Previously…
– Jason called off his wedding to Natalie after discovering the lengths she’d gone to to conceal the fact that he isn’t Peter’s father — and that Spencer is.
– Sabrina secretly helped Helen with the paternity test by acquiring a can to use to obtain a sample of Spencer’s DNA.
– Loretta used threats to force Sonja to read Peter’s paternity test results aloud at the wedding. Instead of confessing that she’d secretly worked for Loretta (as she believed she had), Sonja lied to Tim that Loretta was being vengeful because Sonja turned down an offer to relay information on Spencer back to Loretta.
Natalie Bishop drives past the row of townhouses, her breaths tightening in her chest the same way her fingers tighten over the steering wheel. She eases the car to a stop beside the curb and takes a look up at her destination. Adrenaline pumps through her body. She knows that she has to be on top of her game in order to pull this off.
Finally she exits the car and goes around the other side, where she unstraps Peter from his car seat and hoists him up on her hip. She carries her son up the driveway and the short flight of steps that leads to the front door. After a moment’s pause to gather herself, she presses the doorbell.
She can hear movement inside before the lock turns and her ex-husband opens the door.
“Natalie.” Conrad Halston eyes her with open suspicion. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to get Bree,” she says. “We all need to be together right now.”
“She isn’t here.”
“What? You said she was going to stay with you–”
“She did. She went to the skating rink a little while ago. She felt it would help clear her head.”
Natalie opens her mouth to speak, but Conrad cuts her off: “I’d suggest you not rush over there and corner her. Give her some time.”
She decides to bite her tongue, knowing that an argument isn’t going to help her at present.
“Fine,” she says. “I need to talk to you, anyway.”
“Why?” He places his hands on his hips, a stance that seems to say, I haven’t even heard your explanation yet but I already don’t believe you.
“I need your help, Conrad. Peter is my son. I love him. You know I mean that when I say it about Bree, and it’s the same for Peter–”
“Then perhaps you should’ve thought about letting him spend the first two years of his life thinking Jason was his father when that isn’t the case.”
She cannot keep a frustrated sigh from escaping her lips. “I know. I screwed up badly. I can’t change that. And now I’m scared I’m going to… I’m going to lose him.”
He offers only a blank stare in response.
“I can’t lose my son,” Natalie continues. “I can’t. He’s Bree’s brother, too. You know how much she loves him. She dotes on him. I need your help making sure she doesn’t lose him.”
Conrad blinks, and Natalie sees the slightest hints of softening. She knows that the thought of his daughter suffering has to have some impact upon him.
“That’s why I need your help,” she says. “I need to represent me in whatever crazy custody case is coming my way. Please. Do it for Bree.”
—–
“I still can’t believe it,” Helen Chase says, wagging her head from side to side. “What an absolute circus.”
“A circus you were part of,” her husband responds from across the coffee table. The couple sits in the formal living room near the front of their house; in the distance, they can faintly hear whatever TV show Sophie is watching in the family room.
Helen scoffs. “You sound like Paula. I did what I had to do — and if I hadn’t, Jason would be married to that woman right now, and she’d probably be plotting how to switch yet another paternity test!”
Don looks into his cup of coffee sadly. “I just wish it could have come out in a less painful way for everyone.”
“That’s why I tried to talk with Natalie privately the night before the wedding. But, of course, she decided to manipulate me instead of just coming clean. She could have saved everyone a lot of embarrassment.”
With his lips folded in, Don nods. Helen is about to carry on with her rant when the doorbell interrupts them.
“I’ve got it,” Don says, already standing. He crosses over the carpet to the hardwood floor of the foyer, and Helen sees his surprise when he glances through the peephole.
“Who is it?” she asks, moving toward the edge of the sofa.
Without replying, he opens the door to reveal Sabrina Gage standing there in a light gray sweater and jeans. She clutches her plain black purse in front of her body.
“Hi,” she says. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
“No,” Don says with confusion. “What can I do for you?”
Sabrina scans what she can see of the house behind him and spots Helen, already on her feet by the sofa.
“I need to talk to Mrs. Chase,” Sabrina says.
Don glances back at his wife.
“It’s fine.” Helen waves a hand and approaches the door. “Let’s step outside, Sabrina.”
“I’m going to check on Sophie,” Don says.
“I hope she’s doing okay,” Sabrina offers.
With a grateful nod, Don slips into the hallway to head for the family room. Helen watches him go and then steps out onto the porch. She softly closes the door behind herself.
“What is this about?” Helen asks gruffly. “Don and I are trying to focus on our granddaughter.”
“I’ll make this quick,” Sabrina says, lifting her angular chin as if to appear more confident. “You owe me an explanation, Mrs. Chase.”
“Excuse me?”
“You lied to me about the DNA results, and I want to know why.”
—–
Tim Fisher is stepping out of his car in the narrow driveway when he hears a noise from above. He glances up to see Sonja Kahele exiting her second-story apartment.
