Jason had retained control of the mob when they returned to town. Sonny wanted his daughter free from the taint of the mob. As long as Jason was in charge, he could keep Sonny and Brenda safe under his protection, and they wouldn't have to fear any danger of the mob ever touching them again. Not that Sonny didn't miss the power and the danger of the mob, but that rainy night in the woods when Michele was born could still become a reality if he didn't stay away from that life for good and he knew it.
So he tried to go straight, unfortunately the people of Port Charles had no intention of letting him do it. They had no intention of ever letting him forget what he once was and they took every chance they could to throw it back in his face. Everytime a crime was committed, even though he no longer had any ties to the mob, he was dragged in for questioning. No one would employ him as an accountant because of his creativity with bookkeeping, off-shore bank accounts and laundering money for a living.
Unfortunately, the more his attempts were thwarted to lead an honest life, the more tempted Sonny was to go knocking on Jason's door and tell him he wanted back into the mob. It wasn't just the power he missed, he missed the respect he used to be treated with. It galled Sonny that Jax, who was nothing more than a thief, could clean people's pockets out and they'd slobber all over themselves kissing his ass when he entered a room. The only thing that stopped him from doing it was his daughter. Everytime the temptation became overwhelming to return to the mob, he'd go to the nursery and hold Michele to make himself remember just why he couldn't do it.
Speaking of Prince Not-So Charming, he was causing Sonny major problems on the personal front. When he'd learned the circumstances of Michele's birth, not to mention what had happened to them in the limo when they were driving to the airport, Jax had declared he was going to save Brenda from her marriage to Sonny. A day didn't go by that the bastard didn't send Brenda flowers or some outrageously expensive gift. God, couldn't this loser just go and get himself a life. They had a baby for god's sake. Not to mention the fact Brenda had dumped his ass to go on the run with Sonny. He must have Tread On Me, Brender tattooed on his ass or something.
It was actually thanks to Jax that Sonny found a new career for himself. The last straw for Sonny in regards to Jax came when he had the nerve to send him and Brenda a meal imported from Paris one evening. That did it, as far as Sonny was concerned. So, Jax wanted to save Brenda from him, Sonny thought vengefully to himself. Well, let's see how Jax liked it when Sonny decided to save all the companies the corporate vulture targeted for takeover from Jax. Which is exactly what he did.
The very next morning after Jax's imported dinner had arrived at the penthouse, Sonny had broken into his penthouse at the Port Charles Hotel and copied all of Jax's files portaining to all the takeovers he had in the works. Then he contacted the companies Jax was targeting and offered his financial assistance in helping them fight off Jax. He had plenty of the money left in the off-shore bank account Jason had set up for him when he had gone on the run with Brenda. It wasn't doing anything but gathering interest, so he might as well put it to good use. Sonny didn't tell Brenda what he was up to, however. She'd have a fit if she knew he was planning to keep screwing up all of Jax's takeover attempts until he had finally bankrupted that Aussie bastard. Then let's see him send them a meal imported from Paris, Sonny thought with some satisfaction. Sonny was also a bit ticked off at Brenda for not telling Jax to fuck-off since she was a happily married woman. He suspected Brenda didn't because she knew how much it irritated Sonny.
But at Jason and Robin's wedding everything would came to a head, and Sonny and Brenda would have their first major blow-out since they'd gotten married, and in public, no less. Brenda was also going to discover there was a major threat to their marriage and it wasn't Jax and his insipid attempts to break up her and Sonny's marriage.
A few days before Jason and Robin were supposed to marry at St. Timothy's, Brenda noticed a change in Sonny. She'd been worried about him, since he was not adjusting well to life back in Port Charles. Then suddenly he did. He no longer dragged himself into the room like he was carrying the world around on his shoulders like he'd been doing since they returned, but kicked the door down and took no prisoners when he entered. In short, he was finally back to being the old Sonny she knew and loved. The only question that remained is what had happened to bring in-your-face Sonny back?
Brenda hadn't told Jax to cease with his unwanted attentions in hopes that it might put the spark back into Sonny that had been missing since they'd returned to Port Charles. So she'd blatantly encouraged Jax in hopes that Sonny would finally explode and demand she tell Jax to get lost. Only he never did.
"Welcome home, baby." She kissed him as he came through the door. "How did your day go?"
