I came back to the apartment to pack a few more things, and there he was. Eric. He looked at me like he could see right through the lies I was telling myself. “Why aren’t you with Lucas right now?
Married life already got you down? ” he asked. “I came back to pack,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. “Really?
With all the money Lucas gave you, I thought you could have hired somebody to do the grunt work. Why do it yourself? ”
“I needed to decide what I wanted to keep and what I wanted to give away. ”
He shook his head.
“I don’t believe you. I think you’re trying to keep away from Lucas. ”
“Think what you want, Eric. Lucas is the man I married.
”
“And why? ” His voice rose. “You don’t even know anything about the guy. What’s his middle name?
What’s his shirt size? What’s his favorite music? You don’t know, do you? It’s okay, admit it.
You don’t know anything about him, and you sure as hell don’t love him, because you’re still in love with me. ”
“Eric, please stop saying that. ”
“You never would have walked away from what we had unless you were forced. What have they got on you?
What are Kate and Lucas hanging over your head? ”
I felt my chest tighten. “It’s not what you think. ”
“Then what is it?
” He stepped closer. “Tell me. Please. I can help you.
You don’t have to be afraid of these people, Nicole. All you have to do is believe in our love. Come back to me. Please.
”
But I couldn’t. I couldn’t tell him the truth. I couldn’t let him know that my marriage to Lucas wasn’t a love story—it was a deal made in a desperate moment, a secret that would destroy everything if it got out. “I know you’re hurt and angry,” I said, forcing the words out.
“I hope someday you’ll see that I was right to end this, and you won’t hate me. ”
“I could never hate you. I love you. I never thought I could trust someone enough to know me the way you do.
You helped me open up to a commitment, and I thought I did the same for you. ”
I wished love were enough. It wasn’t. “You have to leave,” I told him.
“Please don’t come back. ”
But Eric wasn’t giving up. He stood there, waiting for me to crack, to admit that he was the one I truly wanted. I couldn’t.
My future belonged to Lucas now. The day of the party, everything came to a head. I’d been watching Lucas and Austin go back and forth over Will for weeks. Austin was convinced Lucas had killed Franco Kelly, that his confession wasn’t an act of sacrifice to save his son’s mother from execution—it was a guilty conscience finally breaking.
“Man, you claim you love him so much. That’s why you said you confessed to Franco’s murder, right? Because you care so much for him,” Austin said. “That’s right.
I didn’t want his mother to die. I was desperate. I was desperate to buy Roman more time to get Roberto to clear Sami. ”
“That doesn’t make sense.
Why would you give up everything you have, including Will, to save Sami’s life? No, I think you did it because you have a guilty conscience. ”
Lucas’s face twisted. “Get out.
Get out of my house right now! ”
“You did it, didn’t you? You killed Franco Kelly. ”
Lucas slammed the door, but the accusation hung in the air between them.
Austin wasn’t going to let it go. He was going to dig until he found the truth. And the truth was something Lucas and I had been hiding together from the very beginning. I’d married Lucas to protect him.
Or maybe I’d married him to protect myself. Kate had made it clear that I had no choice. Lucas proposed, I accepted, and now I was trapped in a gilded cage with a man who saw me as a pawn in his war to keep his son. But the real threat was Vivian Ala—Vivian.
She was working a plan so dangerous that even her nephew Nicholas was worried. “So you think you’re going to get Victor back tonight, do you? Just like that? ” Nicholas asked her.
“When he sees me in my pitiful condition, he will be overwhelmed with sympathy,” Vivian said. “He’ll open his heart to his dying ex-wife. When he realizes how Kate has mismanaged Titan, he’ll throw her out. Kate and Stefano share a secret past, and it’s about to be exposed.
”
She intended to bring them both down. Meanwhile, Marlena and John had their own battle brewing. John had gone to confront Stefano, furious that Stefano had taken credit for saving Sami when it was really Roberto Barelli’s confession that got her off death row. “I know for a fact that you didn’t help Doc save Sami,” John said.
