Home :: Episodes
Characters :: Background
News :: Feedback

Akilah Moore exited the elevator on the hospital's second floor, followed by her mother, Leslie. Leslie had picked up Akilah after school so they could attend their weekly family therapy session. Thankfully, Akilah had managed to get her mom to schedule an appointment that wasn't on a Saturday morning, but still, Vince hadn't been able to attend because of a newspaper meeting.

"What time is our meeting at?" Akilah asked.

"I told you, it's at 4:00," Leslie replied.

"Well then, I'm going to go ahead and get something from the vending machine," Akilah said. "Do you want anything?"

"No, I'm fine," Leslie said. "But thank you."

Akilah nodded and hurried off, as Leslie spotted Aaron Maddock approaching from the other end of the hallway. Leslie smiled and walked toward him.

"Hello Aaron," Leslie said.

"Leslie," Aaron replied. "Where are Vince and Akilah?"

"Akilah's getting something from the vending machines," Leslie said. "Vince won't be here, he had a newspaper meeting he couldn't get out of. Or didn't want to get out of, I suppose."

Aaron smirked. "Now, Leslie."

"I know, I know," Leslie said. "I'm being understanding and patient. As patient and understanding an unemployed woman can afford to be, I suppose."

"You can always get a job here at the hospital," Aaron offered.

"Thanks," Leslie said. "But it would only remind me of all the time I spend here when people in my family are dying or injecting me with heroin...we've got enough to live comfortably for at least another year. I'm going to try and get another job in advertising. Maybe even at Hanley Enterprises again."

"Working for Kevin Hanley? You're braver than I am," Aaron said.

Leslie laughed. "Tell me about it."

Valerie Hanley-Holden closed the door to Aaron's office as she stepped inside. She was there to retrieve the bugs she'd set up earlier, when she needed to overhear Aaron's therapy session with Melissa Maddock. The bugs were set up on the desk and in Aaron's phone, but the recording device was in his closet. Though Victor had told her to call him when she wanted the bugs retrieved, Valerie was never one to wait, so she had gone about it herself.

Valerie opened the closet and reached for the recording device, as she felt the doorknob begin to turn. Valerie gasped and jumped inside, closing the door behind her.

"He's supposed to be at lunch!" Valerie cried. "What the hell am I supposed to do now?"

Valerie crouched down in the closet and hid behind a jacket, hoping desperately that Aaron wouldn't open the closet door and find her hiding inside.



Marquette Cove High School

"What makes this meeting so important?" Julia Mitchell asked Vincent Moore, as she stepped into the newspaper office.

"You'll find out," Vince said.

"I hate it when you're cryptic," Julia said.

"I've been told that," Vince replied, walking over to Gregory Black, the faculty moderator for the Emerald Newspaper. "Mr. Black, I wanted to ask you something —"

"In a minute, Vince," Greg said, glancing over a letter on his desk. "This is...this is troubling."

"Troubling?"

"No, not you," Greg replied. "Have you seen Mark?"

"No," Vince replied. "But I'm sure he's on his way."

"What's this meeting about anyway?" Stephanie Collins demanded, entering the room and removing a pair of sunglasses. "I have shopping to do."

"The meeting will be starting shortly," Greg announced. "But until then, I have something to say to everyone in this room."

Stephanie moved over to where Julia was standing, and tapped her on the shoulder.

"I have something to say to you too," Stephanie said. "I can't believe you locked Jessica in the bathroom so your desperate friend could sit by her."

Julia rolled her eyes. "Shut up, Stephanie."

Standing before the room of students, Greg cleared his throat so that he could get everyone to quiet down.

"I have some unfortunate news," Greg said. "This morning, a stash of marijuana was found hidden here in the newspaper's office. I'm hoping that one of you weren't responsible for it being placed here, but unfortunately that may be the case. Now, the administration is going to be doing a full-scale investigation to —"

Greg was interrupted as Mark Zane walked through the door. Everyone turned to glance at him, causing him to frown.

"What's going on?" Mark demanded.

"We're talking about the drugs found here in the office," Vince replied, smirking.

