Chapter 3: Fall of Paranormal

By the end of season two, Matt and Dana had managed to put a stop to mob queen Denise Sharrington, and in the process, save Brett, Danielle, Michelle, and Enrique from imminent death.  However, they weren't as successful in stopping the danger that followed feisty private investigator Sandy Reynolds back home to Hallandale, MA.  Following the fallout of her affair with her sister's husband, Sandy and Mitchell relocated to his hometown to be together.  Sandy was hopeful her luck would change in a new place, despite a warning from a fortunteller that she would meet grave danger near water.  She would learn weeks later after being cornered by a hired assassin in her bathroom how right the fortunteller was.  When the assassin's attempt to force himself on the PI backfired, he shot and left her for dead.  Mitchell would return home minutes later, his excitement over his new job quickly turning to horror when he discovered the love of his life in a pool of her own blood.  Sandy spent the next few months comatose while Mitchell and her sister, Sherri, kept vigil by her side.   Although Sherri hated her sister for having an on-going affair with Mitchell, she did not want to see her dead and blamed Mitchell for dragging her sister into this situation. 

During this time, Sherri grew closer to the handsome Dr. Romain Chandler.  The two shared stories of his childhood hardships -- growing up without parents and being raised by his older brother, Robert -- to her once stable relationship with her sister and her divorce from Mitchell Desmores.  Romain granted her the honesty and emotional confidence she needed during this difficult time, and as such, she remembers that moment fondly as the beginning of their romantic endeavor.  Meanwhile, wounded and comatose Sandy Reynolds had not lost use of all her cognitive abilities.  In fact, she was trapped in her own unconscious battle for the right to live or die, where she would be judged in a court-like setting by a juror of her peers.  It was through the make shift trial that Sandy realized how badly she hurt her sister by continuing the affair with Mitchell.  Seeking absolution for her sins, Sandy wished things had turned out differently.  When she finally rewoke from her coma, she had no recollection of Mitchell.  In fact, he was nothing, but another strange face in the crowd.  While the doctors seemed hopeful that her memory would return, the chances became more and more slim for Mitchell as Sandy continued to pull away from him, not interested in trying to reconnect.

Mitchell would then meet downtrodden Akeira Smith, whose life was also a mess after Alexander Pierre learned that the whole premise of their relationship was based on a lie.  In short, Alexander found out that Akeira lied about having a sick, infant son after meeting her real, larger-than-life son, Rocky.  Rocky, who suspected his mother was up to no good, cut all ties with Akeira when he learned that she was using Alexander Pierre for financial exploits.  In an effort to redeem herself in her son's eyes, Akeira confessed to Alexander that she targeted him for his money and had been blackmailing his daughter for months.  Disgusted and utterly betrayed, Alexander tossed her out on the street like garbage.  Akeira tried to reconcile with him, but he wouldn't hear it.  Her problems grew worse when she discovered that she was pregnant with his child.  Unsure about what to do, she hid the truth from Alexander.  Unfortunately, the night of CF & A's grand opening, Alfonso Morgan (Widlin Pierre's ex) revealed to the clueless father-to-be that she was pregnant.  In light of Akeira's recent lies, Alexander went to Dr. Romain Chandler for confirmation, but Romain cited doctor-patient confidentiality.  Not pleased with Romain's answer, Alexander broke into the doctor's office and apprehended Akeira's medical file.  Of course, by the time Alexander got the proof he needed, Akeira had already took off for parts unknown with Mitchell Desmores.

Newlyweds Samantha Keller Lombard and Brock Lombard found their way back to one another after a huge misunderstanding resulted in Brock calling off his previous engagement to Samantha.  As it were, Brock and Samantha met and fell in love while in medical school.  On the night before their apparent wedding, Samantha's friend, Tyler Chappell, was helping her prepare for her medical exams and the two ended up falling asleep in each other's arms.  An idiotic Brock would discover them and assume Samantha had cheated on him.  Instead of confronting her and Ty about what he saw, he ran out and got drunk.  During his drunken state, he had a one-night stand with Leigh Gray, who thought their night of love making was the beginning of something new for them.  The morning after, however, Brock informed her that it was a mistake.  He was still in love with Samantha, but unable to get past the fact that she was with another man, he called off their engagement with no explanation, leaving Samantha heartbroken.  The two would eventually cross paths again in Hallandale, where Brock would fight hard to win back Samantha's love and learn that her affair with Ty never happened.

