Chapter 5: Spring of Devastation

In the aftermath of Javier Sanchez' suicide, Billy Clyde found himself under suspicion of murder by the FBI, who revealed that Javier was an undercover operative.  It didn't help matters that Billy was pleased to have his lover's ex- husband out of the way, much to her offense.  Despite the fact that she barely recognized the man he had become in the end, Crystal was deeply sadden by the loss of her ex- husband.  Her grief, however, wasn't just emotional.  Javier's death was yet another casualty in direct result of her relationship with Billy.  Nearly half a decade ago, Billy lost his wife - Angela Sedwick - and unborn child when the truth of his affair with Crystal hit the fan.  Crystal would later have to face off with Angela's vengeful sister, Laura, who desperately wanted the restauranteer to suffer for the death of her sister.  In the end, crazed with vengeance, Laura fell to her death after unsuccessfully trying to kill Crystal's best friend and former business partner, Taneia Ralston.  With all the death surrounding her and Billy's relationship, Crystal wondered if the fates were not trying to send them a message?  Needless to say, it took a while for her to reconcile with Javier's suicide and the guilt she felt for not being able to stop him.  As she started to open up to Billy about her feelings regarding Javier's death, the two began to heal.  Now that they weren't preoccupied with their own problems, they were able to refocus on business.  Of course, they would find that came with its own set of problems.  Alfonso Morgan, becoming increasingly bored with the restaurant side of things at CF & A, was thrilled to be approached about a business opportunity in Seattle  His friend, Mindy, however, was not.  Neither were Crystal and Billy, at first.  However, they understood that he was a victim of circumstance as much as them as a result of everything that went down with Javier, and wished him luck with his new job.  Mere minutes later, Billy and Crystal were delighted to learn that the investigation into Javier's death had been officially ruled a suicide and they could finally close that chapter in their lives.  But remember, this is Hallandale.  When one chapter closes, another opens.

When Earl Pryce returned to Hallandale, things remained pretty tensed between him and his brother, who was still upset with Earl for refusing to open up about their father's death.  His friend, Evelin Vasquez, tried to reason that telling Matthew the truth might help repair the damage to their relationship and give him closure, but Earl was adamant that it would only feed into his brother's obsession with the world that his father was apart of, and that was the last thing he wanted.  The conversation leaving him with a ringing headache, he excused himself to get some aspirin.  When he failed to return, a curious Evelin went after him, shocked to discover him passed out on the kitchen floor.  Rushing him to the hospital, attending nurse Dr. Samantha Lombard revealed that Earl contracted the lethal blackadder36 virus, a pathogen that had been sweeping through Hallandale over the last month.

After realizing there was little her or the other team of doctors could do to combat the blackadder36 virus on their home front, Samantha took off for Springfield.  Little did she know the bureaucratic non-sense she would encounter at Springfield Medical Hospital, headed by Dr. Daniel Mayfield.  But he was no match for her resilience.  After she managed to strong arm him into admitting how he cured his infected patients, Samantha went on search for the azalea plant.  Unfortunately, the citizens of Springfield were just as tightlipped about the azalea as he was, only thing was she suspected the dodgy doctor was behind their silence.  Bombarding his office with threats of uncovering whatever improprieties he was trying to keep buried at Springfield Medical, Daniel cracked and agreed to take her to the Azalea Garden.

Back in Hallandale, Earl remained in a deep coma-like sleep while his friends and family banded around him.  With every passing day, Matthew began to lose hope that his brother would beat the odds.  Dana performed a tarot reading hoping it would give him something more tangible to hold onto, but the cards only seemed to confirm his worst fears.  The cards would also prove a disappointment to her brother Brock, who came to Dana desperate to find out where his wife had disappeared to.  Hoping the power of three could reinforce the messages the tarot was trying to communicate, Dana and Matthew asked Crystal to use her visions to help track Samantha.  With the help of her visions, the trio was able to determine that Samantha was headed to some sort of plantation and that a physician she was with posed as a threat to her.  While Matthew and Dana contemplated their next move, Evelin had an interesting altercation with Earl's former wife, who warned the lawyer not to entertain the idea of romantic union between her and Earl - he would never be a true husband to her.  Offended by her gall and lack of respect in front of Earl, who was practically on his deathbed, Evelin demanded the former misses get out of his hospital room.   In the next hour to follow, Evelin received the surprise of a lifetime when Earl regained consciousness.  She immediately went for the nearest sign of help, where Matthew and Dana happen to overhear the good news.  While awkward at first, Matthew and Earl shared some words and finally reconnected as brothers.

