1988 (#17) - Stephanie's secret, the meetings with Todd and the discovery of Angela

Manipulating people and trying to keep everything under her control, as it happens with the Logans or as it happened in the episode of Ridge's injury by Thorne, is not the only dark side of Stephanie. The woman, in fact, keeps a hidden secret that, despite all her attentions, is destined to be revealed soon. Suspicious of his wife's behaviors, who punctually leaves every other afternoon of the week, Eric begins to speculate that the woman has a lover. Determined to find out the truth, Eric hires a private investigator, Dave Harmon, to tail Stephanie and find out where she goes for whole hours of the day. The detective soon informs Eric that Stephanie attends a private clinic in Santa Monica, where she has a room booked for years under her maiden name, Douglas, which turns Eric's suspicions into a fear that his wife may be seriously ill and has not wanted to tell anyone. Determined to find out the truth, Eric decides to take matters into his own hands and go to the clinic himself, determined to confront Stephanie and her second life. After entering the facility in search of his wife, a distraught Stephanie catches up with him and tries to send him away, but the man immediately goes to Dr. Todd Powell, who is taking care of her, seeking clarification. Eventually, despite Stephanie even going so far as to lie about her and Todd having a secret relationship, Eric manages to break into the room making a shocking discovery. On a hospital bed, attached to the machines that keep her alive probably in a deep coma state, there is a young woman with a familiar face. Stephanie, at this point, is forced to confess the truth to a dismayed Eric: the girl is none other than Angela, their daughter that Stephanie had made everyone believe had died after birth. Stephanie admits to a speechless Eric that she, too, has only known for a few years that Angela was actually taken away from them in secret after her birth by some doctors, who made them believe she was dead; all in order to study and subject the little girl to some experiments aimed at studying the girl's rare microcephaly. As stunned as he was when she learned the truth through her friend and doctor Todd Powell, Stephanie was able to see her daughter again, kept alive and in secret at this facility only thanks to large sums of dirty money donated to the center in the form of donations. Stephanie admits that she was forced into silence by the hospital's management, partly because she wanted to spare Eric the pain of seeing his daughter reduced to a vegetable. Devastated by his wife's words, Eric is disgusted by Stephanie's lies but happy to be able to find his sweet Angela, the daughter he always wanted to know. In the end, Eric decides for the good of the family to forgive Stephanie and, at the same time, to denounce the hospital that keeps Angela in care. This, meanwhile, is revealed to the general amazement of the whole family, incredulous but overjoyed to be able to welcome and re-embrace their beloved Angela.