Previously…
– Caleb asked Christian and Bree to cover for him so he could go to a party with Jasmine, a girl from school. He met her at the party, which was a rave, and did drugs with her.
– Sonja awaited her next orders from Loretta Ragan, hoping that whatever she was asked to do would be the end of their business arrangement.
– Zane shocked Sarah by returning the blackmail money, and when Sarah revealed this to Matt, he shared her concerns that Tori would go back to Zane.

Molly Taylor pulls back the curtain to peer out the front window of her house, out into the dark navy of the Pacific Northwest summer night. Again, as with all the previous times she has checked, she sees nothing — no movement, no sign of a car or of Caleb walking up to the house.

“He still has a few minutes,” Danielle Taylor says calmly from her spot on the love seat opposite where Molly is seated in the formal living room. “And he texted you not that long ago.”

“I know.” Molly lets out an exasperated sigh as she lets the curtain swing closed. “I hate when they cut it so close with curfew. My mind races.”

“Believe me, I understand.”

Molly reaches for her cup of tea. “It makes me long for the days when I’d put them in bed at 8 pm and know exactly where they were.”

“Except you barely slept and had them running around screaming all the time,” Danielle says, with a hint of a wink.

“Oh, yeah. That.”

Danielle is about to respond when something catches her eye. She nods her head in the direction of the window.

“I see headlights,” she says, as Molly turns around to look.

At the end of the driveway, Caleb Taylor steps out of his Uber. He breathes in the pleasant nighttime air and feels the pavement beneath his feet. He can still hear the music from the warehouse party in his ears and has to remind himself that he is back in the real world, in his regular life. Even though the effects of the drugs have definitely lessened in the past hour, he still feels very aware of them: his sense of touch feels very heightened, but his vision is still a little weird. When he looks up at the house, the outdoor sconces on either side of the garage glow in a way that he has never seen them glow before.

He steels himself and approaches the house.

Molly and Danielle are perched on the edges of their seats, cradling their cups of tea and attempting to appear casual, as he unlocks the door and enters the house.

“Hi,” Molly says.

“Hey.” Caleb works to kick off his shoes in the entryway. “I made it, didn’t I?”

“With minutes to spare,” his mother tells him. “How was the movie?”

“Uh, it was fine. Kinda stupid.”

“What movie did you see?” Danielle asks.

“Oh, um, that Star Wars one. Solo. The guys wanted to see it.” Caleb manages to get out the words he rehearsed as he wriggles out of his other shoe. “I’m gonna go to bed.” 

“Come in here,” Molly says. “Just for a second.”

“I’m tired,” he moans.

“I just want to see you. I let you skip dinner to go out with your friends.”

Caleb trudges into the room, doing what he can to keep his head down and appear as normal as possible.

“Why did the soccer team decide to do something tonight?” Molly asks.

“I dunno. We hadn’t all hung out in a long time. Figure it’s good bonding for camp later this summer.”

“And then you guys all went to a late movie?”

“Yeah. That’s what I told you.”

“Hey,” Molly says sternly.

“Sorry. I’m just tired. It was late to go to a movie.”

Molly stands and walks toward the entrance of the room, where  Caleb is lingering at the edge of the carpet. She studies him carefully for a long moment.

“Caleb,” she says, “have you been drinking?”

—–

Tori Gray flips the deadbolt and opens the door to her cousin’s apartment. Waiting on the other side are both her parents.

“Thanks for meeting with us,” Sarah Fisher Gray says, as she waits with uncharacteristic restraint in the hallway.

Tori waves them in. “Sorry it’s so late. I had to meet with my group for our final project for my Comm class.”

“But then you’re all done, right?” Sarah asks.

“Yeah. Kind of crazy.”

“That’s awesome, Tori. You worked hard for this degree,” Matt Gray says. “You’re sure you don’t want a party or a family dinner or something?”

Tori shakes her head. “I’m not even graduating with my actual class, and… I don’t know. It’s anticlimactic. I’m just happy to be done.”

“You should be proud of yourself,” Sarah adds.

She blows past that and tells them, “You guys can sit down.”

“Where are Travis and Landon?” Matt asks as he and Sarah station themselves on the sofa.

“At some trivia night at 322.” Tori, standing over the coffee table, abruptly asks, “So what’s this about? Why did you both need to see me? You aren’t getting a divorce, are you?” 

Sarah and Matt look at one another. A thousand unspoken words fly between them like electrical sparks, but none come out.

“No,” Sarah says. “This isn’t about us. Not directly, anyway.”

“Okay…”

“It’s about Zane,” Matt says.

Tori’s body, which has so far been rather limp and listless, snaps to attention. “He gave you back the money, didn’t he?”

Sarah reacts with surprise, and Matt turns to her as if expecting her to be able to fill in the blanks.

