As a boy, Michael “Sonny” Corinthos, Jr. had a mother that he loved dearly and a father that he also loved – even though that father disappeared from his life again and again throughout his young childhood. The man in Sonny’s life that was supposed to always be there to love and protect Sonny and his mother and look out for them always left them both without as much as a backward glance. Of course he came around every now and then after abandoning them and he would always stay just long enough for Sonny and his mother to hope that he would stay for good. And then he would be gone again.

Feeling that she needed a male figure in their lives, Sonny’s mother Adela married Timothy Deacon Woods, or just plain Deke to those who knew him. Deke was a police officer. He was probably kind and caring – at first. Having been abandoned by her first husband, Adela probably saw Deke as the perfect father figure for her son and protector for her family. Boy, was she mistaken!

Deke Woods became a latter day Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Whenever Adela did something that displeased him, he would hit her. Or throw her across the room. Or break her arm. Whenever Sonny tried to protect his mother, he was beaten, too. Or locked in a closet and made to listen while his mother was being abused outside.

Deke was also a master of mind control. Sonny might try to explain himself in some way, knowing full well that he was justified in doing whatever it might have been. But Deke would manage to turn his words against him and no matter what Sonny said or how right he may have been, he was made to feel that he was wrong and stupid for trying to justify something that could not be justified in Deke’s maniacal eyes. This caused Sonny and Adela to stop speaking, essentially. There was no use, they reasoned. They couldn’t win. Better instead to be silent and to remain unnoticed by Deke for as long as possible.

Now, Sonny idolized Adela. She was his mother and he loved her. But one thing that he never allowed himself to realize is that his mother failed him. She allowed her son to be mentally and physically abused by her husband – his stepfather. She allowed the abuse to continue for years and years. She allowed herself to feel powerless against her husband, the police officer and she kept her son in that hell right alongside her. When Sonny finally had enough and began to fight back, Adela asked him to leave home because she knew that the day would soon come where either Sonny or Deke would not survive. So her sixteen-year-old son was sent to live on the streets, to do whatever he had to do to survive – alone. Nifty, huh?

A child left on its own to survive does exactly that – survives. That is what Sonny Corinthos did. The world had already shown him that he couldn’t depend on the people that he should have been able to depend on. All he had was himself. His mother and father taught him not to trust. Deke taught him not to talk or to try to express himself. The three adults taught him that there was no one in his life that he could count on. In fact, the only people that he could count on were the Cerullo family. His friend Louie came from a large loving family and that family was there for Sonny when his own flesh and blood wasn’t.

Sonny chose a life of crime. Of course a sixteen-year-old boy isn’t really capable of doing much else if he is alone in the world. If crime helps him to keep living, then crime it is. And crime paid. The money that he earned doing things that were illegal enabled him to take care of his mother as much as he could without letting Deke know about it. Still he continued to watch as his mother was beaten again and again – almost to the point of death. When he couldn’t take it anymore, he called on some of his newfound friends for help. The result: Deke was gone and his mother was safe for the first time in years.

Model Brenda Barrett worked so very hard to get Sonny to let her into his life and his heart. She endured his moodiness and his silences and his rage and kept on coming back – because she could see the good inside of him. Finally she used emotional blackmail to get Sonny to let her move into his apartment. And it worked just as she hoped it would. Sonny caved in and she moved into his apartment over the old Paradise Lounge that later became Luke’s Place. And Sonny loved her as he never loved anyone before in his life. He loved her so much that he was afraid to let her know that he was not only still part of The Organization but that he had risen to its very top. He was afraid that he would lose her if she knew.

So Sonny lived two separate lives. By day he was the silent partner with Brenda and Lois Cerullo in L&B Records. Also by day (and night), he was the successor to the late Frank Smith, Organization bigwig. And he really believed that he could balance the two sides of himself as long as he was careful.

But then out of Sonny’s sight, Felicia Jones and Mac Scorpio pulled Brenda aside and told her about Sonny’s other life. They convinced the naïve girl that the only way to save Sonny would be to wear a wire and get him to discuss things on tape that would get him arrested and sent to prison – for his own safety, of course. This illogic rang true for Brenda after she was shot at in the shower and Luke’s house was shot up in retaliation for Sonny’s killing of Joe Scully, his one-time mentor, who was about to kill Mike Corbin – Sonny’s absentee and now returned and repentant father.

So Brenda went along with the plan. But Lily Rivera, herself a mob daughter who had designs on Sonny for herself, found out about the wire and warned Sonny. He could not believe a word of it. Brenda would never betray him that way. And when he found out that she had, he was brokenhearted. He threw her out of his apartment and out of his life – even though it hurt him one more time. No, he didn’t go to prison. He only lost the woman that he loved and the decent life that he thought he could have with her.

