Previously…
– King’s Bay turned out for the Objection Designs anniversary party, but Finn’s unexpected attendance had both Trevor and Molly on-edge.
– Loretta blasted Spencer for his betrayal after learning that he had helped Elly evade her blackmail efforts. Spencer and Natalie feared that Loretta might try to kidnap Peter.
– Travis was devastated to learn that Rosie had gone to Seattle without telling him. Later, he arrived at the Wild Lady, reeling from whatever he had done after leaving the house.

The large studio space hums with a quiet anticipation, the interplay between the golden uplighting and the shadows creating an intimate, inviting atmosphere inside the sleek, minimalist decor of the Objection Designs anniversary party. A gentle buzz runs through the crowd as guests, dressed in an array of chic eveningwear, begin to drift toward their seats, some still murmuring in conversation, others checking their phones, eager for the fashion show to begin.

Spencer Ragan moves with purpose through the crowd, a glass of champagne in one hand and a slight frown on his lips. He is trying to spot his wife and young son, who should already be in their seats. But as he moves, he spots someone else: Elly Vanderbilt. The shock of her copper-red hair is unmistakable, and for a second, his heart skips. He hates that that is his system’s first reaction; after their blowout at the hospital months ago, when he tried to defend her to Travis and Rosie, only to catch her ire in return, they haven’t interacted. And yet the sight of her still causes him to feel a twinge of excitement.

As he processes his conflicting feelings, it occurs to him that he does need to speak to her. So he takes a breath, swigs his champagne, and weaves through the migrating crowd.

Elly doesn’t see him coming until he’s almost beside her. When she does, her eyes flicker, briefly meeting his — and in that brief moment, the old spark is there, something between them that neither can ignore. But then, just as quickly, her expression closes, as if she’s already prepared herself for whatever awkwardness is to follow.

“Elly,” he says, his voice a little too loud over the growing hum of the crowd. “Are you just getting here?”

“I’m in time for the fashion show, aren’t I?”

“Yeah. I was only asking–“

“It’s none of your business, but I was running late,” she says. “And I don’t think we have a damn thing to talk about.”

“Normally I’d agree,” Spencer says with a sneer, “but this is serious. It’s about Loretta.”

Elly hesitates, then folds her arms. “What’s that miserable old witch up to now?”

“She’s on the warpath,” he explains, “and I have a feeling it could get really bad for all of us.”

—–

Minutes later, the lights dim further, and a hush falls over the room as the sounds of a bandoneón herald the opening of Shakira’s song “Objection (Tango),” the same song that played at Objection’s first fashion show two decades ago.

Spencer, fresh from explaining to Elly how Loretta found out about his alleged betrayal and her subsequent threats to kidnap Peter, slides into the seat next to Natalie. Peter’s legs dangle off the chair as he kicks them back and forth in the air.

“Where’ve you been?” Natalie questions.

“I ran to the bar,” he says, not wanting to bring Elly to her attention. He holds up the champagne flute for emphasis.

“Gee, thanks for thinking of your wife,” she gripes.

Spencer ignores her and leans over to tell Peter, “Once the show starts, you need to stop kicking, okay?”

Soon enough, the first model steps onto the runway, her heels clicking sharply against the polished concrete floor, and the crowd collectively exhales, leaning forward in their seats. The spotlight follows her every move, catching the sharp angles of her outfit — a sleek, tailored black jumpsuit with a high collar and exaggerated sleeves. The fabric catches the light with a liquid sheen, mesmerizing the audience.

Finn Campbell, seated in the back row, lets out a groan. “Tacky,” he mutters.

A few heads turn to look at him.

He shrugs and finishes the rest of his drink. “What? It is.”

“What’s his problem?” Isaac Banks whispers to Diane Bishop. The couple are seated only a few chairs down from Finn. All Diane can do is shrug.

One after another, the models glide down the runway. As they move, the crowd reacts: a murmur of approval, a gasp of surprise, the occasional nod of recognition when a piece clearly pays homage to a piece from Objection’s past, updated for the current time. After the final model has walked down the runway and disappeared behind the black drapery, there is a pause before Molly Taylor steps through the curtain. Members of the crowd rise to their feet, clapping and cheering. Applause through the space as the Shakira tune fades out.

