Carly Quartermaine walked silently into her living room. It was past two o’clock in the morning. She had just left Jason at the penthouse. He had wanted her to stay over, but for some reason she had felt this uncomfortable need to be back in this house, the house AJ had bought for her and Michael, tonight.

She shook her head, not sure what was going on with her tonight. AJ was out of town, Michael was with Laticia, so why hadn’t she jumped at the chance to spend the night with her lover? She put her purse down on the table and turned on the light.

“Welcome home.” A quiet and steel edged voice said from the leather arm chair in the corner.

“AJ?” Carly looked at her husband flustered. “What are you doing home?”

“Me?” AJ smiled, a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I think the question is what are you doing just getting home?”

“I was with Bobbie,” Carly improvised. “She was showing me the pictures from the honeymoon and..”

AJ shook his head. “Don’t bother. I know where you were. I know who you were with. Just like I’ve known all along.” AJ looked up with bitterness in his eyes. “I wonder just how long after we said our vows did it take before you and Jason began your sordid little affair. A week? Two? A month maybe?” He shakes his head. “It doesn’t matter. None of it matters anymore. Not you and Jason. Not your little plot to find some proof that I’m an unfit father. Not even your plot to drive me to drink.” He pauses, and for a moment there is something beyond bitterness in his eyes and Carly flushes. “All though I have to admit that that one hurts. You were there when I was struggling to stay sober back when we were best friends. You know how much it means to me that I don’t fall into that trap again. But I forgot, that didn’t stop you from slipping an alcoholic a drink did it? That’s what makes you so dangerous Carly. A man tells you his weakness and then you exploit it.”

“AJ, I...” Carly stops. How can she defend herself? He was right, she would do anything to be with Jason and Michael, wouldn’t she? “What’s your point here? Because my son is upstairs and I’d like to check in on him.”

“Our son.” AJ almost smiles. “And no point. I just wanted to make sure you got these.”

He gave her a packet of papers and she opened them in disbelief.

“Divorce papers? You are divorcing me?”

“Yeah. Yeah I am. I had Scott Baldwin draw them up for me today. It’s all spelled out. There’s money for you and Michael. A proposed custody arrangement, every other week with one of us. When he gets old enough to go to school we’ll have to make changes, but we can deal with that later.”

“I don’t get this. Does this have anything to do with your tawdry little affair with Karen Wrexler?”

AJ’s eyes narrow with anger. “Do not say anything against Karen. Not now. Not ever. Your little affair with Jason has been going on a lot longer than mine with Karen. What was I suppose to do Carly, wait around for you to be my wife in between the hours you spent being his mistress?”

Carly looks at the papers in her hand. They are all she’s ever wanted from the moment she made her vows but now looking at them, it feels wrong.

“Why the hurry?” Her voice quiet.

AJ sighs. “Karen is pregnant. And yes the child is mine. And I intend to marry her.”

“Do you love her that much?” Carly says in a small voice, for all the passion that Jason has given her over the last year he has never proposed marriage, unless you count the many times he went on and on about providing a family for Michael as a proposal.

AJ looks at his beautiful wife and closes his eyes. He should lie to her. But he can’t. There’s something about tonight that tells him its a time for truth not lies. Damn the consequences.

“I don’t love her as much as I love you,” AJ says intensely. “But I do love her. And more importantly she loves me. Not my brother and not my money and not my name. Me. I’ve learned to value that these last few months. I’ve learned to value her.”

He walks over to where Carly is standing on the couch and stands near her. He smiles almost gently at Carly. “Karen will never make me as HAPPY as you could have made me, but she will never make me as UNHAPPY as you have made me. As we have made each other. I need out Carly. I can’t let you destroy me. However low your opinion of me, and I know it’s pretty low so please don’t protest otherwise, Michael needs a father who is strong and who is sober. The longer I am around you, the less I am the first and the harder the second is to maintain. Yes I love you. Maybe I always will. But I can’t be with you in a marriage like this. Not anymore.”

Carly sat down on the couch stunned and overwhelmed. “AJ..I...”

