HANLEY HOME

Michael Hanley returned from the basement in his mansion and entered his study, just as he heard the doorbell ringing. Michael entered the living room as Riley Schaefer opened the front door and led Ryan Phillips into the house.

"Thank you, Riley," Michael said, dismissing him.

"Michael, we have a problem," Ryan snapped.

Michael sighed and walked over to the couch so he could have a seat. He leaned back and closed his eyes, hoping to will Ryan to explode where he stood. When Michael opened his eyes, he found that it hadn't work. He frowned and returned his attention to what Ryan was doing there.

"This has already been a very long evening, Ryan," Michael said. "What do you want?"

Ryan shrugged. "Just another Monday in Marquette Cove."

"That doesn't answer my question. I'm not in the mood for pleasantries, especially not with you."

"Fine, then I'll get straight to the point," Ryan said.

"Please do."

"Vanessa is leaving town," Ryan said. "We have to stop her."

"It's a bit late for that, I'm sure she's already gone," Michael replied.

"What?" Ryan demanded.

"Vanessa left this evening," Michael explained. "Oh…she didn't tell you?"

"You son of a bitch," Ryan snarled. "You get off on making my life miserable, don't you?"

"Trust me, Ryan," Michael said. "Your life is of little concern to me."

"Well, it had better be," Ryan insisted. "Because I'll be damned if I'm going to let Vanessa run off with my son."

"Eamon is not your son," Michael reminded him.

Ryan nodded. "That's right. And unless you want Vanessa to find out about that, then I suggest you get on the phone and call Vanessa back to Marquette Cove right now."



EMERALD HEART

Melissa Maddock knocked on the door to the motel room where Hugh Rogers was staying, quickly concealing her gun as she waited for him to answer the door. A few moments later, Hugh answered the door dressed in a suit and a tie.

"Going somewhere?" Melissa asked.

"Yes, I am," Hugh said. "But I can always make time for my favorite girl."

"You're disgusting," Melissa said, thrusting the bag she was carrying toward him. "Here's the rest of the damned money I owe you. Now, I want you to stay the hell away from me."

"Won't you miss me?"

"I already have a daughter to miss," Melissa snapped. "And a brother. And a mother. And a father. All of them dead because of you."

"I never killed your daughter," Hugh insisted. "You know I could never hurt a child of yours."

"But you did," Melissa said. "I remember —"

"You weren't ready to have a child," Hugh said. "You aborted that child on your own terms."

"My father —"

"Died after he learned the truth about his whore of a daughter?" Hugh asked. "Once again, not my fault. It's also not my fault your mother was too weak to live and had to commit suicide to escape."

Melissa wiped away tears that began to form in her eyes. "You're a bastard, Hugh."

"Possibly, but don't try to blame me for the mistakes you made," Hugh said. "You're the one who decided to work for me to pay for law school. You whored yourself out to me first and then you whored yourself out to anyone with a trust fund who could foot your tuition bill."

"That's enough!" Melissa cried, removing the gun she had hidden in her jacket and aiming it at Hugh. "Shut up, or I'll kill you where you stand."



ABANDONED CHURCH

Alistair entered the abandoned church, removing the hood that was covering his face. He was soon followed by Vanessa, Tanya, and Marcia who carrying Vincent Moore, Julia Mitchell, and Blake Thomas respectively. Alistair cleared a path for them in one of the church's aisles and paused when he reached the pulpit.

The three teenagers were tossed onto the ground before the pulpit, and the three women who had carried them in removed their own hoods and faced the pulpit.

"Discourse," Alistair spoke. "We have brought to you the one you felt. We can feel his energy as well."

"Good."

A man standing at the pulpit with his back to the four cloaked figures was the one Alistair was speaking with. The man laughed, turning around to see what his servants had brought him. He gazed at the bodies of Vince, Julia, and Blake and realized why they had been brought to him.

Or rather, why one of them was brought before him.

"Who are these others?" Discourse demanded.

"They were with him, my lord," Vanessa explained. "We had no other choice."

"There is always a choice whether or not to follow my orders exactly," Discourse snapped. "But they will not pose a problem. Wake them."

Tanya stepped forward and grabbed Julia by her hair, pulling her to her knees. Julia's eyes flew open from the shock and she cried out in pain. Tanya leaned in close to Julia and whispered in her ear, "Continue to scream and I'll slit your throat."

Julia whimpered quietly, but refrained from screaming as Blake was brought to his knees in a similar manner. Vince was the last person to stir and rise to his knees, which he did on his own after Discourse waited a few moments.

Vince blinked and turned to Julia. "What…what's going on?"

"I'm afraid you don't want to know," Julia said, staring up at Discourse who had now turned his back to them.

"What do you mean?"

"Trust me," Blake groaned. "It's —"

"Cease talking," Alistair said. "Our lord does not want to hear your voices."

"Then maybe you should show us who the man behind the curtain is," Vince said. "Come on, preacher man. Show your face."

Discourse smiled and slowly turned to face Vince. Once he did, Vince cried out in shock and rose to his feet. Alistair quickly hit Vince in the back and sent him tumbling to the ground.

"Oh my God…no…this can't be happening," Vince gasped.

Vince struggled to raise his head to look at Discourse again, hoping that what he was seeing wasn't true. He found that the face he was staring at was his own. Discourse appeared to be a perfect doppelganger of Vincent Moore.

Duncan Kincaid sat at the computer in the living room of the apartment he shared with Kimberly Black, where he was now researching on Google of all places. He figured he would have less trouble from his brother if Joel didn't know what he was doing.