Lily Rivera got what she wanted after Sonny broke up with Brenda. Sonny finally started looking at her as a woman that he could become involved with. She knew that he still loved Brenda – no matter how much he acted out and tried to deny it. But she didn’t care. As long as she could be with Sonny, it was okay.

Stone Cates, the young kid that Sonny took care of and cared about, came down with full-blown AIDS, and needed intensive medical treatment. Stone had no money but Sonny did. He spent as much money on Stone’s treatment as was needed, trying to make certain that Stone passed from this life as peacefully as he possibly could. Unfortunately the money that Sonny used was traced back to his underworld connections. Thanks to Mac Scorpio and Felicia Jones, Sonny was in danger of going to prison – finally.

He had to divest himself of his share in Luke’s Place – something that he loved being part of with one of the few friends that he had. He had to divest himself of his share in L&B Records, something else that he loved because it enabled Lois and Brenda to make their dream come true. Everything was in place for him to start serving time. To the rescue rode Lily. With one carefully placed telephone call to her father, mobster Hernando Rivera – one in which she made certain that her father knew how much she loved Sonny – Sonny’s legal troubles were made to disappear. Of course there was a condition for his freedom. Sonny would have to marry Lily. Of course she insisted that he didn’t have to go through with the marriage. But Sonny knew better.

Sonny lived up to his promises. He married Lily and remained faithful – even as he loved Brenda from afar – even as Brenda stood in his face and refused to accept his marriage. Lily knew that Sonny still loved Brenda but hoped that she could make him forget eventually. When Sonny finally tired of living the lie that was his marriage to Lily and made plans to be with the woman that he actually loved, that dream was snatched away when he discovered that Lily was pregnant with his child.

Vowing that no child of his would ever be left unprotected, unloved, and vulnerable as he had been, Sonny walked away from the woman that he loved and decided to make a life and a home for his child with Lily. But he didn’t act quickly enough. When Lily’s father heard that Sonny planned to run out on his marriage, he put out a contract on Sonny, telling the hit squad that there would be a bonus if they also managed to kill the “pretty brown haired girl” with him. Unfortunately on this night of celebration of a new life beginning, that girl happened to be his wife, Lily. A bomb was placed underneath a tipsy Sonny’s car. When Lily went to start the car and turned on the ignition, she and her unborn child were sent to their reward. Sonny lost the unborn child that he had pinned all of his hopes and dreams on, as well as a woman with whom he may not have been in love with but a woman that he clearly did love as much as he was able to.

That blow was made all the more devastating when Sonny realized that as his wife and child were dying, Brenda was half way around the world, exchanging marriage vows with Jasper Jacks, Australian golden-boy.

As we all knew she would, Brenda later decided that, in the final analysis, the dangers in Sonny’s life were not as important as was the fact that they belonged together. They briefly reunited and planned to marry. On the day of their wedding – after getting dressed to meet her at the church, Sonny decided that he couldn’t sentence Brenda to the certain death that would result from the contract that was placed on his head. So instead of finally marrying the woman that he loved, Sonny left her at the altar and skipped town – to save her life.

And so Brenda found her way back to Jax and the “fairy-tale” happiness that he represented for her.

And then one day, Jason visited Sonny on an island somewhere and told him that it had all been for nothing – Brenda had been in a car accident and was dead.

Remember Hannah – the so-called Brenda-lookalike? Remember “Operation Kiss and Tell”? Remember how hurt Sonny was when he found out that Hannah was working for the FBI and was trying to entrap him and send him to prison? It didn’t matter that she fell in love with him during the operation. What did matter was that she had been playing him from the start. One more attempt to believe in someone; one more hurt.

Into the breach rides Carly Quartermaine, the young girl with a woman’s body in Jason’s life. Jason was paying a little too much attention to Liz Webber to suit Carly. So Carly decided that the perfect way to get back at Jason was – you guessed it – to seduce his best friend, Sonny. The two leaped into bed and betrayed Jason. Jason left town as a result, Carly of course became pregnant, and Sonny had fatherhood in his sights once again – with all the hopes and dreams that that entailed.

Carly lost their child in a fall down a long flight of stairs. Later that same Carly – now married to Sonny -- ended up enlisting the hapless Roy De Luca in her conspiracy to have Sonny arrested by the FBI so that he could turn state’s evidence and go into the witness protection program to get out of The Organization. Sonny found out about it – one more betrayal – and threw Carly out of the penthouse and later divorced her.

During the next couple of years, Sonny began to grow closer to his attorney, Alexis Davis –- a woman who was as complicated as he and who was quickly becoming the one person that Sonny felt he could always count on. After ups and downs with Carly and their on-again, off-again marriage and their on-again, off-again divorce, Sonny completely turned to Alexis and she to him. Before he could settle into a period of contentment with this new woman in his life, he was told that Carly had been killed in another car accident and that she had driven to her death after discovering him in bed with Alexis.