"MORIANI MESS" from Footprints
Summary provided by author:
The Moriani Mess, "Footprints" (www.footprintsmedia.com)
Summary: "Footprints" readers had heard of mobsters Nick and Ryan Moriani long before their arrival in King's Bay in 1999. In the series' early episodes, Claire Robbins Fisher explained to her husband, Tim, that her late father had done business with Nick. She also confessed that, when they were teenagers, she had a relationship with Ryan that ended in rape.
When the Morianis reappeared in her life in '99, Ryan was focused on winning Claire back. She was reluctant to believe that he had not followed in his father's footsteps. She was right, although Ryan tried to make her think otherwise. When Tim made the connection between Claire's past rape and Ryan, he was horrified and tried to keep her from seeing Ryan. Meanwhile, Nick began seeing widow Katherine Fitch. When he and Ryan accumulated a significant debt, Katherine was shot as a warning to the men to pay up. With Claire's help, the police began to establish a connection between Nick and the shooting, but lack of proof killed the investigation.
When Katherine awoke from her coma, a guilty Nick professed his love. Desperate to pay off their mounting debt, Ryan suggested that Nick marry Katherine to gain access to her money. Nick did propose and Katherine accepted, although Nick swore to his son that the basis of the marriage would be his love for Katherine and that the money would just be a convenient by-product of the union. Katherine's son Andy, whom she had pushed away by attempting to ruin his relationship with their former maid, was opposed to the union and enlisted Claire's help, as well as that of his good friend and KBPD Commander Brent Taylor, in proving to Katherine that marrying Nick would be a horrible mistake.
Meanwhile, Nick was disturbed to learn that Ryan had secretly maintained contact with a man named Stan Lincoln over the years. When he overheard Ryan and Claire discussing the rape, Nick confronted his son, who recalled that Stan -- his biological father -- had raped Claire during the summer that Ryan spent living with him. Terrified that Stan would go to jail for the crime, Ryan allowed Claire to believe that he was her attacker. Nick was unable to understand why Ryan would cover for lowlife Stan, but Ryan was clearly dealing with some confusing issues regarding his parentage and upbringing.
Claire attempted to help Andy behind Tim's back. She learned of a meeting Nick had planned for New Year's Eve -- just hours before he was scheduled to marry Katherine. Hoping that they would garner evidence there to convince Katherine to dump Nick, Claire and Andy planned to eavesdrop. However, Tim caught on to his wife's plan. She tried to make him understand how important it was to her. Wanting to keep her out of danger, Tim promised to go the pier with Andy to listen in on the meeting.
In the meantime, Claire went to the Morianis' home to make one last attempt at getting some information out of Ryan, who was still trying to convince her that he had changed. They wound up getting locked in the cellar together and Claire became hysterical as she recalled the rape. Ryan was finally pushed too far and broke down. He admitted that Stan was the actual rapist. The memories came flooding back to Claire.
At the pier, Andy and Tim were disturbed when Nick did not show up. (He had learned of Claire's plan and decided not to show.) Andy left to go interrupt the wedding. On the way, he was involved in a car accident with a woman from Seattle, Maggie Collins. After some initial antagonism, she drove him to his mother's mansion to stop the wedding. They were too late and Katherine rejected Andy's final protests. He and Maggie spent the night talking and, when she left in the morning, she definitely left an impression on him.The men Nick was scheduled to meet sent thugs to the pier, and they found Tim hiding. Mistaking him for Ryan, they shot him and left him for dead. In the morning, when she got out of the cellar, Claire realized that her husband was nowhere to be found. She checked with Andy and Brent Taylor. Later, Brent informed her that Tim's blood and his watch had been found at the pier. He was soon presumed dead.
The Fisher family went into mourning over the loss of the eldest son. Tim's sisters, Molly and Sarah, who were at war over Brent's affections, were hit by the loss in different ways: Molly tried to find strength in her family, while Sarah wound up feeling isolated from the rest of the Fishers. Youngest sibling Jason withdrew from everyone and felt even more lost in his own entanglements. And the Fisher matriarch, Paula, was so devastated by the loss of her oldest child with husband Bill that she began to spend much more time thinking about the son she'd given up for adoption before their marriage. The Fishers, especially Claire, were disturbed when Diane Bishop returning to town seeking custody of Samantha, the child she had with Tim whom Claire and Tim had been raising.
Ryan attempted to offer Claire friendship in the wake of the tragedy, but the embittered Mrs. Fisher became more determined than ever to bring down the Morianis. Andy's similar efforts brought him, Maggie, and Brent to the Fitch mansion -- which caught fire, trapping them, Katherine, Nick, and Ryan. Nick proved his feelings to Katherine by rescuing her and she decided to stick with her marriage, despite the seeds of doubt her son had planted in her head. Andy and Maggie's romance escalated in the face of their near-death experience. And Brent's injuries landed him in a coma, which sent his triangle with Sarah and Molly spinning.
The Morianis' entanglements with key King's Bay residents has proven to be far more than a story about the "bad guys" trying to swindle the "good guys." It combines romance, mystery, action, and family drama in a way that has provided believable challenges for core characters and forced romances, friendships, and family ties to be reexamined.