I left New York for Salem in 1992 with my son Lucas. I was brought to Salem to head Titan Publishing. A relationship with my boss Victor Kiriakis soon came to be. He asked me to marry him. My son Lucas pursued the identity of his father, much to my dismay. My nemesis Laura Horton constantly confronted me about my affair with her then husband, Bill Horton, and even threatened to tell everyone about my affair with him which produced my illegitimate son Lucas. My daughter Billie Reed was put on trial for my ex, Curtis Reed's murder. It was revealed that both Billie and Austin were my long lost children. Lucas became embittered, and Billie HATED me because I had taken her cosmetics company Countess Wilhemina away from her. Austin wasn't so hard on me.
To ensure my place in the Kiriakis legacy, I wanted to give Victor another son. He was estranged from his son Bo Brady at the time. Some embryos were formed, and through some shrewd trickery, Vivian Alamain (who was trying to steal Victor away from me) had them emplanted in her. She gave birth to Philip, and while pregnant, drove quite the wedge between Victor and me. Turns out I wasn't legally married to Victor because Victor was married to Vivian, who had tricked him. Vivian then sabotaged my plane when I was on my way to Bermuda to inform Victor that Vivian had tricked her into marrying him, causing it to crash into the ocean.
I was presumed dead, leaving Victor with a new son and no wife. I arrived back about a year later, and Vivian wasn't very happy. She was finally breaking into Victor's heart. Vivian was kicked out of the Kiriakis mansion after her machinations came to light. I got involved with Titan again. Soon after, Billie returned from Paris. Franco Kelly came to town also. Victor had a heart attack and was placed in a nursing home. I had hired Franco to break up Bo and Hope, so Billie could be happy with Bo. Sami Brady started blackmailing me with my past as a prostitute.
Franco was murdered by Lucas and I framed Sami. I also knew Franco was involved with the mob, and held it over his head. He courted Sami to get a green card, and I knew it, but didn't let Franco marry Sami. Sami was convicted and sentenced to death. I said that Roberto confessed to Franco's murder and Sami was freed at the last minute.
I had an affair with the much younger Nicholas Alamain. We had a torrid affair, but he left town, and I attempted to get Victor to marry me once again. I blew my chances, though, when I was caught in flagrante delecto with mob boss Vincent Moroni. I conspired with him to kill Victor at the coronation, and my plan set a horrible gun play in motion that killed Vincent's only child, Angela, and prompted Vincent's suicide. Victor realized my plan, and escaped with his life (after faking his death). He revealed himself to me the night I set the house on fire and attempted to murder him with a poker. Victor got out, but Lucas wasn't so lucky...he was in the house that night, drunk, and ended up with severe burns.
Victor exposed me and kicked me out on my ear, forcing me to find work at a diner. Out of respect for our son, Victor didn't tell Philip that I had attempted numerous murders and was the reason that Lucas nearly died. Thanks to Philip's pleas, Victor finally agreed to provide me with a small allowance. I got a job at Basic Black, and began dating Roman Brady, terrified that at any moment, my secret could come out and destroy our relationship. I became one of the top suspects in Abe's murder because he knew my secret, but I finally broke down and confessed to Roman, which ended our relationship. When Lucas overheard Sami and I talking about my past, he turned his back on me.
Roman and I were able to work our way back to each other. Roman asked me to marry him, and I happily accepted. We had a beautiful wedding, with all our friends and family in attendance, but I was shattered when, at the wedding reception, I found Roman's dead body. I mourned him deeply, but that didn't stop me from doing my best to destroy my son Lucas' newfound relationship with Roman's daughter Sami, who I swore I would try to get along with. I threw myself into my work (and destroying Sami), and the closer Sami and Lucas got, the more convinced I was that my only hope for happiness lay with my other son Philip, and I began 'encouraging' him to spend more time with Belle. When Lucas and Sami got engaged, it took everything I had not to lose it.
I also moved on in my personal life, becoming engaged to John Black after months of helping him deal with a drug addiction. But just as we were planning our lives together, our presumed dead spouses returned to Salem. Roman soon washed his hands of me, and I didn't help my situation by exposing Sami as Stan on her wedding day -- even Lucas turned his back on me. Alone again, I invited John Black to move in with me after Marlena kicked him out of the penthouse in favor of her returned-from-the-dead husband Alex North, but my attention was soon snapped up by a different matter -- I realised that Philip was not baby Claire's father and that the father was Shawn, and I was determined to keep everyone from finding that out.
