Brenda awoke the next morning to find Jax's side of the bed empty. She glanced quickly at the clock and saw it read 9:37. She hadn't realized it was so late. Jax must have let her sleep in this morning, which meant he was feeling better. She got out of bed and went to look for him. She didn't have to go far.

Jax and Ned were in his office. Brenda could hear them arguing about something, but she couldn't hear what they were saying. Suddenly, Jax raised his voice and she heard him say, "I can't tell her that, Ned! You know that!" Then, his voice quieted again and she couldn't hear any more. She went into the kitchen and decided to leave them alone until they appeared to her. She set about keeping herself occupied.

Jax and Ned were still arguing. They were back on the subject of telling whoever it concerned about the problems they had.

"Jax," Ned said calmly, "you need to tell her and you need to tell her as soon as possible."

Jax sighed. "I know, Ned. But see it from my point. What if she doesn't believe me-"

"She will, you know she will."

"But what if-"

"We don't have time for what if's, Jax." Ned picked up a finance report and pointed out a figure to him. "We need to act quickly on this. That means now. I would suggest you have that conversation today."

"I plan to. Look, are we done here? You said everything you need now is at the office, right?" Ned nodded. "OK, then you go to the office. I'm going to work on it from here. Call me as soon as you figure anything out."

Ned nodded again and stood up, gathering the files and papers he needed to take with him. He left shortly thereafter with a promise to call when he knew something.

Jax leaned back in his chair as the door closed. He crossed his left leg over his right and put his hands behind his head. He flexed his ankle and winced when his foot hit its limit. He hadn't thought it would still hurt like that three days later.

Sitting up straight again, he turned to his computer. He checked his e-mail quickly and came up with nothing, except two messages from a couple of his employees. He'd let Ned deal with them.

He sighed and picked up the phone, dialing the number he knew better than any other, except maybe Brenda's. He wanted to get this call over with. The phone rang twice before someone picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Miranda," Jax said politely, not giving anything away.

"Jax, what do you want?" Her voice was impatient.

Probably wants to get back to Dolway. "Am I keeping you from something already?"

"No," but her tone said otherwise.

"Good. I was just calling to check in with you."

"Fine, you have. Anything else?"

Yes, why are you so cold and cruel? "Yes, did you need anything from me?" Like my company?

"No, oh, but Jax, I do have one question."

"Yes?"

"When are you coming back to Port Charles? You told me you were coming home today last time I spoke to you. Are you still?" She was anxious about something, like she had something to hide, which, of course, she did.

"That's right, I forgot to tell you. No, I won't be," he could practically see the look of relief that came over her face. "Something came up and I've decided not to leave for a few more days."

"What does that mean?"

"It means you can go back to your meeting now and not have to worry that I'm going to walk in on you."

"What meeting, Jax? What are you talking about?"

"I don't know, you tell me. Goodbye, Miranda." He hung up before she could say anything else. At least now she knew that he suspected something.

Jax began to search for a file on his computer. A few minutes later, there was a soft knock on the door. Wihtout turning from the screen, he called, "Come in, Brenda." He turned to face her as she walked in.

"Is now a good time?" she asked. She came to stand in front of his desk. "I didn't hear your voice, so I figured you were off the phone."

"I am and it's as good a time as any. Let's go over there." He gestured to the couch.

As Brenda went towards it, Jax stood up and almost immediately, had to catch himself against his desk. Brenda rushed around the side to help him into his chair again. He grimaced as he pulled his left foot over his right knee and began to massage it gently. Brenda reached down to move his hands away so that she could look. He stopped her.

"I'm fine, Brenda," he said through a clenched jaw.

"You're not." She reached again.

"I'm okay, I promise." He took a deep breath. "You can do something for me, though."

"What?" She stood up in front of him.

Jax reached for his crutches. "Bring me that ice pack." She ran to get it while he slowly and quite painfully moved to the couch.

Brenda returned with the ice and a towel. Jax was sitting on the couch and had propped his foot up on the table in front of him. She wrapped the ice in the towel and placed it carefully on his foot. He winced slightly.

After it began to numb, Jax looked at her and smiled. "What would I do without you here to help me?"

"I don't know, probably kill yourself trying to walk," she teased gently. "Want to find out?"

"No," he said vehemently, more so than he'd meant to and it surprised them both.

"Jax, what'd you do this time?" she asked.

