Previously…
– Tori continued to fret about her lack of direction in terms of her career.
– Natalie dodged Brent’s efforts to get her to go on the record about having seen Loretta at the Moriani house, where Rosie and Gabrielle were being held captive.
– At the custody hearing, Travis and Rosie’s attorney, Jaimie Thompson, dredged up Molly’s history with dangerous men and then implied that Molly could have been the one who hired Eric Westin to kidnap Rosie and Gabrielle.

By the time Molly and Brent Taylor step out of the courthouse, the dull, gloomy sky has transformed into something more ominous, as if a storm is about to break. Somehow that feels fitting after today’s events.

“I can’t believe they’d stoop so low,” Molly bemoans as the couple descends the stone stairs toward the parking lot. “Implying that I, what, hired Eric Westin to kidnap Gabrielle and Rosie? That’s insane!”

“I know it is,” Brent assures her, “and the judge will realize that, too. They’re grasping at straws.”

They pause at the bottom of the stairs when they hear the courthouse’s front door opening again. Behind them, they see Travis Fisher and Rosie Jimenez emerging from the building. Molly glares at her nephew and his wife, who pause in their tracks.

“You should be ashamed of yourselves,” Brent finally tells them.

“Our attorney is poking holes where she sees them,” Rosie responds. “That’s her job.”

“You know damn well that Molly didn’t–“

Brent stops himself as the courthouse door opens again. This time, Tim, Claire, and Paula all step outside. They quickly survey the scene.

“Please. Let’s not have a scene,” Paula says.

“They’re the ones who tried to paint me as some sadistic kidnapper!” Molly counters.

“Our attorney was trying to establish a pattern,” Rosie says. “That’s all.”

Molly audibly scoffs.

“Travis, you even said that Natalie told you and Molly she’d seen Loretta go into that house,” Brent says. “You know as well as we do that she’s the one who was behind this!”

“But we don’t have any proof of that,” Travis responds. “Of anything, really.”

“Let’s not do this here,” Tim says, and he steps forward, physically placing himself between the couples.

“Please,” Paula echoes. “This is hard enough on everyone as it is.”

A tense moment passes by without anyone speaking.

“Let’s go home,” Molly tells Brent, grasping his arm. “I need to get out of here.”

“Me, too,” he says, but he offers a final pointed stare at Travis and Rosie before he allows Molly to pull him toward their vehicle.

Once they are out of earshot, Paula steps up beside her grandson and Rosie.

“You can’t actually believe that Molly had you and Gabrielle kidnapped,” the matriarch says to Rosie.

Rosie sets her jaw in a show of stubbornness.

“Grandma, we’re fighting for our family here,” Travis says. “And we’ll do what’s necessary to keep our daughter with us.”

With that, he leads Rosie down the stairs and away. Paula remains at the top of the stairs, flanked by Tim and Claire, as the enormity of the day’s events weigh upon all three of them.

—–

The sound of the front door slamming reverberates through the Fisher home.

“Uh-oh,” Sarah Fisher Gray says, from her seat at the kitchen table, where she and her husband have a laptop open as they go over bills. “That doesn’t sound good.”

“You think the judge made a decision already?” Matt asks, but Sarah’s only response is a solemn-faced shrug as she stands up and pushes in her chair. Matt follows her out of the kitchen and through the dining room.

“Mom? What happened?” Sarah asks.

“It’s me,” their adult daughter replies. At the threshold of the living room, Sarah and Matt find Tori, in wide-legged black dress pants, heels, and a blue, cowl-neck top. She drops her purse onto the floor as if disgusted by it.

“What’s going on?” Matt questions in that let’s-stay-calm tone that seems to be second nature for him; it’s something that Sarah has always admired.

Tori looks at them in despair. “They fired me.”

“They fired you?” Immediately Sarah forgets all about Matt’s magical soothing tone. “From a temp job? Why?”

“Well, they decided not to pick up the contract,” Tori explains. “That’s what they said, anyway. They said it was temp-to-hire, but…”

“Okay, so that’s not being fired,” Matt says. “Don’t look at it that way. It was a temp job, they got the temp work they needed, the job’s up. That’s all.”

