Summer Drops a Bomb on Kyle — and [Spoiler] Votes Against Billy and Lily’s Demerger Plan
At Ashley’s apartment in Paris, Abby and Traci return fresh from a meeting with her at the clinic. Abby is clearly upset. Traci assures her that coming was the right thing to do; her mom lit up when she saw her. It was hard for Abby to see her mother so vulnerable and locked away. Her aunt tells her that Ashley has made tremendous progress. They need to focus on the hope that she can put all this behind her. If what happened to Ashley was a horror movie, no one would believe it. Abby is still frustrated that she was shut out of all this. She worries that her mom must have thought she was clueless. Traci says Ashley didn’t want to worry her. If she could do all of this again, Traci would have done it differently. From her own experience, she knows they should have done things in another way. Her brothers always used to shield her from harrowing things that would happen. She promises Abby that she will never be shielded again.
Alan arrives with a gift for Traci. She’s amazed to see it’s the scarf she admired in a boutique. She loves it and welcomes him in. He’s surprised to see Abby and says her mom will be thrilled to see her. They tell him about their visit. Traci is sure the treatment is going well. Alan adds his colleagues are all optimistic there will be a full recovery. Sitting down, Abby tells Alan she wanted to thank him in person for all he did for her mom. He thanks her, but wouldn’t be surprised if she felt the opposite. Abby and Traci assure him he isn’t responsible for what his twin did. Abby is sure that losing his brother was very hard on him. She gets a text from Devon, reminding her that they have a meeting soon. Abby tells her aunt that she thought she was strong enough to handle anything, but this might put that to the test. Alan asks Traci out for drinks and suggests that Abby might join them later if she likes. They are going to the same place they went last time. It is starting to feel like “their place.”
When Traci and Alan settle in at the bistro, she realizes that coming back there must bring back a lot of memories of Martin. He admits it does, but it gives him some closure. He has to live with his brother’s crimes and illness and mourn him. It’s all very complicated. Being with her makes him feel like the place is being cleansed. She’s glad to hear that he thinks they will be making good memories. Alan says that being with her is very reassuring. Her kindness and compassion are rare and real. She explains that the experiences she’s had, the joy and bone-cracking sorrow, have all taught her that life is a continuum and you have to accept all of it so you can move forward. He thinks that’s a lesson everyone could learn.
Traci wants to know everything about him. He admits that’s hard to do without discussing his twin. She’s close to her brothers and sister but sure that can’t be as intense as the bond between twins. Laughing, he tells her about how he and his brother would pretend to be each other. Only their mother could tell the difference. He was the serious one and his brother was more of a dreamer. She’s sure it must be a great loss and is sorry she’s making him talk about this. He says it’s good. Normally, he doesn’t open up and needs to face all this. If she wasn’t such a great writer, she’d be a great therapist; she can read people’s hearts. He read her novel, Echoes of the Past, last night. He couldn’t put it down. Traci says it was about her and her sister. “And very much like you. Kind, loving, and beautiful. Inside and out,” he says.
Alan brings Traci to the apartment and thanks her for their evening. He feels like he could trust her with anything. Wishing her good night, he kisses her. As soon as he’s gone, Traci has to catch her breath.
In the office of Chancellor-Winters, Lily urges Billy not to get ahead of himself. He’s gung-ho about the vote getting them what they want. She explains that Jill suspected that she’s been having second thoughts. Billy hopes she has not been listening to Devon and assures her he would never use her. He just wants her to know that he thinks things will be great once the demerger happens. Lily promises she’ll follow through on what needs to be done… but she thinks they should be worried about his mother. He reminds her that he has Jill’s voting power and everything will be fine. Lily wonders why his mom told her she would vote her own way. She thought this was all handled and worries she may have turned on her brother for nothing. Billy assures her he did not lie to her and he’s confident his mom won’t stab him in the back. That kind of betrayal would cause a permanent rupture. The merger will end today as planned.
