Nicole Reed Newman

Actor History

Erica Hope

1978 to 1979

February 20, 1979 to Present; contract

Other Names

Lifeline

Occupation

Miscellaneous Trivia

Residence

Marital Status

Past Marriages

Relatives

Children

Pets

Flings & Affairs

Health and Vitals

Crimes Committed

Brief Character History

When viewers first met Nikki Reed she was a young promiscuous teenager who lived with her older sister Casey and their mother. Casey was attending college on scholarship to become a doctor and worked at a medical clinic to help support them. After their mother died in a car accident, their father, Nick Reed, who had been a drunk and a womanizer, returned to town. Casey warned Nick to stay away from them or she would reveal to Nikki who adored him, that Nick had raped Casey when she was a child. But days later when Casey and her friend Brock Reynolds arrived at her apartment, they found Nick unconscious and bloody on top of a hysterical Nikki, who had hit him with a table lamp struggling to defend herself from rape. Nick later died at the hospital. Casey assured Nikki that Nick had gotten what he deserved, and Nikki was not charged due to self-defense.

Nikki met Paul Williams on the beach over ice cream cones when she was 17. Both equally promiscuous, Nikki ended up giving Paul a venereal disease. Nevertheless, Nikki and Paul have remained close friends through the years.

Nikki eventually married Greg Foster, and Casey was relieved that she had finally settled down. But Nikki got bored being a wife, and signed with "La Plus Belle Rose," a modeling agency run by Rose DeVille and Vince Holliday, which turned out to be a call-girl operation. Nikki found herself in a hotel room with a client named Walter Addison who had a heart attack and died as Nikki fought him off. Vince and Rose dumped the body in an alley and threatened Nikki that Greg would die if she talked. After a "hit" on Greg failed and everything came out, Greg was so disillusioned in Nikki that she left town, but she was in a car accident that nearly killed her

In 1980, after escaping the prostitution ring, Nikki turned to the New World Brotherhood, a cult. Paul discovered her selling flowers in the street. Soon after, Paul, who felt responsible for his mother Mary's miscarriage, also joined the cult because he thought that it would provide him with serenity. Eventually, both realized that the cult was a farce, but they were being held against their will by cult leader Sumiko. Peggy Brooks joined forces with Steve Williams to write an expose about the cult and even infiltrated it, which nearly cost Peggy her life. They were later rescued by Paul's father Detective Carl Williams. Greg, meanwhile, assumed that Nikki had taken up with Paul again, and decided to end their two year marriage.

The love of Nikki's life would always be Victor Newman, to whom she was introduced by his pal Douglas Austin, when she was a young stripper at the Bayou. Victor fell for her, took her home, and transformed her into a classy young lady with lessons and lavish gifts of clothing and jewelry. Nikki spent her days at the piano, her evenings being entertained and taught by Victor, and her nights yearning for him. Though Victor proclaimed no romantic feelings for her, he finally succumbed to her charm, and they spent one night together. Adamant that this was a mistake, Victor found a beau for her in wealthy young Kevin Bancroft. Victor began seeing Lorie Brooks.

Nikki married Kevin, and shortly afterward discovered she was pregnant with Victor's child. Nikki named her baby girl Victoria Nicole after Kevin's grandmother. Pressured by Kevin's mother, Allison, Nikki escaped by resuming stripping at the Bayou. Kevin found out and filed for divorce. Kevin's mother, Alison, faked a porn film of Nikki to get custody of Victoria and disappeared with the child. Rick Daros discovered and informed Alison and Victor of Victoria's true paternity, and found and returned Victoria to Nikki.

Then a mobster named Tony DiSalvo showed up with a copy of the porn tape, Hot Hips. Nikki seduced and was to marry Tony to get it back, Paul Williams and Andy Richards, who were investigating him, killed him before the wedding took place. Rick was in love with Nikki, but once they began living together, Victor had him investigated and discovered he had murdered his wife, Melissa. Rick talked Nikki into accompanying him on a trip to the island of St. Croix, but she was rescued once again, this time by Victor, Paul, and Andy. Victor sustained a wound in the groin from a spear gun, which left him impotent.

A year since she had been institutionalized, Eve read in the paper that Victor was planning to marry Nikki Reed in a lavish ceremony. Since Eve's roommate in the institution was about to be released but wanted to stay there, Eve switched places with her and left for Genoa City. Outside Gina's Restaurant, Eve knocked a woman out and changed clothes with her as a disguise. She sneaked into the hotel where Victor and Nikki were being married, disguised as a caterer. After the wedding, Eve went to Nikki's room and prepared to stab Nikki, but Nikki's sister, Casey, interrupted her. Eve climbed into Victor's huge trunk, which was about to be placed on the plane for his honeymoon. At the last moment, the newlyweds changed their minds and decided to stay home. Victor learned that Eve had escaped and he found her; Eve was returned to the sanitarium.

Nikki and Victor had finally admitted their love and were a married couple. Not long after the wedding, as a gift for Victor who was still haunted by his past, Nikki had Paul research and arrange a reunion between Victor and his mother, Cora, and brother, Matt, but records showed that his father, Albert, had died. Once Victor learned the circumstances of his abandonment, he forgave his mother, who died from a terminal illness shortly afterward, and Victor put Matt in charge of one of his companies in Brazil.

When Ashley Abbott discovered that her real father was golf pro Brent Davis, she hitchhiked her way out of town with a truck driver. Calling herself Annie while waitressing at a truck stop, Ashley was recognized, and John Abbott was called with a demand of a ransom for her whereabouts. John contacted Victor, who tracked her down and took her to the Newman ranch to recuperate from the trauma. Ashley moved from the ranch when she found herself and Victor being drawn to each other. Nikki discovered it and retaliated by having an affair with Jack Abbott. Then deciding to fight for Victor instead, she tried to pair Ashley with Victor's brother Matt Miller.

It was too late. Nikki and Victor had separated, and Ashley and Victor were in love. Then Victor learned that Nikki had an incurable disease, and returned to Nikki to try to make her remaining days happy. Ashley discovered she was pregnant, then found out about the reconciliation. Although Matt volunteered to marry her, Ashley decided the only solution was abortion. Meanwhile Victor found out Nikki was in remission, yet still faking her disease, so he filed for divorce, intending to return to Ashley. Finding out about the abortion, he berated Ashley, which caused her to have another nervous breakdown. Ashley found herself without her memory again in a New York City mental institution.

Victor's nemesis, Jack Abbott, arranged for Leanna Randolph to write a sensational tell-all biography of Victor, under the pseudonym of Nora Randall, called Ruthless: The Victor Newman Story. Ironically, Victor also hired her to write an authorized biography of his life. Without Jack's knowledge, Leanna added an extra chapter to Ruthless that exposed Ashley and Victor's affair, including Ashley's abortion. Nikki, who was pregnant with Victor's baby, hoped that they would eventually resume their marriage. But when Ruthless hit the bookstores, Victor assumed that Nikki was responsible and quickly divorced her.

In a surprise move, Victor married Leanna Randolph. Because Leanna felt guilty about the exposé novel, and really had grown to care for Victor, she wrote another book called Victor Newman -- Man & Myth under her real name. Meanwhile, Victor devised an ingenious way to punish Jack for his role in the publication of Leanna's tawdry book about Newman's life. Victor orchestrated a takeover of Jabot, displaced Jack, and named Brad Carlton as Jack's superior.

A year later, Jack, knowing that Victor was about to propose to Nikki, decided to get revenge by marrying Nikki himself. Victor offered to return Jabot to the Abbotts if Jack would divorce her. Although Jack had fallen deeply in love with Nikki, he reluctantly agreed out of loyalty to his father, John. But a crafty Victor took advantage of a carefully worded loophole in the contract that voided the deal. Time went by, and Nikki became pregnant with Jack's baby, but she fell from a horse, miscarried, and injured her back. Nikki ended up addicted to painkillers with alcohol chasers.

While Victor was embroiled in saving Nikki from herself, Jack and Brad schemed to take over Newman Enterprises. Victor bugged Jack's office, discovered the plot, and collapsed during a fierce confrontation with Jack. Jack smirked and walked out, leaving Victor dying on the floor of his office. But Jack's conscience prevailed; he called 9-1-1, and Victor was rescued. After Jack discovered Nikki proclaiming her undying love at Victor's bedside, he moved out of the ranch. Not long afterward, Victor and Ashley divorced when she got fed up with his preoccupation with Nikki.

Before Nikki and Victor could reunite, she discovered she was pregnant again with Jack's baby. Nikki and Jack reconciled, but months later, while Victor and Nikki were engaged in a heated confrontation, Nikki accidentally fell down the steps and miscarried. Jack was grief-stricken. Realizing that Nikki was still confused about who she loved, Jack moved out. When Jack discovered that an argument between Nikki and Victor had led to Nikki's fall down the stairs, he held Victor responsible, and left Nikki again for keeping it from him. It was clear Nikki would never love anyone the way she loved Victor. After Victor was blasted by Nikki, Ashley, and teenaged Victoria, all resenting the control he tried to exert in their lives, he left town.

During Victor's trip, he was robbed of his wallet, jewelry, and car. After his car was found with a body inside, burned beyond recognition, word reached Genoa City that Victor was dead. A power struggle for control of Newman Enterprises quickly erupted between Jack, Brad, and Ashley, while Nikki and Victoria were grieving over Victor's death. Jack gained control of Newman Enterprises, regained CEO of Jabot, and made Brad head of Newman.

When Victor heard the news, he returned to Genoa City from Kansas, where he was falling in love with the blind Hope Adams. He learned from his pal, Douglas, that everyone thought he was dead. After overhearing a conversation between Nikki and his children, Victor mistakenly believed that no one missed him, asked Douglas not to reveal the truth, and headed back to Kansas. But he eventually returned with Hope, and married her. They had a son, Victor Jr., but Hope eventually returned to Kansas, and they divorced.

Eve Howard arrived in Genoa City with her son Cole, a young aspiring novelist. At that time, Victor was presumed dead, but was really in Kansas with Hope Adams. His grieving "widow" Nikki hired Cole as a stable hand, and Cole took up residence in the tack house. It wasn't long before Nikki accepted consolation from Cole. To show her appreciation to Cole, Nikki introduced him to Traci Abbott's New York publisher, Steve Connelly, who agreed to publish Cole's first novel. Victoria told Cole she was interested in him. Instead, Cole pursued an affair with Nikki.

Victoria continued to flirt with Cole, then told him she was in love with him. Soon after, Cole wrote to his mother, Eve, saying he had fallen for Victor Newman's daughter. Eve, while on a cruise, read the letter and was horrified by the thought of her son getting involved with his half-sister. She arranged to leave the ship and flew to Genoa City. While on the plane, she became ill from being bitten by a mosquito. On arrival in Genoa City, she was rushed to the hospital, and Cole was notified. Eve lingered for weeks, in and out of a coma, and when somewhat lucid unsuccessfully tried to tell Cole that Victor was his father. Not long after Eve's funeral, Cole and Victoria eloped to Las Vegas.

When the newlyweds returned, Victor was back from Kansas and revealed that Cole was his son, which forced an annulment. While going through Eve's belongings, Victor discovered a letter from Rick Daros to her, which cast doubt that Victor was Cole's father. Victor immediately arranged to have blood tests run on Cole, himself, and Eve's corpse. When Nikki tried to resume her romance with Cole, a devastated Victoria left town before she learned that Cole wasn't interested in her mother. Receiving confirmation that he wasn't Cole's dad, Victor and Cole immediately tracked down Victoria. Cole shared the good news with Victoria, and they returned to Genoa City where they arranged to remarry.

Nikki, tired of waiting for Victor to resume their romance, accepted Brad Carlton's marriage proposal. Victor was shocked when he learned that Brad was the mystery man in Nikki's life. To retaliate, he bypassed Brad for a promotion at Newman Enterprises and awarded the new position to Neil Winters. One day Victor received a FAX meant for Jack from his son Keemo, urging Jack to be leery of his new girlfriend, Mari Jo Mason, then confronted Mari Jo about it. On Brad and Nikki's wedding day, an unseen assailant shot Victor. When Nikki learned of the shooting, she fled her wedding to be by Victor's side at the hospital. As Victor recovered from his gunshot wound, the police zeroed in on several suspects, including Brad and Jill.

Brad urged Nikki to marry him and immediately leave for their honeymoon, but Nikki wanted to keep herself available for Victor. Upset, Brad broke off his relationship with Nikki and left town. When the police discovered that the gun used to shoot Victor belonged to Jill, she was arrested. Further investigation cleared Jill, and she was released. Victor's near-death experience prompted him to reevaluate his life. He left Genoa City for several weeks and visited Hope on her farm in Kansas, where she was married to Cliff. Victor enjoyed spending time with his son Victor, Jr., but Cliff made it clear that the boy thought Cliff was his father.

Victor returned to Genoa City and began spending time with Nikki, who assumed that they were finally about to reconcile. When Victor received word that Cliff had been struck by a drunk driver, he quickly returned to Kansas to lend Hope support. Hope was grief-stricken when Cliff died. Nikki misunderstood Victor's reasons for leaving her, and she resolved to break off with him.

Nikki became involved with her gynecologist, Dr. Joshua Landers, who said that he was a widower. When Josh proposed marriage, Nikki impulsively accepted, and they eloped to Las Vegas. Victor tried to stop the marriage, but arriving too late, he decided not to tell Nikki that he was still in love with her. Nikki only married Joshua Landers because Victor had not gotten there in time to stop her. Josh's presumed-dead wife, Veronica, in disguise as their maid Sarah, killed Josh when he rejected the revelation of her existence. She also pumped four bullets into Nikki and fled.

Victor got a temporary quickie divorce from his new wife Diane to marry Nikki on her deathbed. But Nikki fooled them all and lived. Victor decided to stay with his true love, Nikki. Due to his divorce from Diane being declared illegal, the second marriage to Nikki was voided. Another divorce was gotten, and a wedding was being planned. But Nikki's insecurities about their relationship kept that from ever happening when she requested another baby by Victor. Victor rebuffed the idea, so she had an affair with Brad Carlton. Victor returned from an affair with Romana Caceres in Arizona, discovered that Nikki had slept with Brad while he was gone, and broke it off with her. Victor moved back to the ranch during a family crisis when their granddaughter Cassie was thought to have an active TB infection, and he and Nikki began an affair again.

Nikki decided to become a new independent woman, so when Jabot needed to be bailed out, Nikki offered $35 million in exchange for a board seat. Victor and Nikki's new relationship collapsed once he discovered Nikki was the one who had bailed out his archenemies at Jabot. Nikki became quite the career woman at Jabot when she traveled to Brazil and returned with the patent for an anti-aging cream, which made inroads for her at Jabot.

During his marriage to Diane, Victor had a vasectomy behind her back, but made a deposit at a sperm bank prior. After their divorce, Diane found out about the deposit, and decided to steal it to become pregnant with the baby he had deprived her. Diane was artificially inseminated, supposedly by Victor's stolen sperm. After the baby's birth, Victor insisted on DNA tests, which showed baby Christian Victor Newman was not his child after all. Soon afterward, Diane left town with her baby. It was later disclosed that Nikki, with the help of Jack, had employed a detective to get into Robertson Labs and switch the sperm samples. Her attempt to help Victor resulted in Jack being the father when the man grabbed Jack's deposit as the nearest sample to replace Victor's.

Nikki and Victor were able to get back on friendly, even romantic terms again. He even bought an engagement ring, but was hesitant to take the big step again. But after a quest that took him all over the country, visiting all his old flames, trying to figure out what he kept doing wrong, he finally popped the question to Nikki once again. They were re-married in September 2002 with a lavish ceremony and reception at the Colonnade Room, the site of their first wedding. As always, a crisis hit the Newman Ranch with the split of Nick and Sharon after she had a one-night stand with stable hand Diego. Nikki was continually berating Sharon for her foolishness and siding with Nick, Victor was comforting Sharon and begging Nick to buck up and put it behind him, and Victoria left home with Diego, furious with her father for trying to buy him off.

After much soul-searching, Nick decided to give his marriage another chance. Taking flowers and a present for Sharon, he paused at the window of their home to see Sharon kissing his father, Victor. Furious, Nick called off any idea of reconciliation. When confronted, Victor took the blame, although the mixed-up Sharon was once again hitting on any man who was nice to her. Sharon decided her life was a mess and left town.

Cassie felt betrayed and angry with her parents after Nick brushed her off, being more interested in berating Victor than comforting his daughter. She wandered off and fell through the ice on the ranch pond. Nick finally realized she was missing a long time later, jumped into the pond, and rescued Cassie. She was Care-flighted to the hospital and was in a coma for days. Meanwhile, in the waiting room, Victor confessed to Nikki that Nick had caught him kissing Sharon. Nikki slapped him and shouted, "How could you?" Cassie eventually recovered. Sharon returned home with a new resolve to not be trod on by any Newman again. Nick eventually made up with Sharon.

Several months later, the Cosmetic Wars began, and tensions were high as nearly everyone's mate was the enemy. Victor was CEO of Newman, and wife Nikki worked for Jabot. Jack was CEO of Jabot, and wife Phyllis worked for Newman. Neil worked for Newman and then-fiancée Dru worked for Jabot. Victoria and Nick were involved because their parents were on opposite sides. Victoria was also resentful that Victor had passed her over and mentored Nick to take over Newman one day, even though Nick was unable to forgive his father for being too close with his wife Sharon. Newman Enterprises outbid Jabot to buy out Satine Cosmetics for Women of Color due to inside information that Dru let slip to Neil.

Jabot decided to resurrect a similar shelved project of Ashley's called Tuvia to compete. Payback was had when Dru found out that Newman was trying to woo Satine creator, Damon Porter, as their chemist for the newly named Safra line. Dru stole him away to work for Jabot during Ashley's maternity leave. Jabot was still hurting financially, but saw Tuvia as their savior, depending on Tuvia's reputation and fine product to put them back in the black. But Victor could not let Jabot win the war, so he blackmailed Michael Baldwin into paying off large retailers to give them the prime shelf space normally held by Jabot.

With both products' rollouts only a day away, Victor felt the need to find very pregnant Ashley where she was nesting at a resort just days away from delivery, to tell her not to worry -- which of course made her worry all the more. The next day, Safra was selling like hotcakes and finished a close second to Tuvia. The Abbotts were shocked, the Newmans jubilant. When Ashley grew suspicious of Victor's actions, she drove to Genoa City and her vehicle was struck; she suffered a miscarriage and was told she could have no more chidren.

