Previously…
– Zane offered to help Jaq get revenge on Samantha and Tempest. 
– With Spencer’s help, Elly got Anatoli to admit that she passed the bar exam without him needing to interfere — meaning Loretta’s blackmail threats over her held no weight.
– Sarah was distressed to learn that Tori apparently ran off to elope with Zane.
– Realizing that Zane had kidnapped her, Tori pretended not to remember the fight that preceded them leaving King’s Bay and convinced him to send Sarah a photo of them together — hoping that Sarah would recognize the signal Tori was giving in the photo.

The bus rolls down the city street, jumping and jolting as its tires hit uneven patches of cement. Inside, Jaq Pearson sits alone in a seat upholstered in a brown, leather-adjacent textile; one benefit of beginning work in the early afternoon is that public transit tends not to be so busy. Still, they cannot help but resent having to take the bus at all. Their commute to and from work every day is a bitter reminder of how they had to sell their car to help pay for legal fees after their arrest for planting the threatening notes to frame Tempest.

The bus reaches its next stop. Jaq watches through their sidewalk-side window as an older lady climbs off and continues down the block. The bus resumes its motion, and soon it is chugging down the downtown King’s Bay street where 322 Bar & Grill stands.

Jaq hasn’t been there since the day they walked in to pick up food and saw Samantha and Tempest together, chatting and smiling as if they had no cares in the world at all. Their blood boils at the memory.

Samantha and I should be happy together right now, they think. And they were happy. Jaq knows that, deep down. For over a year, they were. Until Tempest started worming her way back into Sam’s life, filling Sam’s head with doubt.

Their body filling with rage, Jaq picks up their phone from the seat and fires off a text message:

We need to get this plan going ASAP!

The text goes through, and the bus comes to its next stop. This time, a middle-aged man carrying too many grocery bags to navigate the narrow bus aisle effectively boards the vehicle. It takes some time for him to move through the bus and find a seat. As he does, the doors close, and Jaq’s phone vibrates with a response from Zane:

We will once I get back

Jaq scrunches up their face and responds:

Get back? Where are you??

This time, Zane’s reply comes much more quickly:

You’ll find out 😉 

Something about the response reads as strange to Jaq, although they can’t put their finger on what. They write back:

What does that mean?

But as they continue to stare at the phone, no response appears, and neither do the bubbles that indicate Zane is typing. Jaq leans against the window and watches ruefully as King’s Bay passes by outside the window.

Something needs to change — soon, they think as the bus makes a wide right turn on its way to their stop near KBAY.

In the radio station’s basement-level headquarters, Sarah Fisher Gray paces back and forth over the steel gray carpeting, gesturing emphatically with her hands as she talks.

“So they applied for a marriage license last week, which I didn’t even know until I did some digging,” she is saying. “And it doesn’t sound like Tori mentioned it to Samantha or Spencer the other night.”

Behind the desk, Diane Bishop nods along as her best friend lays out the facts of the case.

“But I can’t get her or Zane to tell me where they are,” Sarah says. “For all I know, they could already be married.”

“You don’t know that,” Diane says.

“The clock is ticking, that’s for damn sure.” Sarah stops and holds up her phone for her friend to see. “Look at this photo Zane sent me. He looks so smug.”

Diane rises from her office chair and juts her head forward to examine the photo more closely. “There has to be some clue in there.”

“I’ve looked.” Sarah shakes her head in disappointment. “I’ve scoured every inch of the damn thing. There’s nothing to tell me where they are — city, state, anything. It looks like…”

Squinting at the phone, Diane says, “Kind of rustic?”

“Right. It looks like a cabin. So I know that much.”

Sarah continues to stare at the photo so intensely that she can almost make out the individual pixels. 

“Brent won’t do anything?” Diane asks. “He’s the damn police commander–“

“Wait.” Sarah’s eyes grow wide. 

Diane recognizes the expression on her friend’s face well. She steps out from behind the desk and huddles beside Sarah.

“Look,” Sarah tells her. “Tori’s hand–“

“What about it? She’s showing off that ring her gave her–“

“No, her fingernails,” Sarah says breathlessly. “She’s sending me a clue. Tori’s trying to tell me something with this photo.”

—–

Marcus Gray enters the newly built athletic complex on the campus of King’s Bay Academy. Although he has walked through this building countless times — some semesters, every single day for P.E. class — he has a strange feeling as he navigates past the gym and toward his father‘s office. Something about the text he received, asking him to come see his dad between periods, seemed out of the ordinary and serious.