Molly takes in the warm response to the fashion show. The subtle highlights in her dark brown hair shimmer under the spotlight, and a smile full of pride radiates upon her face. She raises her hands in a simple gesture of thanks, and the applause soars. Molly waits for it to die down before lifting the wireless microphone in her hand so that she can address the audience.

“Thank you so much,” she says, the sound system casting her voice through the space. “For those of you who don’t know, I’m Molly Taylor, the Chief Creative Officer and head designer of Objection. I can’t thank you enough for being here tonight to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of our first fashion show.”

Another round of applause ripples through the room.

“I’m exceptionally proud of the designs that you just saw on the runway,” Molly continues, “but it truly took an army to make tonight come to life. I want to express my thanks to every single person who works at Objection — none of this is possible without your passion and dedication. And I want to give a special mention to the person whose idea it was to hold this event, my trusted assistant and beloved niece, Tori Gray.”

Molly holds out a hand to indicate Tori, who sits in the front row alongside the runway between Landon Esco and her parents. She waves shyly as everyone claps.

“You killed it,” Landon says quietly to her.

“I didn’t do anything besides my job,” she says.

“Give yourself credit,” Matt Gray tells her from the other side. “We’re so proud of you.”

“We are,” Sarah Fisher Gray adds as the applause softens.

“Of course,” Molly goes on, “there are the important people who can’t be here with us today. One is my father, Bill Fisher, who passed away almost a decade ago.” A hush falls over the crowd. “I miss him terribly, but he always encouraged me to follow my dreams, and I hope he’d be proud of me today.”

“Of course he’d be proud of you, dear,” Paula Fisher, who is seated in the front row not far from where Molly is positioned, says. Molly gives her mother a loving look in response.

“And none of us would be here without the woman who founded Objection Designs,” Molly says into the microphone. “That woman’s name was Camille Lemieux.”

Quiet comments of appreciation and reverence float through the crowd.

“Camille took a chance on me when I was a young designer just starting out,” Molly states. “I couldn’t have imagined that I’d be standing here, two decades later, guiding the company that she loved so much.”

In the crowd, Finn rolls his eyes as he proclaims, a little too loudly, “Oh, get over yourself. You are not the person who should be managing her legacy.”

“Shut up,” Diane remarks with a cutting look, but clearly inebriated Finn simply makes a face at her.

Back on the makeshift runway, Molly continues to hold the microphone up as she speaks: “Tonight is dedicated to Camille. I hope she’d be proud of the way her company has grown–“

“Are we sure you didn’t kill her, too?” a voice calls out, and all heads turn to see Loretta Ragan standing at the opposite end of the runway, hands on her hips.

“And I hold you every night
That’s a feeling I wanna get used to
But there’s no man as terrified
As the man who stands to lose you…”

Benson Boone’s emotion-soaked “Beautiful Things” plays loudly through The Wild Lady. Travis Fisher remains perched at the establishment’s bar, sipping on the beer that Kathleen brought him as his mind races. The bar is busy tonight, but Travis feels as if he is in another dimension of his own.

He picks up his phone and unlocks it. It opens to the text thread between him and Rosie, but all he sees on the screen is the slew of messages that he sent her earlier, which remain unacknowledged. He doesn’t know what to make of that; needing space is one thing, but it feels as if Rosie is taking out all her rage and resentment on him — as if it’s his fault that they suffered the pain of losing Gabrielle.

Frustration bubbling within him, he sets the phone back down and returns his attention to the beer. But another glug doesn’t stop the thoughts in his mind. His body is still jumpy with adrenaline, the same adrenaline that powered his foolish mission earlier.

It doesn’t matter, he tells himself. No one will ever know.

—–

A shocked hush blankets the event space as all attention goes to Loretta. Her hair, which had been left drab and dull after her stint in prison, has been restored to its trademark flaming red, and she wears an asymmetrical black poncho with a slight sheen to it.

Molly stands frozen on the runway, microphone in hand. Brent springs out of his seat in the front row.

“I’ll take care of this,” he tells her quietly. But there is no point in whispering; all eyes are on the scene.

“Come on,” Brent says as he marches down the runway toward Loretta. “Time to go.”

“I believe that decision is up to me,” Loretta retorts. “And I have some things to say.”

“No one wants to hear anything you have to say,” Brent replies.

In the crowd, Peter turns with confusion to his parents. “What’s Mimi doing?”

“I don’t know,” Spencer says trepidatiously. He wonders if he should grab Peter and take him outside, but being among this many people seems safer.