"We'll get to your announcement in a minute, Mark," Greg said.

"Announcement?"

Greg nodded. 'Yes, I got your letter."

"I wrote a letter?"

"Oh, why wait for it?" Vince asked. "You already told me, Mark. You're resigning as editor of the Emerald, and you're giving me your position."



Bale Home

Hearing the doorbell ring, Felicia Bale rose from the living room couch. She grabbed her cane so that she could keep her balance. Now that she was no longer in a wheelchair, Felicia still needed a cane to help her walk for the time being. Within time, all of her injuries would be healed.

She opened the front door and found that her husband, Robert, was standing outside carrying a briefcase. Robert walked inside and headed toward the living room, leaving Felicia to close the door and follow him.

"A hello would suffice," Felicia muttered.

"Oh, is that what you say to the woman who killed your son?" Robert demanded.

Felicia remained silent.

"That's the truth, right?" Robert asked. "You were jealous that I was with Melissa, so you went after her and made sure she had a miscarriage?"

"Let's not talk about this, Robert," Felicia said. "What do you want?"

"I brought the divorce papers," Robert said. "To finalize things once and for all."

Robert set his briefcase down on the table and opened it. He quickly removed a stack of papers and thrust them in Felicia's direction. She took the papers from him and sat down on the couch, glancing over them.

"I'll need to look this over with my lawyer," Felicia said.

"Oh, don't worry about me trying to cheat you," Robert reassured her. "Because what I've got planned for you, I'm going to do after the divorce is finalized."

"Excuse me?" Felicia demanded.

"I was all ready to let this go quietly, but after you decided to...after you hurt Melissa, I'm through being nice," Robert said. "You don't deserve to be a parent. I'm going to sue you for custody of Alec and make sure he spends the next year of high school living with me. And once I've made sure that you're childless, I'm suing you for the house. So...I guess that's going to leave you childless and homeless."

Love is eternal. Life is forever. Yet things shall always remain...guasti cose.

Mark fumed as Vince walked over to him and rested his hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay," Vince said. "I'm looking forward to the challenge."

Mark was about to respond, but he changed his mind once Greg started speaking again.

"Now, as I was saying — if anyone has information about the drugs that were found in the office here, please come forward either to me or Ms. Kolver," Greg said.

"Vince, we need to talk," Julia said, grabbing Vince's arm and leading him toward the door. "Did you do that?"

"Do what?" Vince asked, feigning innocence.

"Plant those drugs so you could frame Mark," Julia said. "Because that's not —"

"I don't have any idea what you're talking about," Vince said. "I'm just an innocent bystander."

Julia smirked. "You're never an innocent bystander."

"Someone could say the same about you."

Julia turned to find Stephanie standing next to her, with her arms folded.

"I'm not done with you yet, you sneaky bitch," Stephanie said.

Vince rolled his eyes. "We were attempting to have a conversation. You're interrupting."

"And?" Stephanie demanded.

"Go away," Julia finished, making a gesture with her hand for Stephanie to exit.

"Just mind your own business and leave Tim alone," Stephanie said.

"How about you mind yours?" Vince asked. "Unless you want someone else to get involved."

"You are such a bully, you know that?"

Vince laughed. "A bully? This isn't seventh grade, Stephanie."

"No, it's not," Stephanie snapped. "But you two still need to grow up."

Stephanie brushed past them and headed out the door. Julia and Vince exchanged glances and then burst into laughter, watching as Stephanie left.



Bale Home

Alec Bale approached the house, carrying his keys. As he was about to unlock the door, he found that it was already unlocked and so he pushed it open and stepped inside. He could hear his parents arguing before she'd even walked in.

"You can't do that, Robert!" Felicia cried. "Where am I supposed to stay?"

"I don't really give a damn," Robert said. "Maybe you should have thought about that before you went around murdering other peoples' children."

"I didn't murder anyone," Felicia snapped. "I don't even remember that night! I wouldn't have gone after Melissa like that, I could barely even walk."

"No, but you could drive over there drunk, couldn't you?"

"I didn't…I didn't know what I was doing!"