When he reaches the Athletic Director’s office, Marcus is surprised to see not only his father there, seated behind his desk, but also his uncle.

“There you are,” Matt Gray says, an unmistakably grave expression on his face. “Thanks for coming down.”

“Yeah, of course.” The senior looks between his uncle and dad. “What’s up? Uncle Matt — why are you here?”

“It’s Tori,” Matt says. “You haven’t heard from her, have you?”

Marcus feels stabs of alarm in his chest and stomach. “What? No. Not for a couple days. Like maybe last Thursday or Friday?”

Matt looks over at Jake, who appears equally stoic.

“Is she okay?” Marcus asks. 

His uncle’s hesitation only makes the teen more concerned.

“What happened? Where is she?” he presses.

“We don’t know,” Jake says.

“She sent us a text that she ran off with Zane,” Matt explains. “But she’s not responding to us now, and your Aunt Sarah got a photo from Zane–“

“Of what?” Marcus asks, unnerved.

“Them in some cabin or something. Tori was showing off her engagement ring,” Matt says. 

“Your aunt thinks there was something forced about it,” Jake adds. “Since it came from Zane and not Tori.”

Marcus doesn’t even know what to say for a few seconds. Finally he sputters, “H-have you called the police?”

Matt puffs out his cheeks and then exhales loudly. “They don’t have enough to make it a Missing Persons thing yet. Since it’s only been a day and we have a text from her saying that she went on her own.”

“That’s bull– BS,” Marcus replies.

“Total BS,” Matt agrees. “What we need you to do is send Tori a super-casual text. Make it like you don’t even know we’re worried, just ask her a random question or if she wants to hang out this week or something. We need info on where she is.”

Marcus takes his phone out of the pocket of his jeans. “And then you wanna go get her?”

“If we have to.” Matt sets his jaw. “Let’s see what she says.”

With jittery fingers and a thumping heartbeat, Marcus composes a quick text. But he continues to stare at his phone in disbelief long after pressing ‘Send.’

Jake clocks his discomfort. “What’s wrong?”

Marcus raises his head but still doesn’t speak.

“Marcus,” Matt says urgently. “What’s the matter?”

—–

“What’s going on?” Molly Taylor asks as she leads her guest into the living room of her home. “Your text sounded serious.”

“It is serious,” Elly Vanderbilt says. “Hey, Uncle Brent.”

Brent Taylor, who has been standing in the center of the room uncertainly, comes forward to give his niece a hug. “Hey, El. What’s this all about?”

“I needed to see you both,” the redhead explains. She wears a long-sleeved, neon pink zip-up jacket and boldly printed leggings. “I flew back from California earlier today.”

Brent and Molly exchange a confused but concerned look.

“Are your parents okay?” Molly asks. “Tom and Melanie, I mean.”

“Yeah, they’re okay. I didn’t see them–“

“Were you with Danielle?” Brent inquires, his voice spiking with concern at the thought of Elly paying an unplanned visit to his sister.

“No, I was actually in Palo Alto,” Elly explains. “It was…” Her expression clouds with an emotion that Molly cannot pinpoint. 

“Did something happen?” Molly asks the younger woman. 

“You had us worried, asking to meet like this,” Brent says.

Elly draws in a deep breath. “There’s something I need to tell both of you. Something I feel awful about.”

They wait, tense and confused, for her to go on.

“It’s a really long story,” Elly says, “but Loretta Ragan — she’s been trying to force me to do something I really didn’t want to do.”

Brent takes a step forward, as if he might need to shield his niece physically. “What did she do? Why you?”

“Because she’s a sick woman!” Molly says. “Has she hurt you? There’s no limit to what that lunatic will do–“

“I’m okay,” Elly says. “Now, I am. She’s been… she thought she had something over me, something she could use to make me do her bidding.” For a moment, she seems to turn inward, to shrink into herself; it is as if she has to fight some instinct to shut down entirely. 

“She’s blackmailing you?” Brent asks, though it comes out as more of a statement of shock. “Why you?”

“Because I’m a lawyer. She’s been–” Again Elly’s face falls with shame. “She’s been trying to get me to talk you into dropping the lawsuit against the hospital.”

“What?” Molly’s face screws up with bafflement. “Why does Loretta care about our lawsuit?”

“I don’t know,” Elly tells them, with an undercurrent of pleading in her voice that seems to be saying, You have to believe me. Please. “But the thing is — the reason I went to Palo Alto was to see if I could figure out a way — the thing she had on me, or thought she had on me, it doesn’t exist. So now I can tell you all of this.”