For her part, Sonja has been anxiously waiting, looking out of the window and staying out of the sun, ever since Tim texted her that he was coming over. Now she stands on the small, square landing beside the large, green bird of paradise in its cement pot.
“Thanks for coming over,” she says.
“Of course.” But his voice is stiff, measured.
“Is everything okay?” Her stomach winds into yet another knot; she has had this feeling ever since the wedding, when she had no choice but to read the DNA results aloud.
“I… don’t know,” he confesses. He lingers by the front of his car, his body as tense as each syllable that crawls its way out of his mouth. Sonja wants to rush down the stairs to hold him, but something about his posture holds her at bay, as if he has somehow erected a force field.
“What’s wrong?” she asks, though she can already venture quite a good guess. “I explained why I had to…”
“I know.” Tim draws a deep breath and exhales just as heavily. “But if you had seen my brother last night… and how lost Spencer is now…”
“I didn’t want to read those results,” Sonja says. That much is true, and the fact that she was accepting Loretta’s payments to feed Spencer subliminal messages isn’t really relevant; either way, Loretta threatened her medical license if she didn’t read the test results to the entire wedding. “I had to let it happen, I had to–”
“I get that. I do,” Tim cuts her off. “But it’s so hard for me to look at you and not see the devastation Jason and my son are feeling right now.”
“I’m sure. But I wanted no part of it.” Her heart pounds. “As for Loretta, and as for Helen… I never invited them in. But Loretta threatened my career and my mother. You’d warned me about how dangerous she could be. I couldn’t risk…” She feels tears welling. “I’m so sorry.”
Even from her perch, she can see the anguish in his eyes.
“I don’t know,” he says. “I can’t stop thinking, if you’d just told me that Loretta had approached you, then maybe…”
“Please, Tim, just give me a chance,” she pleads. Guilt stabs her in the gut as she proceeds: “I need you. Please don’t throw away what we have over something that was out of our control.”
—–
Natalie stares into her ex-husband’s eyes as she rocks Peter on her hip.
“I need someone I can really trust,” she says. “Bree is already so upset with me. If I lose Peter…” She shakes her head in despair. “I can’t face that, and she can’t face that, and I don’t want our daughter growing up hating her mother. I know you don’t, either.”
“Of course I don’t want that,” Conrad tells her. “But I also can’t change what’s already happened. Bree isn’t a small child anymore. She’s going to have her own feelings and reactions–”
“But we owe it to her to do everything we can to prevent things from happening that are going to make her life worse.”
“I’m a defense attorney. Family law is not what I do.”
“But you’re the best,” she counters. “Look what you were able to do for Paula. Your specialty has nothing to do with your actual abilities in a courtroom — and let’s face it, all the Fishers are basically going to put me on trial if this goes that far.”
“You can bet we will,” a voice announces from somewhere behind Conrad. A moment later, Molly Taylor steps into view. Her black hair is pulled back into a ponytail, and she is dressed in top-of-the-line yoga gear.
Natalie flinches at the harshness of her tone. To think that this woman could’ve been her sister-in-law today…
“There’s no need to be nasty in front of Peter,” Natalie says.
“I heard you trying to work Conrad in front of him.” Molly directs her focus to the toddler in Natalie’s arms and blows him a kiss. Peter coos back at her.
“I was asking for help,” Natalie says.
“Help you don’t deserve,” Molly says. “Not after what you did to my brother. He’s devastated.”
“I never wanted to hurt Jason!” Natalie shoots back. “I was doing what I thought was best–”
Molly raises an eyebrow. “You have a very skewed sense of what’s best for anyone, then.”
Natalie stops her hair-trigger response and pauses. She takes a breath and then says, “Molly, I’m trying to clean up this mess the best way I know how.”
After a seconds-long glare at Natalie, Molly turns to Conrad.
“Can I talk to you?” she asks, though it’s more an order than a request.
“Of course,” he says.
“Wait here,” Molly tells Natalie, leaving her at the open door as they disappear back inside the townhouse. Natalie strains to listen, to no avail.
Molly leads Conrad into the kitchen and talks in a heavy whisper.
“You can’t seriously be considering this.”
“I don’t know,” he admits. “This concerns Bree.”
“Conrad, no. After what Natalie did to Jason and Spencer — you cannot represent her. I won’t stand for it.”
—–
The sheer force of Sabrina’s declaration takes Helen by surprise. She didn’t know that the mild-mannered woman had this in her.
“It wasn’t my choice to throw you off the scent,” Helen explains. “Natalie convinced me it was for the good of everyone. Especially Sophie.”
“How would living a lie be good for anyone?”
“She made it sound as if she and Spencer had made a decision together that Jason should be Peter’s father. The way she explained it…”
She sees Sabrina’s skepticism, and it ignites something in her. She adopts a haughty tone as she goes on:
“I don’t have to justify this to you. I made a decision that I felt was right, and when it became clear that Natalie had lied to me, too, I changed my mind. End of story.”
