Previously…
– Travis and Rosie were married and decided to proceed with adopting Gabrielle. Molly, who also has designs on adopting the infant, made some ill-timed comments questioning the younger couple’s fitness as parents.
– Rosie’s brother, Sebastian, returned to town for the wedding. He reunited with his sister and walked her down the aisle.
– Tempest blasted Isaac and Diane after she walked in on them kissing. In the wake of her ire, Diane promised to tell Isaac the full truth about her and Tempest’s past.
– Jaq left the wedding reception early with a stomachache — then called Samantha in a panic after they discovered another threatening note at home.

“Thanks for coming so quickly,” Samantha Fisher says as she leads her uncle from the curb up the driveway. “Sorry to pull you away from the wedding.”

“You don’t have to apologize,” Brent Taylor replies. He is already surveying the scene, taking stock of the exterior of the Brooks family home, where Samantha and Jaq Pearson are now renters. Above them, the nighttime sky rests like a velvety, deep blue blanket.

Still in their fitted gray suit from the wedding, Jaq is waiting for them at the top of the driveway. They hold a plastic ziplock bag in one hand, with a piece of paper visible inside it.

“We didn’t touch it once we realized what it was,” they say, their voice trembling slightly. 

“Smart. Thank you.” Brent takes the bag from Jaq and peers at the note inside. Mismatched letters cut from magazines spell out a message:

Time’s almost up, freak!

“Approximately what time did you find this?” Brent asks.

“It was about 9:20,” Jaq says. “I took an Uber home from the wedding, and I noticed it on my car before I even went into the house.”

“Does that timeline sound right to you?” the police commander asks Samantha.

“Jaq came home ahead of me,” Samantha explains. “They called me as soon as they found the note, and I called you from the car on my way back.”

Brent stares at the disturbing note for a few quiet seconds as he thinks.

“What about your roommate? Is he home?”

Jaq shakes their head, causing their fashionably uneven black hair to wag back and forth. “Finn‘s been out all evening. I texted him a little while ago. He should be back soon.”

Brent purses his lips but says nothing. 

“What?” Samantha asks, noting his uneasy expression.

“I’ll want to corroborate that story of his, that’s all,” he says. 

“We have a doorbell camera,” Jaq tells him. “The other notes had been left in the mailbox by the door, so if someone had left one there, the camera would’ve caught them. But it should show when Finn left, too.”

Brent nods tersely and walks closer to Jaq’s car, a Honda sedan parked in the driveway.

“Your car was here the entire time you were gone?” he asks. “You didn’t take it to the wedding?”

“No, I drove both of us,” Samantha says.

“Show me exactly how you found it,” he says to Jaq as he hands them the plastic bag containing the letter.

But Jaq has barely taken hold of it when they let out a gasp. 

“What?” Sam asks with alarm.

“Look!” Jaq points to the ground. “What is that?”

Samantha and Brent both follow their gaze to the driveway, where it takes a moment of scanning through the darkness before they see it, too.

Brent pulls a latex glove from his pocket and wriggles it over his hand before he stoops down to pick up the item: a flat, bright yellow hair clip.

“Is this either of yours?” he asks.

“It’s definitely not mine,” Jaq says. 

“It isn’t mine, either,” Samantha says, but she feels a heavy lump forming in her throat as she speaks — because she knows that she has seen that clip before.

In the parking lot behind The Wild Lady, Diane Bishop stands with her bare arms folded as she addresses Isaac Banks beneath the nighttime sky, which has darkened considerably — revealing a slew of brilliant stars — since she began her explanation to him.

“Tempest somehow got her hands on the documents from the custody hearing,” she is in the midst of saying, “and decided that she’d tell Samantha what she’d found. Tim and I had made a decision not to share that with Samantha — we didn’t think any good could come of it.”

Isaac’s eyes widen, and he brings a hand to his mouth in shock. “But Tempest was so pissed off…”

“That she wanted to hurt me as badly as I’d hurt her. I had no idea that seeing Hank would do that to her. I swear. I only thought he’d be able to make a decision about Chase’s custody — if I had known what Hank did to her–“

“To me, too,” Isaac says glumly. “Him and our mom’s other boyfriends. That’s a big part of why I split.”

