Previously…
– Molly and Brent filed a malpractice suit against the hospital over the death of their baby. 
– Spencer accompanied Elly to California, where they planned to confront Anatoli, the law firm partner who claimed he’d doctored her bar exam results.
– Still reeling from the discovery that Landon hooked up with Fee C., Tori was ready to leave town to elope with Zane — and was shocked to discover he had placed a GPS tracker on her car.

In the cavernous cement structure of their apartment building’s garage, Tori Gray holds a small device in her palm. A blinking green light emanates from the item, which she just pulled from the underside of her car.

“You’ve been tracking me?” she asks her fiancé in shock. “How long has this been going on?”

Zane Tanaka doesn’t miss a beat in responding: “I’m trying to protect you!”

“This isn’t protecting me!” Her voice bounces around the large garage. Although there are plenty of other vehicles parked, there is currently no other foot traffic. “This isn’t cool, Zane.”

He attempts to snatch the GPS tracker, but Tori shoves it behind her back.

“You’re blowing this out of proportion,” Zane says. “Let’s her just get in the car and go–“

“I’m not going anywhere with you.”

The two stand there is a sort of face-off for several painfully long seconds. 

“When did you install this?” she finally demands.

“Not that long ago.”

“How ‘not that long ago’? This morning? I’m guessing it’s been longer than that.”

“It’s been a while, Tori. I don’t know.”

His nonchalance makes her want to hurl the device to the ground and smash it into a thousand pieces, but a small voice of reason in her head warns her that preserving it might be wiser. There could be data to recover, or who knows what else? So she continues clutching it tightly in her hand.

“This is such a violation, Zane,”  she says. 

“I’m sorry, okay? Really sorry. I got nervous–“

“Nervous about what? That I was… sneaking around? Cheating on you? How dare you.”

“Well,” he says, folding his arms. “Where did you really go this morning?”

Flustered, she flaps her mouth open and closed as she finds her answer. She wants to scream at him that she got into an argument with a good friend because of him last night, and she almost trashed that friendship on Zane’s behalf, and when she went to make things right, she discovered that Landon had trashed it all on his own by hooking up with Fee C., of all people. But she clamps her mouth closed and holds that all inside. Instead she holds up the plastic shopping bag from the drugstore.

“I was buying toiletries, like I told you,” she says.

“There’s a CVS a mile away. So why did you drive all that way?” Zane questions.

Tori stares him down. “All what way?”

His eyes hiss, You know exactly what I’m talking about, but he remains quiet. 

“Let’s just get in the car and go,” he says at last, adopting a much calmer tone. “I’m sorry about the tracker. It was when I thought your family was trying to interfere with us–“

“Then tell me how long it’s been on my car, Zane.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It does matter! You’ve been, what, watching all my movements? I’m not five years old.”

“I didn’t say you were!”

“I can’t believe you would do this.” She shakes her head. “What else don’t I know–” But she stops herself mid-thought. “Oh my god.”

“What?” Zane makes another halfhearted swipe for the tracker, but she keeps it behind her body. “Whatever you’re thinking–“

“Landon was right,” she says with shock. “I didn’t think you were capable of it, but…”

“Capable of what? What does Landon think?”

“He thought it was you who messed up that order at Objection last year,” she tells him. “To get me fired. Because you didn’t like that I was working with my aunt. Did you?”

“What are you talking about, Tori?”

“Tell me the truth,” Tori says. “Did you hack Objection’s servers so I’d get in trouble for screwing up?”

—–

“How do we even know he still comes here?” Spencer Ragan asks.

“We don’t,” Elly Vanderbilt replies. “But it’s the best chance we have on a Sunday. Unless you want to wait until tomorrow, and we can stake out his firm.”

“Nah, this is worth a shot,” Spencer replies. The two sit on a bench in Palo Alto, California, across from a high-end commercial complex containing a fitness club, a juice bar, a stationery shop, and other businesses befitting the local, well-to-do suburban clientele. Although the sun sits high in the sky, casting a bright glow over the city, there is an unmistakable chill in the air. 

