Previously…
– Sarah and Matt revealed to Tori that Zane had returned the money he had blackmailed Sarah into paying him.
– Helen enlisted Sabrina’s help in gathering a DNA sample from Spencer in order to run a paternity test on baby Peter.
– As her wedding to Jason approached, Natalie panicked when she realized Sonja — who thought she was being paid by Loretta Ragan, not Natalie, to suppress Spencer’s memory — had made contact with the real Loretta and possibly blown the whole plan.

Piano music tinkles softly through the air of Windmills. Helen Chase sits at the bar of the elegant restaurant. In front of her is an untouched glass of wine, which she ordered solely for the sake of appearances. She has no intention of letting alcohol cloud her mind — not during an encounter this important. Again she checks the time on her cell phone; her impatience is strong, despite it still being several minutes before the scheduled meeting time.

As she waits, she fishes the envelope out of her large purse and places it on the bar. She is so grateful that she has it, after all the hounding it took to ensure that the paperwork would be ready before tomorrow. Pulling open the flap, she removes the papers and reviews the information printed upon them.

“This is going to change everything,” she whispers as she once more looks to the entrance.

—–

Natalie Bishop’s breaths are short and tight in her chest as she locks her car and heads toward the entrance of Windmills. The summer sky is still a soothing blue, despite the late evening hour, but it does not do a thing to calm her nerves. She has no idea why Helen demanded that they meet — especially tonight, of all nights — but the call made it clear that Natalie did not have much choice.

She can only imagine what bomb Helen is going to drop on her. She can’t fathom how Helen would have figured out that Natalie is really the one who hired Sonja to keep Spencer’s memory from returning, but it is the primary thought that has been thrumming around in her head since Helen insisted upon meeting.

After yanking open the front door, she smiles as pleasantly as she can at the host and then scans the sea of white, crystal, and gold accents that is the restaurant. She spots Helen at the bar and marches toward her.

“This had better be important,” Natalie says. “I’m getting married tomorrow. Do you know how hard it was to get away?”

Helen smiles at her, a twinkle of delight in her eye. “I’m sure you thought of something clever. I get the sense you’re very good at that, Natalie.”

“Cut the crap, you old crone. What are you up to?”

“That doesn’t sound like any way to talk to someone who has access to, shall we say, your deepest secrets.”

Natalie’s heart nearly stops. There’s no way Helen can know. Even Sonja doesn’t seem to know, and neither does Spencer. She puts on the blankest poker face she can manage.

“What are you talking about?” she asks.

“I think you’re the one who shoved Spencer down his stairs.”

Natalie expels a sigh, half-relief and half-exasperation. “You ordered me down here the night before my wedding to throw me some half-cocked theory about me trying to kill my finance’s nephew? That’s wild, even for you.”

She grabs her purse and slides off the barstool.

“Not so fast,” Helen says.

“We’re done here. I know you’re determined to keep me from marrying Jason, but enough is enough. Why would I want to hurt Spencer?”

“Because he’s the father of your baby.”

Mid-step, Natalie freezes. A million bolts of thunder crash through her head. How in the hell could this nosy bat have any idea?

“That’s insane,” Natalie says flatly.

“Is it?” Helen slides the papers toward Natalie. “Because these DNA test results say otherwise.”

Natalie grabs them, and she doesn’t even have to fake being shocked as she reviews them, although not for the reasons Helen might think.

“What is this?” she demands.

“Proof,” Helen says. “Proof that Peter is Spencer’s child — and that you had every reason in the world to push him down that staircase.”

Tori Gray waits at a small table in the back of Cassie’s Coffee House. A song by James Bay plays over the speaker system as patrons talk and enjoy their beverages all around her, though Tori is consumed by the thousand different scenarios playing out in her mind. She wraps her palms around a mug of tea, hoping that its warmth will somehow absorb into her skin and calm her nerves, though she knows that is virtually impossible right now.

When she sees him enter the coffee house and approach, her body stiffens.

“Hey,” Zane Tanaka says, lingering over the table as if waiting for her to stand and greet him. “You know, we could’ve just met at my place, to talk in private.”