Nick found out about Victor's dirty tricks, and turned him in to the Feds. Just afterward, Victor's brother, Matt, arrived with news that their father was still alive. After he'd abandoned his family when they were children, Albert had struck it rich and faked his death. Albert was really dying in a hospital in Toronto, and thought Victor should know. Victor was coerced into going, and insisted Nick accompany him. Albert turned out to be a nasty old man who still wanted nothing to do with his son. Victor let his father know how Albert had devastated him and haunted him his entire life, but that Victor had become a success in spite of his father; Victor left in tears.

Michael Baldwin and Victoria were falling for each other when Victor's illegal activities were revealed. She was so devastated and disappointed in her father, she left town. Victor felt Nick had betrayed him, so Victor disowned Nick. Nikki confronted Victor that his tricks had lost her 35 million dollar investment in Jabot, but Victor claimed he had done nothing wrong -- "this is how business is done." Unlike the rest of the Abbotts, Ashley let Victor know she was ashamed of him, but held no grudges. Victor was arrested and jailed the day before Christmas and refused bail. When Ashley found out, she visited him and convinced him to quit moping, accept bail, and go home to his family for Christmas. Although Michael offered to take the rap, Victor insisted he make a deal with the D.A.'s office to hopefully save Michael's legal career.

Nikki gave an impassioned speech at Victor's commercial bribery tria,l and Phyllis dealt the final blow to her marriage by also testifying on Victor's behalf. Phyllis asked Nick for her job back, but he turned her down. Victor was found guilty and, in a last-ditch attempt to keep from going to prison, offered Jack 75 million dollars to settle. Jack laughed in his face as it was nowhere near what they had lost. Victor was sentenced to do some major community service.

Ashley spent a few months nearly catatonic until they realized she snapped out of it whenever Victor's name was mentioned. So they got Victor to speak to her, and she eventually came out of it completely. Convinced it was caused by her untold secret, Ashley was determined to tell Victor the truth, that her daughter Abby was his child by stolen sperm sample. Nikki begged her to be the one to tell, but adorable little Abby beat everyone to it, telling Victor, "Momma says you are my daddy." Victor confronted Brad, Brad told him it was true, and Victor was livid with all involved. Victor wanted unsupervised visitation with Abby; Ashley wanted it, too, but Brad was adamantly against it.

Nikki began having strange flashes of childhood memories upon visiting the Market Street Recreation Center that Victor was building as his community service project. The site was where her abusive father, Nick, had worked when it was a paint factory. The flashes escalated after the skeleton of a child was found when the Rec Center broke ground for a pool. With Paul's investigative help, Nikki recalled herself at five years old and her best friend, Joshua Cassen, fighting over her father's gun, the gun going off, and Joshua being shot. Apparently Nick Reed had buried the body behind the paint factory, and Nikki had blocked out the memory all these years until the skeleton was found. Nikki became obsessed with finding Joshua's younger brother, Charles "Charlie" Robert Cassen, once Paul told her the family had moved away to Cleveland, never knowing what had happened to their missing son.

Nikki was at a loss, and Victor was too involved with Abby, so Nikki decided to revisit more of her past, and returned to the Bayou, which had become Marcino's. Owner Bobby Marcino, who had broken free of the mob, decided to "go legit" by turning Marcino's Strip Club into Marilyn's Cabaret, headlined by singer Brittany a.k.a. "Marilyn." Unfortunately he didn't have the cash to carry it off, so was doing strip nights as well, and convinced Nikki to join him as a consultant and master of ceremonies to give the place class. Victor didn't approve, but once Nikki told him about Joshua, he was more understanding. One day, Nikki told Bobby about Joshua, not mentioning any names or the birthday party. Bobby said he understood, since his older brother never returned from a birthday party and disappeared when he was a child.

Bobby was Charles Robert Cassen. Overcome with guilt, Nikki was hesitant to tell Bobby what had really happened to his brother. Because she was stressing over it so, and Bobby was concerned about her behavior, Victor finally told Bobby the truth. Bobby had it out with Nikki, left town for a while, but then he returned, and Nikki showed him the home movie of Joshua from her fifth birthday party. Brittany was not pleased with how this drew Nikki and Bobby together, and they moved out of the ranch into their own dingy apartment not long after she discovered she was pregnant. Nick and Sharon's daughter, 14-year-old Cassie, was tragically killed in an automobile accident.

Phyllis came up with an idea to create wellness spas under the Jabot umbrella. She asked Nikki to join her with her anti-aging product, and took it to Jack, who promptly shot it down as not feasible because of Jabot's instability. Phyllis and Jack had it out, and she quit her new job as Jabot Executive of Internet Affairs. Nikki and Phyllis presented the idea to Victor instead, and he agreed to fund the project, joined the partnership, and gave them an office in Newman Towers. They called it NVP after Nikki, Victor, and Phyllis. Jack filed a lawsuit against them, which was the final split in his on-again/off-again relationship with Phyllis. Sharon signed on as spokesperson for NVP. Not long afterward, Victor became afflicted with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy and Jack duped him into selling NVP to Jack, with a stipulation that Victor would have final say on all decisions. Nikki was made CEO.

Meanwhile, Phyllis Summers and Nick became attracted to each other, and began a steamy affair. Sharon found out, and she and Nick separated. Sharon went to Brad for comfort, and they ended up having sex on a business trip to New York City. After Daniel walked in and found his mother and Nick half-naked on the couch, Nick and Phyllis decided to call off their affair. After Nick had a vision where Cassie showed him how he imagined life would be had she not died, including a new baby girl named Faith, Nick showed up at home, and Sharon took him back. Then Phyllis turned up pregnant, and broke it to Nick that the baby might also be Jack's.

Nick took a paternity test. When he received the test results, he disappeared to think about his options. He returned a few days later, and informed Phyllis that he was the father, but that he intended to stay with his family. Phyllis was disappointed, but insisted she could raise their child alone. Jack was disappointed, since he'd hoped a baby would reconcile him with Phyllis. Then Jack began an affair with Carmen Mesta. Nick told Sharon the pregnancy news. She decided she didn't want Nick to stay out of obligation, ran out of the office screaming divorce, and ended up in the parking garage pounding the steering wheel of her SUV. Brad discovered her there, and his consoling turned to heavy making out. Sharon saw Nick watching them, but continued with Brad.

Nick decided to tell Victoria that he had caught her husband making out with Sharon, but Brad beat him to the punch and confessed that he and Sharon had shared a kiss -- but that his heart belonged to Victoria. Victoria seemed to accept that, but secretly consulted a lawyer about how to get Brad's Newman stock if the marriage should end. Nick and Sharon told Noah about the divorce, and Nick left to move into the Newman Executive Suite at the Genoa City Athletic Club, but turned up at Phyllis' door instead, and they made love. The next morning, Phyllis and Nick showed up at Newman together and told Victor and Nikki about the divorce and pregnancy. Nikki was appalled, but Victor congratulated them.

Victor's epilepsy was finally diagnosed, Nikki was informed, and he was given medication. But he liked the effects of the mini seizures that made him feel uncharacteristically mellow and caring, so he quit taking his medication. He shut off his cell phone and told the family he was going on a trip that landed him in Kansas at Hope's farm once again. Hope welcomed him, and informed him that his son was at soccer camp. Victor stayed on awhile, helping Hope out around the farm and feeling free, happy, and content like he had been when they first met there many years before.

One day Hope entered the house and found Victor on the floor, having a seizure, but being blind, she did not realize it. Victor came out of it in time to fool her that he had fallen, then left to continue his spiritual journey. Some time later, Nikki called Hope, looking for Victor, and Hope informed her that Victor had gone to a monastery in India. Victor returned home and began having seizures that made him violent in short bursts. These were caused by his medication that he had received in India. Rather than experiment with more medications, Victor underwent gamma knife radio surgery, which seemed to control his epilepsy.

Phyllis overheard Sharon and Brad discussing their New York City affair and saw an opportunity for future use of the information. The controversial NVP spa project, known as Clear Springs, had everyone at Newman taking sides. Jack, Victor, Phyllis, and Nick felt a large development would revitalize a dying town, and Nikki, Brad, and Victoria were opposed because it would wipe out historic structures in the town. Nikki and Neil ran for the vacant Newman board seat to boost the votes for their side, and thanks to Phyllis' blackmail of Brad over his affair with Sharon, Victor's yes-man Neil won, so they appeared to have the upper hand on Clear Springs. But Brad got Phyllis arrested for extortion; she was found guilty and later went to prison.

As part of a plot to bring down Jack, Victor convinced Jack to run for the Wisconsin State Senate. Nikki was in on it, but in her anger at being passed over as a board member of Newman in favor of Neil, she decided to run against Jack. Victor was livid and reminded Nikki where she had come from and where she would be if not for him. Meanwhile, Jack continued to wrestle with his conscience in the form of his dead father John, and appeared to be having second thoughts about the things he did to control Victor when Victor was vulnerable with epilepsy. Jack's campaign manager, David Chow, pulled a dirty trick by exposing Nikki's porn film Hot Hips on the Internet to discredit her, so Jack fired him. Then Nikki hired him to pull the same sort of tricks on Jack. In what appeared to be a political move at the time, Jack and Sharon were married at the ranch with Noah as best man.

Victor and Sharon were scheduled to fly to Clear Springs, then Jack was going in Victor's place, but had to cancel. So Sharon and Nick ended taking the trip instead. On the return trip, the Newman jet went down in Lake Michigan with no survivors. Sharon surprised everyone when she walked in on the Newmans and Jack just after they'd gotten the news. She was just as shocked to hear that her taking another flight had saved her life, and that Nick was missing and presumed dead. It was suggested that the jet might have been sabotaged. Noah and Nikki were devastated, but Nikki carried on with her state senatorial campaign with the help of her campaign manager, David Chow.

Victor abandoned everyone in their grief after Hope called; he took off for Sri Lanka to search for his missing son Victor Jr. While Victor was away, David fell for Nikki, they got caught kissing by Phyllis and Sharon, and they were exposed on videotape. Gloria got Kevin to monitor the security cameras at Jabot, which proved that Jack owned Jabot. Jack quickly sold Jabot at a loss to Katherine Chancellor. In the end, Jack won the election and became state Senator, but later left in disgrace when his former stepmother, Gloria, exposed him for falsifying his father's will that cut her out.

Nick turned up lost in the woods, found by internist Logan Anderson, who returned Nick to Genoa City and his family.

Victor returned as arrogant and controlling as ever, still intent on somehow taking Jack down. It wasn't until weeks later, and after he'd agreed to sell NVP to Nikki, that Victor discovered Jack had sold Jabot to Katherine, so he had lost his leverage over Jack. Livid with Jack, Kay, and Ji Min for outwitting him, Victor lit into Nikki for not warning him, telling her he only sold her NVP so she would have to sell her Jabot stock and he could go after Jack; he insisted he had not done it to please her. Nikki had endured enough of his pompous behavior, moved out, and divorced him again. Nikki asked David Chow to work for her running NVP, and they became lovers. Meanwhile Ji Min Kim turned up dead in his room at the Genoa City Athletic Club. Victor and Jack were prime suspects.

One day, everyone in Genoa City seemed to be at Clear Springs when its underground parking structure and casino collapsed, trapping several people inside. Sharon, Jack, and Nick were there to scout for a photo shoot. Nick was knocked out, and Jack pinned by debris, but Nick awoke and got Jack free. Sharon's leg was sprained, but they managed to find an opening in the rubble. Jack levered it open so that Nick and Sharon could escape, leaving him there still trapped. While waiting for rescue, Jack wrote a note to Sharon, confessing how much he loved her.

Meanwhile Amber crawled out of her crushed car and made her way to an elevator, finding Kay bruised and dirty inside, having been left there while J.T. and Kay's grandson Cane crawled up the shaft for help. Also trapped were Adrian Korbel with a very pregnant Victoria; and Lauren and Noah, trapped with Paul. Nikki and others stood vigil on the outside, waiting while rescuers cleared rubble and tried to get to the victims. Phyllis, still in prison, heard about it on television, got no answer on Nick's cell phone, and got the news when she called Victor.

Sharon and Nick walked out of the rubble, asking rescuers to go back for Jack. They said it was too dangerous, that methane was escaping and about to blow up, so Victor went in and rescued his worst enemy. Cane and J.T. made it out, but Cane fooled them into believing he'd had rescue training in Australia, and went back to rescue Kay and Amber. Sharon and Nick were relieved when Noah emerged on a stretcher. Then the dead body of the construction foreman was removed. The reason Cane and Kay were there was to investigate him for shoddy work and kickbacks. Finally, Korbel and Victoria emerged, just as the methane blast occurred. Victoria was hit on the head with a rock and knocked out; she rolled down the pile of debris.

Still pregnant, Victoria spent months in a coma while her family and fiancé J.T. held vigil at her bedside. They finally had to decide if the baby should be delivered prematurely to save Victoria. J.T. and Victor chose to deliver, but Nikki insisted that Victoria would rather her baby live, so it was taken to court. They ended up waiting a couple more weeks until the baby had a better chance, then baby boy Reed was delivered. A DNA test was run, and J.T. was pronounced the father.

Reed thrived in the hospital while the still comatose Victoria was taken back to the ranch. Nikki and Victor were separated, so Victor lived in the ranch house while Nikki took residence in Sharon's cottage with David Chow there in Victor's face. Not long after J.T. took Reed home, Victoria woke up. Victoria and J.T. were married, and they moved back to the loft apartment with Reed. Victor made his new son-in-law, J.T., head of Newman Security, and Victoria went back to work once she was stronger.

The investigation into the Clear Springs disaster disclosed the cause was Victor Newman's mining the methane underneath it. It didn't take long for Victor to alienate everyone around him, including Nikki. Victor called in her loans for NVP, fired and bankrupted her, giving him full control of NVP. He also fired Nick as Co-CEO of Newman and replaced him with Neil. After losing his Senatorial seat, Jack and Nick got together and decided to start Restless Style, an Internet and print magazine, asked Phyllis to join them in the partnership. Sharon requested to work with them later.

Due to a mini-stroke, Katherine decided it was time to put her house in order. She took a liking to Amber, seeing a lot of herself in the young woman. Kay hired Amber to assist in writing Kay's memoirs, and also invested in Amber's designer fashion line. Kay made Jill CEO of Chancellor Industries, Cane director of acquisitions and later vice president of Jabot, and Nikki Newman CEO of Jabot. Nikki hired her lover David Chow as co-CEO and Brad Carlton as another Jabot executive. Jill was micro-managing Jabot, not being confident in Nikki's abilities.

After many failed attempts by David to get her to set a wedding date, it took Nikki reacting to the news of Victor and Sabrina's engagement for her to suddenly elope with David to Mexico. After a series of bad omens including a packed plane and a wacky seatmate with a cat and lost luggage, which should have further warned her away from David, Nikki and David arrived in Mexico to the wedding chapel that had burned to the ground. They managed a wedding anyway, with a borrowed simple gown and a guitar playing Victor and Nikki's love theme, "Through the Eyes of Love."

Concerned for his friend, Nikki, and suspicious of David Chow, who had bad credit and two prior deceased rich wives, Paul began an investigation into David's past. He tracked down David's last rich wife, "Bitsy," in Bermuda, where she had escaped in fear of David and divorced him. Bitsy told Paul that she and David had met as colleagues at Granville Global, and prior to that, David had been in politics. Bitsy claimed that David had gotten away with the death of his first wife, Janelle, by cheating on her, causing her to commit suicide, and the death of his second wife, Angela, by tampering with her brakes to cause her fatal accident. Bitsy then began ranting about aliens, so Paul cut short the interview, but he believed that her claims about David might be true.

Paul next tracked down Mina King, the daughter of David's deceased wife Janelle, who claimed that David had cut the brakes of her sister's car, causing the accident. David received an anonymous tip that Paul was investigating him, so went to Nikki first with his side of the story. David said he met his first wife Janelle in college, and that she was always on the go, on a mission of some sort. She became paranoid, then could not sleep, would not go for therapy, and ended up overdosing on sleeping pills. His second wife, Angela, was very athletic, flew a plane, and was very volatile. After one of their many fights, she drove her sports car into a telephone pole and was killed. He admitted that he had gambled away his inheritance from each of them. He said her daughter Mina was a cocaine addict and accused David of murder because Angela had cut her out of the will.

David claimed his third wife, Bitsy, was paranoid too. She had accused him of leaking Granville Global company secrets and having affairs. When she refused to get help, they separated, which was when he'd had an affair with Carmen Mesta. When Bitsy found out, she accused him of murdering his wives for their money and became delusional, so he divorced her. Nikki appeared to believe David, and asked Paul to stop investigating him. Paul said he would, but did not. While Nikki started doing her own research on David on the Internet, Brad continued to lend David money and give him bad gambling tips, and David contacted his bookie and lost even more money, to the point where he pawned the watch that Nikki had given him as a wedding present. After a particularly good winning streak, David bought Nikki a horse, Athena, as a gift, and Nikki was thrilled. That only fed David's addiction, and he was sorely tempted when he saw an ad for a gambling tournament in Las Vegas.

Just as Sabrina was walking down the aisle to marry Victor, Nikki, at the stables with her new horse, received a devastating phone call from David telling her that he could no longer deceive her about his gambling and that he wanted a divorce. The next day, David appeared begging Nikki to give him another chance, and Nikki tried. On returning from his honeymoon, Victor ran into Nikki and saw her upset, but Victor left when Paul interrupted saying he was meeting her. Meanwhile David, on a business trip to Hollywood, cut it short to gamble in Vegas- - where Gloria spotted him losing big at the roulette table. Gloria conveniently let it slip to Nikki before David got home, so David confessed and asked Nikki for a divorce "to save her from him," but she refused to give up on him, thinking they could work it out together.

Paul discovered that David was hiding his gambling from her, his real name was Angelo Seraffini, and he worked for mobster Walter Palin, a.k.a. Anthony "Tony" Amato, doing cover-up and was possibly a hit man. Nikki told David she would no long be made a fool of. David pleaded that he'd had an alcoholic mother and deadbeat father; he'd had run-ins with the law since he was eleven; he had gotten into organized crime, petty stuff like breaking and entering and shoplifting; he had needed to reinvent himself to overcome his reputation; and he was going straight, but Nikki was adamant that they would divorce right after the charity ball.

