Carly stopped and tried to consider what Sonny had said. His wife, Paige? His daughter, Emily? There had to be plenty of women named Paige who had daughters named Emily. “Emily Quartermaine?” She asked hoping he would say it was different.
Sonny nodded. “She is my daughter.”
Mike shut his eyes trying not to express the betrayal he felt. How could Sonny be that cruel? “My granddaughter?”
The unmistakable pain in Mike’s voice caused Sonny to flinch. “Yes she is.”
”She was with us so many times. The nurses ball, dinner at the penthouse, lunch at Kelly’s. All those times, I was with my granddaughter. I never knew. You never told me. You never said a anything at all.” Mike’s voice broke as he said the words.
“I never told anybody. Don’t you understand that? I have never told a soul. You wont either.” Sonny said emphatically. That point had to be understood.
Mike was about to protest when Carly spoke up. “Sonny, you know as well as anybody that Emily is not my favorite person. We don’t like one another at all. However, I think keeping this from her is a mistake.” Carly couldn’t believe she was saying the words, even as she spoke them. ”She needs to know she belongs someplace, Sonny. The Quartermaines have given her many things, but she has no sense of belonging. They are incapable of giving that to her.”
Mike nodded in agreement. “People shouldn’t live with them. You know that. You know what they did to Jason. How could you allow her to stay with them? You need to offer her a way out.”
Sonny shook his head. “She is safer if she doesn’t know. She is safer as long as nobody knows. What I told you today does not leave this apartment.” Sonny demanded.
---
“Don’t go.” Came a very small voice from the top of the stairs.
Ned and V looked at one another shocked. Neither one of them had expected Brooke to be awake. They certainly didn’t expect her to interject herself into the conversation. “I should go.” V said to break the silence. “Your daughter is up. She needs you.”
Ned looked up to the top of the stairs. “Hey Brooke, up from your nap already?” He asked with a soft smile.
“Uh hu.” She nodded as she started downstairs. “Who is your friend?” She asked while examining V.
Brooke had been increasingly shy since losing Lois. She had a hard time reaching out to new people. Ned wasn’t sure what sparked her curiosity about V but he was prepared to use it. “Why don’t you introduce yourself, Princess?”
Brooke looked at Ned uncertainly. His reassuring smile was all she needed to propel herself to the woman in front of her. “Hi, I am Brooke Lynn. Who are you?” She asked in a small, soft, shaky voice.
V smiled the shy little girl reminded her of herself at that age. “My name is V. I am a friend of your Daddy’s.”
“Oh, good he needs more friends.” Brooke answered loosening up more. “Only poeopel who live up there,” Brooke pointed towards the mansion, “come to visit.”
V laughed softly. “You don’t like the Quartermaines?”
Brooke scrunched her nose and shook her head. “They are stuffy. They wear dress clothes all the time.” She said conveying her shock that there were people like that. Then a frown played across her face. “Well, ‘cept Emily and Grandmother. They are nice.”
Ned smiled as he watched the pair interact. Brooke hadn’t held a long conversation with anybody other than Emily or himself since she arrived in Port Charles. He made a mental note to include V in more of their activities. “What about V? Do you think she is nice?”
Brooke smiled. “Uh hu… Can she come upstairs and play?”
---
Still in shock over what he had found in the letter Nikolas wasn’t quite sure what to tell Emily. “I don’t know where to begin.” He said softly. He couldn’t begin to calculate all the consequences of what he had learned. Sonny Corinthos was Emily’s father?
Emily wanted to grab the letter from his hands and devour its contents. However, she was paralyzed by fear.
Nikolas watched this reaction. “Are you sure you want to know what this letter says?” He wasn’t sure she was ready to learn that a man she had known for years was really her father.
“Am I sure that I want to know? I have wondered about him for my entire life. Why wouldn’t I want to know?”
He is a mobster? Nikolas thought to himself. “Because once you know, you can’t go back. You have to know that you are ready to learn the truth, regardless of what it might be. You also need to find out in a way that is good for you.” Nikolas couldn’t help but think how much nicer it would have been if he could have picked how he learned about his own parentage.
Emily considered Nikolas’ statement. She knew she wanted to know, or rather, needed to know. However, did she really want Nikolas to tell her? It seemed much too private an issue to learn that way. Still she didn’t want to be alone, what if she didn’t like what she learned? “Stay with me?” She asked timidly as she reached for the letter.
“For as long as you need me.” He reassured. If he couldn’t protect her from the contents of the letter, at least he could help her through the emotions she would feel once she read them.
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