Previously…
- Samantha decided to attend King’s Bay University in the fall. Diane worried that her financial problems had influenced her daughter’s decision.
- Sarah gave birth to a baby boy.
- Graham confronted Sarah about how she asked Bill to give Matt a job--and then demanded to know if the baby is really Matt’s.

NURSERY

One of the old fluorescent lights flickers overhead as Claire Fisher turns a corner in the hospital’s maternity ward. In that flash of darkness and then light, a familiar face seems to appear out of nowhere.

“Hey,” Ryan Moriani says when he spots her. Claire knows that she is caught and continues toward him.

“Hi,” she says. Ryan stands at the window that looks in on the nursery; she immediately knows which baby has captured his attention.

“He’s beautiful,” Claire says as she joins him in gazing at Sarah’s son, still too new to stay awake for long at all.

“He is. I was trying to find Sarah’s room, but I got turned around and wound up here. I had to take a look at him.”

“She’s in 427. I can show you how to get there.”

“Thanks.” Ryan’s focus remains fixed on the newest Fisher, sound asleep in his hospital bassinet. “Sounds like everything went perfectly with the delivery. What a relief.”

“Yeah. The baby is completely healthy. Sarah’s doing well.”

“Good.”

Claire can see him fishing again, trying to dredge up some sort of conversation. She sees him so infrequently these days; it is jarring to look at him and realize how disconnected from each other’s lives they are, given how close they were once upon a time.

“I’m glad she finally has another baby,” Ryan says. “It’s been almost exactly five years since…”

“I know.” Since Matt was forced to terminate Sarah’s last pregnancy. Since Sarah was badly injured in an explosion that was caused by Ryan’s wrongdoing. Since Claire almost married this man.

“Just makes you realize how precious life is,” he continues, his face mere inches from the glass. Fog spreads over it in a fuzzy circle, and Ryan uses two fingers to wipe it away. “What a miracle all of this is.”

“And how quickly it can be taken away,” Claire says. The light flickers again. “I should get back to work.”

She starts to go, then catches herself. “Go to the end of this hallway and make a left. You’ll pass through a waiting area. 427 will be straight through there. You’ll see signs.”

“Thanks,” Ryan says, and she leaves him standing at the window.

RECOVERY ROOM

“You know exactly what I’m talking about, Sarah. You slept with Matt that night, didn’t you? You were intimate with him. This baby--is it even ours? Or is it his?”

The accusation tears out of Graham Colville with a fury, leaving Sarah both speechless and motionless on the edge of her hospital bed. The bricks assemble themselves in her head: Graham saw her kissing Matt. Graham thinks that she and Matt slept together. Graham has suspected that the baby might be Matt’s. There is another brick that should stack on top of those ones, one that seems to follow naturally-- “Speak of the devil,” Graham says. Sarah turns to see what he sees: Matt and Tori, standing in the doorway, clearly having heard what Graham just said to Sarah.

“Go wait with Diane,” Matt tells Tori. She steps back but does not leave, as Matt takes a step inside the room.

“Leave her alone. She just had a baby,” Matt says, aggression burning in his eyes.

“Shouldn’t I be the one asking that of you, considering that Sarah is my wife?” Graham counters.

Sarah sees Tori lingering by the edge of the doorframe. “Tori, go see Diane,” she says, but again, the teenager merely slinks backward a little bit.

“Is it true?” Graham asks Matt. “Is this baby yours?”

“You’re fucking nuts,” Matt says. “I’m getting a nurse.”

Sarah motions for him to stop. “Matt. Wait.”

“This is crazy,” Matt says.

“What’s so crazy about it?” Graham says. “Matt, are you aware of how your new job just magically fell into your irresponsible, drug-addled lap?”

“What are you talking about?”

“My wife called in a favor. She asked her father to help you out. She was just that worried about you.”

Sarah’s limbs pulsate nervously as this newest bit of information hits her. Graham knows about that? How? She knows that there is no use in denying it, especially once Matt looks to her for confirmation. Screw Graham.

“So I ask,” Graham says, looming ominously close over Sarah, “is it really so crazy for me to presume that the two of you might have other secrets you’re hiding? I saw you kissing. I’m sure it wasn’t an isolated incident. So tell me, Sarah: who is really the father of this baby?”

WAITING AREA

Diane Bishop is reading New York Times headlines on her iPhone when she hears Ryan Moriani announce, “Guess I’m headed in the right direction.”

“Her room’s that way,” Diane says, pointing to the swinging doors that lead back to the delivery and recovery rooms. “But I’d wait a minute if I were you. Tori just came out here panicking because Graham said he wants to move them to Denver, so Matt went back, and…” She shakes her head. “I don’t really know if it’s visiting time right now.”