“Sit down.”

“Oh. Okay.” He settles himself into the chair across from her. “I’m glad you agreed to meet up. I need to tell you–“ 

“That you returned the money. I know.”

“So they told you,” Zane says, sounding a bit as if the air has been taken out of his sails.

“Did you think they wouldn’t?”

“I was hoping I’d get to tell you myself, that’s all. But I’m glad they were honest with you. I thought they’d try to, I don’t know, paint me in a bad light–”

“Blackmailing my mom was the bad light,” Tori says. “Using me to manipulate her was, too. You don’t need anyone to do that for you.”

He moves back in his chair, as if recoiling from a physical punch, and then sits up straighter.

“I deserve that,” he says at last. “All of it. What I did to you sucked, and I’m sorry. Like, genuinely, truly sorry.”

Tori sucks in her lips, uncertain how to proceed.

“Tori,” Zane says, again leaning in toward her. “You have to believe me. My feelings for you– I didn’t expect them, but they’re here, and they’re real, and I’m doing everything I can to prove that to you. I can’t go back and change how things started, but I can change what I do from here on out. Returning the money was the start of that. Can you please give me a second chance to prove how serious I am?”

—–

Eyes wide, Natalie’s head swivels from side to side, making sure that none of the other patrons have heard Helen. Luckily, the music and the din of conversation offer a bit of privacy.

Natalie clutches the papers. “How did you…?”

“I have my ways,” Helen explains. “I happened to see some rather… animated conversations between you and Spencer, but I didn’t think too much of those until a little birdie told me that you were the very first visitor at the hospital the day Spencer came out of his coma.”

“Yeah, because he’s Jason’s nephew.”

“Because you wanted to see what he remembered.” Helen snatches the DNA results back. “I’m right, aren’t I?”

Natalie’s brain races, desperate for a tack — any tack — that might work.

“Did you steal a DNA sample from my son?” she asks. “You’re out of your mind!”

“Like I said, I have my ways.”

“Illegal ways. If you so much as breathe a word of this crackpot theory to anyone, I’ll have the police on you so fast–”

“Do you think the threat of being arrested again scares me that much?” Helen says with a sneer.

“Well — how do I know you didn’t just make up those results? Or doctor them?”

“I’d be happy to have the test run again, this time with everyone’s full participation.”

Natalie grits her teeth, frustration mounting inside her alongside utter desperation.

“I’m sorry, dear, but the jig is up,” Helen says. “And there’s only one thing for you left to do.”

“What’s that?”

“Call off the wedding — or I’ll do it for you.”

—–

“Tori, come on,” Zane urges after a moment of tense silence between them.

She toys with the teabag dangling from her mug as she thinks.

“You giving back the money really does say a lot,” she admits. “Like, I believe that you actually do have feelings for me, and that I might even be more important to you than that money.”

“Yes! Exactly.” Excitedly, he places his hand over hers. “This is real, what we have between us. I’ll never stop feeling bad about how it started, or what I did, but we can choose to put it in the past and start clean.”

“Yeah.”

“I promise I won’t–”

“But that’s the thing,” she interrupts, pulling away her hand. “We can say we’re choosing that, but I don’t think I really can.”

“What?”

“I can’t trust you, Zane. Not after what you’ve done.”

“I gave the money back.”

“Yeah, you did a decent thing. What do you want, a Nobel Peace Prize?”

“No. I want you.” He locks his eyes onto hers. “I want to go back to what we had. We could build a little life together. We’ll make each other better people, stronger people.”

“No, you want me to make you better,” she says. “The whole time, I’m going to be wondering if you’re being honest with me, or what you’re up to–”

“I’m not up to anything!”

“But I’ll never believe that.” She pushes out her chair and stands up. “Not really. Zane, I’m sorry. It’s over.”

He jumps to his feet, too. “Tori–”

“It’s over,” she repeats. “Don’t try to follow me, don’t try to change my mind, just…” She draws a deep breath to gather her strength, as she does her best not to look at him lest she waver. She knows that she has to do this. “If you really do care about me, let me go.”

