A Wife's Nightmare

In Ridgewood, Washington, architect Liz Michaels, guitarist Gabe Michaels, and their teenage son AJ Michaels are just getting back on their feet as a family unit after Liz returns home from the hospital where she was recovering from a nervous breakdown suffered three months before from overall stress. While Gabe does what he can to ease Liz back into life, AJ has not completely forgiven his mother, not only for her actions, but more specifically for the hurtful things she said leading up to the breakdown. While work at Tillman and Associates was where she ultimately collapsed, Liz feels the financial pressure to go back to work as Gabe, without a wage per se, completes his latest recording. Tillman also has mixed feelings about Liz's return as although he will admit that she was a financial benefit to the company when she was well, her collapse led to the company losing lucrative business. During this crucial recovery time, Liz and Gabe are approached by a young woman, 19-year-old Caitlin Patterson, stating that she believes she might be Gabe's biological daughter, and Gabe admits that before he knew Liz he had a brief relationship with Caitlin's mother, Elaine Patterson. Caitlin only found out about Gabe's existence and the probability of he being her biological father among Elaine's possessions after she passed away the previous month, leaving Caitlin destitute and homeless. While Gabe and Caitlin go to have a blood test, Liz and Gabe welcome down-and-out Caitlin into their home for the several days until they get the results. While Liz seemed to be on the mend prior to meeting Caitlin, her life begins to unravel both at home and at work, and she has both a feeling and circumstantial evidence that Caitlin is the source of all her problems. Or, as she questions her own judgment, is she just falling back into the issues that landed her in the hospital in the first place? Written by Huggo