Previously…
– Tim and Claire admitted their feelings for each other and slept together. Afterward, Tempest caught Tim leaving Claire’s bedroom.
– Brent told Molly that they should get remarried to boost their standing in the custody case. She said no and rushed out.
– Sarah offered Molly advice on her relationship with Brent.

Tim Fisher stands by the window of his corner office, fiddling with the wand on the blinds. The slats flap open and closed, alternatively revealing and hiding the view of King’s Bay on this gloomy, hazy day. As he mindlessly toys with the blinds, Tim’s mind drifts back to last night…

He recalls the sensation of Claire‘s body against his, of the two of them moving together in her bed, in ways that they hadn’t moved in so many years. Because of Tempest arriving home unexpectedly early, they didn’t have much of a chance to talk about it afterward, and the thoughts have consumed him thus far today.

Leaving the blinds open, he moves back to his desk. He picks up his iPhone, unlocks it, and navigates to his text chain with his ex-wife. The two most recent messages, from last night, catch his eye:

Sorry that you had to run out. I didn’t expect Tempest back so early.

No problem!

“No problem?” he says aloud, his gaze lingering on the message. At the time, he wanted to sound breezy and unbothered; now it reads as dopey. But between meetings and other work obligations all morning, he hasn’t figured out a worthwhile follow-up.

“Just write something,” he mutters to himself. His thumbs begin to move over the touchscreen’s keypad, writing and deleting fragments until he has a message that he thinks is all right to send:

I enjoyed last night a lot.

He furrows his brow at the phone, suddenly unsure once again, and then impulsively hits send. He forces himself to put down the phone instead of staring at the thread waiting for her response, so he takes a seat behind his desk and wakes up his computer. Just as he has opened his e-mail inbox,  however, he hears the phone vibrating. Instinctively he reaches for it, and within a split-second, he is reading Claire’s response:

So did I. A lot.

Tim’s mouth curls up into a grin as he contemplates the proper response.

“Someone’s having a good day,” a voice announces, startling Tim so much that he nearly drops the phone. He looks up to see his son at the open door of the office.

“What? Who?” he says to Spencer.

“You. You’re grinning like the cat who got the canary, or whatever that saying is.”

“It’s nothing.”

“You sure? Come on,” Spencer urges. “Tell me what’s got you smiling like a little kid.”

Across town in his own office, with its white-painted cinder-block walls, Brent Taylor swivels his leather desk chair slightly to face his niece, who sits across the desk from him.

“I can’t figure out why she said no,” he explains. “We’ve been married before. And that was obviously a big factor in the judge’s ruling.”

Elly Vanderbilt purses her lips as she takes a pause to think. Finally she responds, “She might be worried that it’ll come off as too calculated to the judge.”

Brent shrugs one shoulder. “I understand that. I do. But us not being together isn’t convincing the judge. You heard him.”

“I’m really sorry the petition for temporary custody didn’t work out.”

“You and Conrad did what you could.”

“Remember that this isn’t over,” Elly says. “Far from it. All this means is that Gabrielle will stay with Travis and Rosie while we mount and then argue our cases.”

“As a lawyer,” he says, “what do you suggest we do to strengthen our side of things? If Molly and I will still technically be two single people going for custody together–“

“Conrad and I were discussing this last night. We both think that we’ll need to lean as hard as we can into the idea of you and Molly being victims here.  The judge seemed sympathetic to that.”

“He did,” Brent agrees with a tense nod.

“If we can prove why Dr. Longo told you that Gabrielle died at birth, it’ll be a big boost for your case. He dropped her at the police station. He didn’t sell her, so it couldn’t have been about money.”

“Unless someone was paying him to do it.”

“Right. And we both have a very good idea of who that someone is.”

Even without either of them speaking her name, the very idea of Loretta Ragan seems to seep through the office like a noxious poison.

“I have to get Natalie to crack,” Brent declares. “She’s the key.”

“Natalie?” Elly asks with confusion. “Spencer’s Natalie?”

“Mm-hmm.” Before Brent can continue, however, someone knocks on the office door. He holds up his index finger to indicate to Elly that this will only take a second.

“Come in!” he calls out, but instead of another officer or the receptionist entering, it is Molly who steps into the office. The former spouses lock eyes as both of them freeze in place, unsure where to begin.

“What’s going on?” Samantha Fisher asks, her voice strained with concern. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah. All good,” Tempest Banks says. “I just — I’ve got to tell you something.”

The two women stand in the marble-filled lobby of Objection Designs, where Samantha just arrived after receiving a call that she had a visitor. She thought it might be her mother, surprising her with lunch as she has done a few times since Samantha returned to work after her medical crisis last summer. She did not expect it to be her ex-girlfriend.

“Okay, you’ve got my attention,” Samantha says. “What is it?!”