“I can’t blame you for that.” Diane lets out a weighty sigh, hoping that the burden she has been carrying for months might exit with the air, but she has no such luck; she feels as pained as ever by her knowledge of the ugliness that has occurred between her, her daughter, and Tempest. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, I guess,” she says, bowing her head. “I didn’t know how, and I thought– well, I figured if you found out how Samantha had been conceived, you wouldn’t want anything to do with me, anyway. So it was easier to push you away.”

“It does explain a lot,” he says. “A lot of shit’s gone down with you and Tempest.”

“To say the least. I can’t say I like what she did — or that I’m okay with it — but I’ve come to accept that it was my fault to begin with. She exposed the truth, but it was my truth all along. What I did to Tim…”

She turns, shaking her head in distress.

“Everyone has told me to forgive myself,” she continues. “Even Tim. Samantha even bothered to give me a second chance. And I know I’ve done some fucked-up things in my life — and I own that, I really do — but taking advantage of Tim the way I did… it was despicable.”

When she dares to glance back, she sees Isaac with his own arms folded; though he still wears his suit jacket, his tie has been undone, and the top button of his shirt has, as well. The expression on his face is frustratingly inscrutable. 

“So now you know,” Diane says. “That’s why I’ve been so hot-and-cold with you. It isn’t that I haven’t wanted you… but I figured that once you knew the most horrible thing I’ve ever done — and there’s no way Tempest wouldn’t tell you once she knew we were… whatever…”

She forces herself to meet his eyes. 

“What are you thinking?” she asks. “Don’t hold back. If you don’t want anything to do with me now that you know, you can just say it.”

—–

Inside the bar, the DJ has stopped playing music, and the wedding reception is drawing to a close. Guests trickle out through the front doors, and Kathleen Bundy has begun leading the charge to clean up.

“Don’t you dare lift a finger,” she says playfully to Paula Fisher as she passes Travis’s grandmother. “Except if you’d like to take some of the flowers home. Then please, help yourself.”

“That’s so sweet of you,” Paula responds. “Everything was lovely, Kathleen.”

“It was my pleasure!” Kathleen says, curtsying slightly in her magenta dress. “Jimmy’s, too.”

“Well, thank you for everything,” Paula says before Kathleen sweeps off to oversee the stacking of chairs.

“It really was a great wedding, wasn’t it?” Paula’s eldest son asks as he approaches, carrying a crate in which he is collecting votive candles from the various tables. 

Paula beams. “It was. Travis and Rosie looked so happy.”

“They were.” Tim frowns slightly. “There was one little hiccup, but I hope it isn’t too big a deal.”

“What was that?” Paula asks.

He hesitates before explaining, “It was Molly.”

“What do you mean?”

“She started asking me all these questions about whether Travis and Rosie are really fit to be raising Gabrielle.”

“I’m sure she’s just expressing concern…”

“She outright questioned whether Rosie actually bothered to look for whoever dropped off Gabrielle at the police station,” Tim says more forcefully. “And Rosie and Travis heard her.”

Paula gasps. “Oh dear. Your sister, she’s… she’s going through a difficult time, as you know. I’m sure she didn’t mean…”

“I don’t know what she meant. But neither of them seemed too thrilled.”

“I’m sure it was just a misunderstanding.”

“Do you know what they told us tonight? That they plan to adopt Gabrielle formally. For Molly to be running around casting doubts about whether they’re fit to do that–“

“That isn’t what she meant,” Paula says.

“It sure sounded like it. I know she’s still grieving, and I have every sympathy for that, but the way she started in on them — it wasn’t okay.”

“I’ll talk to her. You know your sister doesn’t have a malicious bone in her body.”

“Whatever it is, she needs to rein it in. I didn’t want to get into it with her in the middle of the wedding, but she needs to be in therapy if she’s still struggling this much. And no one would fault her for that.”

“I will talk to her,” Paula says gently, placing a reassuring hand on his forearm. “Now, shall we help clean up?”

—–

At the front of the bar, Elly Vanderbilt pushes through the saloon doors to find the wedding already being deconstructed. She is relieved not to have come back too soon; the last thing she wanted tonight was to inadvertently crash her ex-boyfriend’s wedding. But it is very clear that the reception is now over; she sees Travis’s grandmother collecting floral arrangements in a cardboard box, and Travis’s father stacking chairs with Kathleen, and–

“Be careful, would you?” she exclaims as she watches the dark-haired man, around her age, stacking a set of used glasses. The tower is already leaning precipitously to one side. 

He whips around with a start. A lock of his hair falls across his forehead.

“What?” he asks, confused.