Duncan still couldn't get past the fact that Joel was being so obstructive his attempts to clear his name in the murder of Joel's first wife, Kelly Crane. Duncan wanted to prove that he didn't rape and murder Kelly, and now that he had information about a serial rapist in the area during the time of the murder…he knew there had to be a connection.

"The original suspect was never found, but was believed to be a traveling salesman by the name of Arthur Loman," Duncan read aloud from an online newspaper article.

As he read, Kimberly Black opened the door to the apartment and set her keys on the kitchen counter. She closed the door and yawned, checking her watch and realizing that it was later than she thought. She didn't expect to spend all night at the hospital, but for a few hours it was as if crazy people were coming in and out of the hospital ranting and raving as loudly as they could.

"Duncan," Kimberly said, approaching the computer screen. "What are you doing still — what the hell are you looking at?"

Duncan froze and looked at the top of the screen, where the words "serial rapist" were printed in large bold letters. Duncan turned around to Kimberly, who was frowning.

"I can explain," Duncan said quickly.

"I don't think I want to know," Kimberly said, frowning.

"Don't tell me you still believe what my brother told you at the beginning of the summer when I moved in," Duncan said. "About me —"

"No, I don't," Kimberly said. "I'm just…who looks at stuff like that?"

"I'm still trying to clear my name," Duncan insisted. "But…look, you're probably really tired. How about I whip you up something to eat?"

"This late?" Kimberly asked.

"Well, I'm thinking something instant and microwavable, so I don't see the problem," Duncan said.

"Well…all right," Kimberly said, finally. "Let me get out of these clothes first and put something else on."

As Kimberly disappeared into her bedroom, Duncan returned his attention to the screen. He did another quick search for Arthur Loman and found his last known address. Duncan printed out the address and turned off the computer screen. Once he was done, he shoved the folded address into his jean pocket started toward the kitchen.



ABANDONED CHURCH

"This can't be happening," Vince cried. "You…you're me."

"You've stolen my face," Discourse said, ignoring Vince. "I want you to explain to me why."

"I stole your face?" Vince demanded. "I've looked like this for seventeen years!"

"I want an explanation," Discourse said. "I can feel a foreign energy in you. I was drawn to you for a reason."

"Okay, that's enough," Vince said, standing up and waving his hand to send Discourse flying into a pew. But as he tried, Vince found that Discourse didn't move. Frustrated, Vince continued attempting to move Discourse and his followers out of the way, but he was unable to.

"Vince, do something!" Blake cried.

"I'm trying!"

Before Vince had a chance to react, Alistair punched him in the face and knocked him unconscious. Tanya and Marcia did the same to Julia and Blake, and then they dragged the three teens toward an open sewer hole. Most of the sewer was sealed off due to fallen rubble from the church, so anyone trapped inside the hole wouldn't be able to go anywhere.

Alistair dropped Vince, Julia, and Blake into the sewer as the three cloaked women covered the sewer to seal their prisoners in.

Discourse frowned. "Let them sleep with the rodents until they are ready to speak."



HANLEY HOME

Michael stared at Ryan with a calm expression on his face. He didn't even register a response to Ryan's attempt to blackmail him. "Your idle threats don't scare me, Ryan."

"They should," Ryan snapped. "And they're not idle!"

"If you inform Vanessa, she'll press charges against you," Michael said. "I wonder what the penalty is for tampering with hospital records."

"You wouldn't —"

"Or, maybe I'll just kill them," Michael said. "Maybe I'll murder Vanessa and Eamon."

Ryan's face fell. "You wouldn't."

"Wouldn't I?" Michael asked. "I'm capable of many things, Ryan. Obviously, I don't care enough about my son to be a part of his life. What makes you think I wouldn't kill him?"

"You're sick," Ryan spat.

"You're finished," Michael said. "Leave."

"I won't let you get away with this."

Michael rolled his eyes. "Goodbye, Ryan."

Ryan turned around and angrily left the room, brushing past Riley as he approached the door. Now that Michael had issued his ultimatum, Ryan knew what he had to do if he wanted to escape Michael's clutches. Only he would have to do it right away.

Once Ryan was gone, Riley entered the living room. "Your bags are ready, sir."

"Thank you, Riley," Michael said. "Inform Vincent that I'm on a business trip. I'll be back within the week."

Riley nodded. "Of course."



EMERALD HEART

Valerie Hanley-Holden watched in shock as Melissa pulled the gun out on Hugh. She wasn't as shocked at that, however, as she was to find out why Melissa had resorted to threatening this man with a gun.

"Looks like your little tryst with Robert wasn't your first," Valerie muttered, keeping a close watch on Melissa. "You'd better hope you don't kill him…because if you do, then you'll have an even bigger price to pay."

"Here's the last of your money," Melissa said. "But if you come for me again or try to extort anything else out of me or Aaron, then I swear to God that I will kill you."

"You're making quite the mistake, Melissa," Hugh said. "When you play with fire, you get —"

"Save the cliché for someone who gives a damn," Melissa said, cocking the gun and aiming it at Hugh's forehead. "Our relationship is officially over."

She balled her free hand into a fist and swung, punching Hugh in the face. He stumbled back, causing the bag he was carrying to slip from his hands. Melissa backed away from Hugh, still extending the gun.

"Go to hell," Melissa said, hurrying away from the motel room and climbing into her car as quickly as she could.

As Melissa sped off, Hugh could hear someone laughing loudly. He regained his composure and stepped out of the room to see who was laughing. When he did, he found a woman he didn't recognize by name standing in front of her.

"Who are you?" Hugh demanded.

Valerie grinned. "Someone who's here to help you give Melissa Maddock the payback she richly deserves."