Austin cornered me in the hospital hallway, his eyes blazing with a fury I hadn’t seen before. He didn’t bother lowering his voice. “You’re a real bastard, you know that? You just can’t keep your hands off my wife, can you?
”
I tried to keep things professional, but he wasn’t interested in anything I had to say. He went on about me sleeping with Carrie, about how I’d taken his place. He threatened to go to the hospital board, telling them all about their “almighty chief of staff. ”
“Call it whatever you want,” I told him.
“I don’t give a damn about what happens to me. But Carrie’s going through enough hell right now. ”
He scoffed. “You’ve seen Carrie?
You really are a bastard. ”
The fight was explosive, raw, and left Mike, Austin, and me all standing in the wreckage of what had once been a friendship. I had slept with his wife, and there was no undoing that. But as messy as my love life had become, there was a bigger storm brewing out in Salem.
I was standing in the house, trying to make sense of the chaos, when my father, Roman, got the news. It was late, and the house had become a command center. Abe was there, and Kate, and Lucas. All of them were tense, waiting for some kind of word.
Then Abe’s radio crackled. He looked up with grim satisfaction. “We’re on her trail now. ”
My sister Sami had broken out of prison.
She hadn’t just escaped – she’d faked a nervous collapse, drugged a guard, stolen a uniform, and walked right out of maximum security. And she hadn’t come alone. She had taken my son, Will. “She did this to protect her son,” Roman said, trying to sound reasonable.
Lucas was pacing, his face white with rage. “Oh, from his evil father, yeah. We know the drill. But obviously the judge made the right decision giving me custody, because Sami is the one who can’t be trusted.
”
Kate was beside herself. “This was death row. How the hell did she break out? ”
I had driven there myself, the SUV wheels spinning on the gravel behind the house.
We found tire tracks in the back, fresh ones from a Jeep. Forensics was already running tests, but I had a pretty good idea who owned a vehicle like that. “Yeah,” I said, looking at the tracks. “I got a pretty good idea of who that belongs to.
”
We knew Sami hadn’t done this alone. She had help. And all signs pointed to Austin Reed. “He’s missing,” Abe reported.
“Haven’t found him since he left the pub. Not at Titan, not at his apartment, not at the gym. No sign of him. ”
Lucas slammed his fist against the wall.
“I’m going to make them both pay if anything happens to Will. ”
Kate put a hand on his arm. “We don’t know Austin’s even involved, Lucas. ”
“Oh, come on, Mom.
Yes, we do. Sami says ‘jump,’ Austin says, ‘how high? ’”
Abe ordered a total media blackout. No TV, no radio, no appeals.
“She’ll just think she’s getting away,” he said. “That’s how we catch her. ”
I drove straight to the one person I thought might know something. Tracey had a Jeep parked out back of her place, and she had always kept close to Sami.
“Captain Brady,” she said, opening the door. “How can I help you? ”
“We found some tire tracks from a Jeep out back,” I said. “You drive one of those, don’t you?
”
“It’s a free country. ”
Lucas shoved past me. “Listen to me, you hippie bitch,” he snarled. “Where’s my son?
”
Abe pulled him back. “Lucas, settle down. ”
Tracey’s face went pale and innocent. “Is something the matter with Will?
I love that kid. ”
“Don’t give me that,” I said, my patience wearing thin. “Don’t give me that phony surprise. You just tell me where my daughter is before things get any worse.
”
She didn’t crack. Not then. But I knew she was hiding something. Meanwhile, Sami was on the run with my grandson.
She was calling herself “Dorothy Brown,” traveling by train, heading north toward a commune on the shores of northern Ontario. Tracey had given her directions and two round-trip tickets. “They’re good people,” Tracey had told her. “They’ll take very good care of you both, and no one will find you up there.
”
Sami held Will close, her face soft in the dim light of the train compartment. “I love you so much, Will. You know, that’s why I’m doing all this – to look out for my handsome little boy. ” She kissed his forehead.
“I’m going to do everything I can to protect you, and that means keeping you away from that crazy guy Lucas, huh? ”
The conductor came around for tickets. He looked at her with a knowing smirk. “You think it’s that easy to get away?
Nobody ever gets away. Not even in the wilds of Canada. ”
Sami pulled Will closer and set her jaw. “Well, I hope you’re wrong.
”
We got a tip that led us to the station. Abe found a conductor who remembered a woman matching Sami’s description. She was traveling with a baby, heading north. “We’re on the trail now,” Abe said, relief and tension mixing in his voice.
I didn’t allow myself to feel relieved. Not yet. There was still too much at stake, and too many people in Salem were playing their own twisted games. At the DiMera mansion, Stefano was watching his forger work.
Gina – Hope, in reality, though she didn’t fully know it – was recreating masterpieces for him. She had to be perfect. Stefano had warned her that if she kept trying to bring John back to his past, John could die. It had planted a dark seed in her mind.
