Previously…
- Molly admitted to Brent that she is now dating Philip.
- After Sarah gave birth to a son, Graham overheard that Sarah asked Bill to give Matt a job at the restaurant.
- Graham confronted Sarah and questioned whether her baby is his or Matt’s. In a rage, he admitted to orchestrating Matt’s attack and kidnapping—and then collapsed.

As Matt Gray pins him to the wall of the hospital room, Graham Colville struggles to get free. He glares past Matt and toward his wife and spits out one more insult:

“You ungrateful slut--”

But he 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--”

As he chokes on his words, there is a pounding on the door.

“Security!”

“This will never be over!” Graham says. His voice is thin and croaky, which only makes it that much more menacing. Then his body spasms and he slumps. The door flies open, and two security guards come bursting into the room.

“Get up!” Matt shouts at Graham, who has turned to dead weight and is stopped from crumpling to the floor only by Matt’s grip upon his dress shirt.

“What’s the matter?” one of the guards asks Sarah.

She clutches the front of her hospital gown as she tries to get her bearings. This is all happening so fast. Graham confronting her about the baby’s paternity--admitting that he was behind Matt’s attack--and now this--

“Him,” she says, pointing to Graham. “He was…” But Graham isn’t moving. She was sure that he was faking, putting on a show for sympathy or to get free, but now she is not so certain.

“Get up,” Matt repeats, but less aggressively and with much less conviction. He uses both hands to hoist Graham back up.

“I think something’s wrong with him,” Sarah says to the guards. “Get a doctor--”

One of the guards is already pressing an alert button, and then more people flood into the room, but through all of the chaos, Graham does not move a muscle.

HARBOR BOULEVARD RESTAURANT

“Thanks for being so flexible,” Tim Fisher says as he takes a seat in his father’s busy restaurant. “Sorry I had to cancel earlier.”

“Your sister had a baby. I think that’s a pretty good reason,” Alex Marshall says. He sits in a chair against the wall, a menu open in front of him. Across the restaurant, the warm glow of the evening sun shines through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

“Kind of thought I might see you there,” Tim says.

“I thought I’d be there, too,” Alex says. He idly reviews the menu for a few seconds. “I don’t know. I didn’t feel ready. Things are weird between my father and me. I’ll go visit the baby soon, though.”

“Hey, you don’t owe me any kind of explanation. You should do whatever’s most comfortable for you.” Tim spreads his napkin over his lap and opens his menu. “All you have to talk about is what you want to do about this screenplay.”

That subject hardly makes Alex feel any better. He never intended to consider Liam Cassel as a serious candidate for adapting his novel for the screen--but none of the other writers that they have met have understood Alex’s work the way Liam has. “It’s too complicated with Liam,” Alex says. He pauses as the waiter arrives with his iced tea and takes Tim’s drink order. “Then let’s keep searching. There are other screenwriters out there. You shouldn’t have to work with your ex-boyfriend’s fiancé.”

“Oh my god. That sounds insane.” Alex lets out a little laugh.

Tim’s phone jingles to announce an incoming text message. He takes it from his pocket. “Sorry. Let me put that on vibrate.” But before he can, Alex’s phone sounds, too.

“It’s Diane,” Alex says as he checks the text.

“Mine too,” Tim says. They are both halfway out of their seats before they finish reading the message.

KING’S BAY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

When Diane Bishop slips back into Sarah’s hospital room, she finds Sarah sitting up in the bed and Matt Gray looking like a caged animal as he waits in a chair.

“Ryan’s taking Tori to your parents’,” Diane says. “I texted Tim, Molly, and Jason, and I figured Alex should know, too.”

“Good. Thanks.” Sarah stares straight ahead at the opposite wall, where  the TV hangs, unused.

“Any word on Graham yet?” Diane asks.

“Not that we’ve heard,” Matt says.

Diane closes the door behind herself. “So what the hell happened?”

Sarah glances at Matt, as if expecting him to be able to make any more sense of the wild scene that transpired than she has been able to.

“He heard my father say that I asked him to hire Matt,” she explains. “And then he came in here and totally lost it. He kept asking if the baby was really Matt’s, and he admitted to putting Matt in that building--”

“Whoa. He actually admitted it?”

“He said he wished he had thrown me in there, too.”

“Um… what?”

“He totally lost it,” Matt says. “I mean, whatever was left to lose.”

Diane’s eyes bug out as she takes in the story. “Well, it must feel sort of good to have the truth out. I’m just sorry it had to happen like this.”

Sarah sighs. “Me too.” She cannot even comprehend that the first day of her son’s life is… this.

“And then what happened? He just went down?” Diane asks. “Did you knock him out?” She looks from Matt to Sarah. “Either of you?”

“No,” Matt says. “He just…” “His voice got really ragged, and then he just went down,” Sarah says. “It seemed like he was having a stroke or something.” She doesn’t even know how to feel about it. She knows that she should be hysterically upset, and in a way she is, but she has been so scared of Graham for so long, and after the way he acted earlier… But that is also her son’s father somewhere in this hospital, possibly suffering from something very serious.