The 2008 Charity Gala, organized by Sabrina and Victoria under the watchful eye of Kay Chancellor, was in full swing with all the Genoa City regulars attending in cocktail party attire. Devon and Ana entertained by singing with a chorus. Nikki and David were playing the happy couple one last time before Nikki filed for divorce. Victor told Sabrina he would send a limo for her, when he left with Michael to meet with Phillipe at the ranch to confirm or deny the story about him and Sabrina. While David was spiking Nikki's drink with enough morphine to kill her, Phillipe was telling Victor the story as he had told it to Jack Abbott, not Korbel for the article.

Paul and J.T. figured out that David had mob ties and feared for Nikki's safety, and arrived just in time to take the drugged Nikki to the hospital. Meanwhile David searched for Nikki, gave up, and waited for his limo at the front door. Sabrina was there, waiting for her own limo, but was not feeling well and begged David to share his limo to be dropped off at Newman ranch on his way home. David relented, and noticed the driver was not the one who had dropped them off, but called them Mr. and Mrs. Newman. Eight miles down the road, another car ran them off the road, and the limo crashed, killing the driver instantly, and injuring both David and Sabrina seriously.

Victor was notified by Michael that David and Nikki's limo had been involved in a serious accident, and Victor went to the crash site. Paramedics were still working on David, and "Mrs. Newman" had already been transported to the hospital. Victor had flashbacks of the happy times with Nikki, thinking she could possibly be dying. Then he noticed Sabrina's earring in the limo, and it dawned on him which Mrs. Newman was in jeopardy. He climbed out of the wrecked limo and accosted David Chow, demanding to know if Sabrina had been with him and why. But David was too far gone, and later died.

Victor rushed to the hospital to find Sabrina in a near-death state. He refused to believe she would die and demanded Michael order specialists, dialysis machines, and organ donors to save her. The family was there to support Nikki who emerged from the morphine overdose just fine. Once they heard about Sabrina, Nick and Victoria tried to see her, but Victor kept them at bay. Eventually Victoria, discovered the lies that Jack Abbott had put into the article. Victoria needed to let Sabrina know that Victoria had been wrong about Sabrina and ask for forgiveness.

Although Victoria did get to see Sabrina and they had a nice chat about old times enjoyed together, she never did get to tell Sabrina she was sorry before Sabrina died alone after asking Victor to get her some ice chips. After Sabrina's death, Victor was left alone to say goodbye. When Nikki showed up at the door, Victor attacked her, accusing her of letting David Chow into their lives and causing Sabrina's death. He spat in her face that he wished it were Nikki in there dead, not Sabrina. Nick took Nikki home, and she had a scary dream in which David appeared and evilly told her what a fool he'd made of her, and showed her Sabrina and the child whose death she had caused.

Paul was there for Nikki all through her ordeal with David and following his death. Victor left guests waiting at Sabrina's funeral. The minister told them that a private funeral had been held earlier, and Sabrina's body was already interred. Victor disappeared, leaving his cell phone, wallet, and epilepsy medication buried at Sabrina's grave. Adam, in his concern, decided to change his name to Victor Newman Jr. Meanwhile, in Victor's absence, the stockholders at Newman voted Victoria back in as co-CEO, and because the ranch was part of Newman Enterprises, she took it upon herself to kick Adam out.

Paul traced Victor to Bucerias, Mexico, where Victor had been hanging out in a cantina, awaiting the arrival of Walter Palin, a.k.a. mobster Tony Amato, the man he held responsible for Sabrina's death. Paul and Nikki went there to find Victor, but Paul had to return when his daughter Heather had a medical emergency. Nikki went off the wagon in her grief after the authorities told her that Victor had been declared dead when his fishing boat broke up in a storm. Later, a body washed up onshore, but Nikki did not let on that she recognized him as Walter.

A drunken Nikki called Katherine and told her that Victor was dead. Kay tried to keep her on the line while she called Nick on another phone. Nikki, still in Mexico after the reading of the will in Genoa City when Adam took over Newman Enterprises and kicked everyone out of the ranch, walked the beach pitifully, wailing for Victor and collapsing in the sand. When she looked up, there he was, alive and very upset with her for being there. He told her to go home, that he wanted the world to think he was dead. In response to her declaration that she still loved him, he replied that he wished one of them had the guts to kill the other to put them out or their misery. Nikki returned to Genoa City.

Not long afterward, Victor returned and Michael filled him in on what had happened in his absence. Victor summoned his children and Neil to the ranch. First he fired Adam and made Neil CEO of Newman, then told Adam to live elsewhere and his things would be sent to him. Neil later asked Victoria to return to Newman at her father's suggestion. Nick and Victoria were thrilled to see their father alive, but although he forgave them for their treatment of Sabrina and thanked them for their actions when they thought he was dead, he was still cold to them and asked them to leave him in his seclusion to heal. Then Victor got Zapato from the kennel where Adam had banished him, fired all the help, made a nation-wide statement to leave him alone, and hired security guards to keep everyone away. Even Nikki had to smash a window to try to talk to him.

Adam was roughed up by the guards and taken off to jail for trying to see Victor. Jack had no luck, even threatening to publish the photos of Sabrina unconscious and bloody at the accident scene. Victor did allow in his old friend Katherine, heard her out, then asked her to leave. After weeks of Victor being a recluse at the ranch, Nick heard music emanating from Sabrina's art gallery and found Victor there, passed out due dehydration. A surly Victor turned the family away at the hospital, and they were about to have him committed for his own safety, but he managed to disappear, and was last seen flying away on the Newman jet. To revive confidence in Newman, Neil hired Nick back part-time as an advisor.

Jack's success-by-any-means business style with Sharon's undying support was making it impossible for the two couples to co-exist at Restless Style, so they let a coin flip decide which couple would buy out the other. Jack and Sharon won, giving Nick and Phyllis a price to buy them out or take the same price to leave. Knowing Nick didn't have the funds, Sharon visited Victor, asking him to give Nick his job back at Newman. But Victor surprised them all by giving Nick a line of credit for the buyout instead. Knowing they needed someone with contacts in fashion, and with Nikki out of a job and full of great ideas, they took her on as interim Editor in Chief. Nikki got Ruby Aldridge for the cover of their first magazine on their own.

Victor was hiding out in France at the chateau he had bought for Sabrina, but in his raging anger and depression, burned it to the ground with tears in his eyes. Meanwhile, Nikki, Nick, Victoria, and J.T. were trying to lead the authorities on a wild goose chase by appearing to meet Victor in Rio. During Nikki's interrogation by Heather and the authorities, Victor made a call to Michael, who was acting as Nikki's lawyer. He ended up speaking to Heather, telling her he was innocent in the death of Walter Palin, and to leave his family and him alone. He fired Michael as his lawyer, and told everyone it was the last they would ever hear from him.

Nikki called Ashley as the one person Victor might listen to. Meanwhile Nick received a call from a priest in Paris concerned about Victor, who was hiding out at a monastery there. Ashley left her job in London for Paris, but by then Victor had disappeared again. After finding a prayer card for Saint Raymond in Victor's room, Ashley ended up in front of the saint's statue, and Victor walked up behind her. They had a tearful reunion that ended up between the sheets.

Meanwhile Nikki was very concerned about her best friend, Kay Chancellor, as signs suggested she was drinking again. One night, Kay disappeared, and Jill and Nikki went looking for her. Actually Kay was secretly taking her doppelganger Marge, who needed help from Kay to stop drinking, to rehab. But they were in a bad car accident on the way. Kay was thrown clear, but Nikki and Jill found Marge dead in the car. Not knowing about Marge's reappearance, they assumed it was Kay's body. A funeral was held, and several people from Kay's past attended: her son, Brock; her late grandson Phillip's wife, Nina; her stepson and stepdaughter, Danny and Gina; her attorney, Mitchell; and her old friends Liz Foster, Dina Mergeron, and Traci. Daniel sketched a picture of Kay, which was framed on her casket. When Kay's will was read, Nikki received all of Katherine's jewelry, including a family heirloom given to Kay by her mother. Meanwhile Marge's friend Murphy found Kay lying beside a creek, assumed it was Marge, and after she refused to go to a hospital, took her home with him to his trailer house. Kay's injuries were slight, but she was confused about who she was, trying to fit into what Murphy told her of Marge, the waitress with the drinking problem.

Ashley and Victor returned to Genoa City in time for Katherine's funeral. They sat in the front row and shunned everyone, then afterward quickly left in a waiting limo. Once Heather found out, Victor was arrested for the murder of Walter Palin and confronted with the diary he had supposedly written about the murder. Victor finally allowed Nikki to visit him in jail, only to accuse her of setting him up by being involved in the bogus diary exposing how he had killed Walter. Nikki finally had heard enough and told Victor to go to hell. She went to Paul for solace, and they ended up between the sheets too.

Paul was working with Michael, investigating the validity of the claim that the woman known as Marge Catrooke was really the deceased Katherine Chancellor. Since Nikki was still grieving the death of her best friend, Katherine, she was adamantly opposed to anything but proving that the woman was an imposter.

Nikki's former fiancé, Brad Carlton, died saving Noah Newman's life. A Jewish service was held with the immediate family, his daughters Colleen and Abby, and his ex-wives Traci, Victoria, and Ashley. Brad's mother was unable to attend, and former lover Nikki was out of town, but she visited the lake when she returned to thank Brad for saving Noah. Sharon visited the grave alone, told him she had always loved him and also thanked him for saving Noah's life. In the Jewish tradition, a headstone was not laid until a week later.

Clint Radison, who had kidnapped Kay in the past, got out of prison and kidnapped her again. Clint and his cohorts, Annie and Roger, left Kay and Esther in the hotel room with a bomb rigged to go off, drugging and framing Kevin for it, and taking him along, locked in the trunk of the car. Amber and Gloria arrived in time to untie Kay and Esther; the bomb went off, but no one was seriously hurt. Meanwhile, between Kevin's claustrophobia and the drugs, he began to believe that Clint was his dead father, Terrible Tom, which turned him into a whimpering child. Once Clint realized this, he took advantage of it and coerced Kevin into robbing banks for him in disguise.

Thanks to the jolt of the bomb blast, Kay's old memories returned, but she could not recall Murphy or her time trying to be Marge. Kay moved into the Athletic Club, and her memories managed to convince Nikki that she really was Kay. Together, they connived to get a strand of Jill's hair for another DNA test, but it, too, proved no match to Kay's DNA. Victor also realized she was Kay, so he made a deal with Jill to agree to exhume the body in Kay's grave to prove who it was, in exchange for his Jabot stock. The test proved that Jill was not a match to her, either, which ultimately meant that Jill was not Katherine's daughter after all. Meanwhile, Murphy proposed to Kay, and she accepted.

Eighty-year-old Katherine married Patrick "Murph" Murphy in the Chancellor garden in a service officiated by her son Brock. Nikki was matron of honor, Victor was best man because Kevin was still locked up, and Amber and Mac were bridesmaids. Ana sang "Let Met Call you Sweetheart," and Joe's Diner provided the catering, complete with chicken nuggets. Amber designed Kay's white lace suit dress, and Nikki caught the bouquet. Later Victor and Nikki shared a dance, and he said he was sorry he had accused her of taunting Ashley.

It wasn't long before Paul and Nikki were living together, then Paul proposed, and they became engaged. Nikki made sure to tell Victor in person. He was okay with it, saying Paul was an all-right fellow, but later told his children that he thought she was jumping into it because Victor was happy with Ashley. However, after talking with Victor again the night before the wedding, Nikki realized she would never love Paul like she still loved Victor, and called off the wedding. She told everyone that she had to get away, and disappeared into the dark in a hooded outfit to wait for a cab in front of the ranch.

Meanwhile Ashley was driving back to the ranch, had another hallucination, seeing Sabrina in a hooded outfit standing beside the road, and hit her with the car. When Ashley finally realized it was Nikki's face she had, and after finding Nikki's cell phone there, she confessed to Victor, but Victor only agreed that she needed psychiatric help. Meanwhile Adam intercepted mail from Nikki, addressed from Boulder, Colorado, not telling either Ashley or Victor about it. Because Victor was in critical condition after being shot three times by Paul's sister, Patty, Paul traced Nikki to a Colorado spa and took her back to Genoa City to be with Victor. Victor had surgery to remove a bullet from his heart, but Ashley confronted Victor about what had led to the shooting, and the confrontation sent him into heart arrhythmia. Victor's heart was too far gone, and only a heart transplant would save him.

Tests confirmed Colleen was brain dead, and Traci finally made the heart-breaking decision to take Colleen off life support. All of Colleen's friends arrived to say goodbye, including her best friend, Lily. Kevin and Jana told Traci and Steve what a wonderful person Colleen was, that she had turned their lives around by forgiving them for trying to kill her. A broken-hearted J.T. whispered, "Goodbye, sweetheart" into Colleen's ear and went off to be with his wife, but he returned the next day and spent some time alone with Colleen.

Colleen's uncles Jack and Billy and half-sister Abby had a hard time comprehending it all. Then Traci and Steve were told that Colleen was an organ donor, and Nikki had the nerve to intrude to request Colleen's heart to save Victor. Jack and Billy protested, then Jack reconsidered and agreed, since Victor had basically saved his life. Victor and Colleen turned out to be a match, and Traci decided in favor of the transplant, despite Billy ranting how Victor was responsible for "Cee Cee's" death and insisting that Colleen certainly would not have approved.

After Ashley overheard Nikki and Victor talk of their undying love, she told Victor she wanted a divorce and was keeping the ranch so their daughters could grow up there, to which Victor did not object. Victor made a rather quick recovery in time to arrive on Nikki's arm for his "daughter" Faith Colleen Newman's Christening, where Traci and Adam were godparents. Victor announced that he was leaving for a rehabilitation facility in Belgium, and Nikki left with him, sporting a new ring.

Nikki returned to spend Christmas 2009 with the family as a brunette, rather than her usual blonde, but changed it back the next spring. In January 2010, Victor returned from Belgium with Nikki on his arm, just in time to catch Adam and Nick in a fistfight, knocking Victor's portrait from his office wall. Victor declared he was back in charge, and everything that either of them had done would be undone. He later showed up at the ranch to see Ashley and his baby "daughter" Faith, and let her know that he wanted the ranch back. It wasn't much later that Nikki and Victor moved back to the ranch together.

Just as Nikki and Victor were celebrating how happy they finally were together, Meggie McClain showed up at their door from Canada with only the clothes on her back, and promptly passed out from exhaustion. She said that Shaw Roberts, the guy who had shanghaied Victor, had shot up her bar in retaliation for her helping him, and she had left town in fear for her life. Victor asked her to stay at the ranch with them, explaining to Nikki that he owed Meggie his life. But he hired Paul to look into it. Paul took the job to help protect his friend Nikki from the woman who might have been a threat, but her story checked out. Seeing the way Meggie looked at Victor, Nikki let Meggie know that Victor was hands-off. Victor soon presented Nikki with an engagement ring while Meggie spied on them from the next room.

Meggie made herself at home in the ranch house with free room and board. She took advantage of Victor's offer to charge to him anything she needed at Fenmore's, by buying expensive clothes and shoes. After Nikki called her on it, Meggie made apologies and agreed to leave. But later that day, Shaw Roberts, the thug from Meggie's home town in Canada, confronted her. Nikki intervened and rescued Meggie, then decided to let Meggie stay. Nikki gave Meggie a job as her assistant. Meggie proved to be very helpful, mostly scheduling Nikki's many volunteer activities, and they became friendly. But after Meggie offered Nikki a drink and was told that Nikki was a recovering alcoholic, she began spiking Nikki's drinks with vodka.

Victoria Newman fell in love with and moved in with Billy Abbott, much to Victor's chagrin. They later bought a house together. One day Victoria went upstairs to take a pregnancy test. She rushed down the stairs shouting, "We're pregnant!" not realizing that her parents were in the living room with Billy. Nikki was thrilled for them, but Victor was livid.

Billy and Victoria wanted to get married the next day, but since they could not get a license, they planned a trip to Las Vegas. When Nikki heard, she pulled some strings with her friend, Judge Anderson, and got them a license. Judge Anderson officiated at the impromptu ceremony in Victoria and Billy's front yard. But just as the vows were being exchanged, Victoria was arrested for violating the laws governing foreign gifts. As she was being dragged to the police car, Judge Anderson quickly finished the vows, and they were officially married.

Vance Abrams took her case, but Victoria spent her wedding night in jail. Victor visited the following morning and admitted he had turned her in -- for her own good -- and offered to have the charges dropped if she would get rid of Billy. Victoria declined, told Victor he would never again be a part of her life or her children's, and went back to her cell. Vance got Victoria released on bail, and Victor finally relented and admitted to the authorities that Victoria was delivering the gun under his orders.

Meggie continued to spike Nikki's drinks, causing Nikki to go to both Paul and Katherine for support and to return to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings when she realized she was being drawn to alcohol again. But Nikki began showing up at Gloworm and getting drunk. One night, Gloworm bartender Deacon Sharpe, who had befriended Nikki at A.A., helped her home and began counseling her. But when Deacon spotted Meggie slipping Nikki drinks, he offered to help Meggie take down Nikki so she could get Victor for herself, if he would be well compensated.

Meggie told Nikki that she had noticed liquor had been disappearing from the bar, and that maybe they should let Victor know he had a thief on the staff. Nikki quickly said no, she would handle it herself. But Meggie made sure that Victor found out about it. Victor took the hint and asked Nikki if she was drinking again, causing her to run off to Deacon, who faked going off the wagon with her. When Nikki returned home looking disheveled, Victor confronted her and ended up postponing their elopement.

Meggie accompanied Nikki to the hospital to see Murphy, causing his heart monitor to spike, and Nikki went for a nurse. Then Brock called to check on them, and Kay and Nina left the room to get better phone reception, leaving Meggie behind. Meggie warned Murphy that he had better stop trying to use Morse code to communicate with his eyelids, that she knew all his tricks from when she was married to Murphy's son. Nikki told Meggie to take her car home and hired a driver to take her to Deacon's hotel room, where she began drinking again. When Nikki arrived home, she and Victor made up and decided to get married in a couple of days. Meggie called Deacon to let him know they had to plan something to stop the wedding, and fast.

