Previously…
– Claudia Bishop arrived in town to see her comatose granddaughter, Samantha.
– After Jaq moved out, Trevor assured Finn that he wouldn’t have to cover the entire rent for the house. When Trevor told Alex about this, Alex was upset and accused Trevor of prioritizing Finn over their family.
– Molly and Brent visited Travis and told him their theory about Dr. Longo and Gabrielle. Travis agreed to the DNA test they proposed — but Rosie was furious when she found out.

Crisp white wine flows from the bottle into the two glasses, etched with the initials “M + B” and a date from so long ago that it seems like another lifetime to Molly Taylor.

“These are nice,” Trevor Brooks says as Molly hands him one of the glasses.

“They were a wedding gift Brent and I received,” she replies as she picks up the other glass. “It always felt wrong to throw them out.”

Trevor raises an eyebrow. “Maybe that would’ve been premature.”

He lifts his wine for a toast, and Molly hesitates before clinking her glass against his. They each take a sip before taking seats at Molly’s kitchen table.

“I don’t know if these have any relevance to the future,” she says. 

“You and Brent had a baby together a year and a half ago,” Trevor comments. “I wouldn’t call the glasses irrelevant.”

“Maybe. I don’t even know.” Molly sighs. “Thanks for coming by. I needed some processing-with-a-friend time. The last few days have been an emotional rollercoaster.”

Trevor raises his glass again. “I mean, same.”

“Alex was that mad?” she asks. 

He nods before taking another sip.

“I do understand,” Molly says tentatively. “Being mad about your spouse making a unilateral decision about finances, at least. But storming out?”

“It felt like it was about a lot more than that.”

“Well…” She brings her glass to her lips again. “Is it?”

“Excuse me?” Trevor asks.

She waits a moment before responding. “You know… You and Finn… have you two gotten very close?”

“We’re friends,” Trevor says. “We work together. I’m his landlord. Of course we’re friends. I’m not going to put him in a bad financial position because Jaq left abruptly. And we can’t force Jaq to pay rent for next month when they’re not committed to it legally.”

“I understand,” Molly says. “But are you sure that you and Finn are…”

Trevor’s response comes almost before she has finished speaking: “It’s totally platonic. One hundred percent.”

“Okay, then.” She takes another sip of the wine. “Alex will cool down. It sounds like he has been bottling things up for a while.”

“So it seems. I just worry this is… serious.”

“Trevor,” she says, setting down her glass and reaching over to touch her friend’s hand, “you and Alex have been through so much. Dylan Carrington’s nonsense, and you leaving town, and Seth, and not being on the same page about having a child…”

Trevor snickers as he lifts his glass again. “Him finding out on Christmas Day that I’d done porn and been blackmailed over it.”

“I try not to remember that one,” Molly responds with a grimace. “But yes. You and Alex have been through a lot. Just be honest with him, please. There’s nothing that will break you two down if you can both do that. And this fight doesn’t sound like the end of the world, once you both have time to calm down.”

“I hope you’re right,” Trevor says before taking another swig of wine.

Just outside the kitchen, a back is pressed into the wall as its owner holds in breaths, not wanting to reveal their presence.

—–

The urgent pounding on the door pulls Brent Taylor‘s attention away from the Seattle Mariners game on TV. He rises from the couch and hurries to the front door of his home.

When he pulls it open, he finds Officer Rosie Jimenez standing there. She has traded in her police uniform for black leggings and a sky blue zip-up top. Her dark hair is pulled back into a ponytail, as it usually is at work.

“Jimenez,” he says, feeling his entire body tense up at the sight of her. He knows instantly what this is about.

“How could you do this?” she demands. Fury radiates off her so strongly that the waves are almost visible.

Brent takes a moment to compose himself. 

“All Molly and I want is the truth,” he says at last.

“The truth,” Rosie says, turning the word over in her mouth as if tasting something for the first time. “Funny concept, huh?”

