Chapter 4

"Mr. Corinthos, why don't we begin again? How about I treat you with the respect you deserve and you show me the same courtesy and maybe we can reach an understanding."

"That's fine by me."

"First, are you married now?"

"My wife and I are separated. We have been for the last year. She lives in her own apartment with my son Michael. She refuses to sign the divorce papers."

"Why?"

"Does that matter?"

"I think you know it does. Before I agree to take on a case, I have to know every detail possible in order to build a defense that cannot be torn apart. If I don't have all of the necessary details, then I cannot provide the defense that my client deserves. And you need to understand that if I do take this case, you will not be my client. Michael will be my client. His needs will always come first regardless of what you want. Is that understood?"

Sonny was again amazed by Alexis Davis. She was no longer looking at him as a man. He was a means to get to a child that may be in trouble. Yes, Alexis had impressed Sonny. But more, than that, Sonny wondered... is this a woman I can finally trust. Can I trust her with my son's life? And even as he asked himself the question, he already knew the answer. He would tell Alexis anything she wanted to know regardless of what it cost him personally.

"Carly does not want a divorce. She can't see that if I can't trust her then its useless to try to build a marriage. Carly has placed herself in some pretty rough situations in the name of trying to prove she loves me and on more occasions than I care to admit she has used Michael to get to me."

"I'll need to know each occasion that she has done that, with all of the details surrounding each instance."

"I don't think its necessary to go into detail on some of this. It gets pretty personal."

"Ok, Mr. Corinthos, I get that you are a private man. And believe me I understand that, but we are talking about a child. A person who is not old enough to defend himself against the cruelties he is subjected to. Therefore, it becomes my job to protect him. In order to protect him, I have to know you, because from what I have gathered so far, this wife of yours will go to any lengths to get what she wants. Am I right?"

"Yes, I believe she will, and while I understand what you're saying, I need to know that I can trust you, that whatever is said here will go no further unless Michael's life depends on it. You are right! I am a very private man. I don't enjoy airing dirty laundry. In my business you keep your friends close and your enemies even closer. What I tell you could not only destroy me professionally if it were to get out, it could also put Michael, Carly, myself and possibly you in danger."

"Are you trying to frighten me, Mr. Corinthos?"

"No, I just need you to understand how serious this could get."

"I hope you realize that so far, from what I've heard, I am leaning more toward Michael being taken into foster care than left with either you or your wife ... for his protection."

It was only for a second, but Alexis saw it. She trained herself to watch for any sign of change of expressions in the people she dealt with. She was good at it and she never questioned what she saw. She went with her gut and she had always been proven right. She saw a hint of fear in Sonny's eyes when he heard the words foster care. Only for a second did she see it and just as quickly it was gone and anyone else who had been looking at Sonny would never have seen it. And she wasn't about to let him off the hook. She needed to know why.

"What is it about foster care that frightens you, Mr. Corinthos?"

Sonny's heart sank. Even as he marveled at her ability to read him he knew his most carefully guarded secrets were not safe with this woman. And that scared him even more.

"I was placed in foster care after my mother died. I will never allow Michael to be put into foster care. He is my son. He will never know what it is like to go to bed hungry or cold." Once Sonny began his story, he couldn't stop. It was as if she were pulling it out of him. He looked into her eyes when he told her he had been placed in foster care. And what he saw in her eyes enveloped him like a soft blanket. Somehow he knew that she would hold his secrets. She would hold them and care for them just as tenderly as he had all these years. So he continued.

"I was young when my mother died. She was beaten to death by my stepfather. She lived through years of his abuse. But, she wouldn't leave him. I tried to get her to. I pleaded with her, but she wouldn't go. Not even when he started beating me. One night I tried to protect her by shielding her with my body. He almost killed me that night. It wasn't long after that he finally went too far and she died with her head in my lap. The next morning they took her away and by the end of the day I was in foster care. For the first couple of weeks I was too numb to care about anything around me. I ate very little. It surprises me to this day that I didn't die of malnutrition."

"The name of the family who took me in was Garrett. They were gamblers. They took the money the state gave them to feed us and gambled it away. After a few weeks I began to fight back in the only way I knew how. I began to steal food for myself and the other foster kids in that home. The older I got, the more trouble I got into. I was an angry kid. My mother, who meant the world to me, was gone and there was no one else for me to turn to. I finally reached the end of my rope one night and pushed the limits of what the mixture of drugs and alcohol can do to a person's body. I found myself face down in a gutter semi-conscious. It was then that I saw the vision of my mother."

Sonny shifted uncomfortably in his chair before quietly continuing with a voice filled with awe. "She was so beautiful. She was dressed in a gown of white and she spoke to me. She told me that she did not raise a coward. She did not teach me to hide from life, but to face it head on and beat it. She stayed with me for a while and after a while I fell asleep with the vision of her in my head. In that gutter, that night...I slept at peace for the first time since she died. When I awoke, I made a promise to her that I would clean up my act. I would make my way in the world. I would do it any way I could. And she would never again find me face down in a gutter."

As Sonny finished his story he very carefully looked up at Alexis to see her reaction. He was afraid to see her reaction, but he needed to. What he saw caused the tears that had been threatening during his story to find their release and he didn't try to stop them. He let go. The first tears he had shed for the boy he was so long ago. And as he let them go, Alexis, without stopping her own tears, stood and walked toward Sonny and gently placed her hand on his arm and through her tears gently said, "Ok, let's talk about Michael."