After arriving on their early flight from SeaTac, Elly and Spencer picked up a rental car and came straight to Palo Alto. They can’t even check into their hotel for a few more hours, but Elly — anxious to get the real business of their trip over with — suggested that they check out the club where Anatoli, at least when she knew him, attended spin class religiously every Sunday.

“How are you feeling?” Spencer asks. He looks over at Elly, who is hunched over slightly, her hands clasped together in her lap. 

“Fine.” She sounds anything but, and a moment later, without prompting, she adds, “It’s going to be very weird to see him. If we find him at all.”

“I’m sure we could get his new home address if we needed to.”

“Probably. But we can catch him outside his firm tomorrow, if he doesn’t–” She trails off mid-sentence, and Spencer follows her eye line to see a man stepping out of the fitness center. He is tall and athletic, both broad-shouldered and broad-chested, and although he is clearly in his 40s, he has the energy of a younger man. His dark brown hair is slicked back, presumably after a quick shower inside the gym, and a closely cropped beard lends an air of maturity that he might otherwise lack.

“I’m guessing that’s him,” Spencer says.

“That’s him.” Elly swallows the lump that has formed in her throat.

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

“I don’t know that I want to… but I’m not getting your psycho of a mother off my back unless I do.” With that, she shoots to her feet.

“I’ll be right here,” Spencer tells her. “Make sure you stay in my view in case he tries anything.”

“He won’t try to hurt me,” Elly says sharply, but then she seems to catch herself. “But thanks. I will.”

“Good luck.”

Elly nods and, watching for traffic, hurries across the street. Spencer remains planted on the bench, elbows on his knees as he watches intently.

“Mike!” she calls out, raising one arm.

Anatoli looks up from his iPhone — and his casual demeanor immediately shifts to something more serious, more loaded.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he asks.

—–

“Is that all?” Molly Taylor asks as she lifts the ballpoint pen from the sheet of paper.

“That should be it,” Conrad Halston replies. He picks up the stack of papers that has been sitting in front of Molly, straightens the sheets out, and affixes a black binder clip to the top of the packet. The attorney and his client are seated at Molly’s kitchen table; Conrad’s laptop and an assortment of manila folders rest between them.

Molly hands him the pen. “Do you really think this will work?” 

“I’ll file the motion first thing in the morning. I genuinely believe we have legitimate grounds for delaying your criminal case until there’s forward motion on your lawsuit against the hospital. The results of that lawsuit could entirely change the context of your assault charges.”

She wags her head as she takes in his words. The fact that she is facing charges for assaulting Dr. Longo is still so strange to her. All she wanted to do was talk to him about the night her baby died, and then it escalated into such chaos so quickly. The entire memory remains a strange blur to her.

“That does make sense,” she says, “but I’m so eager to get back to work, too — and that probably won’t happen until there’s some resolution to the criminal case.”

Conrad offers her a sympathetic look. “I’ll do whatever I can. Truly.”

Before Molly can respond, the sound of the front door slamming loudly fills the house.

“Caleb? Christian?” she calls out with concern.

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” Caleb Taylor mutters angrily. Seconds later, he appears at the entrance to the kitchen and stops in his tracks, surprised to see that his mother is not alone.

“Oh. Hey,” he says to Molly and Conrad.

“Language,” Molly warns him with raised eyebrows before adding, “What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing.”

But she sees the torn envelope and folded letter in his right hand.

“What’s that?” she asks.

“It was in the mailbox,” Caleb says, his shoulders slumping. 

“From a college?”

He hesitates before saying, “Gonzaga.”

Molly rises from her chair. “I’m going to guess it’s not the news you wanted.”

“I don’t get how I didn’t get in!” Caleb rants. “I’m the best soccer player on my traveling team. And my grades aren’t that bad. Even that dumbass Slater from the Mibe Owls got in–“

“These applications can come down to a lot of smaller factors,” Molly tells him. “And you’re still waiting on U-Dub, and KBU…”

“Bree is going to KBU in the fall,” Conrad offers optimistically. “She wants to stay local so she can keep training with Jason.”

“And your brother might be going to KBU, too,” Molly says. 

