Previously…
– Tori told her family that she would like to move in with Zane after graduation. Sarah decided to take action once and for all to get her daughter away from Zane.
– Before Conrad moved out of Molly’s house, they admitted their feelings and shared a kiss… which turned into sex.
– Sonja was confused when someone other than the person who has been giving her orders picked up the phone. She was unaware that it was Sophie, who heard a second phone ringing in Natalie’s purse.

 

A soft but steady drizzle patters against the houses, cars, and pavement as Molly Taylor parks at the curb. She stays safely inside her Mercedes as she double-checks the address and then, using one arm to shield her dark hair from the rain, hurries up the driveway to Conrad Halston’s new townhouse.

The building is new construction, with tan siding and tasteful black trim, in a row of a dozen or so similar units. She makes her way up the covered steps and rings the doorbell. As she waits, she brushes raindrops from her coat.

She hears voices inside before the lock clicks and the door opens.

“Good morning,” she says as Conrad is revealed in the entry. He wears a navy cashmere sweater and slacks, and his posture is upright and proper — much more like the attorney whom she remembers coming to King’s Bay to help her than the man who was convalescing in her house for the past several months.

“Hi,” he greets her, a note of something strange in his voice. Molly’s confusion, or this iteration of it, lasts only a moment… because as her gaze trails away from Conrad’s face, she spots her own sister behind him.

“Hey,” Sarah Fisher Gray says as she hikes up her purse on her shoulder. “I’m just on my way out.”

“I didn’t expect to see you here,” Molly says.

“Just had some business to take care of. But I have to run.” Sarah slips past Conrad and out the door, placing her and Molly nearly face-to-face. “Thanks again, Conrad. I just wanted to be sure.”

“Please don’t do anything–”

“I won’t,” Sarah says, cutting him off. “I promise.”

She gives Molly a pat on the arm. “See you later.”

Sarah shuffles down the stairs and out into the rain, where her Jeep is waiting. Molly watches her climb into the driver’s seat. As the engine fires up, Molly looks back to Conrad.

“What was that all about?”

He hesitates, his lips tightening into a thin line.

“Conrad,” she says, more insistently. “What was my sister doing here?”

—–

The treadmill slows to a stop, its airy whirr fading off into nothingness. Paula Fisher waits until the machine is completely still before she steps off the belt. She glances out the window into the rainy King’s Bay morning. She knows that she is going stir-crazy, because even the sight of the rain outdoors doesn’t make her particularly grateful to have the treadmill in the den of her home. She would give nearly anything to take a walk around the neighborhood in the rain.

This is almost over, she reminds herself. It is a mantra she speaks, either in her head or aloud, many times a day, but each time she repeats it, it becomes a little more hollow, a little more meaningless. The end of her house arrest term is in sight, and yet it feels as if this has been going on forever.

As she picks up the towel slung over the treadmill’s arm and wipes her forehead, the doorbell sounds.

“I’ve got it!” Matt Gray calls out from elsewhere in the house, and seconds later, Paula hears the faint noises to back up his assertion. She quickly checks herself in a wall mirror, relieved that she decided to do her walk in a blue sweatsuit instead of a ratty t-shirt and leggings today, and makes her way out through the living room and into the entryway.

“Mrs. Fisher,” Jake Gray says as he and his wife remove their shoes. “So good to see you.”

“You, too,” Paula says. Matt’s brother greets her with a friendly hug. “Welcome to King’s Bay.”

“Thanks.” Mia gives Paula a hug, as well. “We’re so happy to be here.”

“You’re going to look at houses?” Paula asks.

“Taking them to check out the top two that we liked,” Matt explains. “We’ll head out as soon as Sarah gets back.”

Paula furrows her brow. “She isn’t home yet?”

Matt shrugs. “She said she had to run an errand after she dropped Billy at school.”

“Can I get you some coffee or tea?” Paula asks.

“I’d love some tea, if it isn’t too much trouble,” Mia says.

“If you already have coffee made, I’ll take some,” Jake responds, “but don’t go to any trouble on my account.”

Paula waves them along. “Come, come. Everything’s in the kitchen.” As they walk through the dining room, she asks, “How is Marcus liking King’s Bay Academy?”

“Sounds like his first day went great,” Jake says. “Figure it’ll be good for him to get the lay of the land before I officially start working there.”

