1988 (#10) - Thorne's rampage and Ridge's injury

While at Forrester, and with Caroline recently gone, Thorne inadvertently finds himself behind Eric's study door listening to his father and mother talk about his marriage. Hearing the conversation, in which Stephanie tells her husband about Ridge's "teenage prank" and the night he accidentally spent with Caroline, Thorne is shocked. For a dazed Thorne, who is still taking painkillers as a result of his appendicitis surgery, the blow is very hard. Desperate, the man decides not to go home and to vent all his bitterness and anger in alcohol. Drunk and not at all lucid, a furious Thorne decides to go and confront Ridge in the middle of the night, reaching him at home and starting to punch him, hurling all kinds of insults at him. The total shock for the betrayal suffered, together with a dangerous combination of alcohol and drugs, make the man crazy and blind with rage to the point of pulling out Stephanie's gun that he hid in his jacket. Awakened by the noises caused by the scuffle, a helpless and horrified Stephanie witnesses the scene, along with her housekeeper Maria Martinez, of Thorne holding his gun and shooting Ridge. Wounded in the shoulder, with the bullet grazing the man's skull, Ridge is immediately rushed to the hospital, where he is sedated and undergoes a delicate bullet removal surgery performed by Dr. Stanley Marley. Stephanie, meanwhile, carefully erases her son's fingerprints from the gun and hides the weapon, which she also legally holds, in order to eliminate any evidence that could incriminate Thorne, who has passed out and fallen into a deep sleep in the meantime. When he wakes up, and Ridge is already in the hospital with the operation over and a desperate Caroline at his side holding his hand, Thorne remembers absolutely nothing of what happened; the same thing, incredibly, that happens to Ridge. Lieutenant Brian Burke, called to investigate the case, quickly dismisses the matter, reducing the suspects to two: Bill and Clarke. When, however, after verifying the irrefutable alibis of the two, Burke and Detective Jake Powers deduce that Thorne is the man they are looking for, Stephanie surprisingly comes forward and confesses to being the culprit, claiming to have thought it was a robbery and mistaking Ridge for a thug. Stephanie is then immediately taken to prison, and precisely in the women's prison under the supervision of Director Ruth Bloom, although Burke is convinced of her innocence because of the nervousness of Mary, who proves to be very capable of lying and withstand the pressure. Soon released from prison for lack of evidence thanks to the intervention of the family's lawyer Mark Adams, Burke and Powers warn Stephanie that they have perfectly understood the truth, urging her to avoid lying anymore and to let justice take its course.