"What did you expect me to do?" Nick rushed up behind her, barely reaching her in time to grab her arm before she stepped onto the elevator. "Can you just wait a minute, Phyllis? We need to talk about this."

"So now you can talk." The words flew from her mouth with little regard for who heard them or what they might think. The crowded lobby of the courthouse might as well have been their living room. Her pain and rage were far too visceral to contain. "Now you have something to say? But not in there? Not in that room while your father's lawyer ripped me to shreds?"

He let his head drop a bit mindful of the crowds of people that had begin to slow their hurried steps. He could hear the subtle clicks of iPhone cameras and he knew they were being watched. It was commonplace now, an everyday reality. No matter who you were, your public domestic disputes could be the next viral Youtube sensation. Add the Newman name to the mix and you were a gossip rag cover story waiting to happen. "Can we go somewhere else and talk about this? Please?"

She let her eyes scan the room, her rage now intensifying even more. "Oh, because this isn't good for you, right? For your image, for your company, for your name? I've got news for you Nick. You can take your reputation and shove it up your sanctimonious ass!"

The sound of the elevator's chime brought him back to reality as he stood there dumbstruck.

"Mr. Newman, what can you tell us about your thoughts regarding the hearing proceedings today? Do you believe Ms. Summers could have been involved in the conspiracy to frame your father for murder?"

The words echoed in his ears over and over as he stared at the now closed elevator doors in front of him. "No comment," he finally managed before reaching out and pressing the button himself.

She took a seat on the park bench as she tried to catch her breath. The day felt like a nightmare from which we might never wake ...

"And isn't it true, Ms. Summers, that you have your own reasons for wanting Mr. Newman to spend time behind bars?"

"That's not what this case is about." She stared at the man in front of her, another slick, high brow, entitled prick that Victor no doubt felt he owned. "How I feel about Mr. Newman has nothing to do with the murder of JT Helstrom."

"Except that it does because you saw this as a chance to right some wrongs, didn't you?"

"That's not true."

"Really. Then enlighten me, please. Were you not one of the victims named in court proceedings a few years ago in which Victor Newman was found guilty?"

She swallowed hard. "I was, but again, that's not what..."

"Just answer the question, Ms. Summers," the judge warned.

"Yes," she said softly.

"And can you tell the court, just briefly, what Mr. Newman was convicted of? In laymen's terms, of course?"

Her eyes stared daggers through the man who looked at her with a smug half smile. "He arranged to have my then husband, Jack Abbott kidnapped and he replaced him with a doppelgänger."

"Right and this doppelgänger, his name was ..."

She hated the sound of the name, the utterance of it made her skin crawl. "Marco," she spat, "Marco Anicelli."

"I see and you immediately realized this doppelgänger wasn't your husband, correct? And you alerted the authorities?"

The rage walked greater within her. "You know damn well ..." Her hands clenched the dark wood in front of her, her legs trembled beneath her body. She wanted to stand, to scream, to lash out, to bolt, but she couldn't. Her eyes searched the rows of seats to find Nick. Why was he letting this happen? Why wasn't he stopping him? How could he sit there and allow this man, whoever he was, to do this to her, to make her relive the absolute worst moments of her life? His eyes were downcast, his face staring down at the floor. He didn't even look up at her. "No," she virtually snarled, "I was fooled for months. For months I ate, lived, and slept with a stranger. For months I was violated in the worst ways and it was allowed to continue. In fact, it was encouraged."

"That sounds just horrible." He paused for a moment as he looked down at the page he held in his hand. "But I see that Mr. Newman was convicted to a 10 year prison sentence, so at least you were able to find some closure in that."

"He served a few months. Months. He got out and everything went back to normal for him. He got his family back. He got his company back. He got his reputation back. You know what I got? A divorce, a broken family, and doubt. I doubted my instincts, my sanity, my ability to function. So do I think Victor Newman still deserves to be in jail? If that's the question you're asking me, hell yes I do. I'm just telling you, I didn't do anything to try and put him there."

"I see." He walked back to the table and picked up a file. "I'd like to present this into evidence."

The courtroom filled with murmurs as the sheet was passed to the attorneys and the judge.

Phyllis let her eyes roam the paper, her jaw tightening with anger. She looked out at Nick again. His eyes met hers this time, but only for a second - long enough for her to see the guilt. He knew. He knew this was coming and yet he'd said nothing.

"I wanted to give you a moment to read over the statement. Have you had a chance to do so?"

"I read it."

