Wilson/Lawless Family

Esther & Wally
Walter Wilson took Esther as his bride, and had no idea it would ultimately be the death of him. Wally had been referred to as deceased, but it's strongly implied that Esther killed him, as she mentioned in October 2008, "so many men, so many generations of bad choices."

Hattie & Larry
Esther and Wally's daughter Hattie married Larry Lawless, and they had two daughters together, Julia and Tiffany. According to recollections from Julia, Larry was unhappy in his marriage but tried not to let it show in front of their daughters. Larry shared a special relationship with Julia and they bonded over baseball, attending many Chicago Cubs baseball games together.

Dissolution
On Valentine's Day 1998, a young Julia returned home to discover her father hanged from a noose in the family apartment. For years, Julia firmly believed Hattie had killed Larry and made it appear to be a suicide. This led to much strain between Hattie and Julia, and spurred Julia to leave the family early on, to escape her mother, who she believed to be a deranged murderess. Julia became a doctor and established a new life for herself in New York City, leaving her mother and little sister in the past.

Hattie and Tiffany followed Julia to New York in November 2007, and almost immediately Hattie's schemes started to spiral out of control, reminding Julia of exactly why she wanted to escape her mother in the first place. In April 2008, Tiffany and Julia both learned their grandmother Esther wasn't as dead as they had been led to believe. In fact, she was alive and institutionalized at Shady Glen Sanitarium, claiming Hattie put her there to keep her from proving Hattie killed Larry Lawless. Esther managed to use the info she claimed to have to leverage herself a release from Shady Glen, but backed down from fingering Hattie for the crime once she was free.

In October 2008, Julia finally learned the truth when an unraveling Esther confessed to having killed Larry Lawless by hanging after overdosing him with sleeping pills. Julia finally realized that Hattie suffered at Esther's hands as well and institutionalized her mother, telling Julia and Tiffany that Esther was dead to protect them from Esther's insanity. Hattie hoped that with the truth out in the open, Julia would be open to letting Hattie back into her life, but Julia wasn't quite ready.

Julia & Nathan
Julia dated Detective Nathan Weber for several months of 2007 before meeting James Baldwin. Still traumatized by the death of her father, Julia had several walls between her and Nathan that prevented their relationship from progressing. On Valentine's Day 2007, Julia refused to celebrate the holiday with her recently established boyfriend without explaining why. In May 2007, when Nathan was promoted to Detective and wanted to celebrate with her, atop the Empire State Building, which triggered memories of time she spent with her father at the Sears Tower before his death. Receiving an email from her estranged mother in July 2007 put Julia in such a frozen state that she missed the Policeman's Ball that she promised to attend with Nathan. Julia finally shared with Nathan her beliefs about Hattie having killed her father, and Nathan felt so hurt and betrayed that she hadn't trusted him enough to confide in him or ask him for help, that it was the beginning of the end of their relationship.

Hattie, Henry & Eleanor
Hattie tracked Julia down in New York City and moved herself and Tiffany there to reestablish a connection with Julia and heal their broken family. Hattie secured a job when Von Stadt International CEO Henry Von Stadt hired her as his executive assistant, unaware that she had her own plans to make him the new father to her daughters Julia and Tiffany, and gain access to all of Henry's wealth and power. Henry's interest in Eleanor Halperin, however, was the biggest wrinkle in Hattie's plans. Hattie made efforts to derail Henry and Eleanor from getting to know each other. Hattie "forgot" to deliver messages to Henry that Eleanor had called, and attempted to cancel plans between Henry and Eleanor for the Opera, even giving herself a crash-course in Opera in order to take Eleanor's place on the date. Eleanor still showed for the date, foiling Hattie's plans.