The day that Victor and Nikki were to leave for Las Vegas, Meggie made sure to spike Nikki's tea during a wedding dress selection at Fenmore's. Afterward, Jill found Nikki's glass and told Victor that Nikki had been drinking. Victor confronted Nikki, which sent her running to Deacon's hotel room. After Nikki passed out, Deacon and Meggie arranged for Victor to arrive and find Nikki in Deacon's bed with him. Victor called off the wedding and checked Nikki into Solidarity House for rehab. Then Meggie arranged for Deacon to be admitted there as well. When Nikki saw Deacon, she warned him to stay away from her. Meanwhile, Meggie took over at the ranch, playing the faithful friend to "poor Victor."

Victor ran into Deacon outside of Nikki's room and yelled at him, causing a scene. When Nikki defended Deacon for helping her, Victor tore into her for always falling for a lowlife when things got tough, so Nikki threw him out. Deacon realized he cared for Nikki and told Meggie he wanted no part of her con anymore.

Meggie visited her safe deposit box for what were apparently the same drugs she had used on Murphy's son, Francis. Meggie had made plans to drug Victor, fly to Las Vegas and get married, then afterward make sure that Victor died from a sexual enhancement drug reaction on his new heart, making her a rich widow. Meanwhile, Murphy had finally gotten through to Ronan by tapping his finger with Morse Code to warn Ronan of danger. All went as Meggie had planned; they returned to the ranch, and once she had given Victor the drug, she got cocky, asked him how he felt and told him that he was about to die and make her a rich widow.

Victor suddenly came out of his stupor, grabbed Meggie by the hair, and told her he was onto her, and that he had tricked her into confessing her intention to murder him. Ronan and Heather walked in, along with Murphy in a wheelchair pushed by a policeman, his eyes zeroing in on Meggie accusingly. Meggie squirmed while Ronan explained that Murphy had exposed her by using Morse Code. Heather informed Meggie that they knew about her reputation as a black widow and that she was wanted in several states for suspicion of murder. Meggie was arrested and taken to jail. Meggie was later extradited to Alaska, where they had an airtight murder case against her and expected to get a conviction.

Back at the rehab clinic, after hearing the news of Victor and Meggie's marriage, Nikki jumped into bed with Deacon for solace. Victor walked into her room unannounced and caught them in bed. After Deacon left, Victor told Nikki that the marriage had been a ruse, that Meggie had been conning them while slipping Nikki alcohol get her out of the picture. A livid Nikki suddenly turned contrite, begging Victor to forgive her for not trusting him. Victor walked out, hurling insults, and promised to never have anything to do with Nikki again. Victoria arrived and consoled Nikki that Nikki's breakup with Victor had been Meggie and Victor's fault, not her own. Nikki decided that it had been yet another sign that she and Victor were just not meant to be.

A week or so later, Victor told everyone he was leaving town to visit all his subsidiaries around the world. He stopped at the ranch to pack and ran into Nikki, who had just gotten out of rehab. Nikki tried to reason with him, but he refused to listen, telling her that they were through, and to pack her things and be gone before he returned. Victor boarded his jet, and Skye Lockhart was there waiting to leave with him.

Victor returned in time for Christmas 2010, and managed to further alienate his entire family. On Christmas Eve, Victor had a Scrooge-like experience as his dead father Albert and the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future visited him in the spirits of Hope, Sabrina, and Colleen, who helped Victor to see the light and be kind to the Abbotts and his staff. Victor took gifts, flowers, and wine to Victoria and Billy's, and joined his family for Christmas. Billy read A Christmas Carol. Nikki said goodbye to Victor, as he went home to spend the rest of Christmas in front of the fireplace, smiling with his dog Segundo.

Within a week, Victor was back to business as usual once again. Nikki attempted to call things off with Deacon, but after finding out that Diane Jenkins was sharing Victor's bed, she went back to Deacon. Both out of rehab and sober four months, Deacon and Nikki shared some intimate moments on the dance floor at the Valentine benefit at Gloworm, until Victor presented a large donation to the puppy love fund and declared Diane the woman in his life while Nick, Nikki, and Deacon looked on.

In February 2011, Meggie was returned to Genoa City's jurisdiction because Alaska could not make the murder charge stick. Deacon threatened Meggie that he would testify against her if she told Nikki about his involvement in keeping Nikki off the wagon. Nikki warned Victor that Meggie was back, but he blew if off, and let her know that Diane was moving in with him. Then after Nikki left, he called Michael and told him to make sure Meggie never went free. Nikki visited Meggie in jail and gave her hell for ruining Nikki's sobriety and her marriage, and nearly killing Murphy, then Nikki warned Meggie to stay out of her life. Meggie kept calling Deacon and threatening to tell Nikki if he did not get her out of jail.

After his loss at the arbitration hearing, Victor went home a broken man. Not finding Diane, he went to the stables to go for a ride, and found Nikki there preparing to do the same. They commiserated about the verdict and the destruction of their family, and ended up making love in a pile of hay. Diane arrived looking for Victor, saw them, and left. Later, Nikki and Victor agreed that it was just a one-time thing.

After Meggie's urgent request, Nikki went to the jail and found Meggie in chains, awaiting transport to prison to await her trial after Deacon had tricked her into an escape attempt. Meggie disclosed to Nikki that Deacon had been in cahoots with her in getting Nikki to drink again. Deacon broke in on them, but was unable to convince Nikki that he really loved her. Nikki called Nick, trying to find Victor, but Nick had to break it to her that Victor and Diane had eloped to Las Vegas. Nikki went to Gloworm, looking to drown her sorrows in a drink, and walked in on Victor and Diane's wedding reception.

Nikki left after making eye contact with Victor, then drank herself to sleep in her room at the Athletic Club. Deacon made several attempts to reason with her and slipped an A.A. inspiration card under her door, but Nikki remained determined to drink and feel sorry for herself. After another failed attempt to get Nikki to listen to him when Deacon spotted a vodka bottle sticking out from under the bed, he told Victoria and Nick about it. They confronted Nikki, and she swore that she had not been drinking.

Instead of accepting his children's settlement offer, Victor held a press conference to announce that he was taking Newman public. The Abbotts and Newmans, plus Tucker and Kay, watched the television at Victoria's house in shock, knowing that Victor had always promised that would never happen. Katherine was there, and denounced them for causing it, saying she was ashamed of them. Nikki just wanted it all to stop, and left too.

As always, a family crisis drew Nikki and Victor together when Victoria's adopted baby was taken from her. Commiseration led to their making love. Diane walked in on them, and took a photo of them in bed with her cell phone. Afterward, Nikki felt guilty, but Victor told her that they belonged together. Later Victor told Diane he was getting an annulment. After Victor walked out to go for a horseback ride, Diane smashed the blue and white plate that had been the center of the décor at the ranch forever.

Later Michael delivered the annulment papers for Diane to sign, giving her a larger settlement than stated in the prenuptial agreement. Nikki stopped drinking again, and was attending A.A. meetings, where she would run into Deacon. When Victor caught Nikki merely having dinner with Deacon, he threw a fit at her and tore up the annulment papers. But when Victor discovered that Diane had made plans for a liaison with Tucker the night before Tucker was marrying Ashley, Victor called her a tramp and said the annulment would no longer make her a rich woman. In fact, their not having been married for a year invalidated the pre-nup and Diane would get nothing.

It was Nikki's fifty-first birthday, and an argument with Victor caused her to get very drunk, to go to the AA meeting and tell off Deacon and everyone there. Deacon asked Victor to help her, so Victor tracked Nikki down, apologized, and told her he wanted to help, and that he would stand by her. They went together to her birthday party at Victoria's and told everyone that Nikki was going back to rehab, then jetted off together to the New Life Center in Dubuque, Iowa.

Victor confronted Diane when he found out that she had filed an alienation of affection lawsuit against Nikki for causing the demise of her marriage to Victor. Diane showed him the photos she had of them having sex while he was married to Diane, and the video of Abby's confession to running over Tucker, and demanded a payoff from Victor. Meanwhile Nikki disappeared from rehab after discovering Diane's photo of Victor and Nikki in bed on the front of a tabloid with the headline "Once a Stripper, Always a Slut". Diane turned up murdered, discovered by Murphy, floating facedown in a stream at the Genoa City park, and Nikki was added to the list of suspects. Nikki did return to rehab the next day claiming that she just needed to get away.

Nikki arrived home to the ranch on Thanksgiving Day, 2011, after Victoria had just cut Victor out of her life once again, and as Victor was being taken to the police station for questioning in the Diane Jenkins murder after Adam had planted the murder weapon in Victor's office safe. Victor later arrived home to find Nikki there, and he asked her to stay at the ranch. When asked about her absence from rehab, Nikki said that she had lost her sobriety that night, but had returned the next day. She let Victor believe that she was on the wagon, and he took her upstairs to make love. But Nikki was still drinking. Nikki went to an AA meeting where Deacon told her that he had seen her in the park the night of Diane's murder. She also met Devon's mother Harmony, a former addict, there.

Under Victor's orders, Michael discovered that Nikki had stolen a credit card from another patient in rehab, reserved a rental car with it the night she disappeared, and used just enough mileage to go to and from Genoa City and Dubuque. After learning that and that Nikki had been called in for questioning in Diane's death, Victor began to suspect her. Deacon picked up Nikki from the police station, took her home and tried to reason with her, but Nikki took off for the barn with a bottle of vodka. When Victor arrived, Deacon warned him that she was drinking but was still somewhere on the grounds. Victor found Nikki in the barn, where she drunkenly confessed that she had killed Diane. Victor refused to believe her. Nikki said that she had been angry with Diane for the photos that she had published, and the alienation of affection lawsuit she had filed. Nikki confirmed that she had been in the park that night, saying that she had seen Victor and Victoria there, and each arguing with Diane. Nikki said that she had blacked out, but woke up lying in the park covered in blood next to a bloody rock. Victor promised her that he would make everything go away. Nikki then passed out, and Victor covered her with hay. When Ronan showed up with a warrant for Nikki, Victor played drunk and confessed to the crime. When Adam arrived, Victor got Adam to say that he saw Victor murder Diane, and Victor was arrested. The D.A. was happy, but Ronan and Paul felt that it had been too easy, something was not right. Ronan interfered during Victor's arraignment claiming that Victor was not the murderer, which caused the judge to postpone and Ronan to be fired from the G.C.P.D. Ronan received an email that was meant to appear to be from Diane with a video showing Nikki passed out covered in blood, next to the bloody rock.

Nikki was drinking heavily, staggering and falling down in public. Deacon kept rescuing her, and finally told her that he had witnessed Diane's murder. That he had seen Victor yell at Diane, and Victoria kill Diane with the rock due to nasty things that Diane had said about Nikki. He told her how Nikki had tried to save Diane, and had gotten covered in blood. Deacon promised Nikki that he wouldn't go to cops if Nikki would marry him. So Deacon took a drunken Nikki to Las Vegas and they were married. Deacon made sure it hit the tabloids, and Sharon had to break it to Victor. When they returned, Katherine offered Deacon twice what he would get out of Nikki to annul the marriage. Nikki tried to explain the marriage to Victor, but he dismissed her. From her actions, Nick and Victoria concluded that Nikki had killed Diane and Victor was sacrificing himself for her. When Victoria went to try to help Nikki, Nikki drunkenly told her not to worry, that she and Victor would protect Victoria for killing Diane. Shocked, Victoria swore that she had not killed Diane. Meanwhile Nick physically attacked Deacon for taking advantage of his mother at the athletic club bar.

Although Michael and Sharon tried to talk Victor into stopping what he was doing, and Avery tried to find more evidence, Victor's arraignment was rescheduled. But as the judge accepted Victor's guilty plea and had sentenced him to 25 years to life, a drunken Nikki broke into the court room and confessed. Nikki was cited for contempt, arrested, and thrown in jail, and Victor was taken to prison. Deacon visited Nikki, and she called him a liar for coercing him into marriage. Deacon left and treated himself to some lavish spending before Nikki could get a chance to stop him. Victor offered to ship Deacon out of town, but Nikki wanted to deal with Deacon herself. After discovering that Deacon was tending bar at Gloworm the night of the murder, Nikki gave him a piece of her mind, and offered him a payoff to get an annulment which he refused.

On Christmas Eve, a drunken Nikki went to visit Victor in prison. Finding Sharon there with him, and Victor telling her to leave and not to come back, Nikki went to Gloworm and proceeded to drink some more vodka. Deacon tried to get her to stop, admitting that he was a jerk, but that he truly cared about her and wanted to help her. Then Nikki received a text message from Katherine to come to the church, that her daughter Victoria was about to remarry Billy. She dismissed Deacon's offer to take her or call a cab, and left for the church drunk.

In the annual Christmas miracle episode, Nikki arrived at the church too late for the wedding. Seeing herself as a total screw-up, she pleaded in tears with God to help her. She was handed a handkerchief by her guardian angel, who said that she had been sent by John Abbott and Douglas Austin (who were both dead) to help her. The angel showed Nikki through flashbacks to the past and the thoughts of Victoria, Nick, Katherine, and even Victor, that she was still loved, prayed for, and needed by them all. The angel assured her that she was not a murderer, and did not kill Diane. The angel revealed to Nikki that she was Nikki's mother who had died in a car crash when Nikki was a teenager, and then she disappeared. Nikki turned around to find that she was indeed on time for Victoria's wedding, was remarkably sober, and was welcomed with open arms. After the lights went out, things were looking ominous, but after the arrival of good omens, Judge Anderson and Victoria's runaway dog Keely, the ceremony was held by candlelight, and Victoria and Billy were married once again – vowing that this time would be forever.

After the wedding, Nikki visited Victor in prison and let him know that his daughter was happy again. Victor grumbled a response, and told her to leave. Refusing to be dismissed, Nikki told him that she loved him, that she knew that he didn’t kill Diane and neither did she, and that she was going to find out who did and get him out of there. The next day, Nikki showed up at Gloworm, and told Deacon that she had changed her mind, and wanted to stay married, secretly hoping to find out what really happened the night of Diane's murder to free Victor.

Nikki began faking being drunk and paying bartenders to give her non-alcoholic drinks while she plied Deacon with affection for information about the night of the murder. Deacon was getting suspicious, but on New Year's Eve, he gave her enough information that she excitedly went to Victor to let him know what she was doing to set him free. But Nikki walked in the visitor's room just as Victor had given Sharon an engagement ring and asked her to marry him. Nikki saw the ring and accused Sharon of gold-digging by manipulating Victor into marriage. Victor assured Nikki that it had been his idea, and that he wanted Sharon because she was young and beautiful. Nikki left in tears after telling them that they both destroy the people who love them, and deserved to be together. Nikki went to Katherine's for solace, but still refused to divulge what she was up to, only saying that she had been a fool to let Victor hurt her once again. Meanwhile, Victor sat alone thinking back to the first New Year's Eve he and Nikki had shared, mumbling to himself that he was still there for her, and always would be.

Deacon caught Nikki poking around in his laptop, and was about to strangle her from behind when they were interrupted by Victoria knocking at the door. Deacon never confronted Nikki, just deleted some files and password protected it. But Nikki had emailed herself a video file she had found, which turned out to be of Deacon and Diane having sex. Nikki took the video to Paul and Ronan who had just invalidated Deacon's alibi when a customer confirmed that Deacon had left Gloworm for over an hour. Since the video was shot on super 8 film, like the video at the warehouse and the one Ronan received of Nikki passed out next to Diane, they were able to surmise that Deacon had a super 8 camera and had made all the videos.

When Nikki caught Deacon attempting to retrieve the camera and film from where he had hidden it, Deacon kidnapped Nikki and took her to the warehouse. Claiming that he had been protecting her all along, Deacon showed Nikki a video of her killing Diane. But Ronan arrived with the police after finding the film that Deacon had hidden behind Gloworm. That film showed Nikki hitting Diane over the head with a rock in self-defense after Diane tried to stab Nikki with a syringe. Deacon was arrested for kidnapping. Ronan showed the film to the D.A. and Victor was released from prison. Ronan got Nikki to remember details from that night. She saw Victor leave Diane, and Diane called Adam. Nikki overheard them plotting to frame Victor for Diane's murder. Diane went after Nikki to stop her from telling Victor. Ronan was reinstated on the GCPD. Upon his release, Victor summoned Nikki to the ranch, told her he loved her, and took a very confused Nikki upstairs, where they made love. Victor had his marriage annulled from Sharon a few days later.

Ronan subpoenaed all of the Diane Jenkins murder suspects, and he and the DA questioned them about the evidence that still did not add up. Deacon arrived in handcuffs saying that Diane had come to him when no one would help her, wanting to back out of framing Victor with Adam because of Kyle, so she asked him to videotape that night in the park. Deacon admitted that after he witnessed Nikki kill Diane in self-defense, he had hit her more times to make it look like someone bigger and stronger than Nikki had killed her, and he was the one who put Diane's body in the creek. Deacon said he had taken the syringe, Ashley's cell phone, and the security camera from the tree, and had hidden them in the alley behind Gloworm, but they had disappeared later. When no one would confess to taking Deacon's stash or the embroidered pillows, the DA arrested them all for obstruction of justice.

At Genevieve's invitation, Paul went to her mansion to interview Myrna about the strange goings-on there. But Patty heard him arrive and grabbed a bag and disappeared to her old hideout, the Newman potting shed. Paul searched Myrna's room for clues to why she had left, and took her computer. Later Paul found a photo from the park surveillance camera on it. Paul started putting the clues together and realized that his sister Patty may have been posing as Myrna. Then Deacon identified Patty's photo as being the person who was there in the park helping him clean up after Diane's death.

Patty sneaked in at Genevieve's and overheard her reading a note to Jack backing out of the wedding. Patty intercepted the note, and walked down the aisle in Genevieve's stolen wedding gown. Jack pulled the veil from her face, ready to confront Genevieve, and said, "Emily?" Patty replied, "It's Patty, you bastard," and shot Jack. Patty left as the horrified Abbotts rushed to Jack. Jack was taken away by ambulance in critical condition.