After the two returned from their honeymoon, Samantha received an anonymous bouquet of flowers, which Brock suspected were from Tyler.  However, Samantha remained unconvinced, especially after learning from the hotel manager that the bouquet was delivered by a woman.  Matters only escalated when flowers turned into notes, which turned into even strangers gifts.  While visiting with her friend Robin Elkasinogen at Leysdale Hospital, Samantha received a package of a heart broken in half with an enclosed note, which read "This will soon be yours!"  It was the final straw for Samantha, who enlisted her brother-in-law's help in drawing her stalker out into the open.  Ralph received a pretty disturbing profile of the stalker, but had to be sure before revealing his findings to Samantha, so he invited her and his brother to dinner.  The dinner never happened because Brock stumbled onto Leigh Gray, Ralph's surprise guest [and lover].  Leigh came to Hallandale with the sole purpose of destroying Brock's marriage to Samantha.  When Samantha discovered the two of them together, Leigh set forth her plan and revealed that she and Brock had an affair while in Paris.  After Sam's initial shock wore off, she tore into her hypocritical husband for keeping his affair a secret.  An angry Ralph snatched away Leigh, who was only making the situation worse.  With her connection to his brother out in the open, Leigh admitted to Ralph that she was only using him to get to Brock.  Hurt by her actions, no one would have blamed Ralph for holding onto a grudge, but around the time of Samantha and Brock's Christmas Party, he offered Leigh an olive branch.  Samantha and Brock, who were still healing after Leigh's shenanigans, weren't as receptive to the opportunity to forgive and forget.  Furthermore, Leigh would have to contend with further opposition from Brock as she and Ralph continued to reconnect, although the relationship would remain strictly platonic as she would later become involved with Anton and Dylan's cousin, Beau.

Young, unpredictable Dr. Dylan McCloud was settling in quite well with his new roommates Jennifer and Brian when his girlfriend, Garrett, arrived in town and joined the trio inside the haunted Preston Powers Mansion.  Although Garrett and Dylan appeared to have shared a strong commitment to one another, Dylan's insecurities about a male confidante of Garrett's soon got the best of him.  Determined to stop her from meeting up with her friend, Dylan hired Frankie Lancaster to assault her.  Fortunately, Dr. Jay Elkasinogen heard the petrified damsel's screams and scared him off.  Unable to ignore his guilty conscience, Frankie would later seek out Brian and confirm everything he suspected about Dylan.  Realizing the truth would hold little weight coming from him, Brian asked Frankie to confront Jennifer and Garrett.  Garrett, however, refused to believe anything that came out of her attempted raptist' mouth until Dylan confirmed the unspeakable truth himself.  Understandably crush and violated, Garrett could not make sense of the man whom she had given her heart to.  To make matters worse, Dylan was so wrapped up in his own delusions that he convinced himself that everything he had done was to save their relationship.  In the end, his actions would prove futile when Garrett decided it was best she move out, ceasing all contact with him.

New developments began to arise in the Leonard Stone' murder mystery as Rochelle and Dean started outlining their list of suspects.  However, due to the fact that many of them were friends and colleagues of hers, Rochelle had a difficult time convincing herself that any of them would be capable of murder.  Dean reminded her that sometimes the more unlikely the suspect, the more probable the cause.  Meanwhile, Lacreasha and Kyle found themselves inadvertedly thrown in the middle of the mystery when they began receiving threatening phone calls concerning their whereabouts the night of Leonard's murder.  Considering it had been nearly six months since Leonard was murdered, they were both skeptical of the legitimacy of the caller's claims.  The caller, however, was very persistent and demanded five thousand dollars in return for his/her silence.  Unfortunately for him/her, Kyle was unwilling to give into extortion, that was until the caller made it clear he/she had enough physical evidence to blow Lacreasha and Kyle out of the water.  Lacreasha, fearing the possibility of jail time, convinced a reluctant Kyle to pay off the blackmailer.

Not long after, Lacreasha gathered proof that Kavina Shah was the one blackmailing them.  Using the information to her advantage, Lacreasha threatened to go to the cops unless Kavina helped her bring down HatcherKeller & Associates Investigations.  Lacreasha's former friend, Rochelle, had a big role in HatcherKeller, so seeing the business crumble to the ground had its rewards.  Unfortunately for Lacreasha, Kavina called her bluff.  She then retaliated by introducing Lacreasha to one of her on-call goons.  When Kyle discovered Lacreasha had been attacked, she was forced to admit that she had intersected a file Kyle's PI dropped off.  With the identity of their blackmailer out in the open, new questions began to arise.  What did Kavina want with five grand?  How did she know about Kyle's attempt on Leonard's life?  The answers would be revealed by another anonymous caller, who gave Lacreasha and Kyle video footage placing them and an unidentified female at the Hallandale Pier the night of Leonard's murder.  They also saw Leonard making his escape while the unidentified female followed, leading to the very likely possibility that the two met up in his hotel room.  Connecting the pieces, Lacreasha and Kyle realized that the masked woman had to be Kavina. 

Rochelle was wrestling with her own suspicions concerning Kavina when she decided to search her friend and colleague's home.  To her surprise, she found a secret passageway leading to an abandon basement.  The room itself quickly lost its luster when she saw shreds of the same bloody sheets found in her apartment a few months back lying in a heap on the floor.  Wierded out by the discovery, Rochelle attempted to leave Kavina's apartment, only to be discovered by the suspected murderess.  Realizing Rochelle had stumbled upon her secret, Kavina had a decision to make: Prison or Murder?!