“How’d you know that?” she asks.

“He’s been texting me, saying he has something to tell me,” Tori explains. “I told him we could meet up once my finals were done. I had a feeling that’s what he wanted to tell me, since the last time I saw him…”

“He told you he’d do it to get you back,” Sarah finishes for her.

“Yeah.” Tori nods. “So he actually did it. Wow.”

“We wanted you to hear it from us,” Matt says. “And we just wanna…”

“We want to talk to you about it all,” Sarah says. “We know you’ve been through a lot. And we want to know how you’re feeling about all of this.”

Tori folds her arms. “You mean about Zane. And the truth is, I don’t know anymore. I just don’t know.”

—–

A fan on the windowsill blows cool air through the small studio apartment, and the batik curtains wave lightly in the gentle nighttime breeze. Tim Fisher and Sonja Kahele lie on top of the bed, each covered in a thin sheet of sweat after a bout of passionate lovemaking.

“Wow,” Tim says as he catches his breath. “I think I like you having your own place.”

Sonja rolls onto her side to face him. “It has its perks.”

“It certainly does.”

They kiss again, and then Tim sits up in the bed. He grabs his boxer shorts from the floor, slips them on, and crosses toward the kitchenette for his glass of water.

“Can I get you anything?” he asks.

“No, but thank you.” Sonja sits up, as well, covering herself with the white sheet.

He takes a drink of his water. “I’m really glad we’re taking some time together, just the two of us. I know you’re coming to the wedding, but I’m going to be busy running around helping out with stuff.”

“As you should. It’s great that you and your brother are so close, especially considering how far apart in age you are. Not everyone has that. It’s what I would want for my own kids.”

He hesitates as he places his glass down atop the breakfast nook. “Maybe this is too deep a question for where we are in this relationship… but we’ve also technically lived together, so the timeline is scrambled, anyway. Do you want to have kids?”

“I do,” she says. “I know that it might not happen. I’m not exactly a spring chicken–”

“You look like one.”

She smiles broadly. “Well, thank you. But I’m realistic. Having kids — at least biological ones — might not be in the cards for me.”

“You’d be a great mom,” Tim says.

“Thanks.” She lets out a weighty sigh. “While we’re getting ahead of ourselves… I know that could be a complication if we keep seeing each other.”

“I wouldn’t want to lead you on, that’s all.”

“So you don’t want to have more kids.”

Now it is his turn to exhale thoughtfully. “It isn’t that I wouldn’t want to. But… on one hand, I have three grown kids. I could be a grandfather soon.”

“Oh my gosh.”

“I know! Theoretically, anyway. So starting all over at my age seems crazy. But then I think… I missed so much time with my kids, for different reasons. There are huge parts of each of their lives that I wasn’t around for.”

“That wasn’t your fault,” Sonja says compassionately.

“I know that, at least on a logical level. It’s because of Claire’s father — and Loretta Ragan.”

Sonja flinches instinctively at the mention of the woman’s name, especially coming out of Tim’s mouth.

“I really try not to hold onto grudges,” he says, a new bite to his voice, “but I hate them so much for what they did to us.”

“I don’t blame you,” she manages to choke out.

“I swear, if that woman ever gets out of prison and tries to come near Spencer again…”

Fresh panic sparks inside Sonja as she sees the future in a burst: her and Tim happy, settled, until Loretta shows up and spitefully reveals the deal they made, and the work Sonja secretly did for her.

“Do you think she could be released?” she asks.

“Who knows? Part of me is amazed they’ve kept her locked up as long as they have, given the lawyers she has access to.” He lifts his glass and takes another drink of water. “But you know what? Let’s focus on all the good things we have going on. No more Loretta Ragan.”

“I like the sound of that,” Sonja says as he rejoins her in bed.

—–

Caleb’s entire body stiffens at the question. Only when he tries to force himself to relax does he realize how badly he has been clenching — his shoulders, his legs, his jaw — all night long.

“No,” he says, both relieved and probably too emphatically. “Not at all.”

“Are you sure?” Molly asks.

“Totally. You can give me one of those, like, breath things.”

“I’m not going to Breathalyze you,” his mom says.

“There’s an easier way to do this.” Danielle sets down her tea and approaches her nephew.

Caleb reflexively takes a step backward.

“Just open up,” Danielle says, pointing to her mouth.

He stands frozen.

“So I can smell your breath,” she explains.

Grateful that all he drank tonight was water, he opens his mouth and tilts his head back. He caught sight of his own pupils in the bathroom mirror earlier and hopes they don’t look too hard at those.

“He’s telling the truth,” Danielle says to Molly before giving Caleb a light pat on the shoulder.

“See?” he says, already turning toward the staircase. “I’m gonna go to bed.”