“Ouch. Yeah. I’ll wait.” To Diane’s great displeasure, Ryan drops into the seat beside hers. There are only a handful of others in the waiting area, and he has to sit right next to her?

After a spell of silence, Ryan ventures, “My mom said Samantha sent in her enrollment papers for King’s Bay U.”

“I know what you’re thinking,” Diane says, snapping around to look at him. “Stupid Diane can’t afford to send her daughter to some big private school like she deserves. I told her we’d make it work, but she picked KBU anyway. So cram it.”

“I was actually going to say that it’ll be nice to have her so close, but we can go with that, too. Are you worried that she really wants to be going someplace else?”

“Yes! Not that KBU isn’t a good school, but it isn’t Brown or Berkeley. She swore to Tim and me that she was just scared to go that far from home, but…”

“But you’ve given that kid a lot,” Ryan says. “She knows that. I have zero doubt that you would have made the money work if need be. Zero doubt. And I think Samantha is well aware of that, too.”

“Damn right.”

“Don’t beat yourself up over this. Everyone knows you want the best for her. She’s going to do really well at King’s Bay U. Plus she’ll have her brother there.”

“I hope you’re right,” Diane says, trying not to snap at him again even though she’s annoyed to admit that he makes some good points. “I just feel like such a loser. I never thought I’d be at this stage of my life and be this concerned about money--about providing for my kid. I feel like a…”

“Loser?”

“Yeah.”

“Next time you feel like a loser, take a look at me,” Ryan says in a surprisingly sunny bit of self-deprecation. “You’re going to get through this just fine, Diane. You always do.”

She sighs. “You know how much it pisses me off when you’re right… but this time, I hope you are.”

RECOVERY ROOM

“Close the door,” Sarah instructs Matt. She doesn’t want Tori hearing any more of this.

Matt goes into the hallway and physically steers Tori back toward the waiting room. “I’ll come get you in a few minutes,” he says. “Please. Just go.”

Finally, the teenager retreats out of earshot. Matt returns to Sarah’s room and closes the door. Graham barely misses a beat in his ranting:

“You don’t even have to say it. I already know the truth. This is Matt’s baby, isn’t it?” “It isn’t.” Sarah’s front teeth grip her lower lip as she glowers at Graham, rage boiling inside of her. “I wish I could say he were Matt’s so he wouldn’t have to have a jealous lunatic like you for a father.” She sees Graham raising an arm, but before he can bring it down on her, Matt comes flying at him and pulls him backward. With Matt’s arms wrapped around him, Graham yells, “Who do you think made me this way? You did this to me, you whore!”

Sarah gasps at the label--so aggressive, so unlike Graham. Matt’s response is to spin around and slam Graham into the wall.

“Shut your damn mouth,” Matt says as he pins the older man against the wall.

Sarah hops off the bed and grabs the phone. She pushes a button and waits for an answer.

“I should have demolished that building while you were in it,” Graham says through gritted teeth.

Sarah and Matt both freeze. Was that a confession? Then Sarah hears an operator’s voice in her ear.

“Security to room 427,” she sputters into the phone. “Quickly. Please.” She slams down the receiver.

“Just admit it,” she says to Graham. “You set Matt up. You planted that note, you had him beaten up, you had someone pump drugs into him…”

A sneer spreads over Graham’s face. “I should have had the both of you thrown in that building when I had the chance.”

Sarah shakes her head in disbelief. “How did I not know that you were this psychotic?”

“Who do you think made me this way?” Graham says. “After all I did for you--the things I bought you, the lifestyle I gave you. I took care of you and your miserable brat of a daughter--”

“Hey!” Matt barks as he slams Graham into the wall again.

Pressed against the wall, his designer shirt bunching up over his shoulders, Graham looks toward Sarah. “I missed out on my chance with one family. I missed out on Alex’s whole life. I wasn’t going to let that happen again. But you were never going to appreciate everything I was doing for you. You were too busy panting after this piece of trash--”

“Shut your fucking mouth,” Matt says.

“--you ungrateful slut--”

Graham is silenced by Sarah’s hand cracking across his cheek.

“This is over,” she says. “You are not getting anywhere near my son.”

“He’s my son!” Graham yells, struggling to get free from Matt. His eyelids blink rapidly as he gasps for breath. “This will never--”

He seems to choke on his words as there is a pounding on the door.

“Security!” comes the call from the hallway.

“This will never be over!” Graham says, his voice little more than a rasp, as he spasms and turns to dead weight.

Two security guards come bursting into the room as Graham’s body sags, while a startled Matt clutches him by the shirt.

END OF EPISODE #676

What is wrong with Graham?
Will Sarah ever be able to be free of him?
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