Zander pulled back from Emily's arms and shook off the feelings that were left inside of him from the dreams.
"Zander, did you remember something?" she asked as sat on the edge of the bed.
"Yeah I did." he replied as he glanced back over his shoulder.
She crawled to his side and sat with him. "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked as she caressed his back with her hand.
"I just can't believe it." He was shocked to see in his dream what he had once blocked out of his mind for so long.
"Why don't you tell me about it, we can work through it together." she said as he got up from the bed.
What he dreamt couldn't be true, he couldn't be who the dream said he was. It's not possible. He tried to put that part of the dream aside and focused more on the the actual shooting and who the person was who pulled the trigger.
"Zander, what did you see?" she asked hoping to coax him into telling her about his dream.
"I saw everything Em and I heard them talking. I heard the gunfire and saw them leave the study, just like I said before." he replied as she got up from the bed and walked towards him.
"Did you see who it was? Was it Sonny?" she asked again. Zander slipped to that far away place again, and was set back to reality when she called his name a few times.
"Yeah it was Sonny but there's more Em .... " he said as turned into her. "The argument they were having was about me, Em .. it was about me."
Emily pulled him into her as he felt guilt wash over him. His father was dead because of him, not because of some business deal gone wrong, but because of him.
"It's all my fault." he said as they walked back towards the bed and sat down once again.
"This is not your fault Zander, you were 8 years old. You were just a little boy, so don't go blaming yourself." he knew she was right but he just kept thinking about the argument between his father and Sonny. And then it hit him, like a punch in the gut as he remembered more of the argument and why they were arguing over him.
His mind went back and forth between Frank and the man he knew only as Michael, because that's what his dad called him as. "But Frank wasn't my father .... that's what they were fighting about ..."
The more Zander remembered about that night, the tears in his eyes welled as he realized what had actually happened that night, how much he had truly heard coming from inside the study.
"Zander, you lost me again. Frank wasn't your father? Then who was?" Emily asked as he kept slipping in and out to that far away place.
"Michael .... that's what the fight was about." he repeated as he snapped back from empty blank stare.
Emily sighed. "Okay, who's Michael? Someone you knew, a close family friend, who?"
He stared into her eyes and said bluntly....."Sonny."
Emily steadied herself against the bed post so she wouldn't fall over from shock when Zander told her that Michael was name Sonny used when he first got into the business with Frank.
"Sonny Corinthos is your father?!" she replied in complete amazement at Zander's revelation.
Zander scratched the top of his head and really wondered to himself if what he had dreamt was the truth. "I don't know Em, I'm just telling you what I remembered. Sonny shot Frank because Frank was going to shoot him for betrayal and for sleeping with my mother."
Zander quickly got passed the tears and found himself quickly with anger building inside him as he remembered more of the conversation between Frank and Sonny.
"Wait.... " he got up from the bed and began to pace the room, like pacing would make him remember more. "Frank was furious with Sonny for sleeping with my mother, but it wasn't a mutual fling .... that son of a bitch raped her!" Zander yelled out in anger as he remembered more clearly the argument between Frank and Sonny.
His fists clenched in rage, he felt the urge to release it on something and picked up the vase and threw it against the wall. The impact shattered the vase and all that was in it on the floor. Emily jumped as the shattering vase made a loud sound as it hit the wall and broke in a million pieces. She had never seen such anger from Zander before and she was over come with fear. She knew he'd never hurt her that way, but she was afraid for him, and what he might do now knowing what he knew.
Zander realized what he had done and what he had remembered so vividly now, his knees buckled underneath him and he went down onto the floor. Tears began to fall from his eyes and Emily went to him and held him in her arms wishing she could take the pain he was feeling all away.
Zander cried out in pain as he realized what his mother had endured all those many years ago and that he was the result of the violent attack that was done to her.
Emily wrapped her arms around him and tried to comfort him the best she could. He klinged to her like he had become the small boy he once was, the small scared little boy who witnessed the murder of his father by the hands of another.
Emily sat with him on the floor of their bedroom rocking back and forth, as the tears just flowed from him, as if all 15 years of sorrow and pain was released. As she sat with him in her arms she smoothed back his hair with her hands, trying to soothe him the best she could. She just wanted to take the pain away, but she knew he was the one who was going to have to work through his knowing what had truly happened that night.
"I am so sorry ...." he whimpered under his breath over and over again.
"Shhh .. Zander this not your fault, you are not to blame for any of this." she whispered to him hoping he was listening to her on some level.
She had felt for some time that as a little boy had suffered something very traumatic but she would of never guessed something like this.
They sat a while on the floor before she tried to get him to the bed where he'd be more comfortable. He stood up with her and followed her to the bed. As he wiped away the tears that he had cried, more just fell from his eyes. He felt his chest tighten as he tried to choke back the tears, she handed him a tissue to dry his eyes with and sat down next to him on the edge of the bed.
It seemed all the emotions he had built up inside him had been released and as he tried to piece together a coherent thought.
"I'm sorry about the vase." he apologized as he glanced over to the shattered vase lying on the floor.
"Oh don't worry about the vase ... to tell you the truth, I didn't like it anyways." she replied and cracked a smile. He chuckled.
The tension in the room was broken and they both felt relief when it had dissipated from the air. Now that he remembered, it was time to take the next step.... to make sure Sonny was brought to justice for all his crimes.