“Goodnight,” Molly tells him as he hustles up the stairs. “Sleep well.”

“‘Night,” Caleb calls behind himself as he vanishes into the second story of the house.

In the bedroom that he shares with his twin brother, he finds Christian lying on top of his bed, reading on his tablet.

“Hey,” Christian says, sitting up in bed. “How was the party?”

Caleb strips off his t-shirt. “It was fine. Fun. You didn’t say anything to Mom, did you?”

“No! We said you had some soccer team thing.”

“Good. Thanks.”

“So… what was it? Was it, like, Jasmine’s friends?”

“I guess.” Caleb quickly slips into a pair of soccer shorts, leaving his dirty clothes in a small heap beside the closet.

“I kinda have no idea who her crowd is,” Christian says. “Were they kids from school?”

“I don’t know, man. What is this, an interrogation?”

“No. I’m just asking.” Christian lies back down but doesn’t pick up the tablet again. “Jeez. Why couldn’t you just say you were going to a party?”

“Because,” Caleb snaps. “I don’t know. Mom would’ve asked a ton of questions.”

“Are you drunk?”

“No! I swear.” Caleb goes back to the door, snatching his phone off the dresser. “I’m gonna pee and get some water and go to sleep. That cool?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. I’m tired, too,” Christian says, watching his brother walk out of the room again.

In the bathroom, Caleb closes the door behind himself and gazes into the mirror. He looks pale, as if he has been sweating for hours, which he probably has; it’s a good thing he tends to come home after playing sports or skateboarding or horsing around with his friends anyway, so no one probably thought anything of it.

On the countertop, his phone buzzes as the screen lights up. He looks down and sees Jasmine’s name on the display.

sooooo happy u had fun, the text message reads.

Thankful that his vision has settled back to more or less normal, he re-reads the text a few times before responding:

That was awesome, thx again!

She responds almost immediately:

text me tomorrow

He waits, not wanting to seem too eager, and after he goes to the bathroom and washes his hands, he sends one more text:

We’ll see 😉 Night

He picks up the phone and goes back to his room, suddenly desperate for sleep.

—–

Tori stares back at her parents, who are both now on the edge of the sofa.

“Do you know what this means?” she says. “That I mean more to him than that money.”

“Or that he doesn’t want to come off as the bad guy,” Sarah says. “He’s a sociopath.”

Matt places a hand on her arm, a silent warning. Strange as it is, she realizes how long it is has been since she felt his touch upon her.

“What your mom means,” he says carefully, “is don’t give him too much credit after what he pulled.”

“But he gave the money back,” Tori says. “He started this whole thing to get money out of you, and he actually fell in love with me, and–”

“Look,” Sarah interjects. “I’ll give you one thing: I think Zane did fall for you. I think he was using you, but I also think he developed feelings for you. And why wouldn’t he? But just because you’re a beautiful, smart, caring woman, and he recognized that, doesn’t mean you should trust him.”

Tori’s shoulders drop, and she bites her upper lip as her eyes tear slightly.

Sarah springs to her feet. “Don’t cry.”

She moves to wrap her arms around her daughter, but Tori takes a giant step away from her.

“Don’t,” Tori says. “You don’t want me to be happy.”

“No, I do,” Sarah insists.

Matt stands, too. “Your mom only wants you to be happy. Tori, do you really feel like you’d be able to believe Zane about anything after this? You’d trust him?”

“I don’t know!” Tori exclaims.

“If you need to stay mad at me, then you have to stay mad at me,” Sarah says, setting her jaw bravely even as the words kill her to speak. “If that’s what it takes for you to stay mad at Zane, then so be it. I’d rather have you hate me than watch you give away your life to a man like that.”

Tori looks back at her with wide, sad eyes.

“We want you to be happy,” Matt says. “You’re gonna be happier than you ever thought you could be — with someone you probably haven’t even met yet. This is not the end-all, be-all, kiddo.”

“You don’t know that,” Tori says sadly.

“Take it from someone much older than you,” he says. “It’ll happen.”

“It will,” Sarah adds. “Please, Tori, meet up with Zane if you need to. Hear him out. But do not tie yourself to someone who would treat you or your family that way. Even if he did wind up falling for you.”

Tori is silent for a long moment, and then the tears begin to fall. Sarah fights her instinct to surge forward and grab her daughter, but she is so thankful that Matt does it instead. Tori doesn’t fight him and instead crumples against his body as she cries.

“I thought he loved me,” she says through her sobs as Matt rocks her and Sarah watches, overwhelmed with sorrow for the daughter who never deserved this.

END OF EPISODE 927

Have Sarah and Matt finally convinced Tori?
Will Caleb continue to get mixed up with Jasmine?
Could Tim and Sonja ever have a family together?
Discuss it all in the comments below!

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