“Those glasses — they don’t stack well.” She hurries over and pulls the glasses apart. “I’ll get you a dishwasher rack.”

“You work here or something?”

“Sort of. My dad and his wife are the owners.”

“Oh, uh…” He snaps his fingers. “Jimmy. That’s your dad?”

Elly nods.

“Why weren’t you here for the wedding?” he asks. “Isn’t his wife Travis’s mother?”

“Yeah, and Travis is my ex, so…”

“Ex, huh?” The man gives her a lopsided grin, one side of his mouth stretching upward. “He just married my sister.”

“I didn’t know Rosie had a brother,” Elly says, taking him in. He has stripped off his black suit jacket, and his white dress shirt is unbuttoned at the top, its sleeves rolled up to reveal strong forearms. 

“I’m in from Seattle,” he says. “Sebastian, by the way.”

“Elly.” She sticks out her hand, and Sebastian takes it for a shake. His grip is firm — not overpowering, but strong and self-assured. 

“Wait,” Sebastian says. “If Kathleen is Travis’s mom… and Jimmy is your dad… you guys were stepbrother and stepsister, and you dated?”

She shakes her head vigorously. “Noooooo. They didn’t even meet until we’d been broken up for a few years.” She sees his mounting bewilderment and adds, “It’s a long story.”

“Sounds like it.”

Elly sees that grin spreading over his face again and feels a flash of heat surge through her body.

“Let me get you that dishwasher rack before you break all our glasses,” she says with a smirk before heading behind the bar.

—–

“Now this is what I call a honeymoon suite!” Rosie Jimenez proclaims as she takes in the large, multi-room space on the top floor of the King’s Bay Metropolitan Inn. “Do you think it has a soaking tub? I bet it has a soaking tub.”

“Only one way to find out,” Travis says as he kicks off his stiff, patent leather shoes. As Rosie rushes into the bathroom, Travis walks to the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook downtown King’s Bay. In the distance, lights glitter on the surface of the bay itself.

Rosie comes running back out of the bathroom, holding the skirt of her wedding dress as she moves. “There’s a soaking tub! With jets! You better believe we are getting in there.”

“You don’t have to twist my arm,” he says as he moves closer and places his hands on her hips. He leans in and presses his lips to her, savoring the soft crush of her mouth against his.

“You know what I’m dying to do?” he asks when they part.

Rosie purses her lips. “I think I have a few ideas.”

“Number one is getting out of this damn tux.”

“That’s convenient… because this dress is killing me. No one ever tells you how uncomfortable wedding dresses are.”

“Here,” Travis says, sliding around her back. He tugs on the zipper, tantalized by the bare flesh of her back that appears, and then touches his lips to her neck. Rosie throws her head back in bliss.

“There’s something else I need to do,” she says, breathing huskily before spinning around.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. Return the favor.” Her hands make quick work of his shirt, pulling at the onyx studs and yanking the rumpled white fabric out of the tuxedo pants. 

“God, I love you,” Travis says between kisses, as their bodies stagger together toward the king-sized bed.

“I love you, too,” Rosie breathes before they tumble onto the bed together, reaching up and under one another’s clothes as passion overtakes them.

—–

Brent hands both plastic bags of evidence to the gloved officer standing nearby.

“Get these to the lab ASAP,” the commander says. “And run the results against every database you can.”

The officer heads back to the squad car at the curb, as Brent turns to Samantha and Jaq, who are still waiting nearby.

“We’re going to see if there are any fingerprints or hairs that we can try to match to our existing databases,” he tells them. “You never know where you’ll find a break. In the meantime, could you give me access to the doorbell cam footage?”

“I can give you the login,” Jaq says with a nod. Samantha stands by nervously, an uneasy roiling in her gut.

Brent takes out a small pad and pen, which he hands to Jaq. They use the hood of their car to scribble down the necessary information for the camera.

“Let me know if either of you sees or thinks of anything else,” Brent says. “Anything at all. Even if you don’t think it’s significant.”

“Thanks, Uncle Brent,” Samantha chokes out, and within a matter of moments, Brent has returned to his own car and taken off into the night. 

“How are you feeling?” Sam asks Jaq as they walk up to the front door of the house. 

“A little rattled, but okay.”

“I mean your stomach. It didn’t sound like it was too good back at the wedding.”

“Oh. It’s a little better.” Jaq touches a hand to the front of their suit. “I should take some Pepto Bismol before bed, though.”