Hattie pretended to befriend Eleanor, even reinforcing Eleanor's tendency to drown her sorrows in alcohol, hoping to drive Eleanor to alcoholism to prove she was unfit to survive in Henry's high-profile circles. When things between Eleanor and Henry continued to progress, Hattie got Eleanor intoxicated and took her for a ride, with Hattie wearing a blond wig behind the wheel, hoping to frame Eleanor for drunk driving on New Years Eve. This plan went awry when Carina Reynoso ran out into the road and was accidentally run down. Thinking quickly, Hattie pulled a passed-out Eleanor into the driver's seat and beat a hasty retreat from the crime scene, leaving Eleanor framed for Carina's hit-and-run. Hattie's daughter Tiffany and her boyfriend Rolo came upon the scene, and Tiffany pocketed a tell-tale charm bracelet of Hattie's, which placed her in the car. Hattie was able to guilt Tiffany into keeping Hattie's involvement a secret.

Eleanor was treated at the hospital by Hattie's older daughter, Dr. Julia Lawless, had no memory of the accident, and was placed under arrest at the hospital. Hattie hoped the media attention would make it impossible for Henry to pursue a relationship with Eleanor, leaving a clear path to his door for Hattie. Eleanor insisted Hattie was her alibi, but Hattie gaslighted Eleanor by claiming to never have met her, as no one else had seen them together or could corroborate Eleanor's claim. Henry, meanwhile, discovered Hattie's machinations and decided he could use Hattie's manipulations to his own advantage, so he provided Hattie with an alibi that made it impossible for her to have been with Eleanor.

Eleanor looked crazy based on her claims about knowing Hattie, and was remanded to Shady Glen Sanitarium for psychiatric evaluation. While institutionalized, Hattie's mother Esther Wilson, who had been believed dead, was also in residence as a patient and befriended Eleanor, who was unaware of Hattie and Esther's connection. In therapy, Eleanor was diagnosed as suffering from clinical depression. Henry, needing Eleanor under his thumb, bribed a Shady Glen doctor to recommend Eleanor be released into Henry's custody, so Eleanor and all her belongings (including presumably Charles Halperin's evidence against VSI) was moved into the Von Stadt penthouse.

Hattie allowed Aviva Reynoso to believe Eleanor was responsible for her sister Carina's coma, and stoked the fires of a rivalry between the women. Hattie also used her connections at the hospital through Julia to get her hands on some anti-psychotic medication, and hired Rolo, who had access to the Von Stadt penthouse as the Von Stadt's landscaper, to switch the pills out for Eleanor's depression medication, and cause her to exhibit more erratic behavior. Eleanor suffered from hallucinations at The Redeye that Henry was a hostile Charles Halperin, and she lashed out with a knife, stabbing Henry. Henry was patched up, and stayed firm in his resolve to keep Eleanor close. Fearing she would be suspected of drugging Eleanor, Hattie had Rolo slip the remaining pills into Aviva's purse, since Aviva had a legitimate grudge against Eleanor because of Carina's hit-and-run. Aviva was experiencing erratic behavior of her own, due to her own previously-unknown history of mental instability..

Julia & James
Julia met James Baldwin in November 2007 when he came back to New York City following his father Theodore's heart attack, which the Baldwin patriarch suffered when he won a $350 million lottery jackpot. Julia was Theodore's attending physician, and James was instantly smitten with the beautiful doctor, but Julia didn't take the playboy seriously.

James set down roots in New York and was persistent about convincing Julia to go on a date with him, though Julia was slow to thaw to James because of her guardedness from her issues over her father's death. When Julia's friend Carina Reynoso was rendered comatose in a hit-and-run, and Eleanor Halperin stood accused, Julia suspected her mother Hattie was involved, and enlisted James's help in examining the car Eleanor was allegedly driving (since James was an automobile expert and mechanic). At this point James met Julia's ex, NYPD Det. Nathan Weber, and the two men instantly sparked a rivalry over Julia. James and Julia's investigation of the car appeared to prove Eleanor's injuries from the accident and the damage inside the car would have placed her in the passenger seat, not the driver's seat. While Julia believed Hattie was driving and somehow manipulated the situation, Hattie's employer and Eleanor's suitor, Henry Von Stadt, provided Hattie with an alibi for the time of the accident which seemed to irrefutably clear Hattie of any responsibility in the hit-and-run.

