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Ashley Defends Her Actions
Ashley says she did this to get rid of the Blood Abbott clause and to make sure that jack couldn’t make the rest of the not feel like a second class citizen. Abby is angry, saying she never wanted this. Jack feels he has his father back!
Victoria (Amelia Heinle) reads the note, just as Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) walks in revealing she got a note too; but hers says, “The final 3 digits of your payment are 000, and you have 24 hours to wire the money.” Victoria is sure this is Sharon (Sharon Case) as she hasn’t called yet. Meanwhile, Sharon ends a call, saying she will get on top of things and decides to organize the house.
Victoria Thinks Sharon Is Sending The Notes
Traci (Beth Maitland) apologizes to Jack and angrily demands answers from Ashley; Kyle (Michael Mealor) attempts to comfort his dad, saying he did try to tell him how sick and twisted Ashley was. Ashley wants Abby to understand, but she doesn’t. Jack wants her to explain it now, ordering everyone out and Traci escorts everyone out. He tells her she needs to beg for forgiveness if she has any chance of making this right; she doesn’t think she needs any forgiveness.
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Abbott’s Turn On Ashley
Outside the CEO office, Traci is upset, remembering how she really didn’t think Jack would survive when he learned John wasn’t his father. Kyle feels Ashley did this for her own sick pleasure. Lauren (Tracey E. Bregman) knew there was something up but the way Ashley was acting earlier; Phyllis (Gina Tognoni) calls Ashley a hypocrite; but Abby is upset yelling them to stop as she is so angry that she doesn’t even know her own mother any more.
Jack feels Victor (Eric Braeden) put her up to this. She says she did this on her own after what he did to her last Christmas with the Blood Abbott clause, wanting her to know that she never had claim to the family name nor John’s legacy. She confronts him on not just getting her out of Jabot, but then plotting with Victoria to get her out of Newman, just so he could flaunt his seniority; that was her tipping point. She was tired of playing nice and wanted to make him feel the pain that he made her feel; and she was going to be as cold and calculating as he was when he did it to her.
Sharon holds one of Nick’s (Joshua Morrow) shirts when Nikki calls her, wanting to know if she got another letter. Sharon says she will look for a letter and tell them if she gets one. She finds it immediately on her desk.
Kyle, Phyllis and Traci confront Andrew (Coby Ryan McLaughlin) at the elevator, who says someone drove Ashley to that point. When Phyllis says he won’t get away with it, he informs her that he is the least of her worries.
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Ashley Has No Remorse
Ashley says that Dina has a lot of affairs and all she had to do was plant the seed and make her believe she had one more. There are flashbacks of Ashley suggesting Dina tells Abby the story of setting the record straight about being with a man right after she married John; for once, it worked in Ashley’s favor. Jack doesn’t recognize the woman standing in front of him at all, especially using their mother’s Alzheimer’s against her. Ashley has a lot of feelings, but none of them is feeling bad. Lauren leaves and Phyllis leaves shortly when she gets a message from Nikki saying to get to Sharon’s ASAP.
Phyllis arrives, saying she left something very urgent. Nikki asks if she was busy breaking up another happy couple. Sharon mocks her that cheating isn’t the mood lifter it used to be. They compare notes and learn the blackmailer wants $250,000.00 and they want the money sent to an offshore account. Nikki says they have two choices, either pay it or risk being exposed.
Ashley tells Jack to not paint a rosy picture of their mother; Jack admits she made mistakes. Ashley believes he considers her to be a mistake. Ashley throws it in his face that he used their mother’s infidelity in his favor, why couldn’t she? She explains everything she did, using Andrew and Abby. She admits it was her that edited Dina’s confession into Charlie’s (Noah Alexander Gerry) movie at the screening. And the look on his face was totally worth it. Jack is shocked to learn that Kyle knew about Dina’s confession long before he found out.
Cover-up Crew Argues Over Paying Blackmailer
The four women debate about giving into the blackmail. Phyllis and Victoria agree to not give in, while Sharon and Nikki think they should. Phyllis suggests they turn the tables on their tormentor and since the person knows they are dangerous; they should show the person just how dangerous they can be.
Jack and Ashley fight over their moral records. She says this is for every horrible, selfish thing he has done to her and everyone else. She explains how she pulled off the second DNA test Jack requested, when she met with Andrew; paid him cash and it is true, that money can just about buy everything. Jack says learning that when John wasn’t his father, it was like a death to him and maybe him taking all those pills would have been icing on the cake for her. She wanted to hurt him, not kill him.
It was her plan to move Billy in as CEO, but he wasn’t as cooperate as she thought he would be, and she had hoped he would bottom out before he took the company down. Jack is shocked that she would make Billy collateral damage as part of her vendetta against him. Ashley admits she wanted revenge and why shouldn’t she after Jack used her paternity against her – to feel like she isn’t a part of her own family. He congratulates her because he doesn’t see his sister standing in front of him but a cold, cruel, bitter, heartless monster; who he wouldn’t want to know, much less be related to!
Traci, Kyle and Abby return to the Abbott home where they still try to process what just happened. Kyle is hurt as Abby apologizes for what her mother has done to him, he says he has never been part of this family until he saw it all taken away from his dad. That is when he got it, the powerful feeling of being connected to someone who was admired, respected and loved. He saw what it did to Jack to lose himself and when he thought he wasn’t John Abbott Jr. he thought he was a nobody. He can’t forget what Ashley did.
Ashley tells Jack to go and celebrate he is John’s son. He doesn’t care about the company, he cares about what he did to her. The clause was a business move, she says it was personal. She swears she was going to tell him before at Christmas, like a homage for what he did and maybe he could appreciate it. She says, “Merry Christmas Jacky!”
Phyllis refuses to pay one penny, but Nikki says since she killed JT (Thad Luckinbill) she will pay it all and maybe they can follow the trail to the blackmailer. Nikki and Sharon agree to pay but Victoria and Phyllis disagree again; they seem to be at an impasse. Victoria agrees that paying someone is admitting they are guilty for something. Victoria convinces Nikki to hold off, and Sharon has no choice but to agree and they will know in 24 hours if they made the wrong decision.
Traci talks to Kyle about how she felt when Colleen died; first anger and then grief. She says Kyle has a second chance with Jack and to not waste it being angry with Ashley. Abby says if there is anything she can do, he is grateful; but doesn’t know how to deal with her mother. Kyle can’t imagine how Jack feels.
Jack’s Temper Unleashed
Meanwhile at Jabot, Jack feels Ashley has no human decency and honestly feels Jack is as much to blame for this as she is and John, their father would forgive her for this. Jack orders her to never use John’s name again because if he saw her right now, he would be disgusted. Jack grabs a letter opener and rips off her name plate on the door and throws it, saying she has disgraced herself and everything John has stood for… his love, his basic kindness, his office, his work, his legacy, his chair and everything he cared about. Jack picks up the chair and throws it through the glass window as Ashley screams.
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