The picturesque streets of Rome were still echoing with cheers from Ridge Forrester’s surprise proposal to Brooke Logan—an extravagant moment captured beneath the golden lights of the Colosseum. But back in Monte Carlo, the reverberations of that single kiss left Dr. Taylor Hayes on the floor of her hotel suite, bloodied, broken, and barely clinging to life.

She had watched it unfold on television—Ridge and Brooke, once again, embracing a destiny that had always excluded her. The images stabbed like glass: Ridge kneeling, the ring glinting in the light, the crowd applauding. In that moment, Taylor realized he had chosen Brooke—again. After everything. After years of shared family, grief, rebuilding, and promises. It was all a lie.

She collapsed in grief and rage, her world crashing with the sound of a wine glass shattering on marble. The years of pain, of mental health struggles, of holding the family together when Ridge fell apart—none of it mattered anymore. Taylor, always the strong one, had finally reached her limit.

The next morning, hotel staff discovered her unconscious in the bathtub, wrists slashed, a letter on the nightstand addressed not to Ridge or Brooke—but to her children. “I tried. I’m tired. I love you. Forgive me.” She was rushed to the hospital, her life hanging by a thread.

By the time Steffy got the news, she was on a flight, sobbing into her daughter Kelly’s hair. Thomas, enraged, destroyed his own reflection before collapsing to the ground in anguish. Ridge, still glowing in the aftermath of his engagement, was blindsided. His phone buzzed during a celebratory dinner. The text from Steffy was short but devastating: “Mom’s in the hospital. Suicide attempt. Get here now.”

He dropped the phone. Literally.

When he arrived at the ICU, Taylor lay pale and motionless. Steffy’s eyes, red from crying, met his. “You broke her,” she whispered. “You did this.” Ridge tried to speak, but the weight of guilt had already silenced him.

Days passed. Taylor remained unconscious. Brooke tried to reach out, but was met with slammed doors and blame. Eric, usually the voice of reason, told Ridge bluntly, “You shattered a woman’s soul. You don’t get to design away from this.”

When Taylor finally opened her eyes, her first question was: “Why wasn’t I enough?” Ridge, sobbing, dropped to his knees beside her bed. Brooke, listening from the hallway, turned and walked away. Even she couldn’t deny the destruction their cycle had caused.

As Taylor recovered physically, the emotional damage remained. She declined Ridge’s offer to delay his engagement, saying bitterly, “Don’t punish Brooke for my pain. Just leave me alone.” The words were a knife to Ridge’s heart.

But the ripple effect didn’t stop there.

At Forrester Creations, tension brewed. Hope confronted Ridge about the trauma he’d inflicted. RJ questioned his father’s emotional stability. Brooke wore her ring, but not her smile. Katie and Donna whispered their doubts. Even Donna asked, “Is it worth it, Brooke? Losing your soul for Ridge?”

Thomas, unable to contain his rage, confronted Brooke directly. “You knew she was fragile. You flaunted your ring anyway.” Brooke, hurt, tried to defend herself. But Thomas snapped, “You always say you didn’t mean to hurt her. But somehow, it always comes back to you.”

Steffy, now Taylor’s fierce protector, declared Ridge was not welcome at her house. She called a company-wide meeting, confronting the Forrester family with a powerful speech: “We are not just a fashion empire—we are a family. And we’ve forgotten what that means.”

She proposed a mental health awareness fashion line in Taylor’s honor, with proceeds to suicide prevention causes. The room applauded, but Ridge remained still—haunted by everything.

Meanwhile, a strange dynamic was unfolding between Steffy and Finn. As Finn encouraged her to care for herself, they shared a gentle kiss—rekindling a tenderness lost in the chaos of recent months. Liam, too, showed up, offering support and a shoulder, sparking tension when Finn caught them mid-embrace.

In quieter corners of Los Angeles, Taylor’s psychiatrist revealed she had previously spoken of a trauma never before disclosed—a betrayal from someone inside the Forrester family. The suggestion? There was more to her unraveling than Ridge’s proposal.

Flashbacks hinted at a secret affair years earlier—one with devastating emotional fallout. A mysterious letter, locked away for decades, was about to resurface. And Sheila Carter was suddenly back in town, with a cryptic smile and knowledge no one expected her to have.

Ridge, finally shattered by guilt, made a shocking move. He stepped down from Forrester indefinitely and began therapy. “I don’t know what real love is,” he told Eric. “Maybe I never did.” Eric nodded. “Then it’s time to find out. Start by being alone.”

Brooke visited Ridge at the beach house the following Friday. She took off her engagement ring. “I love you, Ridge, but not if it costs this much pain. I need to figure out who I am without you.” The engagement was over—at least for now.

Back at Steffy’s, Taylor watched the live stream of the family meeting. Tears ran down her cheeks. For the first time, she felt seen. Not as Ridge’s former love. Not as the other woman. But as herself—a woman who had nearly died, and now chose to live.

Next week promises even more reckoning. The mysterious letter will surface. Brooke and Steffy’s showdown will rock the Logan–Forrester peace. Hope becomes entangled in Thomas’s search for redemption. And a secret from Taylor’s past—possibly connected to Sheila—could rewrite everything we thought we knew.