Julia and James's relationship progressed slowly, and when Julia learned the truth about her father's death, that her maternal grandmother, Esther Wilson, murdered him, Julia didn't know how to feel. Julia traveled to her hometown of Chicago in October 2008 to try to find closure about her father's murder, and was followed by James, who was concerned about her. Proving to Julia that there was more to him than she originally believed, James and Julia finally consummated their attraction in Julia's hotel room in Chicago.

Julia and James continued to negotiate their new, deeper relationship, but things hit a snag when James promised her a special gift over dinner, and she accidentally discovered the engagement ring which Theodore asked his son to hang onto for him, which Theodore planned to offer to his love Edina Dawson. Julia hadn't expected such a big step, and was thrown, but when she realized he only was gifting her with baseball season tickets, Julia was equally relieved and disappointed. Julia realized she had a lot more to learn about James as a person before she would know whether she was really ready to get into a deeper relationship with him... and if he'd even be able to handle anything deeper.

Tiffany & Rolo
Tiffany met Rolo Valdez shortly after arriving in New York City. Tiffany's mother Hattie just started working for Henry Von Stadt, CEO of Von Stadt International. Rolo was employed as a landscaper for Henry's penthouse patio. The attraction between the two was instant, and it didn't take long for them to act on it. Tiffany and Rolo's sexual relationship developed quickly, but hit a snag in July 2008 due to the machinations of their English Literature professor, Aviva Reynoso's alternate personality Ava, who seduced Rolo as revenge on his brother Ramon Valdez, and set Tiffany up to catch them in the act on Aviva's desk in her Hunter College classroom.

Devastated, Tiffany complained to her mother, who was furious over her daughter's heartbreak and threatened Rolo with a rake for his philandering. Considerably spooked, Rolo left a voicemail for Tiffany to keep her mother and her sharp objects away from him.

Ramon was rescued from Ava's captivity, and informed Rolo of Aviva's mental illness. Rolo kept it to himself that he slept with "Aviva," realizing he might have been used by Aviva's dangerous alter. When Ramon was released from the hospital following his recovery from Ava's captivity, he returned home to find Rolo with a knife wound in his back. Rolo was treated for the stab wound by Julia at the hospital, and he pulled through, while Julia alerted Tiffany to Rolo's condition. Tiffany, knowing about Rolo's voicemail regarding being threatened by Hattie with a sharp object, immediately suspected her own mother of the crime, and went to confront her, finding her with a bloody knife.

Tiffany confronted her mother, and Hattie swore the knife was just left there in their apartment. Hattie was forced to admit that Esther might have been guilty of Rolo's stabbing. Meanwhile a disoriented Esther turned up on Julia's doorstep and admitted to not only stabbing Rolo, but to the murder of Larry Lawless as well. Tiffany and Rolo's relationship did not survive Esther's attack on him.

Ingenue for Sapphyre Cosmetics
Working in the chemistry lab at Sapphyre Cosmetics, Rebecca Halperin came up with a scent for Sapphyre that mogul Lauren Sapphyre wanted to build a new campaign around, dubbing the scent "Ingenue." Lauren did a search and settled on Tiffany Lawless to be the fresh-faced spokesmodel, which unearthed some of Rebecca's insecurities, disagreeing that a fragrance by Rebecca's design would be suited to be modeled by a young woman of Tiffany's substance (or lack thereof). Before the fragrance could be released, Henry Von Stadt exacted revenge on Sapphyre for leaving VSI by stealing the fragrance and releasing it first, essentially killing Rebecca's project before it got off the ground. Lauren was forced to dismantle the Ingenue campaign, leaving Rebecca burned by big business, and robbing Tiffany of her modeling debut.