believe that I can think of someone other than myself?"

"Look, I'm sorry," said Johnny, walking over and giving his sister a hug. "I'll try to be more supportive." He pulled away from her, smiling. "So, when do I get to meet my niece?"

Claudia smiled back. Well, that hadn't been too hard. He was mad, definitely, but Johnny wasn't one to hold a grudge. He'd get emotional, then forget about it the next day. "I don't know. We still need to see if she wants anything to do with me."

"Where is she now?"

"Sonny's."

Johnny couldn't believe what he was about to say. He never expected to give his older sister parenting advice. "Here's a thought, Claudia: maybe you should try spending some time with your daughter."

"She wants to be alone right now," said Claudia. "I mean, can you imagine? She just lost her parents, and now she has to accept the fact that they weren't her real parents, and that she's stuck with me and Trevor as her mother and father. Kid's got it rough."

"But you'll never get to know her if you don't talk to her," said Johnny. "If I were you, I'd want to know everything about her, even little things: what foods she likes, her favorite band, her friends…not to mention that you still have a lot to tell her."

"I already told her the whole me-and-Trevor fiasco."

"I don't mean that. I mean, like, the fact that she has a whack-job brother? A psycho grandfather? An amazingly cool uncle?"

Claudia gave him a little shove. "Fine, I'll go." She grabbed her purse and started to head for the door, but turned around when a thought popped into her head. "Johnny, what if she hates me?"

Johnny walked up to his sister and gave her one final hug. "We'll deal with it then," was all he said.

Claudia pulled from his embrace and headed out the door. As eager as she was to have her daughter back a few hours ago, she was even more nervous to talk to her now. How was she supposed to start the conversation? "Hey, I know your parents just died and everything, but what's your favorite movie?" No. There had to be a better way.

*

"Detective Harrison. What a surprise." Sonny stood up from his desk chair as Milo let himself out of the room. The same detective that had come that morning was standing in his living room, a file in his hands and an eager grin on his face.

"Sorry to bother you, Mr. Corinthos," said Lenny, his fingers alive with jitters. He had just come back from the boat explosion, which had been quite a thrilling experience: pieces of ship floating in the arbor, some of them still aflame. And now, he got to see Claudia again. Today was just one exciting thing after the other.

"No, it's no trouble," said Sonny, hiding his nervousness well after years of lying to cops. What was this kid doing back here? He couldn't possibly suspect Sonny of another murder. Sonny hadn't left the house all day. Wouldn't be ironic if he got arrested for a crime he didn't do? He hated the thought, especially since his best alibi, Claudia, wasn't here to save him.

"It's just that…um…" Lenny didn't want to explain his mistake to Port Charles's biggest mobster. He didn't know much about the mob, but a sneaking suspicion told him that weak cops were killed off first. "Well, when I came here earlier, to ask you about a murder that occurred last night, I—well, I—"

"Come on," said Sonny. He was getting impatient. It was like talking to Spinelli, except that this kid spoke English.

Lenny took a deep breath. "I forgot to have you and Mrs. Corinthos sign the alibi papers earlier. So, if you could just sign them now, I'll be on my way."

"Oh," said Sonny. Phew. That was a close one. "Oh, sure, no problem. Let me just get Claudia." He walked to the door of the living room and called Milo inside.

"Yes, Mr. C?" he asked.

"Where's Claudia?"

"She went out to visit her brother," answered Milo.

Damn, thought Sonny. Why was Claudia always with Johnny when he needed her most?

"It's okay," said Lenny quickly, hiding his disappointment. He had really been looking forward to seeing Claudia again. "I'll just come back at a more convenient time." And with that, he left the house, alibi papers in hand, spirits a little down.

*

Adriana lay on her bed, staring into space. It was all so hard to comprehend. Her parents, dead…Claudia, giving her up for adoption when she was sixteen…Trevor Lansing, the awful father who never knew he even had a child…it was too much. She couldn't handle all of this right now. She didn't want to think about anything. She just wanted to lay here, stare into space, and let the world melt away.

A knock at her door prevented that dream from becoming a reality. Claudia made her way into the room without waiting for an answer, her arms laden with things from the kitchen. Adriana sat up, and when she saw her mother, she wanted to laugh.

Claudia had ransacked the kitchen, and brought up everything and anything that could be used to make ice cream Sundays. Ice cream, chocolate chips, chocolate sauce, cookies…all of it was in her arms. Well, now, it was dumped on Adriana's bed.