The Aftermath of Kavina's Sentence

Following the rendering of Kavina's sentence, Rochelle and Lacreasha's lives went in different directions, save for a few chance encounters here and there.  Still reeling from the discovery that Leonard and Dean Stone were her half-brother, Rochelle began thinking more and more about her absentee mother.  She needed to understand how her life was suddenly this incestuous nightmare, which meant tracking down Rachel Hatcher.

The trail would lead her to Coral Springs, Nevada, where Leonard and Dean's true parentage were just the tip of the iceberg.  When Rochelle learned that Rachel was now married to Leo Stone, the man she held repsonsible for all their family's suffering, familial reparations seemed unlikely.  It was Leo's refusal to keep their relationship behind doors that helped facilitate the process toward a semi-reunion.  Of course, while Rochelle was ready to bury the hatchet, she wasn't ready for Dean to know that they were half-siblings.  Although Rachel had trouble accepting her daughter's choice, she realized that she wasn't really in a place to argue after years of keeping the secret underwrap.  She only hoped her daughter would make the right decision in time.

As for Lacreasha, she and Kyle decided to get away from Hallandale for awhile.  While in the city of love, Kyle surprised her with a candelight dinner under the moonlight followed by a marriage proposal.  When they returned to town, they were greeted with a welcome wagon from the crew of Showtime Limits Agency.  Taking advantage of the moment, Kyle announced to everyone that he and Lacreasha would be getting married.  The crew congratulated the duo, but thought a proper celebration was in order, hosting an engagment party at the fancy, upscale "Monte Carlos."

Love is Broken - Can You Count the Ways?

In many ways, the triangles discussed below have to do with this idea of broken love -- a missing element that prevents the relationship from ever reaching to true depths of unconditional, unyielding love.  For Sherri and Romain, the feelings are actually genuine and reciprocated, but the two are unable to reconcile with their own fears about the past.  Romain prefers to keep his past in North Dakota locked in a box of things never to be discussed for as long as he lives, while Sherri holds onto the mystery of it all as a clutch - reason - not to go forth with the relationship because the risk of him hurting her the way Mitchell Desmores did is now so high.  On the other hand, Vanessa Manthroll is in love with her childhood hero and best friend, Lucien, but it seems Lucien may have eyes for his modeling partner, Danielle.  Why else would Vanessa be working so hard to ward her off his trail -- well, aside from sheer jealousy.  Then, of course, we have the sordid mess that is the married Derek and Shalia Guittierrez.  Derek, more or less, is in love with the idea of having someone to devote his whole life to rather than necessary Shalia herself.  After all, he's always envied what his friend Ben has with Shanna, and then this beautiful woman happens to fall into his lap.  Unfortunately for him, she didn't happen to fall into his lap, she was planted there.  So how can a marriage that is essentially built on the continuance of more lies and situational love be worth anything?

Although Romain and Sherri seemed content on going their separate ways, Sandy refused to accept the couple's break-up, working with Romain's friend, Darron, to arrange a dinner date that would hopefully bring the two back together.  It wasn't long into the date that they figured out they were being set up.  However, instead of blasting Sandy and Darron over the coals, they decided to see the plan through, reminiscing about old times.  When Romain inadvertedly kissed her -- the walk down memory lane became a little much for Sherri, who responded by throwing her drink in his face before running out, much to Darron and Sandy's dismay.  After drying his face, Romain followed after his ex, convinced that the kiss meant something, and that perhaps there was hope for a second chance.  However, despite his efforts, Sherri remained firm in her convictions that she could not trust him, throwing the secret of North Dakota in his face.  In a fit of anger, Romain stated she was the problem, not his past, and left her to fend for herself.  Sherri, in turned, lashed out at her sister and told her to stay out of her non-existent love life.  Unfortunately, Sandy does not respect her wishes, advising Romain not to give up on her sister.  Yet his efforts were trash time and time again.  Not before long, he realized that secret or not, his problems with Sherri wouldn't end with the truth about North Dakota.