At the hospital, the doctors told the Abbotts that Jack had a lacerated kidney, and the bullet was lodged next to his lower spine as he was taken into surgery. Nikki stood vigil with the Abbotts during Jack's surgery, feeling bad for taking him for granted after all the years they had spent together, and remembering how he was there for her when they lost their child. Jack's heart stopped during surgery, and he found himself in a rowboat surrounded by mist and stars with his dead father John. Jack told him that he was tired of failure and was ready to join him. John told Jack that he had everything to live for, a future of love, achievements, and being the man Jack was capable of becoming. Jack decided to row back home and survived the surgery, but was left paralyzed, just as he had been when Patty had shot him before in 1983.

Patty was captured and admitted to making the pillows for each person who had been in the park, and she was taken away to a maximum security prison hospital. All charges were dropped against all suspects, including Nikki, once Ronan was able to convince the D.A. that Patty had been the missing link in the murder and Nikki was not responsible. Deacon remained in jail. Patty was sent to the prison hospital. Victor invited Nikki to move back to the ranch with him, and she did.

Victor began romancing Nikki again. Nikki trusted Victor, even when he claimed that he had nothing to do with Chelsea and her mother Anita showing up in town after Chelsea and Billy had had a one night stand in Myanmar leaving Chelsea pregnant. But when Nikki found Anita's missing earring on the living room floor at the ranch, Nikki confronted Anita. Anita and Chelsea later admitted to Billy and Victoria that Victor had been behind it all, that they had met him in Myanmar after he got Billy out of prison, and that Chelsea had contacted Victor when she discovered that she was pregnant. Victor admitted he brought them to town, and said it was immaterial. Victor felt that he was justified in meddling in Victoria's marriage, and compared it to Nikki marrying Deacon to protect him and Victoria. Nikki left, saying it does no good to be angry at Victor, that he is who he is, and is never going to change. Victor exclaimed, "But we love each other!" Nikki shot back, "I am who I am, and am not going to change either." But later they appeared to reconcile as Nikki made Victor promise never to lie to her again, and she said she would not either. Nikki stayed on at the ranch, but as she confided to Katherine, all they did was argue.

Meanwhile Jack was still struggling with Sarge and physical therapy, and Nikki was there supporting him all the way. Jack became frustrated and decided to have a dangerous operation to remove the bullet from his spine, then to regenerate the nerves with stem cells, but Nikki and Ashley tried to talk him out of it.

Nikki and Jack began to get close again, and the more Nikki found out about Victor's schemes against his own family "for their own good", the more disenchanted she became with Victor. When Jack schemed to marry Genevieve Atkinson so he could acquire Beauty of Nature which she now owned, Nikki pleaded with him to not be like Victor and to be like his father John. Jack said he would if Nikki would remarry him instead, but Nikki was still in love with Victor. So Jack arranged to meet Genevieve in Las Vegas.

Nikki overheard Victor admit to Chelsea that he had paid her to setup Billy in Myanmar. Later after Victor followed Genevieve to Las Vegas, offering her CEO of Beauty of Nature if she sold to him, Nikki confronted Victor telling him that although she still loved him, his choices of anger and self-righteousness over family was something she could not tolerate, and that they were through. Meanwhile Jack changed his mind about tricking Genevieve after seeing how much she genuinely loved him. Jack joined Nikki in her room, and they ended up making love. Genevieve put on her gold wedding dress and went to Victor's room with a bottle of champagne, she signed the agreement, and they ended up making love as well.

Jack and Nikki were invited to a family party at Victoria and Billy's to welcome Johnny home. Victor and Genevieve crashed the party and announced their Beauty of Nature deal and that they were now a couple. Nikki put her hand on Jack's shoulder and let him know that she had moved on as well. Genevieve excused herself, leaving Victoria to confront Victor about his setting up Billy in Myanmar. Victoria accused Victor that if not for Delia's illness, Billy may have died in prison there, then told him to leave and never return. Later Victoria admitted to Billy that if not for Victor's machinations, they actually may never have gotten Johnny, and Billy agreed that it had all been worthwhile. Reed arrived to meet his new baby brother Johnny. Nikki moved her things out of the ranch and into Victoria's.

When Jack's son Kyle returned to Genoa City, he became resentful when he discovered that his father was romantically involved with Nikki Newman, the woman who had killed Kyle's mother. Kyle moved into the Newman Ranch, and Victor gave him a job. Nikki called off her affair with Jack for Kyle's sake. Jack decided not have the risky surgery and returned to therapy with Sarge.

Kyle apologized for being a jerk, telling Jack that he wanted him to be happy, and if Nikki made him happy, Kyle would have to get over it. So Jack declared his love to Nikki, and asked her to marry him again. Nikki responded that she needed time to think about it. Encouraged to reconcile with Nikki by Katherine, Victor overheard the proposal, but left assuming that she had said yes. Later Nikki went to see Victor, and caught him and Sharon enjoying a romantic evening, so she left. Nikki went to Abbott manor and accepted Jack's proposal.

Victor gifted Sharon with a beautiful black horse. Nikki found out and showed up to ride the horse first out of spite. Sharon and Nikki wound up in a cat fight, and each had the other arrested for assault. Victor told Nikki to get out and never come back.

As Jack and Nikki made their wedding plans, Jack had breakthrough, and was able to start to walk again. He asked Sarge to help him keep it secret, hoping to be able to stand at the marriage ceremony.

As Nikki and Jack prepared for their wedding, Victor took Sharon to Las Vegas, and they were married on the jet. They showed up at Abbott Manor as Nikki was about to walk down the aisle, and told her of their wedding. Nikki said that they deserved each other and threw them out. With renewed assurance that she was doing the right thing, Nikki walked down the aisle on Nick's arm to the wedding guests waiting in their finery at the beautiful poolside setting. To Nikki's shock, Jack rose from his wheelchair to receive his bride. During their vows, Jack thanked Nikki for being his inspiration, and that when he was with her, he was the man he was meant to be. With Victoria as matron of honor and Billy best man, Nikki and Jack were married to the applause of friends and family.

The same evening, Victor went horseback riding with Sharon, took off ahead of her, left horse in stables and disappeared. With Victor off again on one of his walk-abouts, Sharon had been abandoned on her wedding night and got drunk and caused a scene at Jack and Nikki's reception, and Nikki pushed her in the pool to sober her up. After discovering that Sharon was doing nothing to find Victor, Nikki notified the police, and Nikki and Buck the ranch hand searched the trails and found Victor's cell phone. Feeling vindictive, Nikki sent Sharon a text saying "Marriage was a mistake. It's over." Sharon became livid with Victor, and found the pre-nup she had signed. Good as it was for her, it stated that she got nothing if the marriage was brief, so she burned it and told Avery she knew nothing about a pre-nup. Viewers saw Victor wandering the docks at the port of Los Angeles.

Jack arranged a honeymoon surprise, but Nikki declined due to Victor's disappearance. Jack said that was unacceptable, so Nikki left Abbott manor, and she flew to Hope's farm in Kansas in search of Victor. After Nikki failed to find Victor, she tried to return to Abbott Manor, but Jack threw her out. When she wouldn't leave, Jack got out of his wheelchair and walked out on her. He later made arrangements for a divorce. Later when Jack realized how desperately Nikki needed to hear from Victor, he called Billy, who gave her the number of the cell phone which he had given Victor. She called, and when Victor heard her voice, he responded, "Nikki?" just before an explosion rocked the dock area where he was. Several workers were injured and Victor was declared dead. Billy returned to Genoa City and delivered the news during a news conference that Sharon had called. Meanwhile Sister Celeste had secreted Victor away at her place to convalesce from his injuries, and for his own protection, and only told Genevieve that he was alive.

As news of Victor's death spread, Newman stock plummeted, family members began to grieve, and Katherine showed up to comfort Nikki. Sharon identified the burned body as Victor, although it wasn't him, convinced that Victor had set up his death. The family was livid to discover that Sharon had sent the body to be cremated immediately. Sharon arranged a quickie memorial service and texted his friends and family members to be there. Meanwhile in L.A. with Genevieve, Victor who had lost his memory for months, recalled a ranch and horses, and then remembered his real name.

Victor returned to find Nikki weeping at his grave, and they reunited. Afterward, Victor walked in on the wedding of Sharon and Tucker, stopped it, and told her to get her things out of his house. Victor's friends and family were thrilled to see him, and he held a press conference to assure the world that he was alive and back as CEO and chairman of the board of Newman. Nikki and Victor spent the night together, as Sharon had moved back into her house on the ranch.

After gaining Adam's share support and teaming up with Tucker, Jack took the opportunity for a hostile takeover of Newman Enterprises. Jack fired Victor, Nick and Victoria. Afterward Victor collapsed, Nikki found him, and he was hospitalized. That same evening the ranch house burned down beyond saving. Nick and Nikki watched it burn, and the next day Nikki and Victor visited the ruins and reminisced about the good times they shared there, calling it both tragic and liberating, their chance to start over. Victor said that he had to lose everything to realize what was really important – Nikki. He asked her to marry him for the last time – and forever. Victor later announced to the family that he and Nikki were getting married for the last time, they were rebuilding the ranch house, and he had decided not to fight for Newman, but to leave it up to his kids to do. Victor later gave Nikki an engagement ring.

Nikki surprised Victor with the redecorated penthouse and played the baby grand for him. They threw a cocktail party to celebrate their new home. Victor invited Adam as bait for Nick and Victoria to fight for Newman, while Victor needled him about Jack's incompetence. Victoria went alone, as Billy was not invited. Abby sent Carmine and paid for him to be Victor's bartender. Sharon arrived uninvited to confess and apologize. They gave her such a hard time that she freaked out, and Victor yelled at her to leave. Adam followed her, leaving Chelsea behind. After Carmine made nasty comments about Sharon, Noah slugged him, and Nick and Victor ushered him out.

Victor and Nikki chose Valentines Day 2013 for their wedding. For Christmas, Victor reconstructed their photo album which had been lost in the fire with copies from friends as his gift to Nikki. Nikki got the charred remains of Victor's mother's bible rebound and repaired for him. Victor also surprised Nikki with the blueprints for their new house at the ranch.

As Nikki planned their wedding, Victor plotted to gain control of Newman again, promising Nikki an around the world honeymoon ending on his yacht in the Mediterranean. Nikki was furious with Victor that he still intended to take advantage of Jack and expose his addiction to pain medication, and she warned Victor that his all-consuming need for control was going to kill him one day. After Victor left, Nikki made a mysterious phone call saying that she had been unable to break the news to Victor yet, and after she received a troubling letter, she postponed their wedding. Victoria became concerned for Nikki, and Nikki admitted only that her blood test had come back with a bad reading. Later Nikki's car slipped off the road during a major winter snowstorm near Abbott Manor. Stuck there awaiting a tow, she confessed to Jack that she had multiple sclerosis. Jack urged her to stop keeping it from Victor. But when Nikki refused to tell Victor, Jack told him. When Nikki arrived home, Victor kissed her trembling hands and hugged her while teary-eyed, not saying a word. Nikki didn't want to admit it was true, and have their renewed happy lives turn into one of doctors and medications. Victor told her she was his world, and together they could handle anything. Afterward Nikki attacked Jack, asking how dare he tell Victor. Jack replied that she needed Victor. Together, Victor and Nikki told Victoria and Nick about her diagnosis, making them promise not to treat Nikki and differently. Later Victor was notified that the new ranch house would be finished in two weeks and insisted that Nikki marry him there soon afterward.

The ranch house finished, Nikki and Victor moved in, and invited the family over. Nikki played the piano. Nikki's doctor, Kurt Costner, stopped by the next day telling her and Victor that she had minimal nerve damage in the early stages of MS, and hoped she would go into remission on her own, to avoid stress, and stay in tune with her body. The wedding date was set and arrangements made, but Nikki passed out at the rehearsal dinner the night before, and ended up in the hospital. Trying to reassure her, Victor arranged daily unofficial weddings by Abby, Katherine, etc., until Nikki could be released and they could have the real thing.

Victor and Nikki were married, they claimed for the final time, at their new house on Newman ranch. Victoria was matron of honor, Nick best man, Faith flower girl, and Reed ring bearer. In attendance were Michael and Lauren, Abby with Alex Chavez, Billy, Neil, Summer, Noah, and Eric Forrester (who designed Nikki's gown). Nick's date, Avery, caught the bouquet. Katherine was not in attendance because she had forgotten about the wedding, and Ashley did not show up until the reception. Later, Adam crashed the reception, toasted the bride and groom and Victor's rise to greatness, then alluded to something Victor did New Year's eve, before Billy ushered him out.

Meanwhile, a man named Bob who was hired by Wheeler to pose as a waiter, set a timer on an explosive device, and attempted to leave. Nick recognized and stopped him, he pulled a gun, and Billy jumped him. Victor walked into the room, Bob pointed the gun at Victor, Adam jumped between them and took the bullet for his father. Alex and Nick subdued Bob, and an ambulance was called. Everyone was ushered out of the house when gas was smelled, but Victor refused to leave Adam, and Nikki refused to leave Victor. Meanwhile Billy went to investigate. Billy shut off the gas, then discovered the explosive with its timer nearly run out. Holding his breath, Billy guessed and cut the red wire, and became the second hero of the day.

At Genoa City Memorial, Dr. Costner removed the bullet from Adam, finding bone fragments from a shattered rib which had damaged Adam's lungs. In the waiting room, Chelsea lit into Victor, reminding him that he and Adam had both grown up without their fathers, and how Adam was routinely shunned. Following surgery, only one person was allowed in to see Adam, and Chelsea magnanimously allowed it to be Sharon. Adam told Sharon to take charge of Newman for him, then went into a coma. After Adam awoke, he and Victor made up and agreed to run Newman together. Nikki agreed to give Adam another chance, and he was invited to a family birthday dinner which was held for Nikki at On the Boulevard. Adam fittingly gifted her with a bird of peace figurine. Katherine arrived, and when questioned why she had not attended their wedding, she admitted that she had forgotten. Katherine went on to tell Nikki that the problem was not Alzheimer's as she had feared, but not to worry, that it was being taken care of. A week or so later, running into Jill at the hospital, Nikki found out that Katherine was about to go in for the removal of a brain tumor. Nikki told Katherine that she understood her not telling anyone, but had learned from her own M.S. that they had to let the people who love us get us through it.

Once Adam and Victor had reclaimed Newman from the stockholders and were in control again, Nikki and Victor took their belated honeymoon in Tuscany. They returned to discover that Victoria had left Billy due to his gambling again. Billy visited Nikki to try to get her to persuade Victoria to give him another chance, and they ended up commiserating over their addictions. Nikki was brought to tears as Billy described how euphoric it was to win, and how devastating and ashamed he was to lose. But Victor interrupted and threw him out of the house, calling Billy a loser and a worthless addict. Nikki asked Victor if that applied to her as well, and he back-peddled saying that she and Billy were totally different. He later tried to win back her favor with an impromptu fundraiser for MS research in her honor, but Nikki saw through it when he put her in charge and expected her to make it happen. With the help of Victoria, the gala was a huge success, taking in more than a million dollars in donations.

After Nikki's dear friend Katherine's successful brain tumor surgery, she and Murphy took a trip around the world, with Katherine sending postcards but uncharacteristically not keeping abreast on Chancellor. Three months later at 8:00 P.M. during an ominous thunderstorm, Jill, Victor and Nikki, Cane and Lily, Esther, Chloe, Devon, and Kevin gathered in the Chancellor living room having each received instructions by mysterious postcards from Katherine which arrived from locations around the world. Murphy finally arrived alone and told them what an exhilarating trip they had taken, hitting all the famous locations on Katherine's "bucket list", even including a ride on the world's tallest wooden roller coaster in Germany, dancing the flamenco in Barcelona, and zip-lining in the Sacred Valley. He said that their final stop had been Hong Kong where they met up with Tucker for dinner, which was cordial, almost pleasant. Afterward Murphy and Katherine had sung together in a karaoke bar and gotten a standing ovation, but later that same night Katherine had died in her sleep. Everyone was shocked and saddened by the news. Murphy admitted that the doctors had told Katherine that she did not have long live, so she had decided to take the trip. Jill reacted accusing her of being selfish because she had told them that she had been cured. Murphy asked everyone to forgive her and to remember the love and special moments that she had shared with each of them. As each of them had their own memory, Nikki recalled the joy they shared at her engagement to Victor. Murphy gave Nikki a letter to read aloud that Katherine had penned for them which asked them to remember her spirit of hope and determination in life, not her death. It ended with "You are not getting rid of me this easily. I will still be watching from another room." When Jill reread this line the next day, a book suddenly fell from the mantle onto the floor, and Jill believed that it was true. Nikki was devastated by the news as Katherine was more like a mother than a friend to her, and had been the guiding force to her sobriety.

Murphy later delivered letters from Katherine to each of her loved ones. Per Katherine's instructions, Jill and Nikki arranged a celebration of life to be held in a park at Lake Delaney. Delia made the invitations which were titled "Being Free", and guests were instructed that there be no sadness, tears, or regrets, no wearing black, but happy bold colors instead. Father Todd came from Michigan to officiate, and Danny sang. Brock, Nina, Amber, and Gina also came from afar, but Tucker and Mac sent their regrets. All of Katherine's loved ones had words to say about her, and Nikki told how Katherine had saved her countless times, and taught her to never give up hope. Afterward they put a flower on the altar next to Katherine's urn. Then Murphy revealed a plaque saying Chancellor Park. In loving memory of Katherine Chancellor. Paul received his letter from Katherine during the ceremony which inspired him to propose to Christine, and Father Todd married them right then and there. Nikki and Jill stayed after everyone had left. They shared how each of their letters had left them quests. Then they both saw a vision of Katherine smiling at them as they hugged. Days later when Katherine's will was read, Nikki was not in attendance, but was bequeathed all of Katherine's writings and her heart.

