CHAPTER ONE-HUNDRED AND EIGHT

THE PENTHOUSE:

Carly: I guess it’s true what they say. You never miss something until it’s taken away from you. (she couldn’t seem to stop herself from running her hands all over his body)Don’t ever tell me not to touch you, again. I don’t think I could bear it. So how do you feel.

Sonny: Clean. You did what all those showers couldn’t. You took her touch off me. It’s like it was never even there.

Carly: And was it the same between us? Was I right that it didn’t touch or destroy what we share.

Sonny:(smiled and kissed her)You were right.

Carly: Then don’t you think it’s possible I’m also right about our baby. (his smiled disappeared and he became distant)Sonny, stop holding yourself from the baby the way you tried to do to me, tonight. She’s going to be born in a few week’s time. Let it be a happy time for us. Not a time where you’re eating yourself up with guilt because you wouldn’t give the baby your love while she was growing inside of me. Sonny, the baby knows and when she’s born she made decide to reject you the same way you’ve rejected her for months.

Sonny: What do you want me to do?

Carly: First, have faith in me that I’m right and our daughter is going to be fine. That you’re not cursed and no child of yours will ever be born. Have faith that she’s just going to be the first of many babies that I give you.

Sonny: Many babies? Just how many children do you intend for us to have?

Carly: (caressed her belly)This baby is for you. She’s going to look exactly like you and she’s going to be exactly like you. She won’t have a bit of me in her. But that’s the way it should be. You’ve waited so long for this baby, she’s going to be all yours. Then I’ll give you two sons for the ones you lost. They’ll be a combination of you and I in looks and personality, god help humanity. And then I’ll give you one more daughter, and she’ll be all me. She’s going to be just like me. A handful.

Sonny: Five children? Have you already picked out their names?

Carly: As a matter-of-fact, I have. (she caressed her belly)This is Hope. I want to name her that because AJ took your hope away and Hope gave you it back. We’re going to be so happy, Sonny, and all you have to do is embrace it.

Sonny: How?

Carly: Let your daughter feel your love and your touch. (she took his hand and place it on her belly, and breathed a sigh of relief when he didn’t freeze up this time)Feel your daughter growing inside of me, Sonny.

Sonny: (moved his hand over Carly’s stomach, then he felt a bulge and he looked up at Carly in wonderment)My god, I can feel her.

Carly: Say something to her. She’s been waiting a long time for her daddy to say something to her.

Sonny: Hi, Hope, I’m your daddy, and even though I haven’t acted like it, I want you to know how very much I love you.

STEFAN’S ROOM, WYNDEMERE:

Stefan(tucked Bobbie in bed. She just finished taking a shower to wipe off the experience in the wine cellar)I’m sorry this happened, Barbara.

Bobbie: You should be. You’re the one who set it up.

Stefan: I beg your pardon.

Bobbie: Stefan, this has your fingerprints all over it. You sent me down to the wine cellar, Roy shows up, then we get locked inside together and you rush to my rescue in the nick of time to save me from being raped. Did you have a hidden camera planted somewhere in the room so you could watch what would happen? (she figured out the truth from the look in his eyes)My god, you did. Well, I hope you got your money’s worth. Congratulations, Stefan, you turned me being reunited with the love of my life, who I thought was dead for 20 years, into me almost getting raped on the floor of your wine cellar.

Stefan: Barbara, it never occurred to me he would turn violent like that. And the minute I saw it happen, I rushed to get you out of there.

Bobbie: Stefan, just what were you trying to accomplish by that?

Stefan: I wanted to see if you’d remain faithful to me.

Bobbie: You know, Stefan, you may say you only think of me as a convenient body to vent your lust on, but your actions say something else.

Stefan: And you defended me against him. What exactly do your actions say, Barbara?

Bobbie: Maybe you and I are like Sonny and Carly, only a nastier version of them.

Stefan: How so?

Bobbie: They’re like a couple of jungle cats who finally found their true mate. Maybe we’ve done the same thing, only they found true love together and all we’ve found is sexual gratification.

Stefan: Maybe we are each other’s true mate. Maybe some part of us recognized that that night we met on the stoop of your brownstone.

Bobbie: Don’t most animals in the jungle either mate for life or end up killing each other?

Stefan: It’ll be interesting to see which category we fall into.