"And do you agree with Ms. Newman's statements of the events. She attests that you adamantly claimed her father deserved everything he got and that you were happy he might serve time for the murder regardless of his actually innocence or guilt? Do you remember saying that."

"I was angry. She'd also slapped me. She left that part out. She's lucky all she got thrown back at her were words."

"Are you normally a violent person, Ms. Summers?"

"No."

"Would JT Helstrom disagree?"

"Vic!" He let the door slam shut behind him. "Vic, are you here?"

"Shhhh." Victoria turned the corner and stepped into the living room. "Katie's taking a nap," she hissed, "You'll wake her." She looked at him intently for a moment, the deep creases in his forehead betraying his perturbed mood. "What's the matter?"

"Hopefully nothing." He reached to pull his jacket from his shoulders and fling it over the back of the couch. Even in the cold Wisconsin winter, the rush of rage had warmed him to the point of being uncomfortable. "I was at the GCAC and I saw a report on the preliminary hearings."

"Yeah," she nodded. "I was going to try to go, but then Nick said he was going to be there and that he would represent us both, so ..."

"They has Phyllis on the stand today."

Silence fell over the room and nothing else had to be said. He could see it all over her face.

"Jesus, Vic. Why would you do that?"

"I didn't do anything wrong, Billy. I told the truth. I told them exactly what happened, exactly what she said."

"Yeah, but you know how that sounds. And what's more, you know what your father did. It's disgusting. It's unforgivable and he got away with it after spending a few months in jail. It's like he got a slap on the wrist and she got a life sentence. There's no fairness in that."

"Life isn't fair sometimes, Billy. Everyone learns that at some time or another."

"Seriously? That's your excuse? Even after everything she did for you with JT? After what you told me about that night and ..."

"Keep your voice down. The last thing I need is for Katie to overhear something and tell her entire dance class." She sighed. "Look, I appreciate what she did, what everyone did, but all I did was tell the truth. If she's not guilty, she shouldn't have anything to worry about."

"You know she's not guilty! You know she didn't try to frame your father for the murder."

Silence.

"Wait a minute. You actually think she did it, don't you? You think she might be trying to set Victor up to go down for this whole thing, don't you?"

"Yeah, you know what, I do and what's upsetting me more than anything here is the fact that you seem more upset over the fact that I think it than if it's actually true. You don't care if my father is being set up. If Phyllis was doing it, you'd be okay with it, wouldn't you?"

And there it was, their problem, the one that always had, always did, and always would come between them. "Do I think she did it? No, I don't. Do I think she'd be justified if she did? Absolutely. What Victor did to her, to Jack, to our whole family, there's no getting over that. And if that man spent every day of the rest of his miserable life in a 6 by 6 concrete cell, it still wouldn't be justice."

"I've been looking all over for you." Nick moved to take a seat beside her. "I don't want to leave things like that."

"Too bad, I'm leaving." She was on her feet in seconds and already walking away from him when he stood up and reached for her.

"Wait, Phyllis!"

"Why? Why should I wait? So you can lie to me some more, tell me you believe me, tell me you're in my corner, meanwhile all the while you're planning and plotting with your father and your sister against me and ..."

"That's not how it happened. I never plotted against you. Did I know about Vic's statement? Yes, okay? I knew, but she swore it was the truth and nothing more. Was she lying?"

"It doesn't even matter, Nick. Your family's version of honesty is so screwed up that I can't even talk to you about this. A truth that comes at the worst possible time is like an anvil and that ... what your sister just did - strategically placing the statement in the cross examination that way, she just made me look vengeful and angry and spiteful and ..."

"Aren't you?" He saw the reaction and immediately regretted the response. "Not that you aren't justified in feeling that way, but don't you feel that way towards my father?"

"I can't even talk to you." She turned away Ashe reached for her again. "Nick just let me go."

"I can't. I can't leave things like this. You and I don't have to let this come between us."

"You already have. When you chose to sit in that room and let that man vilify and berate me and you did nothing. You let your loyalty for your father come between us."

"I don't know what the hell you expected me to do, Phyllis. We were in the middle of a hearing. No one would have stood up and demanded the lawyer back off."

"That's where you're wrong."

She knew the voice instantly, the sound of the low, comforting swell something she'd come to count on during the most trying times in her life. The sound brought with it a flood of memories and feelings and she felt her eyes burn with fresh tears as she turned to see him.

"If I'd been there," Billy continued, "there's no way in hell I would have sat back and let that happen."