She went to him anyway. The headaches came, terrible and crushing, just as Stefano had predicted. But under hypnosis, John was remembering things. He saw flashes of Gina, of their time together, and it terrified him.
“You’re remembering, aren’t you? ” Gina asked him. “Tell me. What did you see?
Just let yourself feel it. ”
“This is so wrong,” John said, shaking his head, holding his temples. “This isn’t who I am. ”
“No, that’s not true.
You want Gina. I can feel it. ”
“I can’t go back there! ” John shouted, pulling back.
“Everything that I felt with Princess Gina was in the past, and that’s exactly where it’s going to stay. I love Marlena now. ”
Gina stepped closer, taunting, seductive. “Only because you thought you couldn’t have me.
Look at me, John. My mouth… just like the one you remember being so hungry for. My body… the one you could never get enough of. ” She looked at him, her eyes full of challenge.
“Now can you honestly tell me that Princess Gina is really dead? ”
John’swhisper was barely audible. “The mouth… the mouth is the same…”
She smiled. “And so is the rest of me, John.
We could finally unlock the mystery. ”
But John pulled away, steadying himself. “You know what I owe? I owe it to myself, I owe it to Marlena and the kids to be true to my feelings to them.
That’s what I owe. DiMera’s evil, Hope. You know that. He’s just trying to suck us in.
”
“He’safraid you’ll find out what you and I did when I was Gina,” she pleaded. “If you walk away from me now, you let him win. ”
“No,” John said, finality in his voice. “I’m free of the man.
I make my own choices, and I choose Marlena. ”
But as he spoke, he couldn’t shake the images that were flooding back. It was tearing him apart. And while John struggled with the past, Vivian Alamain was playing a very different game.
She sat in her room with her nephew Nicholas, delicately dabbing at her eyes. “Victor Kiriakis was the love of my life until Kate Roberts stole him away,” she said with a sigh. “Then everything was downhill. I lost my fortune, the house on the Riviera… I was practically picking up pennies in the park.
”
“Why didn’t you ask for my help? ” Nicholas asked. “Oh, you know me. I’d rather steal than beg any day.
” She told him about Jonesy, the man who had married her in London and left her his entire fortune. “The kicker is, it all belonged to Stefano DiMera. And when he found out I had the legal right to it, he set out to get it all back. ”
Nicholas’s eyes narrowed.
“Are you telling me that DiMera is responsible for your illness? Is he the reason that you’re dying? ”
“Shh,” she hushed him, a sly glint in her eye. “Now listen to me.
If Stefano finds out I was faking, he’s going to take back that 49% of Titan that I tricked him into signing over to me. ”
Nicholas’s jaw dropped. “You’re not dying, Aunt Vivian? ”
“I have brilliantly manipulated him so far,” she said, a small, satisfied smile playing on her lips.
“And I’m ready for the next step. Together, we can stop him cold. ”
She wasn’t dying. It was all a calculated ruse – a way to get her hands on DiMera’s fortune and, more importantly, to win back Victor.
Bo had come to me to ask for a favor. He wanted me to forgive Vivian. “Look, I know she caused your first stroke,” he said. “And that she hurt Kate.
I’m not asking you to kiss and make up, but can you find it in your heart to forgive her? ”
I stared at him. “You would want to make peace with someone who tried to murder your wife? ” I asked.
“She stole Kate’s fertilized egg. She violated the very laws of nature. ”
“Yeah, I know all about that,” Bo said. “So why would you want me to forgive the unforgivable?
”
Bo leaned forward, his face desperate. “Things have changed. I need her help right now. I can’t go into those details, but it’s the most important thing to me.
”
I shook my head. “I thought your family was the most important thing. ”
“This is about my family, damn it. If I don’t do something, Hope will—” He stopped, swallowing hard.
“I’m sorry. ” He looked at me with pleading eyes. “You’ve said for years that you want to be a real father to me. Here’s your opportunity.
Step up to the plate and help me out. ”
“Vivian is giving a dinner party,” Bo explained. “A farewell bash for herself. All you got to do is put on a tux and show up.
”
“I don’t think I made myself clear,” I said, my voice steady and cold. “Pigs will sprout wings and fly before I go anywhere near that woman. ”
I couldn’t forgive her. Not for what she did to me, not for what she did to everyone else.
But Bo was insistent, and I could hear the desperation in his voice. This wasn’t really about Vivian. It was about Hope. “If you want my help in getting Hope back,” I finally said, “I’ll do what I can.
”
Bo’s face lit up with relief. “Excellent. ”
There was still work to be done to reunite him with his wife. And maybe, just maybe, bringing her to that party would be a step toward healing old wounds.
But Vivian had other plans. She wasn’t just planning a social event. It was a huge surprise for Stefano, a way to get the upper hand in their endless power games. “Bo lives to bring Stefano down,” she said to Nicholas.
