PREVIOUSLY

"Give me a minute. I was just getting to that part of the plan," she says with an evil smirk. "Once the galleys are set and ready to go to print, we'll just sneak into the building one night and change a few things, making sure everywhere it says 'the wealthy Pennsylvania couple' we make it say 'Todd and Tea Manning'. By the time it's out to print, it'll be too late for anyone to do anything about it."

"And Todd won't have anyone to sue. Because it'll be his paper," Max muses. "Blair, your foul little mind never ceases to amaze me. When do you plan on doing this?"

"I say we try to do this by the end of the week. Let's give Todd a welcome home headline that he won't be able to miss."

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Starr jumps out of the car the second it stops in front of the diner. She runs through the front door and rushes past Carlotta and Cristian, muttering a quick hello.

"Maybe next time you won't get her the jumbo drink, Todd," Tea says, laughing at her husband. "It's a good thing we were near the diner. I don't think her bladder would have held out much longer."

"Yeah, it's a good thing," he agrees. "While we're here, do you want to get something to eat?"

"Again? Todd, we just ate an hour ago. I thought I was supposed to be the one constantly hungry and having all the cravings."

"Just making sure Junior gets all the nourishment he needs," Todd says, grabbing Tea from behind and rubbing her stomach. He leads her to a booth and the corner and watches as she carefully sits onto the seat.

"Come to think of it, I am kind of hungry," Tea mumbles, picking up a menu, although she knew all of the specials by heart.

Todd looks around the diner, hoping to see Starr come from the restroom soon. What he saw instead were the odd glances of the other patrons. Whenever he would look up, they'd quickly look away.

"Why do I have the strange feeling that everyone in here is staring at us?"

"I don't know, Todd. It's probably just your imagination. You know how paranoid you can be sometimes."

"No, this is more than that," he says, looking around the diner again. He sees Starr finally emerge from the restroom. She skips back to the table holding a newspaper and grinning from ear to ear.

"Look Daddy! You and Tee are in the paper. Here's your picture," she says, holding out a copy of the Sun to Todd.

Todd grabs the newspaper from the little girl and reads the blaring headline:

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION: A MODERN MIRACLE FOR THE MANNINGS

"Oh no," he gasps.

"What?" a surprised Tea wants to know.

"We got to get out of here," he says, jumping out of his seat. He grabs Starr up in his arms and runs out of the diner, a confused Tea waddling behind him. They're silent until he can start up the car and pull out of the parking lot.

"Todd, what's going on? What's in the Sun that made you get up and leave like that?"

He throws the paper at her and watches as she reads the headline for herself. She's in tears by the time they reach the house. She can't believe the intimate details that were outlined in the article. Almost every aspect of her pregnancy was displayed for all of Llanview to read.

Todd storms in the house and runs straight to the ringing phone. Two seconds later, he's yelling at whoever's on the other end.

"WHAT!" he screams.

"Boss, you're home," a nervous Briggs spits out on the other end.

"Yes, Briggs. I'm home. Now do you mind telling me what is going on with this story?"

"I swear to you that wasn't the story I left to be printed. It came from an anonymous tip. But the story I got was about an affluent Pennsylvanian couple. It never mentioned a word about you and Tea. I didn't know. Honestly, I . . ."

"Stop your groveling," Todd says in a calmer tone. He knows it wasn't Briggs' fault. Someone else was behind this. And he knew just who that someone was. He tells Briggs not to worry about anything and to take a few days off. Before getting off the phone, he makes arrangements to have surveillance tapes from the past few nights delivered to him. He knew what's he'd see on that tape. He just had to be sure.

"Todd, who would do something like this?" cries Tea.

"Hey, Shorty," Todd calls to Starr. "Tee looks kind of tired. Why don't the two of you go up and rest for a bit." Tea was frazzled beyond what she should be. Todd knew he had to make sure she calmed down before something happened to her or the baby. He promised that he wouldn't let Blair hurt her. And once again, he's let her down. He'd never forgive himself if anything happened to either of them.

"Please, Tea," he begs when she looks at him with defiance. "I'm worried about you. And the baby. Just go up and get a little rest. Please."

"Okay," she finally agrees. She walks past Todd and their hands graze each other. He grabs onto her hand and holds it between his own for a few moments. She takes her other one and rubs it gently down his cheek.

"Thank you," he whispers. "I'll be able to handle this crazy situation so long as I know you're alright." He kisses the hand that he's holding before letting it go and sending her upstairs. He watches as Starr follows Tea, carefully keeping a protective eye on her stepmother. Not really understanding that the cause of Tea's stress is her own mother. Blair is way over the line this time, Todd thinks to himself. She has to be stopped.

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Todd rewinds the tape and watches it again. He wants to make sure that he was really seeing Blair and Max altering the newspaper. He couldn't think of anyone else who would have done such a thing, but seeing it was another story. He didn't feel angry so much as he felt something else. Sure, he was upset that Tea was hurting. And he knew that the repercussions of this story would also have a profound affect on Starr. But more than anything, he was just disappointed. Disappointed that Blair would actually do this to him and to Starr.

He hears the doorbell so he presses the stop button on the remote control and gets up to take the tapes out. Nobody needed to know about the tapes, he decided. And he wasn't going to hand them over to the police or anything. The last thing Starr needed was for her mother to go to jail. No matter what stunt Blair pulled, she was still Starr's mother. And he couldn't bear to take her away. But if Blair wasn't careful, she'd end up driving Starr away one of these days.

"Judge Ryan," Todd says with some surprise when he opened the door. "What are you doing here?" He opens the door wider, allowing the judge to enter his home. Then he sees two other visitors.

"Aren't you going to invite us in too?" Blair asks snidely. She doesn't wait on an invitation and pushes her way through the door.

"Mr. Manning," the judge begins. "I assume that you can guess that I'm here about that article in your newspaper. Before this thing got out of hand, I wanted to speak with everyone involved in this custody case. Get a few things settled and out in the open."

"I understand, Judge," Todd says meekly. "I'm anxious to get things out in the open too." He throws Blair a threatening glance and notices that she flinches slightly. "I'll go get my wife."

He slowly walks up the stairs. Dreading every step. The article was bad enough for Tea. She definitely doesn't need this, he thinks to himself. Whatever happens, he has to be strong. Strong for her and strong for his family. They needed him now. And he wasn't about to let them down.

TO BE CONTINUED...