And the plot thickens.
SUN N.Y. – Chapter 11
Sonny lifted his head off of his desk at the warehouse. Somehow, he had managed to sleep in his desk chair. He stood and smoothed his crumpled tux then twisted his neck from side to side in an attempt to will a cramp away. He opened the door of his office to find the first edition of SUN N.Y. waiting for him. It's headlines blared: Carly's Crash Is a Con.
Sonny shook his head. Honestly, he had been conning Carly almost as much as she had conned him. She was right. Her words echoed in his head, "You promised me you would love me forever...I saw you with Alexis, the way you looked at her and the way you touched her." He knew what it was that Carly couldn't bring herself to say. Why should she be any different than he or Alexis?
"I'm in love with her," he whispered. Finally, he closed his eyes and allowed Alexis into his mind.
"What are you thinking about?" His own voice questioned.
"The impossible." Alexis' voice echoed in his mind.
"If only...." he whispered aloud. Sonny twirled the gold band he had returned to his finger a few weeks before in anticipation of his remarriage to Carly. He gently slipped it off and returned it to the place it had occupied in his drawer. Sonny picked up the phone and called Benny. "I need you to bring me a change of clothes. I think it's time Todd Manning and I have a talk."
As Sonny was making his plans, Todd was watching Alexis sleep. To him, she was like an angel. Her features screamed that she had been born into money. By all appearances they were night and day. Underneath the surface, they were the same. At least they had been the same, mistreated, rejected, and abused. They were same but different still. She occasionally allowed some people, i.e. Sonny and Carly, to treat her badly, while he had been bound and determined to crush people before they could crush him.
"What are you doing?" Her voice interrupted his thoughts. She was surprised to find a fully-dressed Todd staring at her. She blinked her eyes, willing herself awake.
Todd began to fidget. He made several faces as he attempted to come up with a reason for being in such close proximity. "Well, you were snoring so loudly..."
"I don't snore." Alexis said, flatly. Using her elbows she pushed herself up to a sitting position.
Todd chuckled. "Yeah Alex, you do. It was so loud I thought maybe a bug flew up your nose or something."
Alexis laughed. "Right." She continued to laugh. It was all she could do. "Todd Manning, I already know your secret. You pretend to be so big and tough, but deep down you're just a softy."
"Whatever." Todd began to pace, his hands in his pockets. "You know, when I heard you snoring so loud, I figured you were probably in here drooling all over everything too. So I had to make sure you didn't ruin the pillow cases and the mattress."
"That's the lamest thing I've ever heard. Don't worry. I won't tell anyone." She winked at him before she stared at him for a full minute. "I decided that you were right. I should tell Sonny about the baby. He has a right to know, maybe it will soften the blow when he finds out Carly's baby isn't his."
"I knew Sonny was your kid's father." Todd shot up like he was a lightening bolt. "Wow. Mobster knocks up Mouthpiece. This is going to be a great headline." Todd raced back to the chair, picked up the phone and began to dial.
"You wouldn't do that." Alexis said, giving him a dimpled smile.
"Why not?"
"Because you like me," she grinned. Dramatically, Todd rolled his eyes. Alexis chuckled, "Not that way, you idiot, but like friends."
"Whatever." After a few seconds, Todd began to speak into the phone. "Briggs, this one is huge. How does this grab you: Mobster Knocks Up Mouthpiece...."
Immediately, Alexis stood and snatched the phone from Todd only to hear a recorded voice speak, "The time is now 9:23 a.m." She slammed the phone down and pretended to pout. "Jerk."
"Hey, friends play jokes on friends, right?" Todd began to laugh.
"I am not and have never been your friend, Mr. Manning, and at this rate I don't plan on being your friend anytime in the near future." Alexis fought off a smile. Todd continued to laugh, so hard in fact that he didn't see Alexis blast him with the pillow.
"Very funny, Alex." Todd took the pillow and tossed it back at her lightly.
"Don't call me Alex." Alexis yelled.
Todd mimicked her, mouthing the words, "Don't call me Alex." He stood and began to walk to the door.
"Where are you going?" For the first time in nearly 6 weeks, Alexis was having fun and she wasn't pleased to learn it was going to end.
"To order room service, 'cause if that kid's got an appetite anything like yours, she's hungry enough to eat a horse." Todd slipped through the door just in time to avoid being hit by another pillow.
Todd headed downstairs and made several phone calls. The first was to Starr and Jack, the same as he did every morning. Then he phoned room service. Finally, he called Briggs to get an update on the 'Who's The Daddy' story. Todd was pleasantly surprised to learn that the rewrite was complete and was being sent over.
The doorbell rang. To Todd's surprise, he opened the door to find Sonny standing before him. "What do you want?" Todd attempted to close the door in Sonny's face. Sonny blocked the door with his hand.
"We need to talk." Though uninvited, Sonny walked inside.
"Call my lawyer. You should actually go find my lawyer and thank her, if it wasn't for her, you'd be wearing an Armani jumpsuit." Todd walked back to the door, hoping to get rid of Sonny before Alexis made an appearance.
"I got a few questions and I need some answers."
"Fine, but then I gotta get to the office. Barbie, I mean Carly is keeping me busy with plenty of stories." Todd walked back to a desk which sat near the door and plopped himself on top of it. "Go ahead, shoot...Oh wait, I forgot who I was talking to, don't shoot..."
Sonny interrupted Todd mid-sentence. "Where did you get the information about Carly?"
"I spent a lot of time in Ireland. I have sources there." The doorbell rang. Todd answered the door and signed for a package from a messenger.
"And the stuff on A.J."
"You know as well as I do that people can be bought."
"What else?" Todd asked impatiently.
"Is Carly's baby mine?" Sonny could not believe that he had been reduced to asking a stranger a question that should remain private between a man and a woman. The trouble was that the stranger was more likely to be honest than Carly.
"Here find out for yourself." Todd handed Sonny the paper. Sonny read the details gathered from stolen medical records, eyewitness accounts of Carly with an unidentified man, and off-the record conversations with nurses and lab technicians. He was not the father of Carly's baby. Sonny felt crushed for a moment, once again he had been denied the chance to have a child of his own. But just as quickly as the sadness had come, he began to feel free. Carly was not pregnant with his child. He did not have to marry her. He could be with Alexis.
"Thanks. I won't bother you again." Sonny turned and began to walk out of the door until he heard her voice.
"Todd. Where's the food?" Alexis called out. "The baby's starving," she giggled, "I guess you're right, she does have an appetite like her mother." She walked down the stairs wearing only Todd's T-shirt, which came to her knees. It wasn't until she reached the bottom that she saw Sonny standing in the doorway...staring.
