"I don't care," Nick bellowed as he brushed past the assistant that tried valiantly to block Victor's door.

"If you'll just let me call in and let him know you're here, I'm sure he'll …"

"He'll figure it out." He said the words as his hand was already on the door, turning the knob and pushing it open. "And you can go," he said, dismissing the woman. "I'm sure he can manage the rest of the day without you."

Victor stood, hearing the sound of his son's angry voice and meeting him at the door. "What's going on here?"

"I was just telling Connie that you could manage without her the rest of the day." He glared at his father. "Can't you?" His words were curt, his tone forceful - a definite change from his normal interactions with the elder Newman.

"It's fine, Connie. You can go. I'm going to try to get out of her a little early today anyway."

He smiled briefly at her as he watched her move to her desk and begin a frenzy of clean up. Turning his attention back towards his son, he tried to keep his annoyance at bay. "You want to come in and tell me what's going on, son? What's got you in this state?"

It took everything in him not to scream it at the top of his lungs for everyone within earshot to hear. It would serve his father right. Everyone should know what he'd done. There were no excuses for this - no justification - no amount of money that could make this type of heinous action go unpunished. He deserved the hate and disdain that would come his way. He should be put on blast, a public shaming, as Newmans rarely received. And he would have done just that because the fallout would have been justified, but that fallout would have come down on so many others - so many others that didn't deserve it, so many others that had already been devastated by the actions of the man that now stood in front of him with such a smug, self righteous smile on his face.

"How can you even stand there and look at me?" Nick managed, still trying to wrap his mind around everything Billy had told him. He'd never been the type that had viewed his father as some sort of superhero. He knew the man had faults. He'd seen them firsthand. Victor Newman was flawed in almost every way, but he'd always believed, above everything else that he loved his family, that he protected his family, that he'd move heaven and earth if it meant his family was safer for it. So how exactly did he explain this?

"Alright." Victor stepped into the room and crossed back behind his desk. "Clearly something is going on and maybe you'd like to share it with me so that I might actually understand what you're talking about? Of course, if you'd prefer to just stand here and have some sort of fit, I suppose that works too."

"A fit? Is that what you call this, Dad? A fit. You know, I talked to Vic earlier. She was telling me that she saw Jack here earlier and that he was ready to choke the life out of you and she couldn't understand what you could have possibly done to drive him to that point."

"Everyone seems to think Jack Abbott has some sort of moral high ground, like he can't possibly be pushed to the levels of mere mortals. Jack lost his cool, like everyone else does. It's no surprise really. He's been on the edge for a long while - probably the fact that Jabot is barely hanging on and …"

"Really Dad?!" He could barely keep his hands from grabbing something and hurling it across the room at him, anything to shatter this ridiculously calm exterior he'd created. How could he just sit there and act as if everything was fine when he had left Phyllis and Jack in absolute shambles. He'd just sat across the table from a woman that he'd spent years of his life married to, a woman that he shared a daughter with, and he'd watched as she tried desperately to hold onto some shred of sanity and yet here his father sat, acting as if it were a normal, everyday moment. It made his blood boil inside.

"Son, if you're not going to tell me what you're so upset about, I'm afraid you're wasting both of our time and I have other things to do that …"

"I bet you do," Nick hissed. "You looking up some more Peruvian drug lords to bring to town? Where exactly do your source your doppelgangers, Dad? Is there a booming online business for that or is that a special request?"

Victor's eyes widened, the mention of the specifics of the situation clearly getting his attention. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"The hell you don't," Nick growled. "I know, Dad. I know everything. I know every sick, twisted thing you did. I know that you brought some psychopath into this town, that you planted him in our lives, in all of our lives, that you helped him pretend to be Jack Abbott so that he could infiltrate Jabot, and Genoa City, and more than that …" He took in a shaky breath. "He moved into the Abbott house. He pretended to be Phyllis' husband. She trusted him. She slept with him. You let that happen? How could you do that, Dad? How could you do that to her?"