“Please, sit,” Paula tells them, gesturing at the kitchen table. Jake and Mia take seats at the table, while Matt pours Jake a cup of coffee from the pot on the counter.

Paula sets the kettle to boil on the stove. “I’m sure you’re eager to have a permanent place to stay.”

Mia lets out a groan. “You have no idea. I thought we could take our time, but this rental… bleh.”

“Mia’s not a fan of the north side of town,” Jake says.

“I’d like to be closer to everything,” Mia fills in. “And the property itself is pretty cramped. The sooner we make a decision on a house and make an offer, the better.”

Matt rubs his hands together. “As soon as my wife shows up, we can get moving. Wonder where she got to.”

“It’s Sarah we’re talking about,” Paula says, shaking her head as a bemused expression covers her face. “Sometimes it’s best not to ask.”

—–

The gently insistent tapping sound comes to Tori Gray in her sleep, and as she drifts back to consciousness, she realizes that it is rain beating against the window pane. She listens to it for a few minutes as the clouds in her mind clear, and when she lifts her head enough to look at her phone on the nightstand, she notices with surprise that it is past 9 a.m.

Rolling over, she sees Zane Tanaka still asleep. He lies on his side, facing her, with one arm beneath his pillow and the other held tightly against his body. She always finds it interesting to watch him sleep. Some people look so peaceful, almost like younger or freer versions of themselves, while asleep; Zane is not one of those people. Everything about him, including the way that he almost seems to be working to clench his eyes shut, appears tense. It’s a wonder he manages to get any rest at all.

She decides to let him continue to get whatever sleep he can, so she quietly climbs out of bed and pulls on her oversized sweatshirt. She tiptoes out of the bedroom and closes the door behind herself. In the small living area, there is a serious chill in the air, and she folds her arms against it, knowing that she will have to wait for Zane to fiddle with the thermostat, which she can never get to work.

She finds a clean mug in the bare cupboards, fills it with water, and pours that into the tank of the Keurig coffeemaker. As she waits for the machine to heat the water, she surveys the apartment. It reminds her of so many boys’ dorm rooms at King’s Bay U — just clean enough not to be disgusting, just enough stuff to be functional. There is no particular sense of style or even order. She is mentally making a list of ways that she could spruce up the space when she hears Zane emerging from the bedroom.

“We slept late,” he says groggily as he appears, wearing a tank top and pajama pants.

“Yeah. Guess we stayed up later than we thought.” She goes over to him and wraps her arms around his waist.  “It’s nice to be able to hang out.”

“Mm-hmm.” He kisses her on the top of your head. “You have class at noon?”

She groans. “Yeah. For three hours. I’m so glad this is my last semester.”

He takes a step back and grins at her. “But then you’ve gotta face the real world.”

“It has to be better than school,” she says dreamily. “Besides, once I have a job, I’ll be able to afford a place…”

“Ready for a place of your own, huh?”

“You have no idea.” She searches his eyes for some hint that he is going to take the bait, or at least recognizes it. Per usual, they give nothing away.

“Did you make coffee yet?” he asks, slipping off toward the Keurig.

“I was just about to.”

He pops a pod into the machine. “First one’s for you, then.”

As it brews, he takes a mug from the sink and rinses it out. “You know, first jobs usually don’t pay that well.”

“Thanks for the reminder,” Tori says, shivering against the cold. “Aren’t you freezing?”

“I’ll turn on the heat in a sec.” He flips off the faucet. “I just mean, there are more economical ways to tackle your first place away from home. Like… by having a roommate.”

She brightens at his comment but reminds herself to play it cool. “Where would I find one of those?”

Zane offers an exaggerated shrug. “I might know a guy who’d be in the market to have a pretty girl move into his place.”

“Would that guy also be in the market for letting his new roommate do some… redecorating?”

“Whatever she wants.” He grabs her coffee off the machine and hands it to her. “Here. You’re gonna need this if you plan to tackle this place.”

“Believe me, I know,” she says as she takes a careful first sip of the coffee, all the while smiling at him.

—–

The sudden ringing of the cell phone startles Natalie Bishop. Instinctively, her foot presses down on the brake of her SUV. As she processes what the noise is, she settles and reaches into her purse, which rests on the passenger seat. She has to fish around with her hand for a moment before she locates the phone. Her regular phone is connected to the vehicle’s Bluetooth, but this one is not, so she presses a button to put it on speaker mode and holds it in one hand as she continues driving.