“There you are,” Loretta declares when she spots Peter. “My darling Peter.”

“Leave him alone!” Natalie shouts.

Her jaw held tight, Loretta shakes her head. “I thought you were better than this, Spencer. I really did.”

“What’s she talking about?” Peter asks.

Natalie grasps her son’s hand. “It doesn’t matter.”

“And it sickens me to see you up there, gloating,” Loretta spits, projecting her voice for all to hear. “You sicken me, Molly! Your entire family sickens me!”

Molly sees a few people taking out their phones to record the catastrophe, and she feels suddenly emboldened.

“You are the one who has tortured my family,” she says, the microphone at her side. “Your psychotic son murdered my father and my brother. Your husband switched Travis and Spencer when they were babies. And you let me believe my child was dead. You did that!”

“You deserve nothing but misery,” Loretta says defiantly. “All of you!”

Deciding that he can wait no longer, Brent pulls his service weapon and aims it at Loretta.

“Whatever you’re thinking of doing, think again,” he says. “You’re going to turn around and walk out that door right now, Loretta.”

Claire Fisher, who is seated in the second row right behind Paula, reaches over and grabs Tim‘s hand.

“I don’t like this,” she whispers. “It reminds me of–“

“Of Nick showing up at your wedding,” Tim finishes the thought for her. All these years later, the horrible memory of Nick Moriani revealing himself to be alive before detonating a bomb haunts them all.

Two security guards take advantage of Loretta’s momentary shock and grab her from behind, securing her arms.

“It’s time to go, Loretta,” Brent says, holding up the gun as the guards steer the older woman toward the exit.

“I’m so sorry about all this,” Molly says into the microphone, but her words land with a lifeless thud in the almost-silent room.

“You turned my son against me!” Loretta shouts as she is led out of the event. “You deserve every bit of misery that comes your way!”

The patter of footsteps fills the space as everyone watches Loretta be led out.

—–

A few minutes later, people are out of their seats and mingling again, sharing their speculations and fears about the incident that interrupted Molly’s speech. A strange pall has fallen over the entire party, but the music is playing again as some guests seek refuge in normalcy, while others are collecting their coats from the coat check up front. A few couples sway to the soft-rock ballad “Die With a Smile” by Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars.

“We’re going to get a hotel room tonight,” Spencer is telling Samantha and Tempest. “It’s the clearest way to keep Loretta from getting to Peter.”

“That makes sense,” Samantha says. “I really was worried she was going to do something crazy.”

Tempest shakes her head. “Y’all can’t have one normal party, can you? I still don’t get why she isn’t behind bars until that trial starts.”

Spencer raises one eyebrow. “Because she’s Loretta Ragan, and she’s always got another trick up her sleeve.”

Elsewhere in the room, Brent is filling in Molly, Tim, and Claire on the latest.

“We frisked her once we got her outside,” Brent tells them. “She didn’t have a weapon or anything.”

“That’s something,” Tim comments, “although Loretta tends to go for bigger production value than a simple gun or knife, you know?”

Claire folds her arms and shivers, as if chilled by the incident. Before she can respond, however, one of the security guards approaches them.

“Commander, you need to come with us,” the younger man says to Brent.

Brent stiffens. “What’s going on?”

“Something happened outside,” the guard says. Brent doesn’t waste another moment and simply breaks for the exit.

“What do you think it is?” Claire asks Tim, but he is silent, frightened to venture even a guess.

In the area marked off as the dance floor, Tori and Landon are among the pairs sharing a slow dance.

“If the world was ending,
I’d wanna be next to you…
If the party was over,
And our time on Earth was through…”

“I was really worried Loretta was going to do something crazy,” Tori says as they dance. “Besides ruin the whole show, I mean.”

“The night was still a success,” Landon reassures her as they sway together. “You should be proud of all the hard work you put into it.”

She smiles up at him, trying to convince herself of that.

“I’d wanna hold you just for a while…
And die with a smile…”

—–

Outside the venue, Brent immediately sees what the security guard intended.

“What the hell?” he says aloud, to no one in particular. Only a few yards away, he sees Finn standing there, dazed, and Loretta’s lifeless body on the ground, the moonlight illuminating a small puddle of blood right beside her head.

END OF EPISODE 1239

Is this really it for Loretta Ragan?
What did Travis do before he got to the bar?
What did you think of the fashion show?
Discuss all this and more in the comments below!