"I didn't do anything to Phyllis."

Nick took a step back, words escaping him for a minute. He ran his hand over his face, his head throbbing. "Do you honestly believe that because if you do, you really need some help. You brought that man into her house. You gave him every bit of ammunition he needed to make her believe that he was Jack. How can you not see the culpability you have in this?"

"Son, I don't know what you've heard or where you've heard it, but …"

"From her, Dad. I heard it from her. She told me today as she was almost falling apart. You've done that to her and I'm standing here, looking at you, trying to figure out how you don't hate yourself as much as I hate you right now, as much as Summer is going to hate you when she learns what you did to her mother."

"Nicholas," Victor began, "This isn't a black and white situation. Everything isn't as cut and dry and you've no doubt been led to believe."

"I don't even know what to say to that. You allowed the mother of my child to be violated and raped and manipulated for months for what?! For revenge? To oneup a business deal? What the hell is the matter with you?"

"I think maybe you're too upset to discuss this right now, my boy. Maybe we can talk about this later at home or …"

"You actually think I'm going to sit down and discuss this with you? Like you're going to be able to tell me all the pros and cons of this and make me understand why it made sense? That's never going to happen, Dad, but I tell you what is going to happen. I'm going to tell Summer. I'm going to tell Vic and Mom and when I do, they're going to hate you just like I do and I'm going to make damn sure that you never have the chance to hurt anyone else the way you've hurt Phyllis and Jack and so many others. I will never, ever trust you again and I will never forgive you."


"Thanks for meeting me," she said quietly, taking a seat on the bench in the quietest corner of the park. "I felt like we needed to talk."

"Yeah, of course." He sat down next to her and felt his heart break a bit as he watched her physically recoil. "I was so glad you called. I want you to know that there hasn't been a moment that I haven't been thinking of you and hoping you were okay and wishing that there was something I could do to make this better, to fix this."

She dropped her eyes to the ground and shook her head. "I know," she whispered, finally forcing herself to look at him. For so many years, looking into his eyes had brought her such comfort and now, the sight of him brought back memories she'd do anything to forget. For that, and for so many other things, she hated Victor and would hate him forever. "I know you want to help and I know that you told Nikki and Neil because you were trying to help them, just like you try to help everyone. I know you weren't trying to betray me. I do know that, Jack."

"Does that mean you forgive me?"

"It's not that simple," she whispered, "It's not just about forgiving you. I wish it was. I wish I could just decide that everything was okay and we could go back to the way it was, but I can't. It's not about that. The thoughts, the memories, the sounds, everything …" She pointed to her forehead. "They're all still in here and I don't know how to get rid of them. I don't know how to make them go away."

"Maybe I can help. Maybe if we work together, maybe we can figure out a way back. I know I want that more than I've ever wanted anything."

"I need to be honest with you," she said suddenly, the shift in tone becoming clear to him as he watched her body language change a bit. "I was angry with you for telling our story. I was angry because I thought it was too personal and that sharing it would somehow be too shameful or …" She drew in a deep breath. "But you were right to talk about it. I see that now and I can't fault you because I see how it feels to be open and honest and tell someone about what happened, to be able to see that other people don't judge you for what happened, they recognize it for what it was - the result of Victor's sick, twisted manipulations." She could see the tears in his eyes and it almost made her give in to the impulse of falling into his arms like she had so many times before, but in that same instant, she saw a flash, a flash of that face with the sly grin and her insides with cold. A shiver went through her and she stiffened her spine, forcing her words to continue in an effort to keep from completely losing her focus.

"I told Billy." The words came from her mouth quickly as she kept her eyes averted. "I know I probably should have talked to you first, but it just happened. He knew something was wrong and I couldn't keep it in any longer. I'm sorry. I know it's hypocritical and …"

"I'm glad you told him. I'm glad you were able to talk about it. You need that. You need someone to talk to, someone that can help you through things and if it can't be me, I'm glad you can talk to Billy." Jack studied her face, well aware there was still more to come.