“I just hope he comes through. ”
Stefano, meanwhile, wasn’t so easily fooled. He suspected Nicholas had arrived in Salem for reasons beyond simple family duty. “Vivian has not been in touch with her nephew for years,” he mused to Rolf.
“She is dying, and all of a sudden he shows up. Why? ”
“Maybe he wants her money,” Rolf suggested. “He is an Alamain, after all,” Stefano said, a dark chuckle escaping his lips.
“Something tells me that money is not the only reason that Nicholas Alamain has come to Salem. ”
Back at the Horton house, the walls were closing in. The phone rang, and Mike picked it up. “Dr.
Horton. Yeah. Yeah, she is. Uh…
it’s your dad. ”
I froze when Mike handed me the phone. My father’s voice was tight. “Honey, it’s not what you’re thinking.
Mike and I are just working. ”
“I’m not calling about that, sweetheart,” he said. “I’m looking for Austin. Do you know where he is?
”
“He was here,” I said, my throat dry. “He just left. ”
“Did he say where he was going? ”
“Just that he was going out of town for a while.
”
There was a long pause. “Damn it. Look, you got to keep this very quiet, okay? Sami broke out of prison tonight and took Will.
It could be that Austin’s gone on the run with her again. ”
My heart sank. I had just lost my husband to another woman, and now he might have taken my nephew too. A cold realization crept over me, mixing with the guilt and shame of my betrayal.
Austin was gone, and with him, maybe the last hope of keeping the family whole. While Sami held Will close, whispering promises of safety, I sat in Austin’s dark apartment, staring at the door. It was still unlocked. The dresser was empty.
He had told me he wanted my stuff out, and he had meant it. Mike had offered to let me stay with him. “If you need a place to stay… ”
I shook my head.
“I’m worried about him, Mike. He’s out of control. I’ve never seen him like this. He might try to hurt himself.
”
“Or somebody else,” Mike said grimly. I looked at the door. Austin might have been gone, but he wasn’t done with Salem. He had left to run from his pain, but the pain had a way of following him.
And he wasn’t the only one carrying secrets. Alison approached Austin after the fight, a smirk on her face. “Hey, Austin. How’s it going?
”
He shrugged her off. “What? ”
“Happy to have your wife back home? ”
He gave her a dark look.
“You know, the buzz around the hospital is that you were dating Mike Horton for a while. Then he dumped you, right? ”
She bristled. “I beg your pardon?
”
“You shouldn’t be embarrassed. You should be grateful, because the chief of staff is a lying, cheating scum. ”
Alison turned away, her face flushed with anger. She caught the eye of her mother, Claire.
“Want me to make your day? ” she asked. “I’m going to make sure everyone finds out what Mike did,” Alison said, a cold promise in her voice. “Finally,” Austin said, a bitter laugh escaping him.
“Better late than never. ”
He didn’t wait for a response. He just wanted to get away from Salem, from the betrayal and the walking reminders of everything he’d lost. The news of his disappearance only fueled my father’s fears.
“Austin Reed might be involved in this,” Roman said, speaking into the phone. “Put out an A. P. B.
”
Kate paced the living room. “We’re not talking country club prison here. This was maximum security. It was death row.
How the hell did she break out? ”
“She faked a nervous collapse,” Roman said. “They took her to the prison hospital. She drugged the guard, stole her uniform, and escaped.
”
“And you were feeling sorry for her,” Lucas spat, turning on me. “Well, not anymore, that’s for sure. ”
“She did this to protect her son,” Roman insisted. “Oh, from his evil father, yeah,” Lucas shot back.
“We know the drill. But obviously the judge made the right decision giving me custody, because Sami is the one who can’t be trusted. ”
Abe stepped in. “Look, no TV, no radio – total media blackout.
She’ll just think she’s getting away, and we’ll have a better chance of catching her. ”
I placed a hand on Lucas’s shoulder, but he pulled away. “I’m going to make Sami and Austin pay if anything happens to Will. ”
Roman looked exhausted.
“We still don’t have the story on Austin yet, Lucas. ”
“Well, I don’t need you to tell me the story,” Lucas snapped. “I know exactly what’s going on here. ”
And then the phone rang again.
This time, it was good news. Abe’s face lit up. “Roman, Roman, your hunch paid off. Now we’re on Sami’s trail.
”
The train rumbled north through the dark Canadian wilderness. Sami leaned her head against the window, holding Will against her chest. The conductor had laughed at her, told her no one ever really gets away. But she had to believe he was wrong.
She had to protect her son. That was all that mattered. But as the train carried her farther from Salem, she knew the chase was far from over. My husband was gone, my sister was on the run with my son, and the men in my family were chasing ghosts.
And in the Hearth, a woman who was not Hope was slowly remembering the woman she used to be. All these threads were weaving together, and I had no way of knowing how they would unravel. All I knew was that the people I loved were scattered, broken, and fighting for control over their own lives. And somewhere out there, Will was asleep, waiting to be found.
The search wasn’t over. It was only just beginning.