“John, how could I refuse her? ” Stefano replied. “She broke my heart when I saw the tears in her eyes. ”
“And I’m sure you felt like celebrating.
You finally got a chance to get her back into your life, and you jumped at the opportunity. ”
“You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. ”
“I know you didn’t offer to help her out of the goodness of your heart. You made Doc promise to pay you back the favor.
As far as I’m concerned, she doesn’t owe you a thing. ”
Stefano smiled. “Now you’re talking for Marlena? I don’t think so.
Marlena’s agreement is with me. ”
John’s anger boiled over. “You forget about her. Because right now you’ve got your hands full with me.
Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives. ”
But Stefano had a deeper hold on John than John knew. The memories were returning—fragments of a past John had locked away. He remembered being Stefano’s mercenary, remembered things that made his blood run cold.
“I’ve got proof,” John told him, his voice shaking with rage. “I remember being your mercenary. I remember more and more every single day. Whatever altered state you put my head in to make me forget is wearing off.
The more I remember, the closer I’m coming to putting you away. Your days are numbered. ”
Stefano only smiled. And then there was Gina.
She was supposed to be Hope, Marlena’s friend, Bo’s partner. But something was wrong. “I was just feeling a bit envious,” Gina said to Marlena. “Here you and John are getting married, while Bo and I drift further and further apart.
”
“While you push Bo further away,” Marlena replied. “There are some things that are extremely difficult to come to terms with. Bo and Billie conceived a child together. It haunts me every day.
”
“I’m not buying it. The Billie excuse. ”
Gina’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.
”
“It isn’t Billie who’s coming between you and Bo. It’s John. ”
Gina froze. “You’re wrong.
”
“Am I? You came to terms with the Bo and Billie relationship ages ago. Then all of a sudden, it surfaces again—an excuse to push Bo away. You’re fixated on John and his life with Gina.
A near-obsession. ”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Gina said, defensive. “You’re getting defensive. Struck a nerve, did I?
”
Gina’s composure cracked. “My past and John’s are tied together. ”
“Whatever relationship John had with the real Princess Gina is over now that she’s dead. It has nothing to do with you, Hope.
”
Gina stood up, her voice suddenly cold. “No. You are wrong there. See, what you don’t realize is it has everything to do with me.
”
She wasn’t Hope. She was Gina. And she had been lying to everyone about who she really was. Her last connection to the truth was Stefano.
He had called her earlier, demanding a meeting in the basement of the town house. When she arrived, he looked livid. “John Black came to see me,” Stefano said. “What’s wrong?
”
“Even with that damn chip in his brain, he’s starting to remember parts of his past. ”
Gina’s face paled. This was a serious problem. If John remembered too much, everything could crumble.
She had been playing two roles, two lives. Hope, the woman trying to move on from Bo. And Gina, the woman with a hidden agenda, the one who had unfinished business with Stefano and John that went back further than anyone knew. Vivian’s plan was set.
The party would be her moment to reclaim Victor. Kate was on the verge of losing everything. And John was walking closer to the edge of a truth that could destroy them all. The guests began to arrive, the orchestra warming up, the champagne pouring.
Vivian put on her performance, playing the pathetic dying ex-wife. Nicholas watched the door, ready to intervene if it all went wrong. But nothing was what it seemed. I saw Kate slip into the garden, her phone pressed to her ear.
I followed, careful to stay in the shadows. “He’s getting closer,” Kate whispered into the phone. “If he finds out what we did, everything will end. We can’t let him remember.
Not now. Not ever. ”
I didn’t know who she was talking to. But the fear in her voice was unmistakable.
Kate Roberts, the powerful CEO with all the answers, was terrified. And then I heard footsteps behind me. I spun around. It was Vivian.
She wasn’t looking pitiful anymore. She was standing tall, fury and triumph blazing in her eyes. “So,” Vivian said, a slow smile spreading across her face as she looked at me, “you’ve been listening in. That’s very unfortunate for you, my dear.
”
Before I could answer, the lights inside the mansion flickered and went out. Shrieks filled the air. People were suddenly in darkness.
And in the dark, I heard a gunshot.
