BREAKING NEWS: Sharon Turns to Cassie For Help — and Takes a Painful Yet Inspiring Walk Down Memory Lane

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In the dark, a distraught Sharon arrives at a parkette and sits down on the bench. She flashes to disposing of Heather’s body and cries, “How did this happen? How am I ever going to get out of this?”

Sharon tells herself she never should have gone there [to Daniel’s]. “How did I for one minute think it would bring healing, that it would bring justice… for you.” She turns to Cassie’s grave. She tells her daughter she’s always been her guiding light. “Help me understand how I did what I did. Help me to know what to do.”

Sharon says what happened tonight isn’t her. Is this the culmination of her life? “Have I always been like this?” She flashes to her mother, Dolores, telling her she wound up in a wheelchair because she went after her on a rainy night, believing she was going to do something she would regret with Frank.

Sharon tells Cassie’s grave, “Maybe I’ve always been plagued by guilt; by a lifetime of things I wish I’d done differently.” Something led her there tonight. Perhaps to remind her she’s done good things in her life too. “You are proof of that.” She remembers meeting Nick and falling in love. “No one ever made me feel more loved or protected.” Sharon then recalls that not everyone was happy they were together. She remembers Nikki’s animosity toward her in the early days, and later on in years as well. She flashes to pouring a pitcher of milk over Nikki’s head and asks Cassie, “Have I always created conflict? Is that who I am? Is that what landed me here?”

Sitting down on the ground in front of Cassie’s gravestone, Sharon tells her late daughter that she and Nick always managed to find their way back together again. She recalls them making up after he left her for Phyllis. Even when they weren’t together, their unshakeable bond was always there… though it was tested over the years. Sharon remembers Nick complaining that she lied to him about being a virgin after she told him she’d given up a baby for adoption. She remembers, “I was so scared that he would run, but he stayed. He stayed right by my side. You were that baby I had to give up. Getting you back was like a dream come true.” She flashes to Nick adopting Cassie. Finally, she had everything she always wanted. “I should have known that it wouldn’t last.”

Sharon tells Cassie she didn’t bring fresh flowers, “I didn’t know I was coming.” But she has something better. She pulls out the photo of her, Cassie, and Nick… the perfect little family. Sharon flashes to Cassie becoming a Newman and cries, “I didn’t know how lucky we were… until that horrible night.” She remembers a teenaged Cassie pleading with her and Nick to be allowed to go to the party.

Sharon wishes she’d put her foot down and never let her go out that night. “It broke me,” she sobs, “It broke Nick, and our marriage fell apart.” Even later, she was always on the verge of another downward spiral. Sharon remembers shoplifting, drinking, and burning down the Newman ranch. “I was in the deep throes of bipolar disorder, and I didn’t even know it.” Cassie’s death was always hanging over her. Everything that has happened was because of that damn night.

Sharon places the family photo on the stone. She cries, “I know what you’d say. That there were happy times too. Moments that kept hope alive.” She flashes to when she was pregnant with Faith and Nick reminding her that Cassie told them they’d have another baby one day. She says Faith was the daughter she predicted they would have, “And then another miracle happened.” Sharon flashes to Mariah’s arrival, when she believed she was seeing Cassie. She thought her brain was playing tricks on her, but then Nick found out the truth. “It was like I got you back, only it wasn’t you.” She remembers yelling at Mariah for gaslighting her. “I was just so angry. How could someone who looks and sounds so much like you, not be you.” Her heart wouldn’t let my brain accept it. She recalls Nick telling her she had twins, and her and Nick telling Mariah she was her daughter. Sharon sobs that she wanted to be the mother to her that she never got to be to Cassie. “Now, have I failed you both again?”

Sharon tells Cassie that Mariah resisted her at every turn, but she knew that Cassie would want her to persevere, and she did. She recalls the first time Mariah called her mom. “Things got easier after that, and I grew to accept Mariah for the special, unique person that she is. Mariah is your twin, which means that a part of her is inside of her for me to love and hold onto. For that, I will always be grateful.” Being a mom to Faith, Mariah, and Noah has helped her move forward. She’s had some successes. “My life exceeded my expectations.” She remembers buying Crimson Lights with Nick, Neil offering her a job at Jabot, and graduating college. “I do have something inside of me that has helped me keep going.” It’s helped her face so many challenges.

Sharon recalls difficult times, like Matt Clark raping her, and Rey dying. “I’m a survivor, and no one could ever say that I never loved my children with my whole heart.” She’s proud of honoring Cassie with Cassidy First, but she had no idea it would stir up so much for her. “When I heard that Daniel had moved back to Genoa City, I thought so many years had passed that I could handle it.” She wasn’t prepared for the rage, which took over to the point that she wanted to hurt him. “And I almost did.”

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Sharon tells Cassie she didn’t hurt Daniel. She came to her senses, but that’s when Heather came in. They fought and she somehow died, but she doesn’t remember how it happened.

Sharon, pacing, says she must have blacked out. Not being able to remember makes her feel alone and numb. That’s why she’s there asking Cassie what to do. “Should I just turn myself in? Confess to my crime and end this madness?” She hopes her family would find some way to forgive her when they find out what she’s done. They’re her one remaining true joy. “My children are the best part of me. Proof that I did some things right. I’m not all bad. Thank you. I know what to do now.” She kisses her hand and touches the gravestone, gets up, and walks out of the parkette.

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At Sharon’s house, Faith leaves her mother another worried voicemail. Mariah comes out of the kitchen with food, and Nick says he has to go out and try and find her. He wants them to stay in case she shows up. Faith frets that this is her fault. Mariah feels bad for calling her out for lying. Just then, Sharon comes in. Faith and Mariah ask if she was trying to scare them to death and hug her. Nick asks Sharon, “Are you alright?! Where have you been?!” Sharon tells them she’s OK, and everything is going to be OK.

Next on The Young and the Restless: Daniel tells Lucy her mother isn’t coming back.