Taylor checks a shaken Stephanie.

At the Forrester mansion, Bridget, Nick and Taylor all fret that Stephanie needs to rest. Stephanie isn't tired, Brooke says. Eric sits next to his wife and asks what's wrong. Stephanie says she's sorry. Taylor checks Stephanie's vitals and finds them quite strong. Maybe because Stephanie saw her doctor ten minutes ago? Jackie quips. Nick asks what's so important that they had to stop the wedding. Ridge tells Nick to give his mom a minute, but Nick says he's given them months! The minister tries to remind them why they're here, but Bridget can't get married until she knows what's going on! Eric again asks Stephanie what's wrong. Thomas brings Stephanie's heart pills, but she says she doesn't need them. What she needs is for him to take his sisters and Gaby home. She then asks Eric to have everyone but the family leave. Once only the adult Forresters, Brooke, Nick, Massimo and Jackie remain, Bridget tells Stephanie that she's scared; Stephanie tells her not to be. Taylor looks to Brooke, who says this isn't her fault. Taylor asks what that means. They'll know soon, Brooke says. Taylor is confused while Stephanie looks cornered.

Mark catches a ride with Sally.

Sally gets into her car and is surprised to see Mark there. She says he almost scared her out of her new hairdo. Mark says he has to leave and asks if his father is here. Sally laughs at the thought of Clarke in "Queenie's" domain. Then just get him out of here, Mark says. Once they're on the road, Mark asks if she has a bottle here. She reminds him that the police would frown on such a thing. But she's rich, he reminds her - and besides, all she has to do is flirt with the cop and flash her chest at him. She thinks those days are behind her. Mark says that he's rich, too - or at least, he WAS a millionaire for a minute. Now his life and career are probably over, and he'll likely wind up in jail, learning a trade from some guy named Spike. Sally tells him to knock it off: he's a brilliant doctor who even saved Stephanie Forrester, so she can't understand why he's saying these things. Because he did what he swore he never would, he explains, and turned into his father. So he pulled a fast one? Sally asks. He then tells her that Stephanie Forrester never had a heart attack: he just made it look that way.

Sally pulls the car over so Mark can find a bottle of booze she has stashed in the trunk. He finds it and takes a few swigs. Sally now sees that Mark was behind that "deathbed" marriage ceremony for Ridge and Taylor and notes that he's hitting that booze pretty hard. He asks how he was supposed to know what Stephanie was doing. He took an oath to do no harm, and he saw no harm in letting one of their biggest benefactors say she was sicker than she was. Sally admires Stephanie's initiative and tells Mark not to worry, as Stephanie won't spill the beans about this. It might be happening now, Mark says. Sally recalls how Brooke and Stephanie went AWOL and asks Mark if he ratted himself out at that time. He fell for something he shouldn't have, he says, taking another swig, Sally asks what it is with men and accents. She then bets Brooke is making Stephanie eat crow right now and wishes she had hid to see that. She tells Mark to ease up on the sauce. He guesses that the fix for stupidity isn't getting stupider. She tells him that his father would never act that way. He frets that he'll lose his license, but Sally thinks he'll be fine. She just wishes she could say the same for Stephanie, whose family will probably turn on her after this.

Thomas and Gaby wonder what's up with Stephanie.

At Ridge's house, Gaby looks at the toys and awards in Thomas's room. She realizes she knows so little about him, but she sees that he's worried about his grandmother now. It's just that he always looked up to his grandma, he says, and thought of her as being this invincible force. Gaby knows what he means: she explains that she never had a grandmother, so when she was younger, she would fantasize that Stephanie was her grandma. Thomas asks if she told Stephanie that. She thinks she'd be too embarrassed, as she always looked up to Stephanie. She owes Stephanie so much, just like she owes him for putting everything, including his happiness, at risk for her. Who says he's not happy? he asks as he kisses her. When they break away, Gaby worries that his dad will end their marriage. He tells her not to worry, since his mom seems to understand. Besides, he thinks his dad is worried about his grandma right now, just like he is. He feels like something bad was about to happen over there, and he thinks he should get back.

Eric reminds Stephanie that they moved on.

Back at the mansion, Stephanie's family stands around her, waiting for her to explain what's going on. As Jackie and Brooke look on, Stephanie tells those assembled that she has to explain about her heart attack. She reminds her sons and Eric how she never used to get sick; she always thought life would go on like that. Jackie tells Stephanie to get to the point. And what IS the point? a frustrated Nick asks. It involves Stephanie's heart attack, Brooke replies as she and Stephanie glare at each other. Darla asks if there's something about Stephanie's health that they don't know. Stephanie turns to Eric and asks why he married Brooke, especially when it was clear that Brooke only wanted Ridge. Brooke tells Stephanie not to make this about her; Stephanie says she's not even interested in Brooke, just in how she happened, and swept through the family like a plague. She recalls how Brooke left Eric for Ridge. Eric tells her to stop, as he's moved past that. She asks how she's supposed to move past all those nights she spent alone, or past the way his children with Brooke simply survived without a real home. They did the best they could, Eric reminds her, including Brooke. That's right, Stephanie says: he just forgave Brooke.

Darla listens as Stephanie brings up Thorne's past with Brooke.

Thorne asks Stephanie what this has to do with her health. She asks how he can ask that after what Brooke did to his late wife's health. He reminds her that Brooke didn't cause Macy to drink. But she stole Macy's husband, Stephanie points out, just for sport. Brooke says that's not how it was, but Stephanie isn't willing to listen to Brooke's version of the truth, which is like fast food, hot one minute and greasy the next, and she doesn't think Macy could do that either. And then, she reminds Thorne, Brooke used him as a substitute for Ridge. Thorne says he moved on, but she says she can't. Nick can't believe she stopped his wedding just to beat a dead horse and bash Brooke for injuring her. And how about how Brooke injured him? she asks Mr. "Tell It Like It Is" Nick. Brooke tossed him over so many times that he had to rush this wedding, just to prove to his bride that he was really "over" Brooke. Bridget tells Stephanie to stop attacking Brooke. Stephanie looks at her and says that her forgiveness is most astonishing, since Brooke slept with her husband and had a child by him. And she moved past it, Bridget says. And the most unbearable part, Stephanie says, is that Bridget pretends it doesn't hurt. She however can't do that. Brooke turned her family into ashes, and Eric, Thorne and Ridge let it happen, let Brooke drag them into a dark place where they were miserable. And when it was over, she adds, they forgave Brooke - but she can't do that! That's her curse, and her crime.

Ridge and Brooke listen to Stephanie explain.

Stephanie sits next to Taylor and asks if she loves Ridge. Yes, Taylor says. He's an honorable man, Stephanie says, so he could never see when a sacrifice had to be made. She looks at Ridge and says that he refused to her hear. He said his life was his to live, like it was a possession. She asks if he knows what it's like to see something no one else does, and be forbidden to speak about it, no matter how close the next wave is. And after all the waves hit, everything is swept away, because the thing that has you by the throat is crushing you. She leads Ridge over to her and says that's how she felt when she was put in that hospital. She did feel like she was taking her last breath, she says, so it was like she was dying there... but she didn't have a heart attack!