Tori seems poised to reply, but instead her face scrunches up, and this Sarah recognizes all too well; she can still see the little girl fighting tears over a scraped knee or dropped ice cream cone.

“The agency will come up with a new placement for you,” Sarah says. “This is how temping can be.”

“They literally had me there doing the work, and they decided they’d rather try for someone else,” Tori says. “That sucks.”

“They might not have the budget for someone full-time,” Matt offers.

“And hey, it’s not like this was your dream job,” Sarah adds. “Admin work at an insurance company?”

“No, but it was a job!” Tori throws back her head and lets out a groan. “The only one I’ve been able to get in how long? And now I have to start all over. This sucks!”

Matt takes in a deep breath through his nostrils, giving her outburst a moment to dissipate.

“Tori,” he says, “I know you haven’t wanted to, but maybe it’s time to–“

“No!” She shakes her head vigorously. “I’m not coming to work at the restaurant with you. Okay?”

—–

After he closes the front door of his home behind himself and Claire, Tim lets out a loud, exhausted sigh.

“Exactly how I feel,” Claire comments as she places her purse on the nearby bench and kicks off her heels.

“There are a lot of reasons I want this suit to be over soon,” Tim says, “but the fact that it’s so emotionally draining is high up there. I can’t imagine how Travis and Rosie must feel.”

“I think it’s pretty clear. You can tell how tense they are.”

“My sister and Brent, too.”

“Yeah…” Now it is Claire’s turn to sigh. “Brent and Molly aren’t exactly my favorite people, considering how things ended between Brent and me, but you don’t really believe that Molly had anything to do with that kidnapping, do you?”

Tim shakes his head. “That was a lawyer’s Hail Mary if ever I’ve seen one. But it’s hard to fault Travis and Rosie for trying whatever they can to keep Gabrielle.”

“Brent was right about one thing,” Claire says. “We all know who’s really responsible for this. For all of it.”

“But no one has any proof that Loretta did this. No one has officially connected her to that Dr. Longo, and no one has officially placed her at the old Moriani house that night.”

“Travis and Molly both said that Natalie told them she’d seen Loretta.”

“And then she went back on that story,” Tim says. “So did they misunderstand her?”

“Or is Natalie lying? That doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility, considering how long she passed off Peter as Jason‘s son.”

“I know. But which part is she lying about? Did she really see Loretta there? Or did she lie in the moment to try and get Loretta in trouble?”

“The more I try to make sense of this, the less sense it makes.” Claire lets out a groan. “The only thing I know is that people are going to get hurt when that judge makes his decision.”

“People are getting hurt along the way, too,” Tim says. “And I’m worried about how bad it’s going to get.”

“What do you mean?”

“Travis and Rosie’s lawyer really got down in the mud by implying that Molly had hired Eric Westin to kidnap Rosie and Gabrielle. And now I’m worried…”

“That the gloves are going to come off for real,” Claire finishes for him.

Tim nods, a solemn expression upon his face. “This is going to get really ugly, Claire. And I’m not sure what we can do to stop that.”

She contemplates that for a moment and then rests her head against his shoulder. Tim wraps his arms around her and pulls her closer, eager for whatever solace he can find in this difficult time.

—–

Matt and Sarah stand back in surprise at Tori’s tone. Seeing them, she softens, her shoulders even folding in a bit.

“I didn’t mean to sound like such a bitch,” she says. “It’s just… I don’t want to work for you.”

“I didn’t know your reputation as a boss was so bad,” Sarah quips to her husband.

“It’s not that. I’m sure everyone who works there loves it, Dad. But you’re my dad. The only real job I’ve had is working for my aunt. So it’s like…”

Matt folds his arms. “You’re worried about, what, nepotism?”

“Yes. No.” Tori rubs her eyes. “All the people I went to school with have jobs and careers.”

“I’m sure that’s not true of everyone,” Sarah offers. “It’s normal to struggle in your 20s.”

“Fee C. just got promoted by that florist she’s working for!” Tori replies. “Fee C.! And I’m over here not even able to hold onto some admin job. Why does it feel like I’m the only person having trouble getting my adult life started?”