“That’s a good idea,” Samantha says as she holds open the door for Jaq. But all she can think about is that yellow hair clip — and how she knows that she has seen Tempest sporting a very similar one in the past.

—–

In spite of the still-warm temperature, Diane shivers as she waits for Isaac to respond. He diverts his gaze toward the pavement before speaking again.

“This is a lot to take in,” he says. “Tonight. All of it.”

“I know.” Diane senses the stabbing pain of rejection but refuses to let herself truly feel it; this was always the inevitable end. “I know.”

“I need to talk to my sister.”

Diane steps to the side, as if creating a path for him. “Go ahead.”

He gives her one more look and then steps forward. He removes his phone from his pants pocket. It seems as if he is going to say something, but his mouth closes without producing any sound.

“Good luck with Tempest,” Diane says.

“Thanks. You okay to get home?”

His concern takes her by surprise, but she warns herself not to get her hopes up.

“I’m good. Yeah.”

With a final nod, Isaac opens up a rideshare app on his phone and walks around the side of the building. Diane remains in the parking lot, feeling shattered by the night’s events.

This is why you should’ve stayed away from him all along, she tells herself as a gentle nighttime breeze brushes over her.

—–

When Tim drops Paula off after the wedding, she enters her home. Although it is quiet, she can hear the faint sounds of Sarah, Matt, and Billy upstairs; there is the very distant hum of a television and the running of a faucet. 

She makes her way to the mantel. Her gazes fixes upon a portrait of herself and Bill, taken on the day of Sarah and Matt’s remarriage several years ago.

“Oh, Bill,” she says softly. “You would have loved tonight.”

Her hand gently touches the frame and then grazes over the image of her beloved late husband. In the photo, he is smiling brightly, radiating the joy they all felt on that beautiful day.

“Can you believe Travis is married?” Paula says. “Rosie — she’s so wonderful. You’d adore her. And they’re fostering a little girl… a little girl who desperately needs a home and a family. You’d be so proud of the man Travis has become.”

Even as tears sting the insides of her eyes, Paula feels a smile coming to her own face.

“We all missed you tonight,” she says as she picks up the photo. “I miss you every day, Bill. I love you, dear.”

She clutches the photograph to her own body and listens to the air, hoping that maybe, just maybe, she will be able to hear his voice calling to her across the great divide.

—–

“Thanks for sticking around to help,” Kathleen tells Sebastian as he pushes the last of the folded tables against the wall of the bar. “You didn’t have to do that.”

He shrugs. “It’s my sister’s wedding. Least I could do. It was really nice of you and your husband to let them have it here.”

Kathleen beams. “It was our pleasure, hon. You okay to get on home?”

“I can get a car back to the hotel, yeah.”

She lifts a tray of dirty glasses off the bar. “I’m gonna go stick these in the dishwasher. You get back safely, y’hear?”

“Will do. Thanks again.”

As Kathleen uses the tray to push open the door to the kitchen, Sebastian grabs his jacket off a barstool. He uses his phone to call a vehicle and then steps outside to wait. A nearby streetlight illuminates The Wild Lady’s entrance as he slings his jacket over his forearm and waits for the car.

“You’re still here?” a voice asks from behind him.

He turns to see Elly standing there with several broken-down cardboard boxes under one arm.

“Looks like my labor is complete,” he says with an exaggerated exhale. “How about you?”

“I told Jimmy I’d throw these out, and then I’m done, too. Probably going to pour myself one hell of a drink.”

Sebastian hesitates and taps his dress shoe against the sidewalk.

“My hotel has a bar,” he says. “And a minibar, if you’re feeling crazy.”

Elly brushes some of her crimson hair behind one ear. “What’s that mean?”

He flashes her a grin. “It means it’d be a shame to let my fancy hotel room go to waste.”

“So it’s an invitation,” Elly says.

“Sounds like it is. You interested?”

She stares him down for a long beat before saying, “Let me go drop these boxes and get my stuff.”

“The car’s two minutes out,” Sebastian says, but Elly is already ducking into the alley. She emerges without the cardboard and then disappears back into the bar. 

“Still got it,” Sebastian mutters to himself as he watches the door close behind her and then glances down the street, searching for his Uber’s headlights.

END OF EPISODE 1090

Will anything come of Elly and Sebastian’s plans?
Are things really over for Diane and Isaac?
What should Samantha do about her suspicions?
Talk about all this and more in the comments below!

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