“But…”
“But nothing. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to tell you the truth at first, but what’s done is done. And now the truth is out.”
“And Jason is humiliated,” Sabrina says, “and Spencer had to find out in such a public way, and–”
Helen cuts her off. “I know what this is about.”
“What?”
“You wanted to be the one to tell Jason,” Helen says. “You wanted to be the hero. You thought that if you were the one to expose all Natalie’s lies, Jason would be so grateful that he’d turn to you.”
She sees Sabrina’s large eyes grow even larger as she gulps.
“I did something I wasn’t comfortable doing because you convinced me it was for the greater good,” the younger woman finally says. “I didn’t like misleading Spencer or taking that can. But you convinced me it was the only way to make things right.”
“And it was! Jason knows what a lying snake Natalie is, Spencer got his memory back and knows that he has a son, and Natalie has been disgraced. What more could you want?”
Sabrina hesitates again.
“I’m thankful for your help,” Helen says, “but I won’t apologize for the way I had to go about things. Now if that’s all you came here for, I should be getting back to my granddaughter.”
She waits a moment and then opens the door.
“I never wanted this to be so messy,” Sabrina says suddenly.
Helen turns back. “You’ll be a much happier person once you just admit what you really want.”
Before Sabrina can muster a reply, Helen waves at her and closes the door. Sabrina remains there, thrown completely off-balance.
Helen locks the door just as Don emerges from the hallway again.
“What was that all about?” he asks.
“She had some questions about what happened at the wedding,” Helen says. “Questions that were frankly none of her business. It was nothing, really.” She fixes a smile upon her face. “Now let’s go spend some time with Sophie, shall we?”
—–
Tim’s silence stretches on for a painfully long time — at least, that’s how it feels to Sonja.
“I still need your love,” she says, “after all that I’ve done. And you need me, too.”
After another intolerable bout of silence, he finally says, “I do. But this is a lot to process. And finding out you had this secret connection to Loretta–”
“Tim,” she interjects, but it all she can get out; she cannot bring herself to tell another bold-faced lie.
“There’s a reason I haven’t dated a lot, Sonja. After everything that’s happened, it’s really tough for me to trust anyone new. Claire’s father, Loretta Ragan, and Nick Moriani all tried to ruin my life and my family’s lives. And then when I do trust someone, when I let someone in, I find out…”
“I never wanted to hurt you or Spencer or Jason. You know that. I would never do that intentionally.” That much is true.
He nods weakly.
“I guess I need some time to think,” he says at last. “To let things settle.”
“Okay. But please…” She rushes down the stairs and grasps his hands. “Don’t keep your distance. Not for long.”
She looks him directly in the eyes. “All you have to do is look at me to know that every word is true.” The lie feels awful, but she knows that she has to drive this home. She can’t let him leave here with any doubt about how she feels or what she wants.
“Okay,” he answers. “I’ll be in touch.”
“Do you promise?”
“I promise.”
She leans forward, stretches up on her toes, and plants a kiss on his cheek.
“I’m going to hold you to that,” she says.
He regards her with a sad, final look and another nod, and then he gets back into his car. Sonja stands in the driveway, watching him through the windshield as he starts the engine and backs out.
I’m not going to lose you over this, she thinks. I can’t.
—–
Molly’s eyes flare at Conrad’s hesitation.
“You can’t be serious,” she says, careful to keep her voice to a whisper. “You would represent Natalie? Against my brother or my nephew?”
“I don’t know,” Conrad says with a sigh. “She just sprang this on me. What I want is to preserve peace.”
“You won’t be doing that by taking on my family in court, I’ll tell you that. I’m sorry, but if you take Natalie’s case, you and I are finished.”
Back at the front door, Natalie cranes her neck, trying to catch whatever glimpse of the private conversation she can. All she can pick up, however, are faint hints of words being spoken — although she can guess exactly what Molly wanted to “discuss” with Conrad.
A minute later, the pair returns to the entryway. Molly stations herself right behind Conrad like a bodyguard.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t represent you,” he tells Natalie. “There’s too much of a conflict of interest, for one thing.”
Natalie frowns right past him at Molly, who maintains her stony expression.
“I’d be happy to give you a referral to a firm that’s very well regarded, though,” he adds.
“Great,” Natalie says. “Thanks a lot.”
“Take care, Natalie,” Molly says, already moving to close the door. She stops just long enough to wave playfully at her great-nephew. “Bye, Peter.”
Natalie rolls her eyes as the door closes in her face. She holds onto Peter, who suddenly begins to squirm as they descend the stairs.
“Don’t you worry,” she tells her son as she taps a finger to his nose, eliciting a grin. “Mommy’s going to figure this out. No one is ever going to take you away from your mommy — no one.”
END OF EPISODE 939
What is Natalie’s next move going to be?
Did Helen owe Sabrina the truth about the test?
Can Sonja salvage her relationship with Tim?
Talk about it all in the comments below!