"Of course you didn't," Robert said. "Because you were driving drunk. You were too drunk to know that you were driving over to Melissa's so you could ruin her chances of having a child. Just like you are."

"Robert, that's not fair," Felicia insisted.

"No, Felicia," Robert said. "What's not fair is that you destroyed a child Melissa and I were having together out of spite and anger. I never thought the woman I was marrying could become such a cold-hearted bitch."

Stung by Robert's words, Felicia bit her lip and tried to remain calm. She wiped tears away from her eyes and glared at him.

"Oh, I'm the cold-hearted one?" Felicia demanded. "Who's the one sleeping with his mistress while he's still married to me? Do you know what people say about me? How it makes us look? How do you think Alec is dealing with this?"

"Alec will be just fine," Robert said. "Once I kick you out of this house and take full custody of him, he'll never have to see you again."

"Dad! How could you?"

Robert and Felicia turned to find Alec entering from the foyer.

"You're really kicking mom out of the house?" Alec demanded.

"Alec, we can talk about this later," Robert said.

"No, I think we're going to talk about it now," Alec said. "You honestly think I want to live with you and your whore?"

Robert narrowed his eyes at Alec. "Don't you ever call her that again."

"Alec, honey —" Felicia began.

"Don't even, mom," Alec said. "I don't want to live with you either."

Alec stormed up the stairs, leaving his parents with their argument once more. Robert shook his head and stepped away from Felicia.

"You see what you've done to our family?" Robert asked, before grabbing his briefcase and turning around the exit the house.

Felicia remained with a stoic look on her face before tossing the divorce papers onto the floor. She collapsed onto the couch in tears and buried her face, not even bothering to stand and close the door.



Marquette Cove Memorial Hospital

"Oh my God," Valerie moaned, checking the time on her cell phone as she leaned against the wall in Aaron's closet. She had spent the entire hour listening to Leslie and Akilah whine about their family problems. Valerie especially loved hearing the tidbit about how Akilah used men in her life to fill a void left by her deceased father.

Of course, listening to their problems made her realize that her own family probably needed therapy, what with all of the secrets she was keeping from her husband, and her son's former addiction to drugs.

Once she was sure that they had left the office, Valerie stumbled toward the door and opened it. She stepped out into the office and breathed sigh of relief, gripping the recording device in her hands. She set it down on the desk and placed an earpiece to her ear.

Valerie quickly rewound the device until she recognized Aaron and Melissa's voices.

"Can you hear me, Melissa?" Aaron asked, using only the light from the lamp on his desk.

"Yes," Melissa responded, from her trancelike state.

"Okay," Aaron said. "I want you to go back. Back to when you were pregnant."

"Just what I need," Valerie muttered. "That bitch to remember everything about her miscarriage."

Valerie fast-forwarded briefly.

"I want my baby! Don't take him away from me!"

"Melissa, I'm not going to take your child," Aaron insisted.

Melissa sat up on the couch and stared at Aaron in anger. She balled her hands into fists and tried to attack him.

"You can't have my baby!" Melissa shouted. "Hugh, I'm not going to let you take my baby away from me!"

"Huh? My name's not Hugh," Valerie said, bewildered.

She continued to fast-forward to the point where Aaron was now talking to someone else, on the phone it appeared, and it seemed to be Hugh Rogers. Valerie thought she'd heard the last of him after paying him to get out of Marquette Cove, but apparently she was wrong.

At that moment, it came to Valerie that she should have just asked Hugh to give her more dirt on Melissa, but that time had passed now. Because with everything Valerie had heard on the recording, she knew more than enough about Melissa Maddock's past.

Valerie gasped. "I just hit the jackpot."



Marquette Cove High School

Once the newspaper meeting disbanded, Julia exited the office. As she walked through the hallway, she noticed Morris Anderson emerging from the business office. Julia smiled and pushed her hair out of her face before approaching him.

"Hey Morris," Julia said.

"Julia...how's it going?" Morris asked.

"Great," Julia replied. "What are you doing around your old haunts?"

"Picking up assignments for Kelli," Morris said. "You know how she likes the honor roll."

"Oh, how's she doing?"

