On the stand, Mariah is indeed sticking to her story that the video was sent to her anonymously. Yes, she recognized the women. No, she didn’t mention it to Vikki, her Mother – or anyone else. Frustrated, Mike asks who else has access to the Dark Horse servers. No one at Dark Horse sent it to me, Mariah insists. How would you know that unless you knew who sent it to you? Mike’s valid point causes Sharon to hiss at Britney – stop this!
The Judge asks Mike what he’s trying to uncover. Mariah stands by everything she said. Then Mike has no further questions. Britney establishes that Mariah wouldn’t find it odd that Vikki has security cameras (since there’s cameras all over the ranch, where her Mom lives) Having been told that the women were purging Vikki’s closet for donations, Mariah didn’t find it odd that they were moving an old household item into a car. Britney doesn’t find it odd either. No further questions. As Mariah steps down and takes a seat beside her, Tessa takes her hand.
Chris’ next witness, Phyllis, was unavoidably delayed; she’s parking and going through security now. All rise as the Judge calls a short recess. Nikki whispers to Vikki – she’d hoped Phyllis had decided to do the decent thing and skipped town. It’s all up to Mike now, Vikki whispers back.
When Nick quietly asks why he backed off on Mariah, Mike explains that he didn’t want it coming up that Nikki paid off Tessa to keep things quiet. He’ll bring it up if he has to (to let the jury know there’s more to the story) Ah, you’re just laying the groundwork, Nick approves.
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Aside, Sharon questions Britney – Mike can’t want Tessa’s blackmail to come up, can he? That won’t help our case and will blow up Tessa’s life (and Mariah’s) Britney’s not privy to Mike’s strategy but has no doubt he’d sacrifice Tessa and Mariah to save his clients.
You were great, Tessa reassures. Mariah worries that Chris knows she lied her head off and will recall her to the stand. What if she finds out you’re on the Dark Horse payroll and had access to the server. I’ll go down for perjury; you’ll go down for blackmail. Tessa thinks it would have been nice if Nick warned them – but my name hasn’t come up. We can both relax.
Giving Vikki a reassuring nod and smile, Billy gripes to Jack and Kerry about Phyllis (who neither are as eager to blame for the video) When Kerry wonders how Billy and Phyllis will be able to work together after this, Jack points out that he’s not the only one who’ll have a problem with what Phyllis has done.
A nervous Phyllis is pacing the hallway when Nick comes out (to call his Dad with an update – it’s killing him that he can’t be here) Phyllis promises to do what she can to put an end to all of this. Without comment, Nick walks away.