“Why are you doing this?” he pleads.

“Because I have to,” she says. “For me.” Without giving him the chance to respond, she brushes past him and hurries out of the coffee house. She keeps moving, not looking back, not pausing, until she is safely in her car. As she places her key in the ignition, she realizes that he actually did respect her wishes and didn’t chase after her.

Unsure how to feel about that, she turns the key to start the car.

—–

Natalie levels a hard stare upon Helen. “So that’s what this is about. You don’t want me to be Sophie’s stepmother.”

“Well, the prospect certainly doesn’t thrill me,” Helen says, “especially with you being an attempted murderer and passing another man’s baby off as Sophie’s half-brother. What kind of sick–”

“It isn’t what you think,” Natalie cuts her off.

She can tell that the sudden candor, the frankness of her tone, takes Helen by surprise. The woman actually shuts up, and her mouth softens. Natalie takes the opportunity to sit back on the barstool.

“Then you admit it,” Helen finally says.

Natalie contemplates her next words and grabs the glass of wine that sits in front of Helen.

“Excuse you!”

“I need this more than you do.” Natalie takes a hearty slug from the glass, letting the sharpness of the white wine fill her mouth and throat. She swallows, moving slowly in order to have time to think, and then looks directly at the other woman. She knows that she only has one opportunity to sell this.

“You’re right about one thing,” she says. “I knew there was a chance Spencer might be Peter’s father.”

“Of course you did.”

“But there’s more to it,” Natalie continues. “Spencer and I… we met completely separately from the Fishers, at a bar. I had no idea that he and Jason were related until months and months later. If you remember, when Jason and I started dating, there was a period where we had broken things off — because he wasn’t ready to move on from Courtney.”

She watches the effect that her late daughter’s name has upon Helen; she gets a faraway look in her eyes for a long moment.

“I never cheated on Jason,” she goes on. “Spencer and I had a — a fling. Nothing significant. And then Jason and I got back together. When I found out I was pregnant, I knew there was a possibility…”

“So you made a unilateral decision to have Peter be Jason’s son, whether that was the truth or not.”

Natalie shakes her head as she takes another drink of the wine. “No. I talked about it with Spencer. We decided that it would be best this way.”

Helen’s voice grows shriller. “To let Jason live a lie?”

“You have to understand, Helen,” Natalie says as she plows ahead with the murky mixture of truths and lies. “Spencer didn’t want to be a father, and he didn’t want to ruin the relationships he was building with the Fishers. Jason wanted another kid, and I wanted to be with Jason. We decided there was no reason to destroy everyone’s lives. So we never did a test.”

“Never?”

“We didn’t want to know. In case. Maybe it wasn’t the perfect course of action, but it made sense — and, frankly, it was our decision to make, not yours.”

“What about Jason? And Sophie? They love that boy as if he’s their own–”

“He is! Peter is Jason’s son. He’s Sophie’s brother. Regardless of whether he’s a step removed genetically, he is their family.”

Helen hesitates before saying, “This is absolutely tawdry.”

“I guess.” Natalie lets out a weighty sigh. “But do you understand? This is our family now: Jason, Sophie, Bree, Peter, and me. Do you really want to be the one to destroy that? To shatter Sophie’s world? You’d do that to your own granddaughter?”

Helen holds her jaw tight, clearly deep in thought. Natalie moves in for the kill.

“I know I’ll never be Courtney. I could never replace her in Jason or Sophie’s lives,” she says. “I am so, so sorry that you lost her — even thinking about something like that happening to Bree rips my guts out.”

Helen nods slowly.

“I’m begging you, Helen,” Natalie says. “Please don’t destroy our family. Can you imagine what this would do to your granddaughter? Please keep this to yourself — for Sophie’s sake.”

END OF EPISODE 928

Will Natalie’s plea work on Helen?
Will the wedding actually take place?
Did Tori’s show of strength surprise you?
Talk about it all in the comments below!

 

Next Episode