Tempest casts a wary glance at the blonde receptionist behind the front desk. “Can we go somewhere private?”

“So it is serious.”

“It’s not, like, bad-serious. But it’s serious in its own way.”

“You’re talking in riddles,” Samantha says, laughing, as she scans her key card and leads Tempest back into the depths of the office. They navigate the maze of cubicles.

“We can go into Trevor‘s office,” she explains. “He’s at some off-site thing today.”

“Ooh, I bet he’d eat this up, too.”

“Wow.” Samantha bites her tongue until they are in Trevor’s office, where she promptly closes the door. “Something Trevor would be interested in, too. Hmm.” She thinks for a long moment. “Okay, just tell me.”

“Did you see your dad when he got home last night?”

“I went to bed before he got home. I figured he was checking in on Travis and Rosie after the hearing–“

“Mm-mm. Nope.” Tempest shakes her head back and forth. “Not Travis and Rosie.”

Samantha narrows her eyes, as if squinting might somehow help her see the answer. “I give up. Where was he?”

“With Claire.”

“And? Were they doing something to help out with the case, or…?”

“No, like, he was with Claire,” Tempest says. “Like up in her room. Her bedroom.”

“No!” Samantha takes a step back in shock. “How– no!”

“Yes! I swear on Beyoncé’s life. I got home early and I saw him creeping out of her room in some boxer short things.”

Samantha covers her hand with her mouth. “Oh my god. Wow. Do they know you saw them?”

“Claire sat me down after he left and told me they’ve ‘reconnected.'” Tempest uses air quotes for effect. “Damn right they did!”

“I cannot believe this. My dad and Claire…? After all of this time?”

“I wouldn’t’ve run and told you if she had told me to keep it a secret — okay, maybe I would’ve. But I don’t think it’s some huge secret. I think they’re, like, giving it a go again.”

“I don’t even know what to say.” Samantha steadies herself against the offbeat geometric bookshelf. “They haven’t been together since I was a kid. I barely even remember it.”

“You don’t need to, ‘cuz it’s happening here and now.” Tempest plants her hands on her hips. “Was that worth me coming down here, or was it worth me coming down here?”

“It was worth you coming down here,” Samantha confirms.

“Good. And since I just poured you that hot-ass tea, you’re gonna go to lunch with me, yeah?”

“Um, I mean, I haven’t eaten yet, and…” Samantha looks up into Tempest’s grinning face. She feels a jolt at the pure excitement she sees, the slightly mischievous glee that Tempest takes in reporting the facts and being the first one with a piece of news. “Of course I’ll go to lunch with you.”

“That’s the right answer.” Tempest moves to open the door. “Where are we going? I’m starving.”

“I could go for sushi,” Samantha says.

“Sushi. Not what I was thinking… but I’m feeling it.”

“Sushi it is.”

“Sushi it is,” Tempest says, looking over her shoulder at Samantha with a smile. Sam cannot help but smile back at her.

—–

“It’s nothing,” Tim tells Spencer as he places his phone down on the desk.

Spencer strolls into the office. “Nothing?”

“It’s, uh, a picture of Gabrielle that Travis just texted me. It’s good to see her happy at home with Travis and Rosie.”

“Ah.”

“Anything I can do for you?” Tim asks.

“There’s something I wanted to talk to you about. On the DL.”

“That sounds serious.”

“It is.” Spencer closes the door. “It’s about my– about Loretta. God, I never even know what to call her anymore.”

“She did raise you,” Tim says, as magnanimously as he can manage. “She’s your mother, too. As much as I hate that.”

“Yeah.” Spencer rakes his hand through his dark hair. “She said something that seemed weird. About Natalie.”

“I thought they were on okay terms. Isn’t Natalie the reason Loretta is staying at your house in the first place?”

“She convinced me to let her stay, yeah. But Natalie and I were — I don’t know, annoyed at each other, and when she left, Loretta was all, ‘I can get rid of her if you want.'”

“She’s threatening to kill your wife?” Tim asks, his head jutting forward.

“That’s what I thought. But no. She said something about having leverage over Natalie. Really good leverage. Something she could use to get me out of this marriage ASAP.”

“Hmm.” Tim sighs. “So you’re worried she’s going to do something to Natalie?”

“No. I mean, yes. But the night that whole thing went down when Rosie and Gabrielle were found — the explosion and all that — Natalie came home ranting and raving about how she’d seen Loretta there.”

“What? Travis and Molly said they had seen Natalie there, which never made any sense, but I assumed she was just a looky-loo who was watching all the police action.”

“I don’t know what the hell she was doing there. And now she swears she never saw Loretta there.”

Tim’s eyes widen as he nods slowly. “You think that Loretta used whatever leverage she has over Natalie to get her to change her story.”

