Previously…
– Tori awoke in the cabin, seemingly with no memory of her struggle with Zane, and demanded to know why she was tied up.
– Loretta offered Dr. Longo an exorbitant amount of money to take the blame for the death of Molly and Brent’s baby and leave town.
– After overhearing a commotion at the hospital, Claire called Brent with the news that Dr. Longo was dead.

In the bedroom of the small cabin that he has rented, Zane Tanaka stoops over the king-sized bed. His fingers tremble slightly as they work to undo the cables that are binding the wrists and ankles of his fiancée.

“You really don’t remember?” he asks while undoing the cables.

Tori Gray lifts her head and looks at him with confusion — which Zane knows is a result of her slamming into that concrete pillar, plus the sleeping medication he gave her. 

“All I remember is… going to do some errands,” she says hazily. “But nothing after that.”

He grits his teeth as he gets the cables around her wrists to loosen. He can tell that she is lying about having gone to see Landon, but whatever happened between them made her eager to run off and elope with Zane, so maybe it’s all for the best. And if she doesn’t remember finding that GPS tracker on the bottom of her car, even better. 

“You freaked out on me,” he says, hoping against hope that she buys this story. You should’ve untied her when you got here, he thinks. Except then she might have woken up and run, if she had remembered everything. 

“What do you mean, freaked out?”

Zane pulls the cable from her wrists. She immediately begins to rub them and lets out a sigh of relief.

“You — you took an edible when you got home,” Zane explains, spinning the tale as fast as his mind can generate it. “Or you said you did. I think you took two. Or something else.”

“Something else? I don’t have anything else.”

“I don’t know if someone gave you something last night, or…” He shakes his head as he tries to undo the binding around her ankles. “We were driving, and you completely freaked out on me and started hitting me while I was driving.”

Tori’s eyes go wide. “What?!”

“It was fucking weird. And you–” He sucks in a breath, hoping this is the right card to play: “You started calling me ‘Landon.'”

He watches closely for her reaction. It takes a long moment, but she gasps.

“I did? Zane, I–“

“I don’t know what happened last night, but you didn’t seem like yourself,” he continues. “Then you fell asleep, and we stopped for gas and I tied you up so I could drive safely…”

“I’m so sorry. I don’t know what…” She trails off as her ankles are finally freed and then begins rubbing them. Zane can see a slight redness and indentation in her flesh where the cables were.

“And then I carried you in and put you to bed, and — I’ve been checking on you, but I didn’t know you’d be when you woke up.”

Tori sits up and continues to massage her ankles. “I don’t remember any of that, Zane.”

“It’s okay.” He offers a reassuring smile. “How do you feel now? How’s your head?”

“I feel fine, I guess. I have a headache. And kind of groggy. But I’m okay.”

“And you know who I am,” he says with a wink.

“Right.”

He reaches out and takes one of her hands, then begins rubbing the red marks on her wrist for her. “So we’re here… like we planned. What do you say?”

“What do you mean?” she asks, blinking as if trying to wake herself up.

“Do you still want to do it? Do you want to get married today?”

On an upper floor of King’s Bay Memorial Hospital, yellow police tape cordons off a hallway that leads from the reception area to a variety of private offices. Doctors, nurses, and other hospital workers hover around the nurses’ station, watching as police officers move in and out of the restricted area. Among them is Claire Fisher, who still hear the screams of horror that sounded from that hallway earlier this morning. 

She stiffens when she sees Brent Taylor, dressed in a KBPD windbreaker over a polo shirt, duck under the yellow tape. The police commander appears to be doing his best to ignore all the prying eyes fixed upon him as he makes his way toward Claire.

“Thanks again for giving me the heads-up,” he says.

“Of course,” Claire tells her ex. There was no love lost between them during their last encounter — when she blasted him for wrongly arresting Tempest — but she nevertheless felt compelled to tell him what was going on as soon as word spread through the hospital that Dr. Longo had been found dead in his office. 

“They wouldn’t let me into the office because of conflict of interest over the lawsuit,” he says quietly. “Not that I can blame them. But it’s definitely him.”

Claire glances both ways to make sure no one is standing close enough to overhear them. “And?”

“Gunshot in the back of the throat.” 

She grimaces. “We didn’t hear a shot.”

“Hospitals are noisy,” Brent says with a shrug. 

“So it’s a suicide. Did they find a note?”

He nods tersely. “Sort of.”

“What do you mean, sort of?”

His gaze flickers up, again to ensure that they have some privacy, before whispering, “It was on his computer monitor. All it said was, ‘It was all my fault.'”

“That leaves a lot of room for interpretation,” Claire agrees with a sigh. 

“Right. More questions than answers, really.” Brent swipes a hand over his dark hair, which Claire notices has much more gray streaked through it than when they were together, only a few years ago. 

“I can tell what you’re thinking,” she tells him.

“Hmm?”