Caleb lets out a loud groan. “Forget it,” he says, and he flings the rejection letter onto the nearby countertop before stomping upstairs.

It takes a few moments for the plume of negativity he has left behind to dissipate. Molly walks over to the counter and picks up the letter. She casually scans it, noting how strange it is that such a short, plainly stated piece of writing could cause such emotional upheaval.

“He had his heart set on Gonzaga, I presume?” Conrad asks from the table.

Letter still in hand, Molly turns. “Very much so. And he really thought his track record with soccer would offset his grades. Brent and I tried to tell him, but…”

“Teenagers aren’t exactly known for wanting to listen to their parents.”

“Exactly.” Molly tries to grin through her frustration. “I really do wish he’d gotten in. These kids need something positive to hold onto after the past few years. And I wish they weren’t making their college decisions while all this is going on. You know, I get the sense that Christian is considering KBU a lot more seriously than he otherwise would because he feels guilty moving away right now.”

“He’s a good kid,” Conrad says.

“He is. But I don’t want to be the reason he misses out on the full college experience,” Molly says sadly. “Please promise me you’ll do whatever you can to get the courts to move all of this forward. The waiting isn’t just taking a toll on me — it’s hurting my family.”

“I promise,” he replies as he gathers up the folders on the table, “I will do everything in my power to get these cases resolved for you as quickly as I possibly can.”

—–

In the garage, Zane stares back at Tori with disbelief and visible indignation.

“What are you talking about?” he asks. “Hack Objection’s server?”

“Did you?” Tori presses.

“No! Why would I do that?”

Tori isn’t even sure whether she can trust the expression of hurt on his face. He seems genuinely horrified — but this is also the man who has had a secret tracker on her car for however long.

“Because you didn’t want me working with my Aunt Molly,” she says through a suddenly labored breath. “Is that it? You wanted me to get fired?”

“Tori, this is insane.”

“Is it?”

“What are you basing this on?” he challenges her. “Because Landon has some crackpot theory? He’s, what — your cousin‘s old roommate? Who cares what he thinks?” Then his jaw drops. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

Tori tries to discern what he is talking about and then asks, “What?”

“That’s why he was at our apartment that night.” Zane sets his jaw. “That little shit. What was he trying to do, break in to find proof?”

“I didn’t say that–“

“What a fucking psycho! Who does he think he is?”

“That’s not the issue, Zane.”

“I could kill him.” Zane balls up his fist. “And I just might.”

“Stop it!” Tori shouts. “Leave Landon alone.”

“Why?” He levels a look at her that seems to be a challenge. A beat passes, and then he adds, “Why is that little dork so important to you?”

Tori feels a wave of nausea as she recalls the sight of Fee C., fresh out of the shower, in Landon’s apartment.

“He’s Travis’s best friend,” she says desperately. “Leave him alone.”

“I knew it,” Zane says. “I knew he was trying to come between us. To get to you.”

Tori holds up the fist that holds the GPS tracker in it. “This is not about Landon! It’s about you putting this thing on my car.”

“I told you! That was so I could protect you.”

Her eyes flare as she looks at him, hoping against hope that the bizarre fever dream of this morning might pass. But it is all real: Fee C being with Landon, the tracker in her hand, and the man in front of her who isn’t worthy of the trust she has placed in him. It’s all real.

“Come on,” Zane says. “Let’s get in the car. The luggage is already packed. We can stop and get something to eat and go get married like we planned–“

“I’m not marrying you!” she shrieks. “Not after I found this!”

“Just calm down–“

“You’ve been tracking my movements for months, Zane! No. I’m not going to calm down. I’m taking this and going to my Uncle Brent–“

“Like hell you are!” 

He lunges toward her, and she instinctively pulls her hand back behind her body. 

“Give me that!” Zane shouts.

“No!” She holds the tracker more tightly and ducks when Zane makes a grab for her. She moves under his arm and sees freedom in sight. But as soon as she begins running, a hand grabs her from behind and pulls her back.

“Zane!” she screams. “Let go!”

“Give that to me!” 