“Yes?” she answers brusquely after double-checking that the incoming number is the only one she would expect to be calling this line.

“Good morning,” Sonja Kahele says over the line.

“Hello.” Natalie hasn’t gone to much conscious effort to disguise her voice on these calls, but she always finds herself adopting a slightly deeper, more serious voice. “What is it?”

“I thought you should know that I got an official notice from the staffing agency,” Sonja says. “The insurance company is no longer covering my services as of the 15th of this month.”

“I see.”

Natalie has known this was coming ever since the plan kicked into gear, but she had hoped that she would feel more confident in the results of Sonja’s work by now. Given the way that Spencer Ragan was looking at her on Christmas, coupled with Sonja’s report that he neglected to use the white noise app a few nights while Sonja was in Hawaii, she isn’t entirely confident that his memory is going to stay as lost as it currently is.

“Mrs. Ragan is still willing to pay for your service,” Natalie says as she steers into a right turn with one hand.

“But how?”

“If you can figure out a way to stay close to Spencer… perhaps by convincing his father that he still needs therapy…”

Natalie knows that Sonja and Tim have been getting closer, but she cannot reveal that, at least not to the extent that might be useful in this conversation. Otherwise Sonja might know that the person giving her orders isn’t some minion of Loretta Ragan’s, acting as a go-between for the jailed felon. Still, Natalie always gets a jolt of pleasure out of referencing “Mrs. Ragan,” as if it is some alternate personality she simply must indulge by having Sonja do her dirty work.

“I guess I can offer to come work with Spencer a few times a week,” Sonja says.

“You do that. Let me know how it goes. You haven’t noticed any more hints that he might be remembering things?”

“No. None. I think the white noise is doing its job.”

“Good. Mrs. Ragan will be pleased to hear that.” Natalie glances in the rearview mirror, where Peter is riding in his carseat, kicking his little legs. She knows that he is far too young to understand any of this, and yet it still makes her slightly nervous to have these conversations with a witness of any kind present.

This is for your good, too, she thinks as she watches her son through the mirror.

“Does someone else know what we’re doing?” Sonja asks, abruptly and nervously. “The other day, when that person answered for you–”

“That was an assistant of mine,” Natalie answers nonchalantly.

“Assistant?”

“Yes. That’s all you need to know. Now get to work on Tim Fisher and report back as soon as you have something useful to tell me.”

“Okay.”

“Goodbye, Sonja.” Natalie ends the call and tosses the phone onto the passenger seat. As unsettled as she has felt about Sonja and Tim growing closer and developing some kind of relationship — lest the nurse have an attack of guilt and come clean with him — it might prove useful now. Sonja will have access to Spencer even beyond the end of her employment as an in-home aide. Besides, even if Sonja were to blab to Tim, there is very little to trace. The phone is a burner that she paid for in cash. The white noise app, and its subliminal messages, were all sent from a computer at the public library, not an IP address that could be traced to Natalie. And it was a stroke of genius hiring Sonja under the guise of Loretta Ragan; there’s no one who wouldn’t believe that crazy bitch would hire a nurse to mess with her son’s life, even from behind bars. Natalie hopes that she never meets the woman, but she does send her some silent thanks simply for existing and being as batshit crazy as she apparently is.

“Thanks, Loretta,” she mutters as she continues to drive. “You’re the perfect scapegoat.”

—–

Conrad ushers Molly in out of the rain and locks the door. She makes no move to take off her still-wet coat.

“Sarah called me last night to talk about her case,” he explains. “She said it was urgent, but she didn’t want to discuss it over the phone. I told her that she could drop by first thing in the morning.”

“Her case? Why? Her probation is basically over, just like mine. We just have to do our final check-ins with the judge.” Her shoulders drop with the weight of realization. “Did she get into trouble?”

“No. I have no idea what it was about, honestly. She had some questions about the end of her probation — but that’s really all I can say.”

“Confidentiality. I get it.” Relaxed, she slips off her coat. “This place looks fantastic. I’ve been dying to see it.”

“Here, let me take that.”

She hands him the coat, which he hangs in a closet just off the small entryway. He motions for her to follow him, and they move down the hardwood floor past the open door of a powder room and into the main living space.