“Jimenez…”

“I thought we were friends, Commander. But I got home from work and my husband is there, telling me that we have to subject our daughter to a DNA test–“

“It’s not invasive. It’s a swab.”

“I don’t care! You showed up at my home with a lawyer when I wasn’t there–“

“We didn’t know you wouldn’t be there,” Brent says. “We came to discuss it with you guys.”

“And by ‘discuss,’ you mean… ‘tell us what was gonna happen’? Because that’s how it sounded to me.”

“I’m sorry.” He holds up his palms. “I’m serious. I’m sorry, Jimenez. We weren’t trying to make an end-run around you.”

“But you did,” she says. “And I’m here to get one thing straight: this stops now. We’re not doing any DNA test on Gabrielle.”

—–

Claudia Bishop sits at the granite-topped island in her daughter’s kitchen, leafing through an issue of Vanity Fair. When she hears the clatter of high heels approaching, she glances up. 

“Natalie informed me you’d be visiting,” Loretta Ragan says as she saunters into the kitchen. She spots an emerald green caftan that makes her red hair stand out even more than usual. “Welcome.”

Claudia regards the other widow with a cautious eye, having been informed by Natalie what a viper Loretta can be if provoked. 

“Thank you,” she says. “I had to come see my granddaughter. Natalie is upstairs giving Peter his bath, by the way.”

“Have you been to the hospital already?” Loretta asks. 

“Yes, I was able to spend some time with her today. It’s so difficult seeing her that way. She’s so young. She should have her entire life ahead of her. And now for her to be in a coma, with no idea how she might recover…”

Loretta nods with understanding. “No parent should have to see her child or grandchild that way.”

“It’s terrible.” Claudia closes the magazine and sets it down on the island. “My– my daughter Diane tries to be strong, but I know this has to be painful for her. And Samantha’s father has so much on his plate, as well.”

“Tim,” Loretta says coolly.

“Yes. I don’t know the man well, but he always struck me as an excellent father.”

“I wouldn’t give him too much credit,” Loretta scoffs.

“He has one daughter in a coma, and apparently just found out that he has another child by another woman who tried to keep the boy from him–“

“Is that so?” Loretta leans forward, resting her elbows on the island. “How can that be?”

“From what Diane told me, this woman left town without even telling him she was pregnant. He only found out because he tracked her down in Hawaii, of all places!”

Loretta draws in a slow breath through her nostrils as she takes in this information. “How very interesting.” 

“And if that weren’t enough, it sounds as though there’s some drama involving his grandchild,” Claudia continues.

“Peter?” Loretta asks with alarm. “Our grandson?”

“No, no. If I’m remembering correctly, his other son — the one he and Claire raised–” Claudia stops herself, realizing that she is about to tread on dangerous terrain with the woman who was party to Travis and Spencer being switched. “He and his wife are in the process of adopting a little girl they found outside the police station, but now Tim’s sister believes that baby is actually hers. It’s all very dramatic!”

“A little girl they found outside the police station?”

“That’s how I understand it, yes.”

“And Tim’s sister thinks the child could be hers? That’s…”

“Far-fetched, I know.”

Loretta’s bright red lips twist up as she processes this information.

“If you’ll excuse me,” she says abruptly, “I just remembered that I have a few calls to make.”

“Go ahead. Nice to see you.”

“You, too,” Loretta says as she exits the kitchen. “Very informative indeed.”

—–

At Molly’s kitchen table, Trevor leans back in his chair.

“It’s probably silly of me to be worried about something so trivial,” he says.

“It isn’t trivial.” Molly pauses before continuing at the sound of the stairs creaking. “Caleb? Christian?”

An instant later, they hear a door close upstairs. 

“One of them must’ve just gotten home,” she explains. “What I was saying was: this isn’t trivial. It’s your marriage we’re talking about.”

“Obviously. Yeah. But you’re right — Alex and I will get through this. I need to be better at communicating stuff like this.”

“You do,” she says with a slight grin. “Alex is a good man. Treat him like one.”