"Just the usual." Sonny said as he took off his jacket and collapsed on the sofa. "More rejection by the good people of Port Charles. More throwing of my past in my face. More refusing to let me have a fresh start in this town. And you?" He looked over at the dozen roses sitting in a vase near the couch. "Those the latest from Jax?"
"As a matter of fact, they are." She chirped and waited for his reaction.
"They must be costing him a lot of money." Sonny replied, then smirked as he added. "Good thing he doesn't have money problems."
Brenda saw that smirk and knew it meant trouble. "All right, Sonny." Brenda took his chin in her hand and made him look at her. "What have you done?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Sonny turned his innocent face on her. "I was just making an innocent comment." He added, as he studied his fingernails. "All this crap Jax keeps sending you everyday must be costing him a pretty penny. Maybe you should tell him to cool it before he ends up bankrupting himself."
"Is that an order?" She asked carefully, waiting for him to explode.
"No." Sonny smiled back at her. "Just my opinion. What you decide to do with it is entirely up to you."
And she was the Pope of Greenwich Village. "You've always left Jax alone out of respect for me." She reminded him. "No matter how much he irritated you."
"That's true." Sonny admitted. "But you've got to give respect to get it. Is Jax showing any respect to our marriage by what he's doing? We just had a baby and he's trying to romance you and break up our marriage." He added. "And what about you? How much respect are you showing to me, your husband, by expecting me to put up with another man sending you flowers, presents and dinners imported from Paris."
"Maybe I'm doing it for you." She threw back at Sonny. "Maybe I'm hoping you'll get so ticked off you'll go after Jax so you'll have some purpose in your life. Maybe I'm afraid if you don't find one soon, you'll go back to the mob and let that be your purpose in life again."
"You don't honestly think I'd do that after what happened the night Michele was born, do you?" He asked her, feeling like she didn't know him at all. "Instead of it being Jason who stepped out from between those bushes that night it could have been a hired killer who would have gunned all three of us down. I'll never forget that for as long as I live. I'll never forget the terror and helplessness I felt at that moment. I'll never go back to the mob because of that and you should know that."
"Maybe that scares me even more than you going back to the mob." She confessed. "Sonny, you've got this self-destructive streak in you. You used the mob to destroy our relationship on more than one occasion. Without the mob, it terrifies me to wonder what new way you may find to sabotage us."
"Before I can sabotage us." Sonny retorted. "This town will do it for us. None of your so-called friends want us together, and their doing everything they can to sabotage us. They want me to go back to the mob, so you'll find out and leave me. That's why they won't let me get a fresh start. They think if they keep preventing me from getting any kind of honest employment, I'll go running back to the mob and you'll leave me." He added. "As horrible as this is to say, we were better off when we were living on the run and being hunted by hired killers."
"You're up to something, Sonny." Brenda suddenly declared, deciding to stop beating around the bush. "And I think it involves getting back at Jax, somehow." Then she explained her reasons for thinking so. "I've noticed a change in you in the last few days. You've gotten your old spark back. I know you're up to something and I want to know what it is."
"Why?" He asked. "So you can warn Jax what I'm about to do to him?"
"Then you are planning to do something to Jax." She exclaimed.
"I didn't say that." He replied, not giving her a clue to what he had planned for Jax.
"Do you really think I'd tip Jax off?" She wanted to know, feeling like he didn't really know her if he thought that.
"It wouldn't be the first time you chose him over me." Sonny reminded her. "It wouldn't be the first time you chose everyone over me."
She knew he was talking about choosing Ned and Lois over him when they had gotten her to wear the wire. "Maybe you're right." She suddenly agreed with him. "Maybe we would have been better off if we never came back here."
She realized too late she had made a dreadful mistake allowing Jax to continue to send her all these tokens of his affections, instead of cutting him off at the knees. But she'd thought it would help Sonny. She knew none of her friends were making it easy for Sonny to go straight. So she thought if he had an enemy to fight, it might make things better. Give Sonny a goal in life. A reason to get up in the morning. Sonny loved nothing better than a good fight. Now because she hadn't told Jax his attentions were unwanted, she had unintentionally hurt Sonny and caused problems between them that didn't need to be between them. She didn't want Jax. She only wanted Sonny and had always only wanted Sonny. And she talked about Sonny having a self-destructive streak. What about her own? It could rival Sonny's any day of the week and could destroy them just as easily as Sonny's could.