Devon strolls in, eager to get the meeting going. Before they can, Billy would like to share something with him. If this is a last-minute trick, Devon threatens to walk. Billy hopes that what he has to say will explain the urgency of the demerging. “My mom is sick,” he announces. Her heart isn’t working the way it’s supposed to. The doctors are trying things but she’s not out of the woods yet. He would have said something earlier but she swore him to secrecy. This is why adding Abbott to the letterhead is so important. It’s for her legacy. He asks Devon not to say anything during the call. Devon finds the timing for dropping this bomb interesting. Did he wait until the last moment to get a sympathy vote? Billy doesn’t care how he sees him or his motives and refuses to play any conspiracy game about this.
Jill pops up on the screen. Lily tells her she looks good. When Devon asks how she feels, Jill immediately realizes her son has told them she’s sick. She’s furious that he blabbed and violated her privacy. She wonders if he did that to manipulate Lily and Devon. Jill assures them that she is getting plenty of care and asks that they call Abby so they can get this over with.
Abby joins the video call and the meeting gets started. Jill announces she will be exercising her own vote since it involves the company she built. Billy declares the meeting is only a formality. Devon wants details about how assets will be divided. Billy offers him gaming and he will take the others. They vote in favor of not getting into the details so they can move on to voting on the demerging. Lily puts the question of separating the companies to the board. Lily, Billy, Devon, and Abby vote “Yes.” This leaves Jill to cast a symbolic vote. Bitterly laughing, she says she should have prepared a concession speech. She thinks what they are about to do is a horrible mistake. Despite the in-fighting, the company has prospered. She hates that this didn’t work and the only option is to tear it apart. She votes “No.” Telling her son that he’s now got what he wanted, she only hopes it’s worth it and hangs up. The call ends. Devon immediately exits. Lily says it’s done. Billy notices she’s not excited. She feels like they let Jill down.
Arriving at the door of the Abbott mansion, Summer calls to reschedule some meetings so she can spend some extra time with her little guy. When she walks into the house, she immediately bumps into Claire and cringes a little. They act polite. Summer wants to take Harrison out for ice cream but Claire explains that he’s napping after his active day at camp. Summer worries he could be having issues with being out for the first time since the kidnapping. Claire assures her that he had a good day. Most of the other kids think he’s a hero. This worries Summer. She doesn’t want his memories triggered and for him to have more nightmares. Claire would tell her if it looked like anything bad was happening. Summer doesn’t think she can understand her concerns given that she’s never had a child. Claire knows. Until recently, she never had parents or love either. But now she does and can see how much her parents worry. So she knows a little about what that must be like for Summer. She can see that the love that Harrison feels from his parents is something he’s totally confident about. She’d hate to damage that.
Kyle arrives after getting a message from Summer. His ex goes upstairs to check on Harrison, leaving Kyle to wonder what he’s walked in on. Claire doubts Summer will ever be okay with her being in his son’s life. She’d like to make it easier for Summer to spend more time with her son. When Summer returns, she says Harrison is still sleeping and she’s concerned that he seems a little sunburned. Claire offers to use more sunscreen next time and bustles off to prepare a snack for him.
Kyle and Summer start bickering. She demands to know what’s going on with Audra. He doesn’t feel like he owes her any explanations and says there is nothing personal going on. He claims he was fired by his mom because she was threatened by his presence. His dad sided with Diane. Summer is sorry and sure it hurt him. He says it opened his eyes. Audra now runs Glissade and has a secret investor who owns the company. He’s going to work as her co-CEO. Summer thinks he’s out of his mind and that all of this sounds sketchy; he’ll be competing against his own family’s company. Kyle won’t feel bad about that after what they did to him. It was treacherous. She can understand he’s angry, but this is a declaration of war. Maybe Diane deserves that, but does Jack? This all sounds like a recipe for disaster. She thinks Kyle’s a fool and doesn’t want their son anywhere near Audra. Summer decides it’s time for them to revisit their custody agreement. Kyle wonders if she really wants to go there; would that really be good for their son? Walking out, she says she will have her attorney call his. Once she’s gone, Claire comes back out and Kyle asks her to have dinner with him so he can tell her what’s gone wrong.