I hope this chapter doesn't bore a lot of you but I decided that it needed to be included because it was important to remind us everything that Will and Sonny had done for Gabi and Nick. Hopefully there will be some Wilson loving in the next chapter but we'll have to wait and see.

Soul Mates

Chapter 15

Will had been sitting in his chair for the last two hours listening to all the character witness's tell how Gabi and Nick deserve custody of Marley. Then he got the shock of his life.

"Mr. Horton-Kiriakis, would you please take the stand." Will looked at Sonny in disbelief. He could see by the look on his husband's face that he didn't believe they were calling him as a character witness either.

"Place your right hand on the bible." Will did what the bailiff told him to do. "Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?"

"I do." Will sat down when the bailiff walked away from the stand. Then Gabi and Nick's lawyer walked up to him.

"Mr. Horton, who are you to the Fallon's?"

"It's Horton-Kiriakis."

"I'm sorry. Mr. Horton-Kiriakis, who are you to the Fallon's?"

"Nick Fallon is my cousin. His grandmother is my father's aunt. Gabi Hernandez Fallon is my daughter's mother."

"So even though you are now married to a man, you used to be intimate with Mrs. Fallon?"

"That's right. I used to be confused. I thought I was straight but when I met the love of my life, I realized that I was lying to everybody about who I was, including myself."

"And is it right that you had already been outed when you slept with Mrs. Fallon, getting her pregnant with your daughter, Marlena Grace Horton?"

"Yes, I had been."

"If you were gay before sleeping with Mrs. Fallon, then why did you sleep with her?"

"I had words with someone and I was upset about it when she and I ran into one another. We started talking and before we knew what was happening, we had slept together. She understood that it was a one-time mistake. I never meant to hurt her in any way but she knew then that I truly was gay. I had and still have no interest in women. I love my husband very much." Will looked over at Sonny and saw tears in his eyes at hearing how Marley's conception went down and why it had happened.

"When you first found from Mrs. Fallon that she was pregnant and you were the father, did you tell anyone?"

"No."

"And you agreed with her and Mr. Fallon that y'all would let everyone believe that he was the baby's father right?"

"Yes, I did."

"Why?"

"Because the convinced me that I would lose Sonny if he found out that I had slept with Gabi after telling him I was gay."

"So you went along with this plan to give up all ties to your child to keep your gay lover?"

"Yes."

"How did he find out about you being the baby's real father?"

"On the day of Gabi and Nick's first wedding, Chad DiMera stood up in front of everybody and told them that Nick couldn't have been the father because he was still in prison when she got pregnant."

"Did he say who the father was at that time?"

"No. he didn't know. He just knew that Nick wasn't."

"Who did reveal that information?"

"I finally came clean much to Gabi and Nick's dismay. They still didn't want me to say anything but my entire family and my boyfriend and his family were all in that church and I knew that they had a right to know the truth."

"After the truth was revealed, what happened between you and your boyfriend?"

"He ended things that day at the church. He said he couldn't trust me because I had lied to him. I didn't blame but I wanted to try to get him back because I loved him."

"During this time, how were things between you and the Fallon's?"

"It was tense but I was glad because I had finally realized that if I had given up my child I would have regretted it for the rest of my life."

"After you got back together with your boyfriend, you later signed papers giving up your parental rights to your child. If you wanted her so bad, why did you sign your rights away?" Will had known it was coming.

"Again, I didn't want to give up my rights but I was being forced to do it."

"How can someone force you to do something like that? You can make choices of your own so why did you do something if you didn't really want to do it?"

Will drew a breath before revealing the truth to the room full of people, half of them not knowing it. He was glad that he had told Sonny everything because he didn't want him to be surprised.

"Nick Fallon found out something that I did when I was young that nobody knew and he used that information to blackmail me into signing away my rights to my daughter."

"What could you have done that would make you sign away your rights to your own child Mr. Horton-Kiriakis?" Before he could answer, his lawyer spoke up.

"I object your honor. What does this have to do with this case?"

"Your honor, this line of questioning goes to show why the Horton-Kiriakis' wouldn't be a stable family for this child."

"Objection overruled. Please answer the question Mr. Horton-Kiriakis."

"When I was still a kid, my mom decided to marry someone I didn't care for. During the wedding, I stood in the back of the church with a stolen revolver and shot EJ DiMera in the head. Because I was drunk and still a minor, my dad, Lucas Horton, admitted that he shot Mr. DiMera and he went to jail for the shooting. My family knew that I had done it but they kept it to themselves and allowed my dad to take my place in prison. Nobody else knew about it until Nick Fallon found out the truth somehow and used it to blackmail me."

"So you are saying that you attempted to kill someone, your father admitted to it and Mr. Fallon blackmailed you with that information?"

"Yes."

"If you were being blackmailed to sign away your parental rights, and you did, then why did the Fallon's start sharing custody of your daughter after she was born?"

"The night Marlena Grace was born; a guy that Nick knew in prison took them to Smith Island at gunpoint and was going to kill them, including our unborn daughter."

"How do you know this?"

"Because Sonny and I followed them. While Sonny led Jensen on a wild goose chase around the island, I went into the shack where he had tied Gabi and Nick up and attempted to free them. When Sonny showed back up, Nick and I convinced him to take Gabi out of there while I helped free Nick. Before I could free him, Jensen came back and realized that Gabi was gone. He was fixing to shoot Nick but I jumped him from behind to stop him. We fought over the gun and I knocked it out of his hand. During our struggle, he knocked me around some he got the gun and ended up shooting me in the stomach."

"What happened to this man who shot you?"

"My aunt Hope showed up just as he was fixing to shoot Nick and she shot him. I was airlifted to the hospital where Dr. Daniel Jonas operated on me to remove the bullet, saving my life. By the time I woke up, I learned that my daughter had been born."

"How did you find out?"

"Nick had brought Marley into my room to see me but I had not woke up yet. When he started to leave my room, she cried. As soon as I heard her cries, I woke up and Nick brought her over to me. He put her in my arms and I saw my beautiful little girl for the first time. It was love at first sight. She had my heart from the start."

"When did you find out how she was born?"

"My mom told me that Sonny was the first person my little girl saw when she opened her eyes. He delivered her on Smith Island while I was being shot."

"What detail did you learn when you finally saw your daughter's birth certificate?"

"I learned that Gabi had listed me as her father and had given her my last name." Will was crying, even though he didn't mean to do it in front of everybody.

"Why are you crying Mr. Horton-Kiriakis?"

"Because I never expected them to allow me to be a part of Marley's life after everything that had happened between us."

"That's all Mr. Horton-Kiriakis." Ms. Parker sat down at the table beside Gabi.