Steven Sullivan walks out of the examination room and over to the waiting area of the local animal clinic and shelter, where he runs. At the same time, a white woman in her mid-thirties with shoulder-length light brown hair and a girl with darker hair who had to be around eight stands up with anticipation as they see the veterinarian approaching them, holding on to their cat. 

 

"Well, like I suspected, it's a sprain, but luckily, Ulysses doesn't need surgery," Steven informs them while the American shorthair cat purrs in his arms. 

 

"Thank goodness," the woman responds as the little girl stretches her arm to pat the feline. 

 

Concurrently, Esther Saunders saunters into the clinic to see her son in the middle of speaking to the mother and daughter. 

 

"Come back in a few weeks so I can take the splint off his leg," he says while he gives the cat to the little girl with a smile on her face. 

 

"Don't scare me like that again," she says sweetly, which makes the adults chuckle. 

 

"What do you say to Dr. Sullivan?" the mother notes. 

 

"Thank you," 

 

"You're most certainly welcome," 

 

The mother and daughter and their pet leave the clinic as Steven waves at them. It is then that he spots his mother coming towards him. 

 

He hugs his mother, whom he is surprised to see. 

 

"Hey, what are you doing here?" he greets her. 

 

The short-statured blonde woman lets go of her adult son. "I've got some not-so-good to tell you," she discloses

 

"We can talk in my office," 

 

He leads her to the back of the clinic, where his office is, and he lets her into the room, closing the door behind her. 

 

"What's going on?" 

 

"It's no easy way to say this; Lynn has cancer, leukemia," Esther answers. 

 

He stands in front of his desk, crossing his arms onto his chest, taking in the shocking news of his young cousin. 

 

"Oh no," he says subduedly. 

 

"We all need to be in Lynn's corner more than ever," Esther says vehemently. "Some people have all the damn luck," she adds.

 

"Who in particular are you referring to?"

 

Esther shakes her head somewhat in amusement. 

 

"Lynn is so full of life, and now she must face her mortality at such a young age while the Covington's lie, cheat, and gaslight, but of course, they don't suffer any of the consequences," she says in her distinctive southern drawl. 

 

Steven is fully aware of his mother's longstanding dislike of the Covington's' although he expresses her slight exaggeration of the situation on his face. 

 

"I understand where you're coming from, but don't forget that my wife is part of the family," he reminds her. 

 

"Well, that might be true, but let's not forget she's running her family's company and has befriended Jacques Laurent who

I hear from Mae he and Emma did a little somethin' somethin' behind Will's back."

 

Steven is now at his desk, standing in front of the chair. "All the things Daniel has done, he wasn't fit to run the business, and when it comes to Jacques and my wife, well, I trust her." 

 

"But not Lumière am I right?" Esther inserts. 

 

"All I'm saying is that we should be putting our energy into Lynn's recovery, not questioning why Daniel and Deirdre get away with the crap they get away with. And it's not like we're completely squeaky clean ourselves." 

 

Esther gives him a look, as she knows he's talking about them keeping the revelation of Emma being biologically their blood relation due to Esther's father's affair with Deirdre over thirty years ago. 

 

"That is completely different; we didn't drive anyone out of their minds nor possibly hide a paternity secret for three decades because of the fear of tarnishing her social standing." 

 

"I'll let you get back to work; I will call you later." 

 

"Yeah, and mom, I love you." 

 

"I love you too, darling," 

 

The blonde woman steps out of the office, exiting the clinic. 

 

Steven gazes at a picture on the desk of his wife taken at the hotel pool when they were in Hawaii when Sean and Tricia got married in 2020. And then his eyes lay on the one of his son Evan taken last year for his fifth-grade photos, as he can't believe he will be going to middle school soon making him grateful for their health.