“Any chance he was faking?” Diane asks. “Kind of convenient timing.”

“I thought so,” Matt says. “But I had him by the shirt. I don’t think…” He springs to his feet. “I’m gonna go see if there’s a doctor or somebody who can tell us what the hell’s going on.”

“That might be good,” Sarah says, but Matt is already on his way out anyway.

As the door closes again, Diane goes to her friend’s bedside. “How are you feeling? Need anything?”

“Can you maybe speed up time so we can get all of this resolved? Because I’m not sure anything else would help right now.”

CLAIRE FISHER’S APARTMENT

When Brent Taylor steps off the elevator, he sees Claire Fisher down the hall, unlocking the door to her apartment. She is still dressed in her light blue scrubs and tennis shoes, and her dark hair is pulled back into a ponytail. A large purse hangs from her shoulder.

“Hey,” he says as he walks quickly toward her. “Was there traffic on the way from the hospital?”

“You have no idea.” She shakes her head as she pushes the apartment door open. “I thought you might beat me here.”

“Well, you get the medal… barely.”

He trails her inside. She flips on the lights in the living room.

“Tempest is out?” he asks as Claire bustles about the apartment.

“She’s working at the arena,” Claire says as she pours herself a glass of water. “Do you want water?”

“No, I’m fine.” Brent leans on the tall counter that separates the kitchen from the living room.

“So… what did you need to talk about?” she asks.

He feels all the words rushing into his brain, and it takes a few seconds to sort them out--and even then, he isn’t sure that he is choosing the correct ones. “Just wanted to talk. When I was at the hospital before, I ran into Molly.”

“Did something happen?”

“No. Sort of. She brought your brother with her.”

Claire’s mouth opens, as if she has something to say but thinks better of it. Brent sees the hesitation and the decision flash across her face.

“What is it?” he asks.

“Nothing. Go on.”

“They were together. Molly told me they’re dating. And I guess I saw it coming, but it was still a shock.”

Claire sets down her water glass. “Because she’s moving on?”

“Yeah. And because he’s been around for so long. I remember when I saw them kissing at his mother’s--”

“Molly didn’t cheat on you with Philip.”

“I know. It’s just disorienting.”

“I hear you. I’m sorry. It’s tough.”

Brent turns away from the counter. “Just kind of a rude awakening. That’s all. I’m probably making too big a deal out of it.”

“I don’t think there’s such a thing as ‘making too big a deal’ out of this,” Claire says. “Unless you were setting her house on fire or something, I guess.”

That gets Brent to crack a smile.

“You and Molly were together for a long time. You loved her--you always will, in a sense. It’s jarring to find out that she’s moving on.”

“Yep. It is. And I’m… I’m not there yet. Am I supposed to be further along than this?”

“Listen.” She moves around the counter and places a comforting hand on his arm. “The day will come when you feel like it’s time to move on, too. It happens at a different pace for everyone.”

Brent lets out a sigh. “You’re right.”

“Per usual. Have you eaten? I was going to whip something up. Want to join?”

“I’d like that,” Brent says, and he actually feels himself relaxing a little bit.

Claire takes out a cutting board. “The only catch is that you need to earn your dinner by helping with some chopping.”

“Now that I can handle,” he says as he takes the board and reaches for a knife.

KING’S BAY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

“Nothing?” Sarah asks when Matt returns to her room. “Did they even tell you if he’s in surgery or anything?”

Matt shakes his head. “Nothing.”

“Do I need to go yell at someone?” Diane says. She sits in a chair pulled right up to Sarah’s bedside.

“I’m about to let you,” Sarah says.

Just then, a doctor whom Sarah doesn’t recognize appears at the open door. He is middle-aged, with dark brown hair that is rapidly being overtaken by gray.

“Mrs. Colville?” he asks.

“That’s me,” she says. “What’s going on with my husband?” She sees the doctor hesitate and adds, “It’s fine. You can say it in front of them.”

The doctor draws a deep breath. “Mr. Colville suffered a ruptured cerebral aneurysm. An aneurysm occurs when an artery in the brain--”

“We know what it is,” Diane cuts him off. “What’s going on with Graham?”

“When an aneurysm ruptures, a person experiences what’s called a subarachnoid hemorrhage--bleeding on the brain. If we catch the bleeding in time, there are a number of methods we can use to treat an individual.” The doctor pauses. “Unfortunately, Mr. Colville’s bleeding was too severe. I’m very sorry.”

“What are you saying?” Sarah asks. The obvious answer is too crazy to be real.

“I’m very sorry,” the doctor repeats. “Your husband’s hemorrhage was fatal.”

“Wait. What?” comes a voice from the doorway.

All eyes go to Alex, who stands there with Tim. “My father is dead?”

END OF EPISODE #677

How will Sarah and Alex cope with this shocking news?
Should Brent try to move on from Molly?
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