"Doing better," Morris said. "She just needs a little more time to recover until she can come back to school and deal with..."

"Chris," Julia finished. "I know."

"I've no idea why that bastard isn't in jail where his ass belongs," Morris snapped. "Or living with a gunshot wound to his stomach."

"Don't worry about him," Julia said. "Most of the town hates him now anyway."

"With good reason," Morris muttered. "But hey...what are you doing tonight?"

Taken aback, Julia took a few moments to respond. "Nothing...why?"

"That's too bad," Morris said. "How'd you like to hang out?"

"I'd love to," Julia said, touching Morris' arm.

As Julia and Morris spoke, neither noticed that Mark was watching them from the doorway of the newspaper's office. He had a cold glare on his face, still thinking about how Vince had once again gotten everything he wanted and was left with nothing.

"Morris Anderson...Vince even ended up with his sister," Mark muttered. "I haven't even gotten laid yet and it's my goddamn junior year of high school."

Mark balled his hand into a fist and slammed it into the wall. But as he continued to watch Morris and Julia, Mark was struck with an ingenious idea.

"I should have thought of this sooner," Mark said, smirking. "If I want to get back at Vince, I'll have to hit him where it hurts."



Emerald Square

Robert walked through Emerald Square, heading toward the Emerald Café so he could grab a cup of coffee before returning to the office. He needed something to take his mind off of everything that he was dealing with right now. Somehow, Felicia had managed to turn his son against him when Robert wasn't even the one at fault. Never mind the fact that the newspapers and half of town was accusing Robert of destroying his own marriage.

As he walked into the Café, he noticed Melissa emerging holding a cup of coffee. She noticed him as well and smiled, walking toward him.

"Hey honey," Robert said.

"Hey," Melissa said, kissing him on the cheek. "How was your day?"

"Horrible," Robert said. "Yours?"

"Nothing eventful," Melissa replied. "Just stopped by the hospital to talk to Aaron."

"How's he doing?"

"He's fine," Melissa said. "I just need to...never mind. I'm fine. Everything's fine."

"Well, at least someone's fine," Robert said, walking toward a table and sitting down. "Felicia has officially made my son hate me."

"Oh honey, I'm sorry," Melissa said.

"It's bad enough that Alec has Michael Hanley's blood in him," Robert snapped. "Does he need to have his mother's bad influence on him too?"

"Oh my God, Robert," Melissa said. "You don't think that Alec isn't your son, do you?"

"What?"

"You said Michael Hanley...I know they were having an affair, but you don't think —"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Robert said. "I'd forgotten than you had no idea about...I'm sorry, I should have told you. Felicia wasn't having an affair with Michael, she was hiding the fact that he's her brother."

"Excuse me?"

"Felicia is Michael's half-sister," Robert replied. "We're just keeping it a secret because...actually, I don't know why I'm keeping it a secret other than to spare Alec the truth."

"Robert, I had no idea," Melissa said. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine," Robert insisted. "It's just...this day has been completely horrible. But I guess there's one thing I could do to make it better."

"What's that?" Melissa asked.

Smiling, Robert reached into his jacket pocket and removed a tiny box. He climbed out of his chair and knelt down onto the ground, raising the box to Melissa's hand and opening it. As Robert did, Melissa cried out, catching the attention of others surrounding the Emerald Café.

"Robert...tell me this isn't what I think it is," Melissa said.

"Oh, it is," Robert said. "I'm not entirely divorced yet, but in my mind, I already am. I've already moved on with the woman of my dreams. So Melissa Maddock, will you do me the honor of being my wife?"

Tears of joy swelled in Melissa's eyes, but she didn't bother to wipe them away. "Of course, Robert. Of course I'll marry you!"

Robert removed the ring from the box and slid it onto Melissa's finger, leading the other patrons to applaud. Robert grinned and rose to his feet, leaning in to kiss Melissa. Melissa, the woman who would very soon become the next Mrs. Robert Bale.

executive producer
Ira Madison

next time...
Alec lashes out at Melissa.
Morris and Julia get hot and heavy.
Tim tries telling Jessica how he feels about her.