Chapter 14

"Mr. Alacazar,sir, our South American distributors pulled out. They said that they are loyal to only Sonny Corinthos."

"DAMN IT!" Lorenzo yelled as he slapped his hands on the desk of his luxurious office. He had purposely sabotaged those contracts for Sonny so that he could take over. Sonny had always been a thorn in his side. He just couldn't handle that Carly had left him, left him to be with Lorenzo. He loved her more than he ever thought possible, more than his beloved Sophie and now she was dead, just like Sophie. She was taken from him, a car bomb explosion that was meant for him. Til this day, he doesn't know who set that bomb up but he would bet his money that it was Corinthos, he just couldn't prove it. "Call Perez in Cuba and set up the contracts, they can distribute what we need." After his financial advisor leaves, he turns to his enforcer. "Tony, we need to dismantle Corinthos, I don't care what it takes, I want him to go down." He walks towards the windows, looking out into the peaceful lake, so contradictory to the turmoil that he was feeling within himself. "Has there been any news? Anything that we could use?"

"Morgan's back in town. We think that he personally blew up the warehouse."

"Impossible…" Lorenzo shook his head at that logic. "Morgan doesn't know the first thing about explosives, they must have had another."

"Some of our men saw him down on the docks along with a woman, we believe it to be Mr. Corinthos' wife."

"That seems possible, put a tail on her and when the time is right, you will grab her and bring her to me." As Tony prepares to leave, he is called back. "Tony! Just make sure that those boys are nowhere near them when this goes down, they have suffered enough."

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"Grandpa Mike!" Michael shouts as he runs towards his grandfather, carefully towing Morgan along with him.

It was lunch time and the diner was particularly slow that day. Sam steps up right behind her two favorite men watching them jump up into their grandfather's arms. She watched silently as the old man's eyes light up like fireworks, he loved those boys and he was wonderful to them. "Hey guys, hey Sam, how is my beautiful daughter- in- law doing?" He always brought a smile to her face. "Great Mike, how are you?"

"Can't complain, especially when these two monsters raid my kitchen." He looked down on his grandchildren and ruffled their hair. "What do you guys say we make your lunch and throw in some cookies for dessert?" He asked with a blinding smile on his face.

"Yes! Cookies!" Michael danced around and pumped his fists in the air, Morgan right behind him imitating his big brother.

"Ok, guys, order whatever you want, and I'll have a cheeseburger and fries Mike."

"Sure thing sweetheart. Here 's a cup of coffee while you wait."

"Can you make that two, I'm waiting for Emily." She smiled as he gave her the two cups and went into the kitchen with his grandchildren. He always cherished his time with them. Sam turned and sat at the first table in front of her facing the counter, her thoughts drifted to a certain blue eyed enforcer that she was in love with, a certain enforcer that used her. Maybe it would have been better off if she had never met him? Her life wasn't perfect and it wasn't conventional, but she was happy, she was happy with Sonny and the boys, and then he came along. Her thoughts were broken by a small hand waving in front of her face.

"Sam, Sam! Earth to Sam!"

"Hey Emily, sorry just zoned out for a bit." Sam tried to put all thoughts of Jason aside, but found it pretty hard when his sister was sitting across from her. She ran her fingers through her hair and pushed her bangs to the side, tucking them behind her ear and that's when Emily saw it.

"Oh My God!" Emily reached over and yanked Sam's left hand towards her. "What is that? When did this happen?"

Feeling slightly uncomfortable at her outburst, especially with a few strangers scattered across the diner, Sam tried to pull her hand back from Emily's surprising superman grip. "It's nothing, Sonny gave that to me last night." Sam yanked on her hand effectively and pulled it on her lap. "Actually Michael gave it me..." She said smiling thinking about the two little boys in her life. "It was really sweet, especially when Morgan yelled out 'Marry Sammy!', he's starting to pronounce his S words now you know, oh and the best part Em... he called me 'momma'." She knew that she was rambling, but she couldn't help it, with whatever happened with Jason, those boys are the only thing that made her happy now.

Smiling at her rambling, Emily was one of the few people that could actually make out what she was saying, and she was saying a lot. Emily truly cared for Sam, she was her best friend, a great step mother to her nephews, the only one that she could confide in, the one that saved her life. Yeah Sonny was there, but Sam was the one that got Ric off of her. Just thinking about that bastard made her skin itch, remembering that awful night, where he followed her to the docks, grabbed her and dragged her into a dark alley, put his hands all over her, tried to rape her and kill her, all so that Jason would come back home. She was so thankful when she saw Sam put a gun to his head, and she was scared when Ric turned the tables on them, then Sonny showed up. She didn't want to run, she wanted to stay and help but she knew that it was best to get out of there. The next day she went to Sonny's to truly thank him and to her surprise Sam was there, and they were married. She blamed herself but they repeatedly told her that it wasn't her fault, Ric got what he deserved, and they always told her that their marriage worked out for the best. She knew that they didn't love each other, but she was happy for them, they seemed to make it work, and besides the boys were happy and that was the most important thing. But now with Sonny proposing again, things may be different. "Awww that sounds so sweet, I wish I could've been there to see it. So what does this mean exactly?"

"Honestly Em, I don't really know, Sonny told me that he loves me..."

"That's great Sam, but why don't you look happy?"

"I don't know, I guess... I guess I'm not really feeling the same." When Emily looked like she was about to talk, Sam raised her hand to stop her. "Let's just drop it, I'll figure it out in time, who knows, maybe one day... and besides that's not why I called you here."

"What's up?" Emily asked genuinely confused.