She does her best to double over and keep the tracker from him. Her gaze flickers upward, hopeful that someone else might round the corner and see what is going on. But it is no luck. They are still alone in the vast garage.

“Let go of me!” Tori yells, and she attempts to kick a leg back and upward. Before she can, though, he yanks her backward, throwing her completely off-balance.

She sees the concrete pillar coming at her, but before she can do anything to avoid it, she collides with it, and everything turns to a soupy black.

—–

Spencer remains seated on the bench in Palo Alto, watching as Elly confronts her former lover across the street. He wishes he could hear what they are saying, but he has to settle for monitoring their body language. 

Near the entrance to the fitness center, Elly tells Anatoli, “I need to talk to you. It’s important.”

Anatoli glances to his left and then to his right. He takes a tentative step toward her, but only so that he can address her without raising his voice.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he says. “I can’t be seen with you.”

“That’s why I’m asking you to talk in private.”

“No. We have nothing to talk about, Elly.”

“We have a lot to talk about.” She delivers the line with a certain amount of flair, hating that one of the lessons he taught her about being a lawyer seems to be true: faking confidence somehow makes her feel more confident. She hopes that he can’t see the way her hands are trembling slightly. 

“Any business we had — it was over years ago,” Anatoli tells her.

“Maybe for you it was. But this keeps coming back to haunt me, Mike.”

He holds up his palms, one of which still has his phone held in it. “That has nothing to do with me.”

Elly moves toward him. She fears he might make a break for it, but he remains in place, albeit very shifty and uneasy.

“I need answers from you,” she says. “So you’re going to meet with me later.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Because I’d be happy to go to the judge who handled your divorce and tell her all about the way you coerced me into lying about–” The mere thought of it gives her pause, but she forces herself to power through. “–about the baby. The abortion. I wonder if she’d reopen the divorce settlement if that came to light.”

“And then I’d have no choice but to talk about your bar exam,” he sneers. She marvels at the idea that someone who can address her so cruelly was once somehow she cared about — enough to entertain the prospect of having a child with him. “Your career would be over before it even really begins.”

She draws in a fortifying breath through her nostrils. “That’s the thing. I have nothing to lose anymore. So either you meet with me to get a few things straight, or I call up Judge Peeples–“

“Fine,” Anatoli says hastily. “Where? When?”

Elly reaches into her purse and pulls out a business card with the name of a nearby boutique hotel and a room number written on the back.

Across the street, Spencer continues to watch them. He feels dueling stabs of relief and fright when he sees Elly actually hand Anatoli the card.

“Nice job, Elly,” he says under his breath, wanting to believe that their plan will work out just as they are hoping.

—–

The sedan pulls onto I-90. Without the radio or any music on, the sounds of the tires rolling rapidly over the pavement seem louder, and Zane’s mind strays: What if we get a flat tire? That would ruin everything. He reminds himself that he is already tense, and he isn’t as used to driving Tori’s car as his own, and everything is fine. 

Gripping the steering wheel hard, he continues to drive over the freeway, keeping his speed only a mile or two above the speed limit — perfectly nondescript. 

A sudden, frantic vibrating noise nearly causes him to jump out of his skin. He glances down at the cup holder in the center console, where Tori’s iPhone has lit up with an incoming call. The name ‘billy,’ in all lowercase letters, shows on the display.

“Sorry, little dude,” Zane says as he presses the button on the side of the phone to stop the vibrating. The call continues to ring silently until it passes Tori’s younger brother to voicemail. Zane wishes that he didn’t have to have her phone right there, constantly sending out signals, but he knows it would be even more suspicious if he’d turned it off or left it at the apartment. 

“Besides, maybe you’ll want to share our good news with everyone once you calm down,” he says, looking over his shoulder at his fiancé.

Tori lies across the backseat of the car, unconscious, her hands and feet bound with cables that Zane found in the trunk. 

He refocuses on the road as he continues driving them to their destination.

END OF EPISODE 1121

What does Zane have in store for Tori now?
Will Elly and Spencer’s plan for Anatoli work out?
What do you hope the teens decide for college?
Talk about all this and more in the comments below!

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