“Definitely. So if we can figure out what she has on Natalie…”

“Is there any chance Loretta would tell you?” Tim asks.

“I don’t know. I don’t think so. That’s not how she operates. I haven’t figured it out yet. But I know you’ve been desperate to figure out a way to stop her.”

“I am. Thank you. We all know she had something to do with that doctor stealing Gabrielle away from Molly and Brent. But we’ve had no way to prove it.”

“Maybe Natalie is the way,” Spencer says as he strokes his chin in thought.

—–

Elly is the one to break the silence in Brent’s office.

“Hey, Molly,” she says as she stands from her chair. “I was just leaving.”

“It’s okay. I can wait,” Molly says.

“It’s fine. Uncle Brent and I were just chatting,” Elly says. “About legal strategy. He can loop you in.”

Molly stands by the door, holding her Hermes bag by the straps with both hands.

Elly walks to the door and gives Molly a hug. “I’ll see you soon,” she tells her.

“Talk soon,” Molly says, and soon the redhead is gone from the office, leaving Molly and Brent alone.

“Hey. What’s up?” Brent asks in an even tone that he worries might come off as cold.

“I wanted to talk to you about… about last night. Is this an okay time?”

“Of course it is.” He motions to the door, and Molly shuts it. She takes a few steps but still lingers halfway between the door and his desk.

“You don’t have to explain yourself,” Brent says.

“Yes, I do. The reason I turned you down — it’s just, in the moment, the way you brought it up–“

“I know it was sudden. I’m sorry for that.”

“I understand why you proposed the way you did.” She stops herself with an acidic laugh. “Proposed. Look at me, trying to dress it up. I understand why you suggested we get remarried.”

Brent rises from his desk chair but simply looks at her, waiting for her to continue. He can tell that she has something to say and doesn’t want to override her.

“You’ll never believe this, but I wound up getting some helpful perspective from Sarah, of all people,” she finally says.

“You talked to Sarah about this?”

“I ran into her, and– it doesn’t matter. She helped me realize that I haven’t been honest with you. I suppose I just assumed, and you know what they say about assuming…”

He smiles, grateful for a moment of levity, and nods.

“Brent, I’m– I’m in love with you,” Molly says. “I have been since… I don’t even know. Before the night we conceived Gabrielle. I ended things with Conrad because of my feelings for you. For a while, it seemed like things were going to work out, but there was Claire, and then there was how we thought we lost Gabrielle, and then it was like we were caught in this spiral of grief and I didn’t know how to bring it up again.”

Stricken, Brent doesn’t know how to respond. Molly continues almost without any pause at all:

“That’s why I can’t remarry you,” she tells him. “Because I love you. And to enter into a one-sided marriage, where it’s a strategy move in the custody case for you while I’m as in love with you as the day we first got married — I can’t do it.”

She drops her head in defeat or exhaustion, Brent can’t tell which. He steps out from behind the desk.

“You think this is only a strategy move for me?”

“It’s okay if it is. You don’t have to worry about letting me down easy.”

“Letting you down easy? Are you kidding?” He comes right up to her and places his hands on her shoulders. “Mol, I don’t know if I ever stopped loving you. I’m sorry for making that proposal sound like a business plan or whatever. It wasn’t. It isn’t. I love you, Molly.”

She gazes up at him in wonder. “You do?”

“Of course I do! I don’t want to marry you because of the custody case. I want to marry you because I’ve been in love with you for over 25 years. If I hadn’t let my obsession with getting revenge on Nick and Loretta consume me, we would still be married.”

“Sarah was right.”

“What?”

“Sarah insisted that this — us — that it must be reciprocal. But I couldn’t believe it.”

“Your sister is a lot of things,” Brent says, “and perceptive is one of them.”

“I guess so.” She sets the purse down by her side. “So what do we do? Are we… getting married?”

“No.” As he says the word, Brent clasps her hands. “Not yet. I’m going to give you the proposal you deserve.”

Molly laughs. “You don’t think this office is romantic enough?”

“The walls are made of cinder block and there’s a drunk tank down the hall. I think we can do better.” He leans down and places his lips against hers; although it is only a peck, he lingers mere millimeters from her mouth. “Way better.”

“This is like a dream,” she says.

“It’s not a dream. We really did it. We found our way back to one another.” He kisses her again, this time more deeply. “And we’re going to put our family back together. You, me, the twins, and Gabrielle. I promise you.”

This time, Molly is the one to kiss him. Their lips meld together in a kiss full of passion and longing, broken only by the occasional break to grin at one another, as they seal their reunion.

END OF EPISODE 1179

Will Molly and Brent’s reunion affect the custody case?
Can Spencer convince Natalie to turn on Loretta?
Are Samantha and Tempest going to get back together?
Talk about all this and more in the comments!

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