Taking a deep breath, Sam tried to get her thoughts together, she knew that by telling Jason what really happened that night, she would be betraying Emily's confidence in her, but she was going to be honest. Huh, honest with everyone else but Sonny. "Emily, I called you over here because... yesterday Jason and I were talking and he asked me how Sonny and I really met, and I didn't want to lie to him, you know, because he's a friend and he will always be around, and... and so I told him, everything. Please don't be upset with me, I just wanted to be honest with him. I'm sorry Em."

Taking a deep breath, Emily wasn't expecting that, she didn't want her brother to know what really happened, she knew that he would go crazy with a need for revenge, but really what could he do now, Sonny had already killed Ric so there was nothing to be scared of. "It's ok, I should've told him the truth anyways. How... how did he react?" She was almost afraid of the answer.

Sam blew out a breath, thankful that her friend didn't hate her, didn't think that it was a betrayal of their friendship, after all, she had been doing a lot of betraying in a short time. "He was upset that you didn't tell him, but I think he understands. I wanted to tell you, I didn't want you to be blindsided or anything."

"Thanks Sam." Emily reached out and placed her hand over hers. "I can't thank you enough for what you did that day, you saved my life, and I still owe you for that."

"No you don't." Sam said shaking her head. "You've repaid it to me tenfold. I've never had a real friend, all my life I've moved from city to city, con to con and had never settled down anywhere long enough to establish a real friendship, but you... you gave me that and so much more, I think of you like a sister Em, a sister I've never had." She finished off by trying to blink back the tears that threatened to fall. Looking over at Emily, she saw her pull her hand back and wipe the few tears that fell. "Anyways... we have to get going." Sam said standing up just as Michael and Morgan came running from the kitchen with bags in hand. "Ok little monsters, are you guys ready to go?"

"Hey Aunt Emily!" "Aunt Emmy!" The boys both hugged their aunt then Michael turned back to Sam. "Yeah, we made lunch and cookies and we didn't burn the kitchen down." He teased smiling holding up the bags.

"I swear, one time!" She mocked in anger as she held up her finger. "One time and you and your father never let me forget it." She smiled wide as both boys laughed and giggled. Soon that smile faltered when she heard the bell above the door ring and she looked up in time to see the same blue eyed enforcer that she had been thinking about earlier. Jason. Handsome as ever but just out of reach.

"Uncle Jason!" Michael ran over and flung his arms around his uncle's waist. "Yayson!" Of course, Morgan right behind him.

"Hey guys..." He hugged both of his nephews and looked up to the petite beauty that he was secretly in love with. God she was beautiful, but not his. "Sam, Em." He greeted both woman and stood in awkward silence. Not really knowing what to say.

"Look Uncle Jason." Michael broke the uncomfortable silence as he grabbed Sam's left hand and practically shove it up in Jason's face. "We proposed to Sam last night."

She was wearing the ring, the woman that he was in love said yes and wore another man's ring. He suddenly felt as if he couldn't breathe, his world was going dark and it was all his fault. He vaguely heard his sister ask if he was alright. Not taking the chance at choking out something to say, he simply nodded and looked up into those brown eyes that always seemed to hypnotize him. Taking a controlled breath, he breathed out. "Congratulations." He couldn't trust himself to say more. What was he going to say? No, I don't want you to marry my best friend, the man that saved my sister's life, the man whom I have been betraying, marry me instead?

"Thanks." Came a silent reply, forced out and whispered. Taking a deep breath, Sam needed to get away from him, before she flung herself into his arms. "Ok boys, we gotta get going if we're going to meet your dad in time, say bye."

"Bye!" "Bye!" They both shouted out.

Sam first turned to Emily. "Bye Em, I'll call you later." Then turned to the man that held her heart. "Bye Jason." She painfully said as she held back the tears that so desperately wanted to fall.

"Oh wait Sam!" Sam turned back to Emily. "Nik is taking me to the new club opening tonight, do you want to come, be our third wheel?" She started to plead at seeing the cringe on Sam's face. "Please Sam, come on it will be fun. I need someone to dance with, you know Nik doesn't dance anything that's not the Waltz."

"Sure." Sam agreed with a small smile. She looked back up at the enforcer that had kept his eyes on her for only a moment, just a small moment to burn his face into her mind, then left just after she heard Emily shout that she would pick her up at 10.

Hearing her say that she was meeting Sonny was almost like driving a stake into his heart. What did he expect, she was married to him after all? But it didn't have to be that way, if only he told her that he loved her, that he wanted to be with her, they could've had it all. But he blew it and now she was gone. He turned to face his sister, pulled her into a gentle hug and sat down across from her. "So, do you want to tell me what really happened that night?" He knew that he was being upfront and he knew what happened, but he wanted to hear it from her. And then he was going to ask her all about this club that she wanted to take Sam to.

Taking a moment to study her brother, Emily was confused at what she saw. From the moment he walked into Kelly's, Sam's entire demeanor had changed, sure she had seemed a little down when Emily first walked in, but when her brother showed up, Sam seemed almost depressed, withdrawn. She could tell by the look of sadness on Jason's face that something had happened between the two of them. Something was there and she was going to find out what it was. She knew that it would be a failed attempt if she asked her brother, so tonight she would ask Sam. Now she had to tell her brother everything, the truth, something only Sam and Sonny know, not even Nikolas. She was afraid to tell her husband what really happened, he would most likely blame it on Jason and his lifestyle and she didn't want that. She loved her brother very much and she couldn't have the two most important men in her life fighting. She took a deep breath and told him the truth.