“I should. I will.” Trevor drinks from his wine glass. “I meant… you’re going through something so… so… world-shattering. It puts things in perspective.”

“I can only hope we’re getting to the end of it,” Molly says. “If this DNA test turns out the way I know it will…”

“It would be so crazy. But it does make some kind of twisted sense.”

“That’s what I keep going over in my mind. Dr. Longo told Brent and me that our baby was dead because Loretta Ragan made him. Or paid him to. Whatever. And he told us the baby was a boy…” Overcome with emotion, she quickly sets down her glass and brings a hand to her mouth.

“Molly,” Trevor says, growing emotional as well. “I can’t imagine.”

“I always had a feeling about Gabrielle,” she continues. “Everyone thought I was crazy, but I had this sense. Even before I knew our child was a girl.”

“I hate to say this, but there’s still a chance this doctor was messing with you by sending that letter, isn’t there?”

Molly hesitates for a long moment.

“There is. Yeah. That’s why we need to do this DNA test.”

“It sounds like it’s happening,” Trevor says.

“It is,” Molly tells him with surprising firmness. “Now that this door has been opened, we can’t just close it. And I know…” She brushes a few strands of her dark brown hair behind her ear. “…I know that this can only end with someone getting hurt. It’s only a matter of whether it’s Brent and me… or Travis and Rosie.”

—–

Not wanting his mother or Trevor to hear him or realize that he had accidentally eavesdropped on their conversation, Christian tiptoes  carefully away from the kitchen and up the stairs. When he is almost at the top, he hears his mom call out and decides to pretend like he didn’t hear her. Better than having to go down there and face her and Trevor — especially after what he just heard.

His cheeks still feel warm as he closes his bedroom door and then presses in the lock. He can still hear Trevor’s voice in his head.

“Him finding out on Christmas Day that I’d done porn and been blackmailed over it.”

He knew vaguely that Trevor used to model, for Objection Designs and elsewhere, but he had no idea about that.

He sits down at his wooden desk and flips open his laptop. After glancing over his shoulder to be sure that the door is locked, he types some words into the search bar:

“trevor brooks” “model” “porn”

—–

Brent and Rosie stand silently at the doorway to his home for several seconds.

“I don’t want this to be happening any more than you do,” he says at last. “But we have reason to believe–“

“That some doctor who was so messed-up that he covered up malpractice and then put a bullet in his own head should be believed?” Rosie challenges. “The whole theory is crazy.”

“So is the situation in general. Why would Longo have arranged to have that note delivered to us?”

“Why do unstable people do anything? Sometimes logic doesn’t apply to a situation.”

Brent sighs. “All we’re saying is, we need to follow up on the lead. A DNA test is by far the easiest way to do that.”

Rosie grits her teeth. “Gabrielle is our daughter. Mine and Travis’s. The adoption is almost final.”

“I can only imagine how this must feel,” he says. “But think about how Molly and I felt being told our child had died, and we never even got to hold her.”

“Him. Everyone told you that baby was a boy.”

“Longo told us that. And he also said he had the baby cremated, and then told us none of that was true. If he says it was a girl…”

“I hate this,” Rosie says, eyes floating toward the house next door as her jaw remains tight.

“I know. I do, too. None of us want this, Jimenez.”

Her head snaps back toward him.

“Do the damn DNA test if you want,” she says. “You’ll see that this is all BS. Gabrielle isn’t your baby.”

Brent is poised to respond but thinks better of it. He knows that nothing he could say right now is going to make this any easier. Instead he watches as she storms back to her car. The pain that he felt on the day his and Molly’s last child was born flares up again, the way it does so often — only this time, he imagines Rosie and Travis feeling the same pain if this test turns out the way that Brent is hoping it will.

END OF EPISODE 1137

What will the results of the DNA test reveal?
Will Christian find what he’s looking for?
Is Loretta about to make some even bolder moves?
Talk about it all in the comments below!

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