“‘Cuz you’ve had to deal with a lot of stuff most people in their 20s don’t,” Matt reminds her.

“Philip almost killed you, and you still went back and finished college afterward,” Sarah says. “And then Zane made it his mission to cut you off from the rest of the world, basically, and you still got out there and got that job at Objection.”

“Yeah, because my aunt was in charge.”

“But you got the job and were doing well until Molly got put on leave. Which wasn’t your fault.”

Instead of responding verbally, Tori sighs and lets her shoulders slump.

“I feel like a complete loser,” she finally says.

“You are not a loser,” Sarah says, as she folds her daughter into a hug. “You are a survivor. And you’re going to keep surviving.”

“Who are you, Beyoncé?” Tori asks.

“That was Destiny’s Child. Get it right,” Sarah corrects her, and both Tori and Matt laugh.

“Think about the job, okay?” Matt says. “It’s not glamorous, but it’s honest work. And I bet your granddad would be happy knowing both you and Travis were working there.”

After a long pause, Tori says, “I’ll think about it.”

Sarah and Matt exchange warm smiles as Sarah continues to embrace their daughter and hope that Tori’s confidence returns very soon.

—–

“Here, this might help you calm down,” Brent says as he enters the living room of the home he and Molly share, with a cup of tea in hand.

“I don’t know about that. I’m still shaking,” Molly replies. She holds out her quivering hand as evidence, then carefully takes the tea from him. “But thank you.”

Brent sits down beside her on the sofa. “I’m sorry that happened.”

“Me too.” She toys with the teabag’s label, which dangles off the side of the mug. “They know it’s nonsense, and they still let that lawyer put it out there.”

“They’re desperate. Because Gabrielle is our daughter, and she was stolen from us, and there’s no getting around those facts.”

“And yet I don’t feel at all confident about how this will turn out.”

“I know it’s hard after what happened today,” Brent says, “but that feeling will pass. We’ll get back in that courtroom and turn this around.”

“Yeah, we will.” Molly quietly observes the curls of steam dancing on top of the hot tea for a few seconds. “And I know how.”

Brent leans forward, elbows on his knees, as he awaits her explanation.

“They decided to play dirty,” she says, “and if those are the ground rules now, then I say we play dirty, too. Rosie’s past is far from squeaky-clean.”

“I thought we agreed we weren’t going to dig up her dad’s death.”

“We did. But that was before they accused me of hiring Eric Westin to kidnap Gabrielle and Rosie. Let’s bring it up. Mention it all. There’s testimony in Rosie’s own words about how she got involved with a drug dealer who wound up causing her father’s murder. That’s a lot more concrete than the rumors and nastiness they just stirred up in court.”

“Mol… I don’t know.”

“Why not? There’s no telling how much lower they’ll sink before this is over. We need to fight for our daughter, Brent.”

“And we will,” he says. “But I have a different approach in mind.”

She sets down the tea on the coffee table as she turns toward him. “What?”

“I’m going to get Natalie to crack. She told you and Travis that she saw Loretta at that house. I don’t know why she backed off and changed her story, but my guess is that she’s afraid of Loretta.”

“I thought you already offered her protection, but she still wouldn’t talk.”

“I did. And she wouldn’t,” Brent tells her. “And I let it go because the trial was beginning, and Conrad and Elly felt we had a solid strategy. But the way things are going… I think it’s time to put the screws to Natalie.”

“Do you really think you can get her to crack?”

“I’m confident I can. I just need to find the right carrot to dangle.” He claps his hands on the tops of his legs and then stands. “I’m going to go get my phone and make a few calls. Let me see what I can get in motion.”

“Thanks, Brent,” Molly says, offering him a grateful look as he exits the room.

Once he is gone, she picks up the tea again and blows on it. Her thoughts overtake her as she imagines how the remainder of the case could go. And her mind keeps coming back to one idea.

“I don’t care what we agreed on,” she says to herself. “They changed the rules on us. And I’m not going to sit back and let them keep our daughter.”

END OF EPISODE 1197

Will Brent be able to get the truth out of Natalie?
Is Molly about to wade into dangerous waters?
Should Tori take the job at the restaurant?
Talk about all this and more in the comments below!

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