"This time? Are you referring to the fact that I'm not getting along very well with this thing?" he laughed. "Something really dumb, actually. When I went to get up, I forgot about this and accidentally stood on my left foot. It kind of buckled under the pressure." He grinned sheepishly. "Dumb, huh?"

"I'd say. You scared me half to death. Don't ever do that again!" But she was laughing to cover her real concern.

They sat in a comfortable silence for a few minutes while Jax adjusted. Brenda was sitting on the other side of the couch from him. Jax studied her expression for a minute or so.

Finally, he said, "Brenda," when she looked at him, he continued, "about that talk we need to have..." she nodded, "I think now's a good time to have it."

"OK, what do we need to talk about? She shifted on the couch to face him completely. "Your dream?"

"Well, that, and my business."

"Your business? What does that have to do with me?"

"Nothing, until yesterday. It just does. We'll get to that in a minute, though. I have one request. I don't want you to say anything until I finish telling you the whole thing, okay?"

"Okay," she nodded. She was sure he was going to tell her some awful news he'd been dreading telling her. "Go ahead."

"I told you about the Moore and Reid Company, the one that's been taking our companies out from under us." She nodded. "Well, there's more to them than Ned and I originally thought. We hired a private investigator to find out about them and their owners. At first, we thought it would turn out to be Brian Dolway, someone I fired a few months ago who's had it in for me ever since. However, his name was nowhere to be found in the company. Instead, we found out it was owned by an anonymous person and no one in the company knew who it was. It took our guy until yesterday afternoon to get the information he needed." He looked apologetic. "This is where you come in. Brenda, the owner of the company is none other than Sonny Corinthos, your husband."

"What??" She was too shocked to remember to keep quiet and not interrupt.

"Let me finish. Ned and I looked into it some more and found out quite a bit. Sonny is working with Miranda and Dolway. They are all, under the guise of Moore and Reid, trying to outbuy my prospective companies. They want to take my business from me and try to bankrupt me in the process. For now, they've only gotten those three I told you about. I know what you're thinking right about now, Brenda. You want to know why Miranda, and Sonny for that matter, would want to bankrupt me." She nodded silently. "Sonny, I'm not so sure about other than the fact that he's always resented me for the friendship you and I have. But Miranda has her own reasons, and most them I know or can figure out. See, ever since I fired Dolway, he and Miranda have been having an affair." Brenda's mouth fell open. "By that, I'm sure you can guess that our marriage is over. In fact, it has been for years now, if it was ever a real marriage to begin with. Because of that, Miranda has come to hate me. And I suspect some of that comes from Dolway's influence, but who knows. She may have hated me from the day we got married. It doesn't matter. And it doesn't matter to her if I lose my money in all of this because she's working with the side that's trying to take it from me. Now, she doesn't know that I know about her affair or most of any of this. I want to let her get in with both feet before I drain the water from her and file for a divorce." Again, Brenda was shocked beyond words. "I don't want her to have a leg to stand on in our settlement. She will lose and she will lose big time." He finished with a cold glint in his eyes that immediately softened when he turned to Brenda. He waited a few minutes for her reaction. "Say something, Brenda. Please? Anything."

She was still trying to take in everything he had just said to her. "Jax, are you sure about all of this?" He nodded silently. "I can't believe they would do all that," she said thoughtfully.

"Please say you do, though."

"It's not that, of course I do. I believe every word of what you told me. I just don't know why Sonny would do this to you. As much as it sounds like something he would do, I can't figure it out." She thought about it for a second. "There's always one possibility, though."

"What?"

"It's not just you he's getting back at. It's me, too. In fact, probably more me than you. Jax, since you told me, I should tell you, too. My marriage to Sonny has been over for a very long time now. We merely exist in the same house with polite conversation and never any feeling." It was Jax's turn to look surprised. "He was always jealous of your presence in my life. He probably thought he'd get even with me for that through you, knowing it would affect me, too."

They both fell into a silence that filled the room. Both of them had just told the other so much. They'd finally admitted to each other what they'd known themselves for years. Their marriages were over and now the other knew. Lois and Ned had been right, thought neither had ever really doubted that.

A few minutes passed without either one of them saying a word. Jax contemplated the fact that Lois and Ned had, in fact, been right. He broke the silence and asked, "Brenda, if Lois and Ned were right about this, what else were they right about?"