“I want an answer, Mom. ”
“Belle, please—”
“How was Dad injured in Hawaii? Because I’ve never heard of someone getting gashes on their forehead from hula lessons, so I figure there’s got to be another explanation. ”
Marlena hesitated, then said your dad heard a woman calling for help, swam out to save her, and nearly drowned.
He was okay now, thank God. “Yeah? Well, I’m not okay with that answer. ”
Belle wasn’t backing down.
She wanted the whole story, and she wasn’t leaving until she got it. Across town, the hospital was crawling with reporters. They were all waiting for a verdict in the sexual harassment case against Dr. Mike Horton.
Lexie was doing her best to keep the wolves at bay, but her friend Craig was more concerned about the fallout. “If the arbitrator rules the hospital is liable for Mike’s actions, we’re all going to pay,” he warned. “I don’t want to think about that. ”
“Maybe you should.
”
Inside the hearing room, Mike was on the stand. He admitted he’d dated Ali McIntyre. They’d agreed to stop seeing each other socially while he decided who would be head nurse. He claimed Ali said she’d rather be with him than have the job.
When he picked another woman for the position, Ali seemed fine. When he broke things off, she kept coming back—showing up at his office, giving him romantic gifts, making plans for a getaway. “And that’s when she filed the sexual harassment suit? ” his lawyer asked.
“No. It was much later. Months after we broke up. ”
“Why do you think she waited?
”
“I don’t know. I gave up trying to figure out what goes on in her head. All I know is I never harassed her. I may have used bad judgment getting involved with her, but I’m not guilty of this.
”
From the back of the room, Ali shot up. “You’re a liar, Mike Horton. You’re a damn liar. You people are going to hear my side of this story, and you’re going to hear it now.
”
Meanwhile, in Paris, a young woman named Greta von Amberg stood at the gates of a chateau that had once belonged to her mother, Princess Gina. She’d just learned the place existed, and she was determined to see it. Eric Brady was with her. They had a deed proving she owned the property.
Kurt, the caretaker, refused to let them in. He claimed he was protecting the place from strangers. “Maybe you and your friend here are just con artists out to rob the chateau,” he said. “Kurt, did you work here when my mother was alive?
” Greta asked. “No. ”
“Then who hired you? ”
“A man came to the village looking for someone to stay here and keep the place up.
”
“Was his name Stefano DiMera? ” Greta asked. Inside the chateau, Stefano DiMera was examining a small vial. “I will have this delivered to Gina, gift-wrapped in a box, with detailed instructions—instructions that will bring about the end of Bo Brady.
”
Rolf wasn’t so sure. “What if something goes wrong? ”
“How many times do I have to tell you? Nothing is going to go wrong.
”
“There’s only one way to guarantee that—eliminate Bo. ”
“Eliminate? ”
“Yes. Arrange an accident.
Something no one will suspect. ”
Stefano dismissed it. He was going to turn Bo into an asset, not a corpse. And with Gina’s help, it was going to work.
He was sure of it. He had created Gina. Now he would make Bo his creation, too. Hope—or rather, the woman who now called herself Gina—was arguing with Bo in the house where they were staying.
She insisted she was perfectly happy being Gina. She had her own clothes, her own life, her own identity. She didn’t need Bo or anyone else. “Stefano doesn’t control me,” she said.
“How can you say that? You know what he did to you. He created this whole person, just like he created John. But John was able to defy him.
He fell in love with Princess Gina and was planning an escape with her. You have that same strength. You can be who you really are—Hope. Let me help you bring her back.
”
“I am Hope,” she snapped. “And I don’t need any saving. ”
Bo pulled out a worn photograph. It was of Hope holding their newborn son, Shawn-D.
“This is one of the happiest times of my life. That’s where you belong. With our son. With me.
”
She looked at the picture for a long moment. Something flickered in her eyes. “Okay, Gina,” Bo said softly. “But it was Hope who reacted to that picture.
”
The doorbell rang. A delivery man handed Hope a package. She signed for it, and when she opened it, she found a box with a note inside. It was from Stefano.
It said to give the contents to Bo in a drink. Once he was unconscious, she was to call Stefano, and he would begin the transformation of Bo Brady into one of his pawns. She read the instructions, then glanced back at Bo. He was gathering his things to leave.
“Please stay,” she said. “I don’t feel like being alone right now. ”
Back in Salem, Belle was interrogating her mother about her father’s mysterious accident. Marlena kept insisting it was just a rescue gone wrong and that the whole family should focus on the present.
Belle wasn’t convinced. She also had gossip of her own to share—Sami had moved into Kate’s guest house to be near Will, and she’d moved in with Austin. “Does Carrie know? ” Marlena asked.
“I guess. No one’s really seen her. She’s all wrapped up in her affair with Mike now. ”
Marlena looked uncomfortable.
“How did you know that? ”
Belle shrugged. She knew a lot more about the family than her mother realized. And she was worried about Carrie.
“Mike and Carrie are on the road to total destruction,” she said. In the hearing room, the questioning continued. Ali’s lawyer, Gregory, played a recording of something Mike had supposedly said to Ali. “If you keep this up, I might have to make you head nurse.
”
Ali claimed he wasn’t joking. “After he told me he’d make me head nurse if we kept having sex, I laughed and said he was teasing me. And then he said, ‘You’ve got a definite knack for taking your boss’ mind off his troubles. That’s a quality worthy of promotion.
’”
Mike insisted he was just joking. “We were relaxed. I thought she understood that. Clearly she didn’t.
”
But Ali’s lawyer wasn’t backing down. The arbitrator would have to decide. Mike’s lawyer, Mickey Horton, worked to poke holes in Ali’s story. He pointed out that she waited months to file the lawsuit, and only after Mike broke things off and went to her mother to deny they were engaged.
He suggested Ali and her mother came up with a plan to embarrass Mike and extort money from the hospital. “This lawsuit isn’t about sexual harassment,” Mickey said. “It’s about revenge. You wanted to make Mike pay for not loving you the way you loved him.
”
“That’s not true! ” Ali shouted. “This is about justice. Something Dr.
Horton has no idea how to do. ”
After the hearing, the lawyers argued in the hallway. Ali’s counsel was confident. “There’s no question in my mind that Nurse McIntyre’s allegations have been substantiated.
Dr. Horton used his position to get her into bed and used the promise of the head nurse appointment as bait. ”
“The only thing that’s clear,” Mickey countered, “is that Ali seduced Mike, then was rejected, and now wants to make him pay. ”
The arbitrator would decide.
No one knew which way he would lean. But Ali had one last surprise in store. She ran into Carrie outside the hearing room. “Carrie, you may have kept your sordid affair with Mike out of this arbitration, but wait till you get a load of the surprise I have planned for you.
”
Carrie stood frozen, stunned. Ali smiled and walked away. The case wasn’t just about Mike anymore.
It was about to get a whole lot messier.