"That's not all," she admitted. "Nick knows too." She saw him physically react.

"That … That's going to change things."

"I know," she said softly. "It's only a matter of time now. Nick is going to go to his father. I could see it in his eyes. He was so furious and no matter what I said to him, no matter how much I tried to get him to calm down … there was no calming him. It was like I had shattered something in him. I know Nick never saw Victor as perfect, but I think he always had this idea that there were limits, you know? There were lines that even the great Victor Newman didn't cross."

"Yeah, this had to hit Nick especially hard."

She nodded. "It was pretty terrible. It broke something in him. I could see that."

Jack sat still for a moment. "So now that Billy and Nick know, and you seem to understand why I told Nikki and Neil, where does that leave things with us? Can you come back home? Can we work on this?"

A tear slowly ran down her cheek and she forced herself not to pull away as he gently brushed it from her cheek. "I wish I could, Jack, but I still need time. I just need to try and get my head back in a place where things make sense again. So maybe for now, you could just walk me back to the GAC."

Even as his heart broke, he knew he had to honor her wishes. "Yeah," he said, "I can do that." He reached for her hand and looked into her eyes for permission. She swallowed hard and nodded. "We don't have to talk," he said softly. "It's enough to just walk here with you … just for a minute."

She knew he'd walked slower, holding onto every moment they had together and, as he held the door for her to walk through the brightly lit doorway, she wished she could simply wave a wand and erase all the memories that monster had created. She opened her mouth to speak and stopped as she saw Nick pacing back and forth in front of the stairs.

"Nick," she said, looking up at Jack before speaking again, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm sorry," he said quickly, surprised to see the two of them together. "I don't mean to interrupt. I just … I felt like you should know that I talked with my father and I …" He didn't even know how to put into words what had happened. "I told him that I knew and I told him what I thought and I told him that I was going to make sure that the rest of the family knew what a …" His voice broke as he saw the pain in her eyes. He looked up at Jack, meeting the eyes of a man who had treated him like a son for years. "Jack," he said quietly, "I don't have any idea what words I can say to tell you how sorry I am."

"You don't need to say anything," Jack said softly. "You don't have anything to be sorry for. You are not your father. You are not responsible for the things he does."

"Well, I'm going to make sure that he is held responsible. I promise you that. I'm going to make sure that Mom and Vic know what he did and Summer …" He looked towards again. "Does she?"

The tears couldn't be held back anymore and he reached for her hand as he saw the break. "If you want me to tell her then …"

"No," she breathed. "I should tell her … but maybe you should be there too with us …" She looked up at Jack, who nodded. "She's going to need support. She adores her grandfather and when she realizes what he's done, what he's capable of, it's going to be hard for her to even fathom."

"You're right and we'll be there for her. We'll help her with whatever she needs." Nick squeezed her hand as he locked eyes with her again. "And you too. I'm so sorry that I didn't know about this until now, but now that I do, I promise you, I'll do whatever I can do to make sure that my father pays for this. You let me know if there's anything you need and I do mean anything."

He leaned in to take her into his arms and let lips brush against her forehead for a moment. She felt so fragile in his embrace and he felt another wave of fury flash through him as he realized just what his father had taken from her. All the fire and energy he'd come to expect from Phyllis was seemingly gone and to know why was enough to make him sick. He pulled away and forced himself to smile. "I'll see you guys later," he whispered.

She waited until she saw his silhouette pass down the walk before beginning to speak again. "I think we might as well prepare ourselves. People are going to find out and since it's not going to be a secret anymore maybe it's time we stop hiding behind it."

Jack leaned back a bit. In her voice there was a hint of the determination and strength he knew but had not heard in weeks. "What are you thinking?"

Saying it would make it real and she needed it to be. "I'm thinking it's time to be honest about this. It's time to make Victor Newman pay."