Baldwin / Dawson Family

Origins
Theodore Baldwin married Veronica, the love of his life, in 1955, and they went on to have two children, Jenna (in 1967) and James (in 1973). Theodore pursued his work as a World History professor, taking a position at CUNY Hunter College.

Theodore & Edina
Theodore was traveling in Canada during his spring break while getting his graduate school education in 1974. While there, Theodore met Edina Dawson, and surprisingly, they fell in love. Edina was younger, infatuated with this educated, tender man. But she knew he was married, with children (Jenna was 7, James was 1), and despite his marital problems, loved his wife and wanted his marriage to work. Edina knew their time together would be brief, but they did make love, and Edina never told Theodore when she discovered she was pregnant, not wanting to complicate his life or ruin his marriage.

Theodore kept in touch, and Edina kept him informed on her life, but said nothing of their son, Eddie. In the summer of 1979, when Eddie was 4, Edina was coming to New York for a conference and didn't plan to tell Theodore she was coming... but she ran into him at a bar. Theodore had just learned his wife Veronica was dying from Hodgkins Disease. Theodore was devastated, that much was obvious to Edina. Edina tried to console him, but one thing led to another, and they spend a night together. Edina ordered Theodore to forget her, and return to his wife, help her to fight the Hodgkins, while Edina returned to Canada... pregnant by Theodore again, this time with a daughter, that she named Didi. By 1980, Veronica had passed away from Hodgkins Disease.

Theodore & Edina 2.0
It was 1986 when Edina could finally face Theodore, so she left Eddie and Didi with her sister Trina, and went to New York to tell Theodore the truth about their children, but she couldn't, as too much time had passed. Eddie was already 11 years old, and knew nothing of his father. Edina couldn't imagine that Theodore could forgive her for withholding the truth for so many years, he'd probably never look at her the same way. When Theodore saw Edina again, he offered to make a fresh start with her. Veronica had been gone for several years, Jenna and James had left for school and their own lives. Selfishly, Edina took that fresh start. Theodore was free to be completely hers. When Trina agreed to take care of Eddie and Didi, Edina stayed in New York with Theodore and soon Edina became pregnant again, this time with a boy that she named Thomas, born in May 1987.

Raising a child with Theodore was heavenly, until Didi started having problems at school back in Canada. Edina's highwire balancing act between her two lives became too much for her to bear. Realizing she couldn't be a half a person in her own life, and thinking that even though Thomas was young, he was still mature enough to be on his own with his father, Edina returned to Canada to try to reconnect with Eddie and Didi in 1994, ending her dream marriage to Theodore.

Lottery Jackpot
By late 2007, Theodore and Thomas had a close father/son relationship, but Theodore hadn't heard much from his eldest children Jenna and James. That all changed when Theodore won a $350 million jackpot in the New York State lottery, and promptly suffered a heart attack from the shock. Thomas called his older half-siblings to inform them of their father's condition, but once Jenna and James learned that the lottery windfall was the cause of Theodore's heart attack, they rushed to his side, intent on helping their father manage his new fortune.

Thomas was suspicious of his half-siblings' sudden concern and interest for their father now that he was a multi-millionaire, and was determined to protect Theodore from their selfish intentions. Jenna quickly set her sights on fame and power, and that included landing powerful executive at Von Stadt International, Shawn Marks, as her lover. They quickly became involved, but Shawn was carrying a dark secret... he was also involved with Eddie Dawson, who worked as a professional drag performer, Aurora Borealis, in the New York nightlife scene.

Theodore & Edina 3.0
Shawn's double life, split between a secret romance with Eddie and a public romance with Jenna, took its toll on Eddie, who turned to designer drugs and accidentally overdosed. Eddie survived, and the doctors called his mother, Edina, who returned to New York to reach out to her eldest son in his time of need. Edina didn't plan to stay in New York, realizing that her own double life (the one where she was a mother to Eddie and Didi, and the other where she was a mother to Thomas and Theodore's ex-wife) was dangerously close to being exposed. Within weeks, Edina's two worlds collided, devastating both her sons, throwing Theodore for a loop, and frustrating Jenna and James at the prospect of having two more heirs and an ex-wife to have to split the Baldwin fortune with!

Despite the devastation, Theodore couldn't deny the deep love he had for Edina and asked her to stay in New York to try again at their romance, and to repair the emotional damage she caused to her children. Gradually over time, Eddie and Thomas were each able to reach a peace with their mother for her lies, and even started to build a relationship with each other as brothers.

On a trip to Canada for a friend's wedding, Eddie, Jenna and Thomas were all invited, and Eddie stole some time with Jenna's date, Shawn, to show him parts of Quebec where Eddie grew up. Eddie also introduced Thomas to their sister, Didi, who was working at a local coffeehouse. On this trip, Thomas learned Shawn was carrying on an affair with Eddie behind Jenna's back. After much deliberation, Thomas chose to keep the information to himself out of concern for Eddie's feelings. After a time, Didi chose to relocate to New York as well, to get to know her family better.

Baldwin Enterprises
With competition for a claim on the Baldwin fortune growing more each day, Jenna felt she needed to take drastic measures to ensure her control of the family's millions. After plans to align herself with Von Stadt International fell through, Jenna created a proposal that she presented to Theodore, about starting a corporation of her own, that she would name Baldwin Enterprises. Less trusting of Jenna now than he had been in the past, Theodore was impressed with his daughter's business proposal, but rather than investing all the money she needed, he only offered to provide her with half. Jenna turned to Lauren Sapphyre, a titan in the cosmetics industry, with whom Von Stadt International had also fallen out of favor. Lauren agreed to provide the other 50% of the finances necessary to get Baldwin Enterprises up and running.

Launched in September 2008, Baldwin Enterprises houses a fashion division (which Jenna oversees), a motors division (run by James), and an affiliation with Sapphyre Cosmetics (Lauren's own company). Evan Royale was awarded 10% stock in the company as Lauren's attorney and legal counsel to the startup company. Lauren retained controlling interest at 40%. Theodore retained 30% of stock, giving 10% each to Jenna and James. Jenna held the position of CEO and President of Baldwin Enterprises, shouldering the primary responsibility of getting the company off the ground.

Dana Worthy
Another prong of Jenna's plan was inspired by a chance run-in with Trevor Allen, with whom she had a relationship in college. Jenna accidentally hit a young woman with her car and decided to hire the spirited girl to "portray" Jenna's long-lost daughter that Jenna supposedly gave up for adoption in college. This would have been a complete surprise to the entire family, as no one would have known she had a child. Not wanting to draw suspicion, Jenna proposed that the young woman, Dana Worthy, she was hiring befriend Thomas and through him "discover" that she was Jenna's daughter, since Thomas putting the pieces together on his own and exposing Jenna would lend more believability for the whole family.

Dana was installed as Thomas's girlfriend Rebecca Halperin's dorm roommate at Hunter College and started feeding details to Thomas and Rebecca that started to remind Thomas of details Jenna had mentioned about her past as well. Thomas pursued the possibility of Dana being Jenna's long-lost daughter and lo and behold, Dana was proven to be Jenna's biological daughter via DNA testing. Jenna was startled that what she believed was a well-orchestrated plan was actually the truth, and Dana's true colors were revealed as it had actually been Jenna that played right into Dana's hands. Furious with being discarded at birth, Dana decided she wanted everything that was due to her, so Jenna had one more contender for the Baldwin fortune to deal with, and it was a young woman who didn't mind using every dirty trick in the book that Jenna would use.