"Gillian looked around for signs that Ryan had tagged along with Hayley. When Ryan revealed that he'd come alone, Gillian threw her hands into the air and started to stomp away. Ryan explained that he knew Gillian could never meet with him if he'd been the one to call. "We never finished our conversation," Ryan said softly. Gillian argued that their conversation was not important. Ryan felt otherwise, again asking Gillian if they had given up on their relationship too soon. "For months I hoped... I begged... I prayed for us to get back together," Gillian yelled. She tried to storm past Ryan, but he grabbed her arm and refused to let her leave. "Why are you doing this?" Gillian asked, her voice cracking. Ryan looked Gillian in the eyes and told her that he doesn't believe that she's truly in love with Jake. Gillian dodged the question, instead calling into question the way that Ryan had unceremoniously turned his back on their marriage. "Jake can't make you feel the way that I can make you feel," Ryan purred. He stepped closer to Gillian, gently brushing his hand through her hair. Gillian turned her head to look away from her former husband. Gillian pulled away. She accused Ryan of coming to her as a last resort; Hayley was back together with Mateo and Greenlee had presumably moved on. "You [always] want what you can't have," Gillian snapped. Ryan again asserted that marrying Jake was a mistake Gillian would regret for the rest of her life. "For the first time in my life I know exactly what I'm doing," the princess argued. Ryan peered deeply into Gillian's eyes once more and told her that he believes she's holding something back. Gillian insisted that she and Jake were very much in love and that their union would benefit Colby. "Jake deserves to be her father," Gillian chirped. Ryan cocked his head to the side and reminded Gillian that Jake is Colby's dad. A perplexed look surfaced on Gillian's face. She looked as though she wanted to spill the truth, but she knew that she couldn't. Ryan promised to back off if Gillian could look him in the eyes and honestly tell him that she loves Jake. Gillian claimed that she and Jake are in love --- but she followed it up with another reference to how her marriage will benefit Colby. Ryan found it odd that Gillian repeatedly brings up Colby. He asked Gillian why Jake felt a need to protect Colby from Adam, a man who isn't even the child's father. Gillian's eyes welled with tears. "You don't understand," she said softly. Ryan begged Gillian to explain things to him. Gillian bowed her head and raced away.
"Who did you kill?" Edmund asked softly. "Geoffrey. Geoffrey Ashford," Alex said haltingly. Erica arrived just in time to hear the declaration. She proclaimed that she was right about Alex's involvement in Geoffrey's demise. David sneered broadly, warning Alex that he could use her confession against. He blasted her for having accused him of killing Siobhan when, all the while, she was the one who'd committed murder. Edmund ordered David to contain his remarks. David breezed past Alex, flashing her a sinister glare. Edmund followed David out of the stairwell and confronted him in the hallway. For the first time, Erica looked concerned for Alex. "What did that man do to you?" she asked tenderly. Erica had seen the look of fear in Alex's eyes and knew that the mere mention of Geoffrey's name sent chills up Alex's spine. Alex initially asked Erica to leave her alone, but, perhaps after sensing Erica's concern, confessed that she wasn't sure what Geoffrey had done. "I don't know," she said in a voice just above a whisper. "I don't remember." In the hospital corridor, David and Edmund engaged in a shouting match. They broke it off only after a nurse poked her head in and informed them that they were disturbing the patients. Erica appeared and told Edmund that Alex needed him. David rolled his eyes and blabbed that his confrontation with Alex had not gone as expected. Erica looked down her nose at the doctor and asked to have a word with him. Back in the stairwell, Edmund offered to help Alex any way that he could. Alex called her recollections of Geoffrey "fragmented." She remembered that she and Geoffrey had had their final showdown, so to speak, on New Year's Eve. As David had hinted, the confrontation took place atop a flight of steps. Geoffrey was furious and his drunken condition didn't make things any better. Geoffrey had grabbed on to Alex and ordered her not to tell anyone about something, that something Alex was still unable to recall. She wrestled to get free from his grasp and in the process Geoffrey tumbled down the steps --- to his death. Alex wondered why she hadn't been charged with a crime. Perhaps she was a fugitive. Edmund suggested that Alex might have already been punished for the crime or that no charges were ever filed. Edmund asked that Alex return home and get some rest. Alex shook her head and said that she could not possibly rest now that she knew she'd killed a man. Edmund again offered to help, this time offering that Alex might have been acting in self-defense. A nurse appeared at the top of the steps and told Alex that Karen had asked for her. Alex was amazed that the girl had finally spoken. She raced off to the young girl's room. There, Karen pleaded with Alex not to send her back home to her family. "I'm afraid of him." The young girl sobbed. Alex asked Karen who was hurting her, but Karen wouldn't say. She repeated several times that "he" had told her never to tell anyone. That phrase also echoed in Alex's mind.
