Previously…
– Claire reported back to Tim after overhearing Loretta issue a confusing threat to Natalie that involved Tim’s ex, Sonja, who had abruptly left town a few years earlier.
– Diane gave in to her desire and had sex with Isaac, though she remained hesitant about becoming involved with him.
– Jaq secretly witnessed a kiss between Tempest and Samantha.

In his brother’s corner office at Vision Publishing, Jason Fisher slumps deep into the couch, with one foot crossed over the other knee. His anxious fingers screw the cap of a water bottle on and off, over and over and over again.

“It completely broke my heart,” he explains as Tim sits in a chair across from him, listening intently. “I’ve always known this would be something tough for Sophie to deal with, but it was like it all slapped me in the face in that moment.”

He has just finished telling Tim about the recent night when Sabrina Gage came over for dinner, ostensibly to get to know Jason’s teenage daughter, only to have Sophie act out and finally admit to her father that she fears anyone he brings into their lives will leave them, just like her late mother and Natalie have.

“Sophie’s really lucky to have you as her dad,” Tim offers. He has the sleeves of his dress shirt rolled up, and the knot of his tie is loosened, as Jason’s last-minute visit has spread out past the end of the workday. “That’s the part you can control — how safe and loved you make her feel. And you’ve done a great job of that.”

“I hope so. But still.” Jason places the water bottle on the coffee table that rests between them. “It makes me think I’ve been reckless. I moved Natalie into our house, we built this whole life–“

“–which you did everything you could to make work.”

“But it didn’t,” Jason says sadly. “And Sophie suffered from that. If I hadn’t been stupid enough to let Natalie pull the wool over my eyes in the first place…”

“Then you wouldn’t be human.” Tim shoots him a reassuring smile. “You’re a good dad, Jason. A great dad. And you’re having to fill the role of two parents.”

“Maybe I just need to accept that.”

“Accept what?”

Jason sighs defeatedly. “That my job right now is to be Sophie’s parent. Parents. And my personal life has to take a backseat until she goes off to college.”

“That’s not what Sophie wants for you,” Tim says.

“But maybe it’s what’s best for Sophie.”

“It isn’t. Is this hard? Of course it is. But Sabrina seems like a genuinely good person. She’s not going to pull what Natalie pulled on you.”

“The bar is that low, huh?”

“Nowhere to go but up, right?” Tim flashes his younger brother a grin. “I’m kidding. Take things slow. Give Sophie time and space to get used to it. But don’t cut things with Sabrina off at the knees out of some fear that it might not work out.”

“But it might not,” Jason counters.

“It might not. But it might. And it would suck to miss out on that, wouldn’t it?”

“I guess you’re right.” Again Jason picks up the water bottle and takes a quick swig. “Kind of impressive how badly Natalie messed me up, isn’t it? It’s been a few years now, and still…”

“It sure is something,” Tim says. “You know, speaking of Natalie…”

Jason lowers the water bottle. “Oh god. What now?”

“Do you ever remember Natalie talking about Sonja at all? Or interacting with her?”

“Sonja? Your Sonja?”

“I don’t know if I’d call her that, but yeah.”

“What does Natalie have to do with Sonja?” Jason asks.

“That’s the part I need to figure out,” Tim says. “Can you remember anything at all? Because it might be the key to getting Loretta out of our lives, once and for all.”

—–

When the elevator doors open, Isaac Banks steps out onto the floor of the apartment building where his sister resides. He moves purposefully toward the door of Tempest and Claire Fisher‘s apartment and knocks, expecting a quick answer. Instead, he is greeted only by silence. It stretches on for several confusing seconds before he knocks again, only to be met with more of the same.

He pulls his phone from the pocket of his brown letter jacket and, seeing no notifications from Tempest, sends his sister a text:

Outside your place. Where you at?

He stares at the screen for a long moment, hoping to see the bubbles that indicate she is composing a response, but they do not appear. As he closes out of the message, however, his gaze lands on another text thread that has been left hanging: his correspondence with Diane.

For a short time after their tryst in her car, they texted back and forth. But when Isaac suggested that they get together again, the conversation quickly trailed off, with Diane dancing around the idea of actually making plans. Isaac stares at his last message to her:

Let me know what’s good for you.

Except Diane never did let him know. Now, looking over the messages again, he feels a trickle of embarrassment creeping over him, spreading itself out until it consumes him. It becomes nearly overwhelming as he can see the reality reflected so starkly in those characters on the phone screen.

“She’s just not that into you, man,” he mutters before closing out of the thread and flipping back to his exchange with Tempest, who also has yet to respond.

With a frustrated huff, Isaac dials his sister’s number and waits.

—–

The sun is already slinking toward the horizon, painting the sky with streaks of pink, as Samantha Fisher parks her car curbside in front of the Brooks family home, which is now being rented out by her partner and Finn Campbell. Samantha takes the stone path that cuts through the lawn and arrives at the front door, where she feels a slight twisting in her stomach before she rings the doorbell.

Moments later, Jaq Pearson opens the door. Their short black hair is styled in its usual edgy manner, which always causes Samantha to marvel: it looks as if it takes so much effort, and yet Jaq pulls it off in a way that makes it seem totally natural and unforced.

“Hey,” Samantha says with more than a touch of awkwardness. They haven’t seen one another since Jaq missed the get-together at Travis and Rosie‘s, citing unexpected work responsibilities. Although Samantha was happy to take them at their word, she has sensed something reserved about Jaq ever since, something palpable even in their text messages.

“Hi,” Jaq replies, also a bit stiffly. 

“It’s good to see you.”

“You, too.”

Samantha narrows her eyes. “Are you sure?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Jaq asks.