"What's going on?" asked Adriana, looking at the boxes in amazement.

"We're making ice cream," said Claudia. It wasn't a question. Johnny wanted her to get to know her daughter; this was the best idea she could come up with.

"I'm allowed to eat in my room?" asked Adriana. At her house, she had been forbidden from bringing even one cookie up to her room from the kitchen, not since she spilled a strawberry smoothie all over her rug, attracting about one million ants from God knows where.

Claudia laughed. "Well, Sonny never said we were allowed to eat upstairs, but he never said we weren't, so, yes."

"Alright!" said Adriana, hopping off her bed and sitting on the floor. This was exactly what she needed—a distraction from everything. Ice cream was perfect for that

Claudia smiled at her energy and sat down on the floor next to her, pulling two bowls and a quart of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream from the pile on the bed.

"So, what did you do today?" asked Adriana as Claudia started scooping heaps of ice cream into each bowl with a pink ice cream scoop. Adriana didn't want to talk about herself and how she was feeling; she wanted to be in a good mood, even if it was just for a couple hours. She'd go back to reality when she was ready.

"I visited my brother at his garage," said Claudia, now pouring chocolate sauce all over each mountain of ice cream. "I can't wait for you to meet him. He'll probably be the best uncle ever."

Adriana smiled. She had been wondering about the other members of her newfound family. "Anybody else that I'm related to that I don't know?"

Claudia sighed. The rest of Adriana's family wasn't as exciting as Johnny. Well, they were, but not in a positive way. "Well, there's your half-brother, Ric."

Adriana gasped. She had a brother? She had always wanted a sibling, but her parents said that they had only wanted one child. Now she understood the real reason why they hadn't had another baby. They technically hadn't even had a first child.

"Don't get overexcited," warned Claudia, before Adriana got too attached to the idea. "He's Trevor's son, about my age, and completely insane."

Adriana frowned. "How so?"

"Well, he chained a pregnant woman to a wall, for starters," said Claudia, taking the bag of chocolate chips and sprinkling them over the chocolate sauce.

Adriana couldn't believe what she was hearing. "He what?"

"Don't ask," said Claudia. "It's a really long story. Anyway, he's crazy, and you probably won't be meeting him anytime soon."

Adriana decided to move on with the conversation. She didn't want to know what other terrible things her brother may have done. "Anyone else?"

"Yeah, Ric's daughter, Molly. She would be your niece, I guess. Never met her, so I don't know much about her." She took a box of Oreo's and started breaking up the cookies, spreading the crumbs over the ice cream concoctions. "And, of course, there's your psycho grandfather."

Adriana had already heard about him, and didn't want to hear anymore. "So, I pretty much come from a family of crackpots." It wasn't a question.

"Yeah, pretty much," laughed Claudia. "But don't worry; so do I." Now they both laughed. Adriana was enjoying herself. It was so nice not to think about her parents, dead in that alley, or the fact that they had lied to her for her entire life. She liked sitting here with Claudia, laughing, joking, and eating ice cream.

Claudia stood up and started searching through the pile of sweets on Adriana's bed, looking for her favorite part of the ice cream. When she couldn't find it, she'd figured she'd just forgotten it in the kitchen.

"You know what, I forgot the whipped cream," she said, heading to the door.

"Oh, that's okay," said Adriana. She didn't want Claudia making a special trip for something so unimportant. "I don't need it."

"Yeah, but I do," said Claudia. Adriana laughed as she walked out into the hallway.

Claudia started to make her way down the steps to the living room when she heard voices. She stood at the top of the stairs to listen.

"So, you did it?" she heard Jason's voice say.

"Yeah," said Sonny. "It was easy. The cops came over here, lookin' for an alibi, but Claudia gave them one, no questions asked. She didn't sign the papers, though, so the detective's gonna come back tomorrow, I think."

"I can't believe you pulled it off," said Jason, incredulous.

"Well, there was a minor setback," admitted Sonny. "His wife was there, too."

"His wife?" asked Jason. "So, what did you do?"

"What I had to do," answered Sonny. "I couldn't just kill Brown and let his wife tell the cops. I had to kill her, too."

Claudia almost fainted, right there on the stairs. Did Sonny say Brown? Had he killed Adriana's parents? She couldn't believe it. How could she have let that happen? How could she have given Sonny his alibi? How could she even invite Adriana to live under the same roof as her parents' murderer?

Getting to know her would have to wait. Now, it was about getting her out of this house.