Meanwhile, Nikki told Paul the secret that she had been carrying for many years. Reminding Paul of the cult they had joined in 1980, and Ian Ward, the man who ran the cult from afar, Nikki disclosed how Ian had used her for sex during his many visits to the commune, hoping to conceive an heir. Nikki had gotten pregnant, then realized that she was just one of his many girls. After the commune burned down, she had left town. Her baby had been born prematurely in a Winnetka, Illinois, convent, and the nuns had taken it away before she woke up. Nikki explained that she had finally shared her secret with Katherine after her MS diagnosis, and Katherine had urged her to find her child to let them know they might inherit the disease. Apparently Katherine hired an investigator, and had left Nikki a phone number in her parting letter, telling her to do with it what she wished. Paul discovered that it was the disconnected phone number of a deceased family attorney in Winnetka named Goodwin. Nikki remembered only that the convent was Our Lady of...something. Paul and Nikki went to Winnetka, and tracked it down to Our Lady of Hope, but their records had been destroyed in a fire. Sister Clare who had delivered Nikki's baby was still there, but suffered from dementia. Sister Clare recalled a parishioner named Penelope adopting the baby, and Father Martin tracked her down Penelope Wayne, but that her son Peter had drowned in a creek at the age of seven. Nikki was crushed. Paul received the file of adoptions arranged during that period, but Nikki rejected it. But when Paul looked at the file, he discovered that the adoptive mother's name was Penelope Harrison. Paul tracked down her sister Pamela Raymond. She told Paul that Penny had died, and that Penny had adopted the baby boy to get her boyfriend back by claiming the baby was his, but that the boyfriend had died since too. Pamela had only seen pictures of the child as a boy and knew that he had served in the military. Paul pursued finding the child, and relayed that he was Dylan McAvoy. Nikki agonized over telling Dylan that she was his mother and disrupting his life. Nikki hired Avery to add Dylan to her will, but Avery became resentful, accusing Nikki of expecting her to keep secrets or to tell Dylan for her, of being selfish to rob Dylan of his wonderful childhood. But Avery realized that Dylan desperately needed family after he had lost everything.

Nikki held a Veteran's Day fundraiser at The Underground to honor the vets. Dylan and Stitch were invited, but Dylan was reluctant to attend. Avery was able to convince him to show up as they reconnected after remembering how much she loved him while he was in the service, and they kissed. Everyone was rather mystified by Nikki's overly friendly gesture of hugging Dylan for having the courage to attend.

Nikki confided in Paul that she was felt the need to tell her family first before she told Dylan that she was his mother. Hoping that Victor would not overreact in public, Nikki set up a family dinner at the Genoa City Athletic Club. She was setting up the revelation by telling how Katherine had been involved, when Dylan and Avery arrived for a romantic dinner. Nick overacted by accusing Dylan of following him around and throwing his relationship with Avery in his face. They got in a fist fight, and the other Newmans crowded around in an attempt to break them up. Nikki finally was able to do so by shocking them all by shouting that Dylan was her son. Dylan told her that could not be, that Terry and Penny McAvoy were his parents. Nikki explained that Penny had adopted him as a baby in an attempt to hang onto his father who had never found out. Dylan refused to believe it, and left with Avery. Victor reacted by fearing for her mental health, then as he became convinced, he accused her of not trusting him. Victoria was very understanding, but Nick left in a snit with his father. Nikki caught up with Dylan and Avery and watched Avery admit that she had known about it for awhile, and that the facts proved that it was true. Avery was able to convince Dylan to talk with Nikki.

When Dylan asked, Nikki told him that his father, Ian, was a bad man, that she did not know what had happened to him, and did not want to know. Dylan told Nikki, "I don’t need another mother. And if I needed another family, it would not be yours." Dylan requested a DNA test, and it proved that he was Nikki's son. When Victor found out that Nikki had confided in Paul rather than him, just as she had about her M.S., he accused her of not trusting him. Victor warned Dylan to stay away from Nikki, then had the gall to present Nikki with a new draft of her will leaving Dylan out. Nikki refused to sign it, and reminded him that he had two other children by women other than her, then made Victor leave when Dylan arrived. Dylan thanked Nikki for giving him her medical history and they discussed her M.S. Nikki assured him it was not hereditary, although he would be more likely to get it than most people. They had a nice chat and Nikki smiled after he had left, assured that they would have a relationship. Both Avery and Nikki objected to Dylan wanting to find his father, but he took off for northern Idaho after Nikki recalled his family had a farm there.

After Dylan returned to Genoa City he did some Internet searches, and he and Avery decided to go to Indiana to find Ian together. Dylan and Avery visited a similar organization called The Path, led by a John Darwin. Darwin's associate, Clarence, saw through their story of a married couple hoping to become followers, and they admitted they were looking for Ian Ward and that Dylan was his son. Clarence asked them leave and phoned Ian with their names and that they lived in Genoa City. Dylan then decided he really did not want to find Ian, that Avery was all the family he needed, and they returned to Genoa City.

It was not long before Ian showed up in Nikki's living room, having used his charisma to get past the guards. He shocked her, but she stood her ground, letting him know that she was not the young innocent she had once been. He claimed that the making of Dylan was a beautiful memory, and she slapped him and sent him away. Nikki warned Dylan, so he and Avery were ready for him when Ian stopped at Crimson Lights to meet Dylan. They told Ian they no longer wanted anything to do with him, but Ian said he was sticking around awhile.

Nikki received a photo from Ian of him with his arm around her granddaughter Summer with a text to bring him five million dollars to leave town. Nikki arrived with a bag of money and sent Summer home, telling her that he was a criminal named Ian who preys on young girls. Nick and Dylan arrived, and Nick socked Ian in the eye. Paul arrived and after Ian admitted the money was his, Paul arrested him for extortion. Later at home, Victor got angry with Nikki for keeping Ian's presence in town a secret, accusing her of not trusting him to deal with him. But they hugged and she agreed not to keep secrets from him again. Ian's lawyer tried to get the charges dropped, but thanks to Nikki's recording her conversation with Ian, the charges stuck. Nikki was pleased to see that in coming to her rescue together, Nick and Dylan were on the way to becoming friends.

Nikki and Dylan bonded over a leaking espresso machine when Nikki suggested a bubble gum fix. They began to discuss her past and her state of mind when she gave him up, and both agreed that she had done the right thing. Dylan and Avery were visited by Ian's ex-wife, Willa Ward, who had come from Idaho to give them some important information for a price, but they sent her away empty-handed.

After Ian was released due to a mistrial and back in town tormenting Nikki, Victor made plans to wisk her away by chartering a one hundred and fifty foot yacht to Spain and Monaco, including a doctor onboard who specialized in MS. But then Nick exposed Victor's conspiracy to drive Sharon crazy by hiring a Cassie lookalike to haunt her, and Nick disowned him. Nikki was appalled that Victor would go that far, to potentially rob their grandchildren of their mother. She told him it was unforgivable, and that he was no better than Ian Ward. Victor refused to admit that he had done anything wrong, resented the comparison, and said he did not care what anyone thought. Nikki walked from the room saying, "You never do." Nikki promptly moved out and into the athletic club, much to Victor's shock.

Ian continued to harass Dylan, dropping into the coffee house until Dylan threw him out and refused him service. Ian made sure to tell everyone within hearing that Dylan had anger issues and that Ian feared him. Ian gloated to Nikki that the extortion charges had been dismissed as circumstantial, but he was willing to forgive her for trying to send him to prison. Victor closed all of Nikki's accounts to protect her funds from Ian, and promised Ian that he would leave Nikki alone or live to regret it. That night Victor met Ian in an alley with some thugs to convince him to leave town. Paul found Ian badly beaten, Ian told Paul that Dylan had done it, and Dylan was taken in for questioning. Ian interrupted, telling Paul that it had not been Dylan, that he had been mugged.

Nikki's family and Victor kept asking her when she was going to forgive him and come home. Nikki told Victor that she could not because just as he had pointed out that love was not enough for Billy and Victoria, neither was love enough for them. One evening when Victor was supposed to be out of town, and Nikki was using the ranch house to babysit for Johnny, Victor arrived home. They enjoyed playing with Johnny, and ended up making love. The afterglow was interrupted by Dylan with the news that Paul Williams had been shot and was not expected to live. Christine arrived from out of town to find Nikki at Paul's side, holding his hand, and Nikki left her alone with Paul. Later when Christine Nikki returned and offered to spell her with Paul, Chris blew up at Nikki, telling her that Paul was her husband, and Nikki should leave.

A second surgery determined that only a liver transplant could save Paul's life, and his rare blood type AB- made it difficult to find a donor. Paul's daughter, Heather's hospital records showed that she was not eligible, an inquiry was sent to his sister Patty's institution, and his brothers were unreachable. When Dr. Rayburn discussed the dilemma with Nikki, Avery, and Dylan, Dylan piped up that he too was AB-. Nikki was elated to think that her son Dylan could save long time best friend Paul's life. But Dylan was rejected as a donor due to his combat wounds, and the danger of surgery. When Nikki saw Paul fighting for his life to be with Christine, the person he loved, Nikki decided to come home and be with Victor, the man she loved.

Victor's detective found Willa, and Victor paid her for Ian's secret – the fact that Ian Ward was sterile. Nikki then realized the reason that Dylan and Paul had the same blood type, that Paul was Dylan's biological father. While waiting for Father Todd to gather his loved ones to give Paul last rights, Dylan walked in to hear Nikki telling an unconscious Paul that Dylan was his son. Dylan insisted on being the donor, and both Nikki and Avery tried to dissuade him. But attorney Michael Baldwin confirmed that Dylan, in a matter of life or death, had the right to override the doctor's objections at his own risk. So Dylan and Paul were taken in for surgery. Many hours later, they both awoke in ICU about the same time – Dylan to Nikki and Avery at his bedside. But when they left to tell the doctor he was awake, Dylan managed to make his way to Paul's bedside. Meanwhile Christine was forbidding Nikki or anyone else to tell Paul that Dylan was his son, as he was not to have any stress. Dylan told Paul that he should have listened, took the blame for Paul getting shot, and talked about being his being Paul's son. Paul got confused, became upset and began to hyperventilate, saying how sorry he was for shooting his son, Ricky. After Dylan was returned to his room, Paul began screaming and ranting, re-enacting the shooting of Ricky, pulling out his IV and monitors. While Christine went to get a doctor, Nikki calmed Paul down by telling him that he had another son in Dylan, and that everything was going to be all right. (It was actually the second anniversary of the date that Paul had shot and killed his son Ricky in self-defense.) Once Paul understood, he asked to see his son who had saved his life. Ian showed up still claiming to be Dylan's father, and blamed Nikki for everything, putting a guilt trip on her. Victor appeared and kicked Ian out. Leslie later warned Nikki that Ian tried to get her to sue Nikki for emotional distress on his behalf, but Leslie had refused.

But Dylan had fallen into unconsciousness with an infection causing gram-negative sepsis and shock. Dylan's organs began shutting down, Dr. Ben felt that antibiotics were Dylan's only hope for survival, but feared that Dylan may not make it thought the night. Paul, after being told by Nikki about Dylan's condition, began trying to commune with Dylan to live. Dylan saw Paul who told him how much life they missed together, asking why Dylan would risk his life to save Paul only to leave, telling him don’t go now, it is not your time, to fight to give Avery a future, and he and Paul a future. Dylan suddenly awoke and smiled at Avery. Paul awoke to Nikki crying, and he said, "Dylan is going to be all right." Nikki and Paul both recalled their conversation when Heather had been born, vowing that if Nikki were to get pregnant by Paul she would have kept the baby because she loved him. Nikki regretted that she had been so traumatized by Ian that it had not occurred to her that Paul could have been her baby's father. Dylan and Paul both recovered.

Michael Baldwin represented Nikki at the pre-trial meeting with Ian Ward, and they were shocked to see David Sherman, the son of Mitchell Sherman who was the trusted attorney of Katherine Chancellor, as Ian's new attorney. Ian calmly stated that he had been misled, that Dylan had come to him with dates and facts, so he assumed he had been the only one who could possibly be his father. But he now knew that Nikki was not the person he thought, that she had been deceiving him by sleeping with Paul, then she went on to become a stripper, and did drugs and alcohol. Nikki began screaming at Ian to shut up. Ian refused to settle out of court, wanting a public and painful trial. After everyone left the meeting, Nikki eyed the alcohol in the room. Refusing to allow Ian to drive her back to the bottle, Nikki conversed with Katherine at her Chancellor park memorial. Michael told Nikki the trial would be tough, as it was her word against Ian's. Michael wished that Nikki had some evidence to support the coercion by Ian. So Nikki gave Michael the diary she had kept from her cult days.

The trial began with Nikki reading passages from the diary in her defense, telling how she thought Ian was a monster, and she did not want to raise his baby, afraid it would turn out like him. Ian's attorney claimed that Nikki had not told Paul about the baby because Paul was irresponsible, so claimed the baby was Ian's to justify getting rid of it. Michael pointed out that if that were true, Nikki could have gotten an abortion a lot easier, and maintained that Nikki was the one who endured pain and suffering at the hands of Ian ever since, and especially now. Dylan got upset and interrupted the proceedings, defending Nikki. The judge determined that Ian had acted unethically and ruled against him with prejudice so that it could not be retried. Victor threatened Ian to never make the mistake of coming after his family again. Ian chuckled to his attorney that he had one weapon left, and they would never see it coming. Meanwhile, being continually tempted to drink, Nikki attended and spoke at an AA meeting.

Ian showed Nikki a story in the National Inquisitor "Nikki Newman's Secret Sex Cult Diary", which told of her sexploits with cult leader Ian Ward and chief of police Paul Williams. She accused him of leaking court documents, but Ian claimed he was innocent. Nikki, unable to reach Victor, ordered a vodka martini at an out of the way bar. But when Devon walked in as she was desperately trying to call Paul, she walked out without drinking it. Instead Nikki arrived at the lake house where Paul and Christine were honeymooning, and tearfully warned Paul. Christine was upset that Nikki had intruded on them, so Nikki left. Victor returned home and assured Nikki that he would handle everything, threatening the tabloid with extinction and a lawsuit. Nikki was reassured, but still desperately kept eyeing Victor's drink.

In August 2014, Murphy returned to the Chancellor estate with more instructions left by Katherine before she died telling them to celebrate the anniversary of her death with a party. All her old friends were there, including Nina who came from California. Following a tradition Katherine had learned in her bucket list travels, each guest wrote on paper their desires and fears, then the papers were lit on fire, in hopes of clarifying them, or to imagine her giving them the advice she knew they were missing from her. Nikki wrote, admitting that she had had a couple of drinks that day, and "if only you were here to stop me." When Victor left her side, Nikki staggered a bit, Paul helped her, and she covered by blaming it on the emotion of the day. But Nikki went to an AA meeting and testified the next day.

Nick shocked Victor and Nikki by telling them that he had discovered that that Sharon had unknowingly had twins, and that Mariah was actually Cassie's twin, but Mariah had been sold by the doctor to Ian Ward who had raised her. Telling them that Ian had abducted Mariah and was asking for a multi-million dollar ransom, Nick asked Victor for his help in tracking Ian down. Victor had to leave town, but his security team found that Ian leased a storage unit, and Nick, Sharon, and Dylan found a drugged Mariah there and rescued her. Meanwhile, Ian showed up at Nikki's, taunting her about their destiny to be together. But Dylan arrived, finding a hysterical Nikki, and Ian fled, with Dylan on his heels.

Nikki was livid when Victor returned home, accusing him of always being unreachable when she needed him. They had a big fight, and Nikki walked out. Nikki ended up at a bar on the outskirts of town. She was befriended by a woman named Maureen who was fortifying herself to meet her grown children after many years estranged. Nikki used the name Sherry, and they proceeded to get drunk together. The next day, Nikki ran into Maureen at the GCAC, and Maureen confided that she knew who Nikki was, and that she was Ben and Kelly's mother. And after talking to Ben, Maureen had realized that she and Nikki may end up sharing a grandchild in Victoria's baby.

Ian disappeared and evidence began to make it appear that Dylan might have killed him. But Paul came up with a plan where Christine would charge Dylan with murder, he arrested Dylan, informed Avery, and convinced Nikki to allow them to place an ad in her name to bring Ian back and expose Ian's setting up Dylan. Unable to get hold of Victor when she needed him again, Nikki fell off the wagon, carrying miniature bottles of vodka in her purse, and spiking her water or lemonade daily. When Victor finally called, she refused to tell him what was going on until he deigned to come home.

Ian saw the ad from Nikki, and called her from a burner phone so it could not be traced. They arranged to meet in a room at the athletic club. Ian entered the club through a trapdoor in the basement, expecting to avoid the police. But Paul was in the room with a gun when Ian showed up, and the police and Dylan surrounded him from the hallway. Ian smirked that he had come back for Nicole and would be back again. Nikki told him off, saying that he was sick. Dylan held his temper, as Ian was arrested for the drugging and abduction of Mariah. Afterward, Nikki was upset when Paul accused her of drinking again. Victor came home and was met by Nikki, who filled him in on her part in the trapping of Ian. They fought, and Victor walked out.

Nikki showed up at Maureen's room at the GCAC, and Maureen handed her a drink. Ben came to the door while they were talking about the overbearing and never-around-when-you-needed-him Victor. Nikki hid in the bathroom, and overheard Ben implore Maureen to let him tell Victoria the truth, that he had not killed his father. Maureen talked him out of it again, reminding him to think of his sister Kelly. Maureen later handed Nikki another drink and pressured her that they were both going to keep each others secrets.

Later an arrest warrant was issued for Maureen for locking Victoria in a janitor closet in the Jabot parking garage, where she went into labor. Ben and Billy found Victoria and delivered her baby, Katherine "Katie" Rose Newman, and a paternity test named Billy as the father. Nikki gave Maureen money to leave town and start a new life.

During Christmas 2014, Nikki told Paul that she had overcome her demons, and appeared to have quit drinking again. She and Victor were close again, and Nikki was delighted when Dylan gifted her with a collection of photos from his childhood which she had missed. But Paul overheard Nikki confess to Katherine's memorial that she had not had drink since Thanksgiving. Paul confronted Nikki, and she begged him not to tell anyone.

Dylan confronted Victor in front of Nikki with his discovery that Victor's holding company GEROLAMO Ltd. owned the properties in the warehouse district that were scheduled for redevelopment by demolition, which would put Dylan's Crimson Lights out of business. Victor claimed it was just business, and Nikki was furious with him. She accused Victor of scheming against her son, and began drinking again after Victor stormed out. After Crimson Lights was robbed and Dylan beaten, Victor finally witnessed Nikki's condition. Blaming it on her MS, Victor canceled the sale, admonished Joe for having Dylan beaten up, and sent Joe packing.