At the Valley Inn, Vanessa read over Palmer's will and was furious to see that Palmer's dogs were provided for better than she was. Leo explained that the will had been drawn up before she and Palmer were married, but that didn't make the new Mrs. Palmer Cortlandt feel any better. Vanessa feared that Palmer's death would leave her "indigent." Leo grumbled that he didn't want his mother to have to go through that again. Vanessa announced that until Palmer revised his will, she would make sure that he took excellent care of himself. Palmer wandered in and overheard his wife talking about his well being. When asked what she was talking about, Vanessa concocted a tale about wanting Palmer to get a flu shot. Palmer sat down and watched as the dessert cart wheeled buy. He reached out and plucked a chocolate eclair from the cart. Vanessa immediately snatched the goodie away from her husband and took a bite out of it. Palmer looked on in shock. Vanessa fed some of the eclair to her son as she told Palmer that the pastry was "a heart attack on a plate." There was one mouthful left and Palmer decided that it was better than nothing. He put the eclair in his mouth and almost immediately started hacking. Vanessa screamed out for a doctor and started administering the Heimlich Maneuver. David and Erica entered and raced to Palmer's side. Palmer insisted that he was fine --- and mused that Vanessa may have broken one of his ribs. Palmer left the room and Erica and David went to their own table. David and Erica bickered playfully about how each had broken their promise not to talk to anyone about Alex and Geoffrey's involvement. They decided to settle their differences --- upstairs in David's hotel room. Palmer returned to the table and helped himself to an eclair of his own. Vanessa mentioned that she'd been thinking a lot about her about her age. She told Palmer that she wanted to accompany him to the attorney when he drew up his new will. That way, she explained, she could draw up a will of her own. She said that while she did not have much, she wanted to demonstrate in some way that Palmer was the man in her life. Palmer made no mention to his intention to redraw his will. Instead, he told Vanessa that he'd pass along his attorney's number to her.
Gillian returned to Wildwind and fell asleep on the sofa in the parlor. She had whimsical yet disturbing dream of how her life might have been in a 1950s black-and-white television series. Dressed in a checkered dress, Gillian played a homemaker who'd gladly given up all claims to her royalty. Jake, in thick black glasses, returned home with Tad, dressed as a high school jock, Joe and Dixie. They all blathered on and on about what a great thrill it was to be a Martin. Not to be outdone, Gillian professed that her life had no meaning now that she was part of the clan. In nearly everything that Gillian and Dixie said, there was a reference to being a mother. Gillian referred to herself as "Colby's mother" and Dixie downplayed all else in life except that she was "Junior and Jamie's mother." Gillian smiled broadly and told everything that she'd mastered Grandma Kate's coffeecake. She pulled out a dish, removed the towel cover, and displayed... a flat and unappealing debacle of a cake. The Martins looked on in horror. Suddenly, Ryan entered the room --- in color. Ryan told Gillian that her cake had flopped because she used a "special secret ingredient." Gillian's mouth quivered noticeably Ryan warned her that no marriage could survive built on secrets. Gillian woke from her sleep with a slight scream. Jake looked on from the foyer and asked his wife-to-be if she was okay.
In his office at Tempo, Edmund pulled up information about Geoffrey on his computer. There was nothing out of the ordinary --- his wife's name and a list of his two children. Edmund hit the print button, but as he did the screen suddenly flashed a message: Access Denied. Try as he did, Edmund was unable to get past the warning screen."
- Soap Central