“I’m not sure,” Samantha admits. “Could we talk before we go to dinner?”

“Sure.” Jaq steps to the side, still holding the door open. “Want to come in?”

“Okay.” Samantha steps inside the house but remains just inside the front door, in the entryway. She turns toward Jaq. “Is something going on?”

“What do you mean?”

“Something has felt off ever since the day you couldn’t make it to Rosie’s to meet the baby,” Samantha says. “So I just need to ask: did something happen that you aren’t telling me? Are things okay between us?”

—–

Jason looks curiously at Tim over the coffee table.

“I still don’t follow,” he says. “What does Sonja have to do with Natalie or Loretta?”

“That’s the big mystery,” Tim replies. “You have to promise to keep this to yourself.”

“Who am I gonna tell?”

Tim shrugs and then glances toward the door of his office to confirm that it is closed. 

“Claire overheard a heated conversation between Loretta and Natalie,” he says. “It sounded like Loretta was threatening Natalie and said something about ‘your friend Sonja.'”

With a furrowed brow, Jason asks, “Did Natalie and Sonja even know each other?”

“That’s what I’m asking you.”

Jason thinks about it for a moment before shaking his head. “Not that I can think of. Aside from how Loretta forced Sonja to read the DNA test results at my wedding…”

“That was all Claire and I could work out, either. But there has to be something to this. Claire thinks we should have Sarah track Sonja down so we can get some answers.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Jason says. “You really have no way to get in touch with her?”

“Her old cell number is out-of-service.” Tim leans forward and hangs his head. “I’m pretty sure that isn’t a coincidence.”

“The way she took off was really weird, Tim.”

“Her mother wasn’t in good health. I know that much was true. She had to go take care of her.”

“And that was so involved that she couldn’t have possibly kept in touch?”

“All I know is that if she wanted to stay in touch with me, she would have. It was very clear when she left town that things were over.”

“But what if she had to?” Jason says, his tone growing more insistent. “What if she had no choice?”

“She had some choice,” Tim says.

“Maybe not. Not with Loretta involved. Come on, Tim, I know you took Sonja leaving really hard — and I don’t blame you — but it always seemed weird to me. And if I hadn’t been distracted by, you know, my entire life falling down around me, I might’ve been more able to connect the dots.”

“We don’t even know if there are dots to connect.”

“There’s clearly something going on,” Jason tells him, “and it sounds like having Sarah find her could be the start of figuring this out.”

Tim sits back in his chair and allows his head to loll backward. 

“I guess I have nothing else to lose,” he says at last. “Except whatever’s left of my pride.”

“I’ve seen you golf. You don’t have any of that left,” Jason teases as he stands from the sofa.

—–

Isaac takes the elevator back down to the apartment building’s lobby. The dull sense of concern he had when Tempest didn’t answer the door has now expanded into something more fiery, more all-consuming. He exits the building and is about to try his sister again when he sees her hurrying toward him.

“Sorry!” Tempest calls. 

“Where the hell’ve you been?” Isaac asks with equal parts annoyance and worry.

“Got held up at work. Then I was rushing and– I didn’t wanna check my phone while I was driving, so I didn’t see your texts–“

“I called you, too.”

“I had my phone on vibrate. I didn’t notice. C’mon. You ready?”

“Do you have to go upstairs for anything?” he asks.

“Nah. C’mon, let’s get you over to meet our little brother,” Tempest says.

“It’s so damn crazy to think we have a brother who’s a little kid, and I didn’t even know it.”

“Yeah, and that’s why it’s time we fixed that.” She tugs on the arm of his jacket. “C’mon. I’ll drive.”

Isaac follows her to the car, doing his best to push down his irritation at the way she made him stress over her.

—–

A slight breeze from outdoors blows through the open door as Samantha and Jaq stand, awkwardly facing one another, in the entry of the Brooks home.

“Why wouldn’t things be okay?” Jaq asks. “Are you upset that I didn’t make it that day? I messed up and left something from work here, so I had to come get it, and–“

“No, I’m not upset. I didn’t mean to make you think that!”

“You didn’t. I’m just…” Jaq trails off and then shakes their head. “Overly sensitive.”

“It’s okay.” Samantha takes a step forward, closing the gap between them, and takes both of Jaq’s hands in hers. “We’re fine, I promise.”

“Are you sure?”

“More than sure.” Samantha plants a sweet kiss on Jaq’s lips. “See?”

Jaq relaxes and smiles. “Thank you.”

“Now should we go enjoy dinner out?” Samantha says. “It’s been a long day.”

“Yeah, I’m starving!” Jaq declares. They step out of the house, and Jaq is about to lock the door when they notice the mailbox affixed to the exterior of the house, crammed full of mail, most of which looks like junk.

“I hope my paycheck from last week is in here,” Jaq says as they pull out the pile of mail. Samantha stands by as they flip through it and takes note when they stop on one particular item.

“That’s weird,” Jaq comments quietly.

“What is?”

“This. There’s no return address or stamp…” They hold up a plain white envelope with Jaq’s name and address typed on the front. 

“That is weird,” Samantha says as Jaq opens the envelope and removes a single sheet of paper. She watches as they take in its message, their eyes bulging and their jaw going slack.

“What’s wrong?” Samantha asks, feeling a weird hitch in her breathing already.

“I… It’s…” But all Jaq can do is stammer, and they turn the sheet of paper around so that Samantha can read its message, constructed from mismatched letters that appear to have been cut out of magazines.

DIE, YOU SICK FREAK!

END OF EPISODE 1070

Who would send Jaq a message like that?
How will Isaac’s first meeting with Chase go?
Will Tim and Claire be able to locate Sonja?
Discuss all this and more in the comments below!

Next Episode