Victor surprised Nikki by inviting Phyllis to live with them after she had been arrested for the attempted murder of Kelly and released from her psychiatric evaluation. Nikki warned Phyllis there were always strings attached with Victor, who was hardly ever selfless. Convinced that Victor was taking her in to toy with Jack, Nikki left and showed up at her favorite out of the way bar. She was shocked to find Neil Winters there, no longer blind, and drinking. They both drank as Neil told her how his sight had returned just in time to find his wife Hilary and son Devon in bed together, and that he was going to get even with them. They commiserated that everyone they loved could never live up to their promises.

Phyllis walked into the Valentines party at The Underground on Victor's arm. Nikki lashed out at Victor for leaving her waiting for him there while he squired Phyllis around, and downed another drink. Later after most of the guests had left, Victor realized that Nikki was drunk. As they argued, the ceiling crashed in on them, trapping Nikki, Victor, Jack and Phyllis under the rubble. Victor found Jack injured and buried, and had to do CPR to save his life. As more wreckage buried them, Jack, thinking he was going to die, told Victor there was something he needed to know about Adam. But they were interrupted by Dylan and Nick finding them. While they pulled Nikki and Phyllis out to safety, the snow-weighted roof collapsed too. When Nick returned to the spot where Victor and Jack were last seen, they found the dead body of part time bartender, Derek. They finally found Jack alive in bad shape, but no sign of Victor. While the pros searched for Victor, Nick, Abby, and Victoria took Nikki home. They were shocked when Nikki threw down a glass of vodka in front of them. A disheveled Victor walked in, said, "Pour me one," drank it and said he was fine, then collapsed. Suffering a concussion, Victor was put in the same room with Jack, but they agreed to team up to clear Phyllis, and become friendly enemies. Victor finally removed all the alcohol from the house, and Nikki went back on the wagon.

Nikki witnessed Neil drinking heavily at the athletic club, and she persuaded him to let her drive him home. But when Neil realized they were headed for an AA meeting instead, he tried to dissuade her by grabbing the steering wheel. Nikki swerved, and the car struck Christine coming out of the pharmacy. Nikki passed a sobriety test and convinced Neil not to take the blame, even though he protested that everyone was lying to protect him lately. Paul, distraught that Christine had miscarried, booked Nikki for attempted murder, due to Christine's claim that Nikki had intentionally swerved right at her. Victor arranged bail and took Nikki home, promising he would fix everything. Nikki snuck out to the hospital to see Christine, who accused Nikki of trying to get rid of her so that she, Paul and Dylan could become one happy family, then kicked her out. Eventually Neil could not deal with the guilt and against Nikki's advice, admitted to Paul that he had been at fault for grabbing the steering wheel.

After she had seen Victor at the hospital chapel confessional more than once and overheard mysterious conversations, Nikki was convinced that Victor was about to pull another fast one on Jack and somehow steal Jabot, Nikki confronted him and got nowhere. Victor left an envelope containing a fingerprint chart in the confessional for his cohort, but Nikki got to it first, and she confronted Victor with it. He told her it was none of her business. Victor and Jack suddenly made a deal to merge Newman with Jabot. But when Jack ended up in a coma following a car accident, Victor coerced Neil to forge Jack's signature on the agreement, and Nikki to later witness it. Even after Jack came out of the coma and attested that he had signed, Nikki felt guilty and used by Victor and began drinking again. Neil tried to convince her to go to rehab, but she refused. Victor showed up to make her return home, but Nikki began throwing empty liquor bottles into the fireplace, screaming at Victor how each drink she has taken was caused by him, his lying and manipulation of her and their children. Jack, threw a party at the GCAC to celebrate the Newman-Abbott merger. Nikki became upset when she discovered that Dylan and Sharon were a couple, and began to drink, ending up drunk in the bar with a stranger named Walt. Neil tried to intercede, ended up slugging the guy, and spending the night in jail.

Neil became concerned that Nikki had become totally out of control, not even trying to hide her constant drinking, and while taking medication for her M.S. Neil found Nikki the next morning in her hotel room in bed with Walt. He threw Walt out, but Nikki had security throw Neil out. Nikki looked at herself in the mirror, disgusted with what she had become. After she showered and dressed, Nick and Victoria convinced her to go with them to the ranch where Neil facilitated an intervention. Nikki balked, recognizing that it was just like what they had done with Katherine years before. After her family regaled her with their love and concern for her with M.S., Nikki said, "Victor, you would drive anyone to drink," grabbed a bottle of vodka, and collapsed in a seizure. Nikki later told how she had seen her family grieving her death outside her hospital room lamenting how it all could have avoided, and then at her grave sharing remembrances, and saying goodbye. Even Victor sobbed on his knees about how he had lost the love of his life. Nikki's therapist, Angel, in the rehab facility said that her vision had been what they call a moment of clarity. Neil visited Nikki, but Victor was turned away per Nikki's wishes. When she finally allowed Victor to visit, it was to tell him that she had realized that he was the source of her drinking, and she had decided she would not be coming home to live with him, and they needed to stay apart. Victor roared "Hell no." and wanted to know who had put these notions in her head. But when Nikki finished her therapy in rehab, she moved into the athletic club. Victor found out and showed up at her door demanding she return home.

When Nikki got out of rehab, she met with Christine. Nikki told her how devastated she was about her baby, took total responsibility for what had happened, and admitted she had lied because that's what alcoholics do. Nikki said she was so sorry, deeply regretted it, but knew there was no way that Christine could forgive her. Chris replied that she was tired of being angry, she accepted Nikki's apology and forgave her, knowing it was the only way she could move on and ever be happy again.

Sharon told Dylan that she was pregnant, and having always wanted to be a father, he was elated. Sharon gathered their families and made the announcement. Paul was happy to be getting his first grandchild, but the rest were skeptical. Nikki sniped that Sharon had had all the men in her family now, and Noah questioned if she had spoken to her psychiatrist about it. Sharon assured him that she had, and that taking her meds while pregnant was fine. Nikki cattily reminded her that fires happened when Sharon went off her meds.

Victor overheard Nikki get a call from Jack and agree to meet him in the park. Fearing for her safety, Victor told her he would take her place. Later when she heard that Jack had been shot, Nikki was conflicted over telling what she knew. Neil advised her to tell the truth for her own sobriety and conscience. Nikki told Paul, betraying Victor and implicating Victoria who had given him an alibi. Victor admitted he went to the park to meet Jack, but claimed it was self-defense. Nikki told Victor he still was never truthful with her, and she was gone. Victor said fine, it was her decision. Neil found Nikki drunk in her hotel room, she passed out, and quit breathing, but he saved her life. The doctor told Nikki with her M.S. she could never drink alcohol again. Neil told Victor in jail that Nikki was leaning on Neil to protect her from Victor's life of lies and payoffs, so Victor slugged Neil. Victor called Nikki and begged her not to leave him. She said that if he loved her to let her go, that he was toxic to her sobriety.

After the police found a gun with Jack's fingerprints at Chelsea's that would back up Victor's claim that he had shot Jack in self-defense, Gabriel was taken in for questioning. Gabriel claimed that he had been set up by Victor, and they should realize there were too many coincidences. Nikki also realized that Victor had been planning on shooting Jack for months, when she recalled that he had Jack's prints months ago. Nikki told Paul, and Gabriel was released, upsetting Victoria that her mother had stabbed her father in the back.

Nikki confided in Neil that she felt pressured by Victor and was wanting a drink. Neil told Nikki to take control, like he was never going to let his son or Hilary control his life again. So Nikki told Victor that she was not ready to return home, and he was not to pressure her to do so, but she did still love him.

After Hilary disappeared on her honeymoon, Nikki, fearing that Neil had fulfilled his fantasy to make Devon and Hilary pay, had Victor look into Neil's trip to Banff, Canada. Victor told Nikki it checked out. But Neil suddenly broke off his friendship with Nikki. Nikki was livid when she realized that Victor was keeping her from Neil, being embarrassed to see her "cavorting with another lush".

The annual Delia Halloween costume party benefit was held at Top of the Tower, and everyone attended, Victor in a tux and mask and Nikki as Mae West. A fire broke out on the floors just below them. Victor and Billy went down after Jack but found Adam unconscious. They helped Adam get to the roof where Victor encouraged Adam to take the helicopter and run away from his sentence. Billy objected, but Adam refused anyway. Victor was reunited with Nikki at the hospital where she had been praying for him in the chapel. Nikki decided that the only way to be happy was to move back to the ranch and put up with Victor's schemes. When Nikki found out that Victor had blackmailed Judge Elise Moxley, he explained that his affair with Senator Moxley's wife occurred after Ashley had left him, and while Nikki was married to Jack. Nikki wasted no time in going to Elise, the fellow socialite, to rub it in.

Nikki planned a family Christmas eve party at Top of the Tower, but Victor being a Scrooge, make staff work late with him. Adam and Noah sent them all home. Noah, Adam and Victoria were unable to convince Victor to join the party to make Nikki's Christmas happy. But it was his granddaughter Faith who did.

On New Years Eve, Neil and Nikki pre-arranged to kiss at midnight, hoping that Hilary would think they were involved and give up on Neil. But Victor also saw them, and the next day Victor caught Nikki leaving the athletic club suite area and accused her of having an affair with Neil. Hilary confronted Nikki, reminding her of her stripper past, and also accused her of having an affair with Neil. Nikki goaded Hilary by falsely admitting that they were indeed. When Nikki discovered that Victor was leaving town on a trip, she admitted the ruse to Victor, and that she had allowed him to believe that she and Neil were having an affair to get his attention. Victor kissed her passionately and asked her to choose anywhere in the world to spend their second honeymoon instead. They returned to town all lovey-dovey again.

When her grandson Noah was arrested for the hit and run of Billy Abbott, Nikki coerced judge Elise into giving him community service instead of jail time since he was unaware of it when it happened.

Nikki found out that Victor had replaced Jack with lookalike Marco for months and confronted her husband, who made his usual excuses about protecting her and his family. Nikki said that she was sick and tired of him, and leaving him for good this time. Victor retorted, "Fine. Go." And that he was sick of everyone complaining about him. But it was Victoria who confronted Victor with the evidence about replacing Jack with Marco. They were interrupted by Paul who arrested Victor after Victoria turned over the evidence. Victor faked dizziness and was hospitalized until tests showed he was fine. Surrounded by his family, Victor raged at them, accusing them of being traitors, ungrateful for all he had done for them. Victor found himself in jail, and was visited only by Summer.

The entire family, except for Summer, testified against Victor, all agreeing that he had gone too far this time. Victor was found guilty and sentenced to 10 years in the state prison. Victor left the courtroom for prison, saying he had no family anymore. They were all dead to him.

After Victor was knifed in the chest while in prison, Nikki went to visit him in the hospital, but was rebuffed, Victor reminded her that she was dead to him. Nikki began drinking again, and was struck by a car as she walked off a curb. Jack came to her aid, and Dylan talked her into staying with him and Sharon. Sharon and Nikki tangled immediately, but Dylan told them he loved them both, to learn to coexist.

Nick talked Victor into seeing Nikki, after she admitted that she had been drinking again since being rebuffed by Victor. But Victor told her that if she wanted to make up with him, she needed to sign over her voting proxy to a board member who was still on Victor's side. As a result, Victor was able to sell Brash & Sassy to Billy, just to get back at Victoria. Nikki, disgusted with Victor, told him she had filed for divorce. Afterward, Nikki met Victor's prison psychiatrist Meredith, realizing that she was smitten with him. Nikki ordered a vodka martini, but Jack intervened.

Outside the courtroom during Adam's trial for the murder of Constance Bingham, Ian managed to get a guard's gun and took Nikki hostage. Victor walked out and in stopping another guard from firing on them, took a bullet in the shoulder fired by Ian. Ian took Nikki to the Abbott cabin where they interrupted Phyllis. He forced Phyllis to tie her up, and he tied up Phyllis. Ian made Nikki call Victor to transfer 5 million dollars to his offshore account. While Ian was quieting Phyllis, Nikki told Victor where they were. Victor convinced Meredith to help him escape. Victor showed up and convinced Ian to let the women go. Alone together, Ian and Victor traded threats. Then after Victor intentionally entered an incorrect password triggering a security alert on his account, Ian suddenly handed Victor the gun and began taunting him about Nikki, encouraging Victor to shoot him. But Victor refused, saying that Ian was his ticket out of prison. Paul and Dylan arrived and captured Ian and Victor. Nikki and Victor looked deeply in each other's eyes as she thanked him for saving her life.

Nikki pleaded with Paul to help Victor get released due to his heroic deed. Paul refused, stating that Victor had no remorse and was only interested in retribution, reminding Nikki that she turned on him and was divorcing him for good reasons. Nikki visited Victor, thanked him for saving her, and told him she didn't want the divorce. Victor tearfully said he would love her forever, and didn’t know what he would have done if he had lost her. Dylan told Nikki that Victor's only hope was if the whole family could tell the appeals review board they were overemotional and just looking for payback. Victoria and Abby agreed to forgive Victor and join the plea. But they failed to get Phyllis or Jack to join them.

Abby Victoria, Nick, and Nikki testified about their forgiveness for Victor. Phyllis arrived and vilified him for how he had ruined her marriage and her life. Jack testified that Phyllis was going thru hell, worse than he had while being starved and tied to a bed. Jack told the court that he would never forgive him, but he refused to let Victor's actions impact his life for one more second. Judge Gates declared to the court that he felt Victor had been rehabilitated, and sentenced him to time served, with 2 years of community service with periodic reviews, reminding him that he could be returned to prison at any time during the next 2 years. Nikki and Victor returned to the ranch, and were soon joined by the family.

Nikki was overjoyed for her son, Nick, when it was exposed that his son Christian was alive and being raised as Sully by Sharon, unbeknownst to Dylan. Yet she was devastated for Dylan who she felt had been conned by Sharon, and Nikki was torn between the two when Dylan sued for visitation and lost after Nick reclaimed his son.

Christmas 2016 found Faith running away from home and choosing to live with Victor and Nikki. And Dylan had to leave town to go into witness protection after an undercover assignment went wrong. Broken-hearted to lose her firstborn son again, Nikki created the Better Days Foundation a, shelter for abused women, in Dylan's honor. Sharon wanted to get involved, saying she could relate with broken and insecure women.

A year after Adam's death, Nikki, Victoria, and Nick found out that Victor had brought Chloe to town to help frame Adam and that Chloe had murdered Adam. Nikki declared that they were to never tell of Victor's involvement or that he had arranged Adam's escape. Nick and Victoria agreed there would be no more scandal to further damage their companies. Victor was cut off from the family, though maintaining a public persona of a loving family for the sake of their companies. Victor was to live in another wing, and the staff signed non-disclosure agreements. Nikki declared family first, no more forgive and forget, and the days of Victor calling the shots were over. Nick and Victor argued, Nick slugged him, and Faith saw it. So Nick took Faith back home to live with him. Victor started making grand gestures giving Reed a fancy car for 16th birthday, which Victoria sent back. Victor gave Chelsea half a million dollars for her business in Adam's memory. He made Abby acting CEO of Newman and left town going incommunicado on another one of his mysterious disappearances. While he was gone a package arrived for Nikki, inside were drawings for the Nicole Newman Research Center for Neurological Diseases, dedicated to researching MS. Victor returned in only about a week.

Nikki took an interest in Victoria's guitar-playing son Reed Hellstrom, encouraging him and playing duets with him on the piano. When Reed failed to be interested in learning from music educator, Nikki found him a street musician mentor named Tessa Porter. She also hired Tessa to be her personal assistant, helping Nikki with her latest fund raising gala. Nikki even joined Tessa on stage at the Underground, and had fun accompanying her. Discovering that Tessa was homeless and living in her car, Nikki invited her to move in to the ranch with her.

Victor directed Scott to set up a venue for a piano concert by Nikki at Chancellor park pavilion as part of the dedication of the research center. She was upset by his manipulation, but agreed to do it for a good cause. But as she began to practice for the concert, she was making a lot of mistakes, and losing confidence that she could pull it off. Nikki suddenly disappeared, leaving Victor a note saying she needed to clear her head. But Nikki returned the day before the concert after a stay at a Wellness center in Boulder, CO, seemingly ready to tackle it. Nick was so concerned about Nikki and the pain she was hiding from everyone, he sabotaged the sound board and an inspector shut down the concert. But Noah saved the day by bringing a sound board from The Underground. Both Tessa and Nikki were a success, and Nikki was very proud of herself for going ahead with it. Nikki resented Victor who arranged for Hilary to interview Nikki and make her the poster child for successfully living with MS. Nikki was also upset with Nick when she found out what he had done, but more so that Victor and Nick had fought, Victor slugged Nick and disowned him, and Hilary aired footage of the fight with Victor's blessing. Nikki took the opportunity to escape the reception with Jack, who took her away to the Abbott cabin where they spent the night laughing and enjoying each other's company. Nikki returned home determined to make a final break with Victor, moved out, and into the aptly-named Sanctuary hotel. She began spending more time with Jack relaxing and enjoying common things like fishing and cooking together. All three became minimally upset when Victor received snapshots of them kissing at the Abbott cabin, return address being Dina. When Nikki confronted Victor about the dirty tricks he had been playing on Nick trying to undermine his new business ventures, Victor offered to cease fire if Nikki would return home. Nikki declined, saying that it was a pretty lousy reason to return.

Nikki agreed to sit with the family and pose for photos a party at Top of the Tower. It was to be held for Abby’s success at Newman but turned into an announcement that Brash & Sassy was merging with Newman and Victoria was becoming COO of Newman. Dina was in attendance and began making snide comments about Nikki again, suddenly stabbed Nikki with a knife, and fled. Nikki was shocked and taken to the hospital where she was bandaged up and released. Dina was later found by police and arrested, but charges were dropped when it was discovered she had Alzheimer's. But Jack and Nikki broke up over Dina.