“So Loretta wanted you to force us to drop the lawsuit against the hospital,” Brent says, trying to work out the logic. “And then… what?”

“I’m not sure,” Elly says, turning her focus toward Molly, “but I think she wanted those charges against you to stick. The assault charges.” 

“Because she wants to ruin my life,” Molly says. “Since she thinks I ruined Philip’s.”

Suddenly Brent’s hand shoots out, landing on Molly’s shoulder.

“My god,” he says sharply. “Dr. Longo–“

“That’s the doctor who delivered your baby, right?” Elly says. “The one you went to confront–“

Molly covers her mouth as shock overtakes her. “Yes. But we found out earlier–“

“He’s dead,” Brent tells Elly. “Longo was found dead in his office. Apparent suicide.”

“But Loretta was all mixed up in this,” Elly says. “So she might have…”

Elly trails off, and the three of them stand there, astonished, too rocked by this bombshell even to move or speak.

“Loretta’s behind this,” Brent says at last, scrambling to pull out his phone. “I know she is.”

The two women watch as he places a call. Then Molly turns toward Elly.

“Thank you for telling us,” Molly says. 

“I’m so sorry I couldn’t say something sooner.” Elly swallows a visible lump that has formed in her throat. “I didn’t want any part of this — but she threatened my career, and then me, and I — I had to find a way out of it.”

“And you did.” Molly pulls her into an embrace as Brent rattles off some orders over the phone. “Thank you, Elly. Knowing that Loretta has had her hands in this lawsuit… this could change everything.”

—–

After stepping off the bus, Jaq walks the four blocks to the building that houses KBAY. They take the elevator down to the basement  and head straight toward the main studio to check in and put down their bag — but they stop in their tracks when they see that a certain office door is open, with lights spilling out from within.

Jaq moves up against the wall to try and get their bearings. They have been avoiding shifts that would overlap with Diane for months now; she tends to leave shortly after the morning show has wrapped, so Jaq hasn’t had to face her in the workplace since Diane teamed up with Tempest to expose them for planting the letters. But Diane must have decided to stick around today, for some reason — and now, there is no way to get past that office without Diane at least seeing them.

“Crap,” they mutter under their breath, as Diane’s voice floats out of the office. 

“A clue?” Diane says. “What could she be trying to tell you?”

“Look at Tori’s nails,” another woman says. “She made sure Zane got them in the picture.”

Jaq listens, confused by the conversation and the mentions of their friend and Samantha’s cousin.

—–

Still holding her iPhone, Sarah uses her free hand to dig in her purse, which sits atop Diane’s desk, and pulls out a bottle of pale pink nail polish. 

“Look,” she tells Diane. “This was lying in Tori’s parking spot when I went to their apartment building.”

“‘Blushing Bridal,'” Diane reads from the bottle. “So she bought this for this shitshow of a wedding…”

“…but for some reason left it behind and hasn’t done her nails otherwise. Look — the paint is all chipped.”

Diane speaks slowly as she follows Sarah’s train of thought: “And you think that she’s trying to tell you… that she meant to do her nails…”

“…but something happened before she could,” Sarah says, her whole body seeming to pulse with energy. “She left that polish behind as a clue. Probably dropped it before Zane could notice. That’s the girl I raised.”

“You really think he took her against her will?” Diane says. “She’s been under his spell for a long time.”

“I know, but something is off here. I can feel it. I need to find my daughter.”

Sarah turns her attention back to her phone and taps out a quick text message.

“What are you doing?” Diane asks. 

“I’m texting Tori to see if I can get her to give me any clues.” Sarah hits send and then waits a moment before exclaiming, “Dammit!”

“What?”

“My text isn’t going through. Her phone must be off. Or dead.”

Diane purses her full lips. “I don’t like this.”

“Me, neither,” Sarah replies. “I have to find my daughter.”

Before Diane can reply, a figure appears in the doorway.

“Don’t take another step,” Diane warns Jaq. “What are you doing here?”

“I work here,” Jaq says, “and–“

“Not for long, if you don’t keep your distance,” Diane says. “You’re lucky I didn’t get you fired months ago.”

Jaq grits their teeth and takes a few seconds before speaking again. 

“I think I can help you,” they say.

Diane cocks her head to one side. “Help me? How?”

“Help you both,” Jaq explains. “I think I might know where Zane and Tori are.”

END OF EPISODE 1126

Will Jaq be the key to rescuing Tori?
Have Sarah and Matt put together the pieces?
What will Molly and Brent do with Elly’s information?
Discuss all this and more in the comments below!

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