“That with him dead, you and Molly might never know what really happened the night your baby died,” she says. “And I’m sorry for that. I really am.”

“Claire, you don’t have to–“

“I mean it. I’ll never be fully okay with the way things happened between you and Molly, but I would never wish the pain of losing a child on anyone. I hope both of you are able to find some peace and closure.”

“I want that, too,” he says, though he sounds less than confident that it is even a possibility now. 

—–

Zane continues to rub his fingers along Tori’s wrist. He can see the network of tiny blue and purple veins running just beneath her soft white skin, marred ever so slightly by the red burns from the cables. 

“Yeah. Of course,” she says, smiling. “Once I get myself together.”

“That ibuprofen should kick in soon,” he says.

“I’m sure. Actually… a shower would really help. I feel pretty gross.”

“There are towels and shampoo and soap in the bathroom. The shower’s not the nicest one I’ve ever seen, but…”

“I’m sure it’s fine,” she says as she slides off the bed. “I’ll feel a million times better once I’m freshened up.”

He points to the mirrored closet door, which is currently closed. “Your suitcase is right there. I didn’t unpack anything yet.”

“I’ll do it. Thanks, Zane.”  

She wriggles off the bed and slips into the bathroom. Once she closes the door and he hears the shower turn on, he exhales with relief.

I can’t believe she bought that, he thinks. Before the end of the day, we’ll be married.

—–

Inside the bathroom, Tori turns the knob to start the shower. Hot water begins spilling into the tub. She pulls the curtain closed and breathes in the steam as it fills the room.

“Oh my god,” she says to herself. She moves to the sink and catches her reflection in the mirror. 

I can’t believe he expected me to buy that insane story, she thinks. But she knows that she has to play along right now. She has no idea where they are, exactly, but she remembers all too clearly the desperate fury in Zane’s eyes when she confronted him with the GPS tracker. She recalls some kind of struggle — he must have somehow gotten her into that car, knocked her out, and tied her up. Only now does she realize that her phone isn’t in her pocket and that Zane must have it. 

Why did I ever think this was someone I should marry? she asks herself, as the bathroom continues to fill with steam. 

“I need to get my phone and get out of here,” she says under her breath as she begins removing her clothes in order to take a shower — which, as much as she doesn’t want to waste the time, will feel good, and it’ll allow her a few more minutes of solitude to strategize before facing Zane again. 

—–

“What’s going on?” Molly Taylor asks as she lets Brent into her house. He can tell that she is on high alert already.

“I need to talk to you,” he says.

“I gathered that much from your text.” She closes the door behind him and flips the lock into place. “And I know it isn’t about the boys, because they’ve both texted me from school already this morning and they seem fine.”

“Yeah, they’re fine.” 

“Then tell me what’s going on. Is it about my case?”

“Sort of. Yeah.” He looks up at her and is momentarily distracted by Caleb and Christian‘s eighth-grade portraits hanging on the wall behind her. They fill him with a fresh sadness for the son that he and Molly will never get to hold or talk to, let alone see grow up.

“Brent?”

“Uh, sorry. It’s, um — there’s no easy way to say this. Dr. Longo is dead.”

“What?!”

“He was found in his office at the hospital this morning,” he explains, doing his best to deliver the news in a dry, professional manner. “From a self-inflicted gunshot wound.”

“Oh my god.” Molly’s hand shoots up to cover her own mouth. “He– why–?”

“There was a sentence typed on his computer monitor. It said, ‘It was all my fault.'”

“The baby,” she says breathlessly. “It has to be about our baby — what does this even mean?”

Rendered speechless, all he can do is shake his head. 

“And my charges,” Molly says. “If he’s dead — I hate to even say this, but — if they drop the charges–“

“You could get your job back,” Brent says. 

She draws in a slow, deep breath. “I don’t even know how to feel right now.”

“Me, neither. But I wanted to tell you before you heard something on the news.”

“I appreciate that,” she says, and then she throws her arms around him, pulling him closer. The two stand together, heads resting upon one another, as they attempt to process this latest unexpected turn in what has been a long, emotionally draining saga.

—–

Blood-red fingernails press the bedroom door closed.

“Yes?” Loretta Ragan says as she holds the cell phone to her ear. She locks the door of her bedroom on the upper floor of her son and vile daughter-in-law‘s home, just to be safe.

“It’s done,” the voice on the other end tells her.

“You’re certain? There’s no chance he could be–“

“It’s done,” the voice repeats so confidently that it brings a grin to Loretta’s lips. “And the message was left on his computer exactly as instructed.”

“Thank you,” she says. “I gave Dr. Longo the opportunity to spare himself — unfortunately for him, he was too much of a fool to take it.”

She ends the call, still smirking to herself.

END OF EPISODE 1124

Were you surprised by Tori’s ruse?
Will Zane give her the chance to escape?
Can Molly and Brent ever get closure?
Talk about it all in the comments below!

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