After a Newman entity, DesignDate was found to be a front for illegal sex trafficking, and its owner shot dead with a gun that belonged to Nikki, Newman suddenly had all its assets seized by the FBI, and Paul and Christine were out to get Victor and make it stick this time, calling in J.T. as an online investigator for the U.S. Treasury. The company checked out clean, but there was an online offshore money transfer in Victor’s personal bank account. Nikki confessed to Victoria that the transfer had actually been done by her, stealing money from Victor, and together they approached J.T. and asked for his help in exonerating Victor and keeping Nikki out of prison for embezzlement. J.T. refused, so Victoria told Victor what Nikki had done. Surprisingly though, J.T. came to them later, telling them the investigation was over, with a bank error listed as his findings. Victor asked that he be the one to give Nikki the news, and J.T. agreed. Instead, Victor made a deal with Nikki that he would get her exonerated if she agreed to move back in with him. Not wanting to go to prison, Nikki agreed to play Mrs. Victor Newman, sleep in the guestroom, if he would agree to support a number of her charities. Nikki was livid when Victoria told her she had been duped by Victor again. But she decided it would serve them both well to go ahead with their agreement since Victor could still report her, and she still knew secrets that could send Victor back to prison as well. Victor got the press to cover their reuniting, and Nikki explained the entire deal to Nick and Victoria, leaving out the fact that she had paid Kevin to do the transfer for her. Nikki bested Victor by using the funds to outbid him and buy Chancellor Park from the city because Victor had intended to develop it, leaving only a plaque in memory of Katherine. They publicly renewed their vows on New Years Eve 2017.

Victor and Nikki tag-teamed Ashley to get her to work at Newman. She was hired as Chief Innovation Officer, given a seat on the board, and put in charge of Brash & Sassy without telling Victoria. Nikki let Ashley know that she and Victor had an arrangement, and it was okay if she and Victor got romantic again.

After Sharon took in homeless single mother Kathy and her two kids who had been kicked out of the substandard Rainbow Gardens Apartments, Nikki actually hugged Sharon and thanked her. Kathy reminded Nikki of Katherine, and Nikki had helped them out before. Nikki and Nick became partners, bought the place to rehab and rent to low income families. When the repair bid was a lot higher than Nick thought was fair, Nikki began having sex with the contractor, Arturo Rosales, and got him to lower the bid, but she didn’t tell Nick. Nick eventually saw Nikki and Arturo kiss and enter a hotel suite together. Nikki explained that she and Victor had an open marriage, and that yes she and Arturo were lovers. Nikki and Arturo were together when no one could find her to let her know that Victor had been attacked and fallen down the stairs. Nick interrupted them and took Nikki to the hospital. Victor had a head injury and was unconscious. Nikki remained by his side throughout his coma, took over running Newman to stop Ashley and Victoria fighting over it, and helped Victor to recover. After spending so much time together, they agreed to end their respective affairs and resume their marriage.

After Victoria broke her engagement to J.T., Sharon and Phyllis threw Victoria a girl party, where all got drunk and admitted secrets, Nikki admitted she had a boy toy, Mariah that she kissed a girl and liked it, and Victoria shocked everyone that J.T. had abused her. Mariah left the room and passed out, and Victoria went upstairs where J.T. was waiting for her in their room. They fought, it got heated, and he slugged her, causing Victoria to realize that J.T. had been the one who tried to murder her father. J.T. claimed it was an accident, but Victoria protested that he walked away and left him to die, then tried again at the hospital. J.T. proclaimed that Victor deserved it, being responsible for Colleen’s death. The fight was interrupted by Nikki, Sharon and Phyllis who had been waiting downstairs. Nikki whacked J.T. over the head with a poker as he got violent with Victoria again. They were shocked to discover that J.T. was dead. Afraid that Nikki would be arrested, as well as being accused as her accomplices, they made plans to hide the body. After Paul arrived looking for J.T, and left, they rolled him up in a rug and decided to bury him in the recently dug garden at Chancellor Park. Afterward Nikki and Sharon put the rug in an incinerator. Phyllis threw the poker in the lake, and J.T.’s cell phone in a dumpster near airport. Everyone else assumed that J.T. had gone on the run, despite his belongings and car being left behind.

Three months after his disappearance an old credit card of J.T’s began being used, and there were sightings, each coming closer to Genoa City. Nikki, Sharon, Phyllis and Victoria decided to dig up J.T. and make sure he was really dead, but discovered Jill had the garden covered in concrete with a sculpture and a plaque in Katherine’s memory. One night Sharon and Nikki were shocked to recognize J.T. outside Sharon’s window at the ranch. Victor received a message to meet J.T. inside an abandoned building, and refused Nikki’s advice to call police, causing her to believe that Victor intended to kill him. Viewers saw a dark-haired man remove a J.T. mask and place a diagram on a wall containing Newman photos connecting to a central photo of J.T. Nick later admitted that he had been playing J.T.

Sharon, Summer, Victoria, Nikki, and Abby received invitations to join Dark Horse, which turned out to be Nick’s new company. Nick told them that he was dealing with venture capitalists for financing, Victor had been losing deals to Dark Horse, and that Noah had resigned from Newman to head up Dark Horse London. Abby joined them doing marketing and PR, Summer refused to choose between parents and stayed at Fenmore’s. Victoria stayed at Newman, after Victor gave her back the COO position and made her heir to Newman. Jack also signed on to Dark Horse as an executive consultant and board member. Victor asked Nikki to head the Newman real estate division, pitting her against her son.

Sharon, Nikki, Victoria and Phyllis each got a blackmail note from someone who “saw what you did”. Nikki paid them only a dollar. Another note came with knowledge that J.T. had been buried in the park, so Nikki paid the quarter of a million dollars, and the foursome dug up the “grave” finding nothing. The next day Arturo found J.T.’s watch in the same spot, and the case became a murder investigation. Rey questioned Nikki, Nick, and Victoria with Michael as her lawyer. He requested Victor return from Singapore immediately. Instead Victor went off the grid, even his cellphone became a non-working number.

The Newman stables burned to the ground, leaving behind a shirt with J.T.s blood on it and a gun traced to Victor, so he became the prime suspect in J.T.’s death. Nikki found JT’s jacket and pants laid out on her bed and started drinking again. Nick took Nikki home, she screamed when she saw a fire poker, and ended up admitting to Nick that she had killed J.T. with it, leaving out any reference to Sharon and Phyllis. Nikki confronted Phyllis about the poker, and she admitted she had put poker in a storage locker for insurance in case they ever decided to pin it on her. Nikki was drunk when she stepped off a curb into the path of a car and ended up with a brain contusion and unconscious. She was on her deathbed when Victor managed to sneak in during the night and get her to wake up. Victor coerced Dr. Nate into helping him take Nikki away in an ambulance to safety. But her blood pressure spiked on the way. Afraid she would die, Nate went back for medication and met Victor at an airstrip. The plane took off, but the police were able to stop the plane, and Victor was arrested for kidnapping. Nikki claimed she made Victor take her out of the country for protection and would sue for wrongful prosecution. Nate and Nikki were cleared of charges, but Victor was arrested for J.T.’s murder. Stubborn Victor refused a lawyer. Nikki checked herself out of Memorial and went to see Victor in jail. Victor realized that Nikki had killed J.T. Nick brought in Michael as his lawyer, and Victor was released under house arrest with an ankle monitor.

Katie began playing with an invisible friend who lived in Nikki’s house. When Nikki fell asleep on the couch, Katie disappeared. Billy and Victoria arrived and they found her inside a wall crawlspace that was outfitted in surveillance equipment. Victor became convinced that J.T. was alive and out for revenge. Meanwhile the police received an email with audio of Nick and Victor discussing hiding a murder weapon, and Victor saying that J.T. had to die. Christine set the trial for the following day. When they arrived to escort Victor to the trial, Nikki admitted that she had killed J.T. and was arrested. Nikki claimed that she followed J.T. from Victoria’s to the park, killed him in self-defense, and buried him there. But Rey got Sharon to confess the true story of how Nikki had killed J.T. as he attacked Victoria, and how Sharon and Phyllis had helped them bury his body in Chancellor park.

Nikki was charged with second degree intentional homicide and obstruction of justice, and Sharon and Victoria for being a party to both. Nikki began writing her life story for her grandchildren while in jail. Phyllis turned states evidence and became the star witness for the prosecution. Victor kept interrupting during the trial and was thrown out of the courtroom for the duration. Sharon had her own attorney in Brittany Hodges, whose case was that Rey had illegally coerced Sharon into confessing her part, and read her no Miranda rights. The rest were represented by Michael Baldwin. Mariah, Tessa and Phyllis’ testimony was damning to all of them as Christine took on her old nemesis Phyllis. Mariah, Tessa and Phyllis’ testimony was damning to all of them as Christine took on her old nemesis Phyllis. All three women were found guilty and sentenced to prison.

On their way to prison, Rey arranged for the women to escape and hide out at the Abbott cabin to trap J.T. after Nick had finally convinced Rey that J.T. was still alive. But J.T. knocked out the guards and held the three women with hands and feet zip-tied inside. J.T. ranted at them for trying to kill him and bury him alive, and began smashing things. He explained that he had been buried over a storm drain, his body had fallen in and sent out to the river. Writhing in pain, J.T. ruptured the fireplace gas line by wielding a poker. He passed out from the pain, and the women from the gas. Billy Abbott, Nick and Victor Newman rescued them. J.T. was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had surgery to remove it. Victor welcomed Nikki home with hugs, kisses and jewelry.

On April 23, 2019, Lily was released from prison, and Neil was there to welcome her. They traveled to Genoa City to attend the grand opening of Society, a new restaurant venture by Devon and Abby Newman, featuring head chef Lola Rosales. Neil felt exhausted and laid down for a nap upstairs at Devon’s penthouse, promising to meet them there later. When Neil failed to show up, Devon went home to check on him. Devon came down his stairway in tears, having discovered that Neil had died of a stroke in his sleep. Everyone in Genoa City Neil whose life Neil had touched was saddened and shocked by the news of the death of their friend. Family and friends gathered for Neil’s funeral in tears, where his foster daughter Ana sang “Amazing Grace”. They shared remembrances and stories of how Neil had touched their lives and made them better. Nikki was chocked up, remembering all the times Neil had been there for her, and rescued her. Victor remembered Neil for his honesty, fairness, and integrity. As a friend and family member Victor said he had watched with pride how Neil had excelled at Newman, then left to form his own successful businesses, ending with “I shall miss you my friend.” Everyone then gathered at Devon’s penthouse to celebrate Neil’s life, reminiscing, honoring, and playing his favorite jazz. Malcolm took a group photo. He ended it with a toast; “to Neil Ellis Winters, music lover, businessman, philanthropist, humanitarian, best friend, father, grandfather, best brother you could ask for.” Neil’s will was read a month later by Michael Baldwin. Nikki was left Katherine’s atlas which Kay had marked from her trip around the world before she died. To Victor, the most intimidating man I know, a humidor of fine cigars and Neil’s Newman nameplate.

Victor had disappeared again, returning only to attend Neil’s funeral. He refused to explain, and left again, so Nikki hired Rey Rosales to track him down. Ray took Sharon along and followed Victor to Las Vegas. Rey reported back that Victor was meeting with a professional gambler named Spider, and Nikki found invoices from a doctor for psychiatric services. It turned out that Spider was Adam, alive and without his memory since the explosion he supposedly died in. Sharon convinced Adam to return to Genoa City with them, and Victor set him up to live in the tack house. Adam realized what an evil person he had been and that everyone still hated him, so he decided to disappear, but was shot in the gut as he opened the door to leave. Sharon heard the shot and found him in a pool of blood. Adam woke up in the hospital, his memory returned.

Adam told Nick and Victoria that Victor had promised that Adam would become head of Newman if he would stay, so Adam offered them a deal; he would leave town if they gave him 500 million dollars, the whereabouts of Chelsea and his son Connor, and for Nick to turn over Adam’s son Christian. Nick told Adam to go to hell. Victor walked in on them, Victoria recounted it all for Victor, who scoffed as Adam looked on. Victoria later gave Adam 50 million dollars and Chelsea’s cell number.

Nikki discovered that Victor was secretly getting treatments from Dr. Nate, and got Victor to tell her what was wrong. Victor had paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria disease, which was destroying his red blood cells. Victor refused to tell the family, and said that he and Nikki would fight it together. As his new experimental treatments began to give him memory lapses and lethargy, Nikki eventually convinced Victor he had to let go of responsibility and tell the family. He made Victoria CEO of Newman and stepped down, tried and failed to talk Nick into COO, and they all came together to support him in his recovery.

Nate realized that someone had tampered with Victor’s medication, as test results showed double his dosage. Knowing that it had been Adam, they staged Victor’s death to prove that Adam had tampered with his meds, hoping he would show remorse. Nate, Nikki, Billy, Victoria, Nick, Abby and Paul were all in on it. Yet when the dust settled and Adam was exposed, Victor forgave him and let him leave town, and Newman life went on as usual. Victor took the CEO position back and demoted Victoria, who was livid that he done it to her it again. Victoria vowed that Victor was not getting away with it this time, and threw a letter opener at his portrait in anger. Nikki was proud to hear that Victoria had confronted Victor, standing her ground that she had earned the CEO position. She had given Victor an ultimatum, and for once in his life, Victor gave in. But later Adam blackmailed Victor into making Adam CEO. Shocked that Victor would allow that, Victor confided that the murder Adam claimed that Victor had committed had actually been done by a 11 year old Adam.

Christmas 2019, Nikki found a baby girl in the stables. She called Nate who brought Elena. They discovered the baby belonged to a young woman named Sasha, the baby’s name was Joy, and they had nowhere to live. New Hope took her in and gave them a place to live.

In February 2020, the Newman Enterprises 50th anniversary gala which honored Victor was held. Noah had created an amazing gallery of Victor photographic art, with both a light show, and darkness. Everyone was impressed. Old friends, enemies, and family attended including Victor’s ex-wife Julia, brother Matt. Most gave short speeches in appreciation of Victor, even Christine, saying all was forgiven. During the event, Victoria was stabbed in the side, a case of mistaken identity, and taken away in an ambulance.

While Victoria was recovering, Victor let Adam assume he would become interim CEO. But Phyllis convinced Nick to take the job instead. Adam declared war. Adam returned from a trip to Kansas with a story that Adam’s adoptive father Cliff had died at the hands of loan shark A.J.’s hitman when Cliff was unable to pay back loans. Then A.J. died falling from a barn loft shortly after Victor had come to town to console Hope. Adam accused Victor of murder and cover-up, and blackmailed Victor into making him CEO, astounding everyone when Victor backed down. Everyone but Nikki who had pressured Victor into telling her the whole story. Adam’s tenure was short-lived when Victoria returned as CEO and exposed that the real murderer of A.J. had been 11-year-old Adam who had blocked it out. Victor explained that he had flown to Hope and found Adam catatonic. George, the farm caretaker had moved the body, and Victor had bribed the coroner. Hope had not attended the funeral so as not to jog Adam’s memory. Adam refused to believe it but was disappointed in Chelsea that she did. Determined to expose Victor’s lie, Adam invited George to Genoa City. George reluctantly admitted it was true. Adam ran away to the farm in Kansas. Hiding under the kitchen table like he used to as a kid, he remembered everything, including killing A.J. Adam returned to Genoa City claiming to be a changed man and eager to please Victor.

Victoria sold off the media division of Newman to Chancellor, it was renamed ChanceComm, and run by Lily Winters and Billy. Victor bought Cyaxares Media from Ashland Locke, renamed it Newman Media, and put his new favorite son Adam in charge. Victoria and Ashland merged their companies and became Newman-Locke and Nikki became COO. Ashland and Victoria fell in love and were married at the Newman Tuscany villa which Victor gave them as a wedding present.

Ashland went into remission and joined Victoria as partners running their merged companies. Victoria offered to buy Newman Media back from Victor, and he accepted it, insisting that Adam stay on as CEO. Victor was able to prove that Ashland had faked his illness to secure the merger, then recover and take over. After Ashland was confronted about it by Victor, he requested Victoria make him Co-CEO of Newman-Locke. Victoria initially objected, then said she would have the papers drawn up. Ashland presented Victoria with the papers.

Victoria refused to believe Victor, Nick or her mother's accusations that Ashland had been using her to take control of Newman, going so far as to say they feared he would do something to her to gain sole control. So the family, including Adam, held a group intervention letting her know that Nate had had found no evidence of cancer on the x-rays following Ashland's heart attack as he claimed, also no record of Ashland getting chemo treatments. Ashland barged in and Victoria asked him for an explanation. Seeing that Victoria was convinced, he told her he had given up. No matter what he said, they would have other accusations, and he left. Victoria broke into tears in her mother's arms. A distraught Victoria took off into the dense fog, a car veered toward her and she ended up unconscious trapped in her car which had started on fire. Luckily Ashland had followed her out of concern but had also been hit. He managed to free himself from his car and rescue Victoria just before her car exploded into flames. Victoria suffered a sprained knee and bump on her forehead and Ashland had severely burned hands and was limping. The driver of the car who hit them turned out to be Rey Rosales who had a heart attack and died. Victor said he was grateful to Ashland but told him to get out of town. Adam offered Ashland a half-billion dollars for Ashland to walk away from the company and Victoria. After Victoria refused to forgive him, Ashland took the deal.

Weeks went by, Ashland living at the Grand Phoenix, refused to leave town. Trying to make amends, Ashland donated 250 million dollars to New Hope in the name of recently deceased Rey Rosales. Michael and Victor, with the consent of Kyle, had a restraining order issued to keep Ashland away from Harrison, further pushing him to leave. But out of the blue, Victoria let the family know that she still loved Ashland, this was her chance to break free, and she and Ashland left for New York City where they started planning their new business and where to live there. Victor made Adam CEO of Newman in hopes it would entice Victoria to return. Nikki returned to her COO position to better keep an eye on Adam. Adam made Sally CEO of Newman Media. When Victor found out that Victoria and Ashland were shopping for investors for their new business, he put the word out reminding them that Ashland “was dying”. No investor was interested in financing a startup whose CEO was dying, and they all backed away. So the couple decided to finance it themselves. it turned out to have been a setup by Victoria for revenge. She had opened a bank account for their new company, and after Ashland deposited his 250 million dollars, Victoria transferred the money and closed the account. She told off Ashland and returned home triumphant.

Meanwhile the whole town was shocked when Diane Jenkins returned, the woman Nikki had been accused of murdering many years ago. Diane admitted that Deacon Sharpe had helped her stage the murder and substituted a cadaver for her body so that she could escape all her enemies, but she had also abandoned her son Kyle who was only a little boy. She claimed she had returned to reunite with her now-adult son. Nikki told Diane, “If you had to play dead, at least have the courtesy to stay that way.” Sure that Diane had not changed, Nikki asked Michael to find out what she had done in LA. Michael agreed only to prove her wrong.