Part 2

Brenda took a sip of her drink. "Where were you living before this happened?"

"Over Jakes' bar."

"Hardly the place for high-rent Carly."

"She had her own place," he said.

"Strange to think of Sonny paying for a residence for her, separate from his."

"He must have. Otherwise, I don't know how she kept the place."

"Why did she go back to him when she had you?"

"Why not?"

"Well, because,"

"Because why?"

"You seem more like a good time than Sonny."

"Gee thanks, but I'm not a millionaire and I'm not, as she reminded me, her husband."

"She suddenly had a conscience about her husband?"

"It was really stupid. First, he kicked her out. Seems she tried to turn him in to the cops so that they could live a normal life. I guess she forgot about the prison part. He kicks her out. She cries on my shoulder."

"And cried and cried on your shoulder."

"In time she discovered how wonderful I was," he continued. "And soon could hardly understand why she ever wanted Sonny. It was only interesting how Sonny seemed to show up at the right times. Almost as if she figured some way to get him there. She wanted him to find out she had somebody else too. It worked. When he thought somebody else wanted her, he wanted her back."

"I know. I had Jax."

"Oh, I'm sure you really loved Jax. Jax is a millionaire too. Carly didn't really care that much for me except as a way to get her husband jealous."

"I did really love Jax, and I think it was a mistake to throw him over for Sonny, but I don't know if it was a mistake to throw him over in general. I can't help thinking if he was the one for me, I never would have considered picking Sonny."

"You let him go. Big of you."

"Well, not really. But you aren't nothing if you can even be used to get a millionaire, which you apparently see as the height of female ambition, jealous. There must be something other than the money or it wouldn't bother him."

"I was told in clear terms to keep my hands off his wife. As though they were really married at the time. I mean, they were married, but he was seeing someone else. But we've been through that. We know he's a one sided jerk. And as though his wife didn't put her hands on me of her own free will. They were both such idiots, acting like I was the one who tore her away from him against her will. I don't think so. Now they act like their marriage was made in heaven."

"I'm sure it wasn't."

"Next time it falls apart, I won't be there to pick up the pieces. Some other idiot probably will, though. I hope it's a billionaire."

"Not many of those around," Brenda grinned. "Definitely not here."

"You'll find one," Zander grinned back.

Brenda and Ned were dusting cobwebs out of the offices of L & B Records. It made them a little bit of money. Not much.

Ned told her about Juan Santiago, who was making it big, and about how he dated Emily and ran around on her, and finally settled down only to have Emily drop him for her kidnapper, "that jerk, Zander Smith."

"No way!" Brenda exclaimed, practically laughing. "Emily? Your little cousin? How could you let her get involved with somebody like Zander Smith?"

"You know him?" Ned asked, unbelieving.

"I used to get my drugs from him."

"I wish you had lived here then, you could have helped warn her off. She was so stupid, Emily was. She was sure she was reforming him."

"Kidnapper? Did you say kidnapper?"

"Yes."

"He did it?"

"Yes, and had some Stockholm Syndrome hold over her," Ned explained.

"Damn! That's awful. So she finally saw the light?"

"Eventually, but only after he got her paralyzed."

"What?"

"They got on a bus, to flee from Port Charles. The guy Zander testified against was after them. It's a long story. There was an accident. Emily was injured, and she can't walk. She's at a rehab in Switzerland."

"You should have told me and I could have visited her from Paris."

"I knew you had enough on your mind."

"Well don't decide that for me next time. Why is she so far away from you all?"

"To keep her away from Zander Smith."

"Well, Ned told me all about you and Emily," Brenda said, coming into his room. "You just about cover the gamut don't you? Older married women to innocent young girls."

"Come right in."

"Oh, I knew you would invite me in when you saw me at your door."

"You bet."

"I just had to come and admire the man who could attract his own kidnap victim."

"Thank you."

"So you broke her heart."

"No, really I would say she broke mine."

"Is that possible?"

"It is," he looked injured.

"Oh, it's OK," she said. "I didn't mean it like that. Ned says she is paralyzed. Is it that bad?"

Zander shrugged. "I can't afford to care. I'm told it would not matter if I did. I've paralyzed two people now, so all I can do is stay away to keep others from the danger."

"It was an accident, Zander. But what two people?"

"The other accident I caused."

"How could you cause a bus accident? Were you the bus driver?"

"No, Brenda."

"Then it was something that just happened. Where do you get the blame for this?"

"Because she was running away with me."

"But it doesn't matter why you were on the bus when it was in an accident."

"OK, I get you, but we'll never be sure. It could have been one of the people we were running from that did something to cause it."

"But who is this other person you take the blame for?"

"My brother."

Carly was panicked. She was sick, and her period was late. But it was way too soon for that.

She went to Mercy Hospital for the test. It was positive. "Six weeks," the doctor had said.

She got in her car and drove. She drove and drove. She tried to think. She'd only just gotten back with Sonny. It had been only a week since he had slept with her! Before that, there was an expanse of almost a year! This year stretched out before her, mocking her with her failure to get her husband back during its implacable reign.

An abortion was out of the question. She couldn't do it. After she had lost Sonny's baby, falling down the stairs at the Quartermaines, she couldn't think of it. She couldn't stand the thought of it. When it was so heartbreaking to lose a child, she couldn't imagine destroying one.

But what was she going to do this time?

She could keep it a secret. She supposed she could keep it a secret for as long as possible. She stopped the car and took a small calendar out of her purse. She studied it carefully. If she could manage to hide it to eight weeks, she thought, it might be possible. Then she could tell Sonny the baby was premature. It would be their miracle baby, who survived in spite of being born at only seven months.

She had wanted to be pregnant so badly, and now, she was! She could hardly believe her bad luck. After she and Sonny had tried and had so much strain in their marriage, and after all she had done to keep him, now she finally got pregnant and it had to be at the worst possible time! She berated herself for not being more careful. She supposed she had always thought she was about to seduce her husband back again. Then she got caught up and time went on, and she didn't think.

"Oh, I am so dumb!" she told herself. "Why didn't I realize I needed to be more careful when it had been so long since I had been with Sonny!"

She panicked anew when she thought of Brenda Barrett. That witch was in town, probably trying to seduce Sonny, and suddenly, now, she had a huge advantage. She wasn't pregnant with another man's baby!

Carly just had to confide in someone or she thought she would die. She drove back to her mother's house.