“Oh, this is great,” Molly observes. He already has a sofa, an armchair, and a coffee table in place in the living room, which flows directly into a dining area, where a square table flanked by four chairs sits below a contemporary lighting fixture with silver spheres hanging at varying heights.

“I arranged for all of this to be delivered the day that I got home from Bree’s competition,” he says. “It’s amazing how much you can get done online. And that’s all I wanted — for it to be done.”

“Well, you’re off to a great start. This will be a nice space for you… although I already do miss having you around the house.”

“You’re welcome here whenever you like,” he says, smiling as he takes her hand. “I’m so glad that you came by.”

“My first meeting isn’t for a few hours, so I thought, why not? Might as well live a little.”

Conrad chuckles. “Have you eaten? We could go out for breakfast. I’m afraid I don’t have much in the refrigerator just yet.”

“That sounds great.” She stares into his warm eyes. “I missed you while you were gone.”

“I missed you, too.”

“How’s Bree doing? Jason is still out of his mind with excitement.”

“I’m so proud of her,” Conrad says. “I think she’s enjoying a little bit of a rest period. She’s trained so hard.”

“And in a few weeks, the whole cycle starts again.” Molly intertwines her fingers with Conrad’s. “It’s nice that you were able to travel and be there to see her skate.”

“It made me glad that I decided to stay in King’s Bay. I’ve missed too many moments in her life already. I want to be around for everything I possibly can.”

“I’m sure that means a lot to her.”

“It means a lot to me.”

Unable to help herself, Molly leans in and kisses him. She planned for it to be a simple peck, but it lingers, their hungry mouths dancing together. Suddenly she pulls back.

“We’d better get to breakfast,” she says, “or I’m going to do something I regret.”

“Regret? What’s to regret?”

“Messing up the hair and makeup I already did for work.”

“I know better than to cause any trouble on that front,” he says, his hand caressing her lower back. “Let’s go before I get myself into trouble.”

Molly giggles as they head back toward the front door.

—–

With the rain still falling, Sarah parks the Jeep in the driveway of the house in which she grew up. She is disappointed to see that Tori’s car is not also parked there; part of her hoped that her daughter would come home from Zane’s before going to campus for her class. But it might be for the best, she knows; she is riding a wave of adrenaline after her meeting with Conrad, and she doesn’t want to do anything foolish.

Just a few days, she tells herself as she gets out of the car. There is an unfamiliar silver sedan in front of the house, and the sight of it causes her to pick up the pace as she heads into the house.

“I’m back!” she announces as she opens the front door.

“We’re in the kitchen, dear!” Paula calls.

Sarah quickly kicks off her boots but leaves on her coat, knowing that they’ll be leaving again shortly. In the kitchen, she finds her mother and husband with Jake and Mia.

“Hey, you guys,” she says, and a smattering of greetings come her way. “Ready to check out these places?”

“You have no idea,” Mia replies.

“Where’ve you been?” Matt asks.

“Actually…” Sarah knows that the best lie is one that’s 90 percent true. “I had to check in with Conrad. Something about my case. I have my hearing next week.”

“Oh.” Matt seems taken aback by the seriousness of her admission. “Everything squared away?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. Just procedural stuff. I ran into Molly while I was leaving his new place.”

“Oh, Molly’s paying him house calls already, is she?” Paula trills with delight.

“Yep. Seems like things are going well between them,” Sarah says, for once thrilled to have the subject change to her sister. “Tori hasn’t been home, has she?”

Matt shakes his head. “Think she’s going straight to class. That’s what she said last night.”

“It sounds like things are getting serious between her and that boyfriend,” Mia remarks as she holds a mug of tea between her palms.

“I think they are,” Paula says. “He’s a very nice young man.”

The mere mention of Zane makes Sarah’s skin crawl. Every instinct within her wants to speed over to his apartment and rip Tori out of there. But she has to bide her time.

A few days, she reminds herself, and then you’re home-free — and Zane will never see it coming.

Resolving to bite her tongue for these last remaining days, she goes to fetch a mug of her own from the cupboard as the others continue to chat.

END OF EPISODE 909

What does Sarah have up her sleeve?
Could Tori and Zane have a real future?
Did Natalie’s plan surprise you?
Talk about it all in the comments below!

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