The night of Lacreasha and Kyle's engagement party, Sherri was running late for a dinner date with her sister when Romain offered to join the solo PI at the bar.  While Sandy refused his company at first, Romain managed to use his charm to change her mind.  While the two were making small talk, Romain suddenly found himself drawn to the fire and persistence that was Sandy Reynolds.  For the longest time, he saw her through the eyes of her sister, but now, he saw a beautiful woman worthy of admiration.  Before either of them knew it, their lips connected in a delicate kiss to be witness by all in the restaurant, including Sandy's sister.  Seeing the two of them in a liplock was like a transformation back to her sister's first betrayal.  She had already had taken Mitchell from her, and was now moving on to boyfriend number two.  It was enough to make her go ballistic, and she did, causing quite a scene in front of the whole restaurant.  Of course, for Lacreasha and Kyle, this was a mild disruption compared to the real showstopper -- the arrival of his father, Alexander Pierre.

So how has the road to love been treating Vanessa?  It seemed she was even worse off than Sherri.  Lucien and Danielle's popularity with the public was steadily rising, and even worse so, she felt Danielle was comandeering all of Lucien's attention away from her.  After Lucien turned down a dinner invitation with her to celebrate his and Danielle's interview with Illusion Magazine with Danielle, the spiteful model ripped a set of proofs from one of Danielle's earlier photoshoots and proceeded to burn them to ashes.  Danielle, who felt guilty about leaving Vanessa alone at the studio, convinced Lucien to bring their dinner back to the studio where they could invite Vanessa in on the celebration.  Unfortunately, the act of kindness was only misconstrued and villanified by the model's insane jealousy.  Danielle soon realized the extent of the model's fury when she knocked over a trash can, and discovered a tarred photo of herself among a bunch of ashes.  Shaken up, she turned to Brett, who took her back to his place.  After she explained the details of her tenuous relationship with Vanessa, Brett advised her to remain on alert and call if things escalated any further.

With the summer fashion show slowly approaching, Danielle continued practicing for the big event when things intensified between her and Lucien.  Following another successful photoshoot, the two shared a kiss, which was witnessed by none other than Vanessa.  Ultimately, Danielle pulled back, but Vanessa had already shut the door by then.  However, she wasn't succesful in getting away from Lucien, who left the room moments later after agreeing with Danielle that the kiss was a mistake made in the heat of the moment.  While he noticed something aloof about her, Vanessa managed to brush it off by focusing on the upcoming show.  Once he returned to the studio to locate Michelle and Stephen, Vanessa stormed in Danielle's dressing room.  However, before she could make another one of her vain threats, Danielle made it painfully clear to the model that she [Vanessa] and Lucien were not a couple.  Therefore, she had no say so over what he did, or who he did it with.  Naturally, this angered Vanessa, who decided to take extreme measures to rid herself of Danielle once and for all.

As for the marriage of Derek and Shalia, they remained pretty solid throughout the season, but the lies just kept multiplying.  After learning that Ben went to Louisiana to investigate her past, Shalia rushed to Andrew's aid.  While seeking his help, she started to question how he really felt about Shanna Hemmings, now that he was spending every waking hour with her working on her art studio.  The shady carpenter went ballistic over the mere suggestion of something romantic going on between him and Shanna, and flat out told Shalia the notion was absurd.  However, his dreams spoke a different story.  Meanwhile, Derek paid a visit to Shanna's studio, only to run into the mysterious Andrew yet again.  He wondered how much Shanna really knew about this carpenter guy.  A few months ago, she was saving him from being beat up by a group of thugs, and now he was renovating an art studio for her.  It just seem way beyond the call of gratitude, but Shanna pretty much blew off his suspicions.  He then revealed that he was looking in on her on Ben's behalf, and that's when she realized that Ben had confided in Derek about his travels before leaving town.  Livid that Ben chose to tell his best friend he was headed out of the state and not her, she informed Derek of the real reason Ben left town.

After learning that Ben was enroute to Coral Springs, Shalia confronted Andrew once more about Ben.  Andrew reminded her that it was all apart of their plan for Ben to become focused on her, and that he was not going to change his plans because she was growing soft for the mechanic.  He knew that once Derek learned the real truth about her, that he would kick Shalia to the curb.  When she suggested telling Derek the truth herself, Andrew quickly shot down the option, and against his better judgement, made a call to his people to have Ben stopped.  When Derek failed to receive word from Ben, he told Shanna that he feared something came of her husband.  Unable to ignore the fact that her husband mysteriously dropped off the face of the earth while looking into Shalia's past, Shanna points the finger at Derek's new wife.  Derek, without hesitance, dutifully defends his wife honor.  However, in the interest of heading Shanna's accusations off at the pass, he later insists that his wife be prepared to account for the last two weeks of her life once they took the case to the authorities.  Nevertheless, no amount of sources, documented or otherwise, would convince Shanna Hemmings of his wife's innocence.