“Don’t bother,” AJ interrupts. “I knew what I was getting into when I married you. All I wanted was for Michael to be with both of us. And to please my grandfather, I won’t lie about that. And maybe I wanted you too. God knows you are beautiful enough to make any man want you. I knew what you wanted. You wanted my money. You wanted evidence that you could use against me to get Michael. You wanted my brother. You see, that was my mistake. Knowing all of that and marrying you anyway. I knew you didn’t love me. I didn’t love you. But we had a child. Many marriages start with less, you know? I didn’t realize that you hated me. If I had known that.......”

“But I didn’t.” He continues. “And somewhere along the line I fell in love with you. Maybe it was your smile. Maybe it was the way you held your head high and dared the world to look down at you. There’s something about you...your strength, your vitality, your spirit that made me love you. Yes I loved our son, but I loved you too.”

“You never said...” Carly’s voice trails off.

“I’m not an idiot. No matter what you or Jason might think of me, I’m not fool enough to give you a weapon that you could use against me.” He sighed. “Instead I tried to win your love. I bought you a home of your own, I even put it in both our names. It stays with you in the divorce settlement. I spent time with you and Michael. I brought you presents. I took you places. I listened to your problems. I tried everything I knew to get you to see me as someone you could love. I courted you. There’s no other term for it. I tried everything I could to get you to fall in love with me.”

“ But you always went to Jason. It was always Jason. And the lies, the deceit, the deception, they didn’t bother me when I didn’t love you. But once I realized that I did, every time you slept with Jason, every time you lied to me, I died a little inside. I moved a little closer to that first drink with every step you took away from me. So yes I found Karen. She was hurting from Joe’s marriage and we helped each other through a bad time. And yes we’ve been having an affair these last three months.” He looks at Carly. “And yes when I walk away from you I will be walking to her. And no I won’t look back. Your happiness will always matter to me. Always. But loving you,” He smiles sadly and takes her hand. “Loving you hurts too much so I’m giving up and letting you go.”

AJ sits next to her. “ I don’t get what you see in Jason. I know,” AJ smiles ruefully and Carly is suddenly blinded by the memory of her only true friend back when she was married to Tony, “the sex is great. And you love him. I just wish for your sake that I could be sure that he loves you. Because you deserve to be loved Carly. Sometimes I think you look in the mirror and only see the little girl whose mother gave her away. Promise me when I’m gone that once in a while you’ll try to see the beautiful, smart, and incredible woman I see when I look at you.” AJ stands up. “The papers are fair Carly. The settlement is fair. The custody arrangement is fair. Have your lawyers or Jason’s lawyers check it over. We can fly to the Caribbean this week and it will all be over. Both of us can move on with our lives. You with Jason. Me with Karen.”

AJ walks slowly to the door. His hand on the doorknob, he pauses. “Just ask yourself this question. If there had never been a Michael, would Jason still love you? I know that I still would.” AJ says softly. “Goodbye Carly. I’m glad that in this at least I can finally give you what you’ve always wanted.”

He shuts the door quietly behind him and heads out into the night.

Carly’s hands begin to shake as she holds the papers in front of her. These are what she wanted, right? Now she and Jason and Michael can be the family they should have been all along. She closes her eyes and tries to imagine the future. But she can’t. The images that come to her mind are not of Jason. They are of AJ. AJ comforting her at the Nurse’s Ball. AJ taking care of her when she had the flu last winter. AJ taking her and Michael to Disneyworld for Christmas instead of to the Quartermaines. And inviting Bobbie and Lucas along. AJ staying calm when Michael had fallen at the playground. AJ helping her decorate the new house. AJ listening to her talk about someday going into business for herself. AJ telling her that marriage to her is destroying him.

It was what she wanted this divorce. It was all part of her grand plan. Destroy AJ. Get Jason to fall in love with her. Build a future with Jason and Michael.

It was all that she had worked for since the moment she had stepped into the Quartermaine mansion a year and a half ago.

She should be celebrating. So why did she feel like crying?

Carly looks around the living room and places the papers on the table. She should call Jason and tell him the news. He would want to know.

She looks at the pictures on the mantel of the fireplace. There’s one of her and AJ and Michael when they took him to visit Santa last year. She picks the picture up and holds it tight against her chest. Tomorrow is soon enough to tell Jason. Tonight she just wants to be alone with her son.

Carly Quartermaine turns off the lights in the living room and heads silently up the stairs.