Abby Carlton Top News - 2004
See also: Ashley Carlton  Victor Newman  Brad Carlton

Newman Urged To Give Up Daughter!

October 5, 2004
by Brent Kellogg 

First it was Victor Newman the great teacher of drama giving lessons to the poor deprived street kids at his wreck center and now it's Nick Newman teaching these very same kids how to play billiards. Can it get more convoluted? After all, if it's one thing street kids wouldn't know from the moment they could walk and talk at the same time it's how to shoot pool. Even kids who aren't living on the street learn at an early age about the local pool hall. Their parents warned them from the first time they were seen coming out of a billiards parlor that these smoke-filled rooms are the Devil's workshop and to stay away lest they want to be thought of as less than the human scourge patronizing these warts on society.

That is, unless said kids live in Genoa City where shooting pool is okay so long as it takes place inside a reputable wreck center. And if the kids apparently without homes or living in "group" homes but looking mostly like rich kids who have runaway from their rich parents don't know how to play pool? Why, Nick Newman will teach them! A good wreck center is nothing if it doesn't provide an alternative to drive-by shootings.

This week in fact, Victor told his son what a great job he's doing. Teaching pool is almost as rewarding a career as running a coffee shop by day, club for all ages by night. Why instill a sense of purpose into a pack of uneducated kids by offering help getting them into community colleges when they can be taught pool? Of course, Victor's praise didn't come without Nick first asking "how long have you been there" when he noticed Pa was watching.

As if it mattered how long he'd been watching Victor quipped it was long enough to see that Nick is doing "a hell of a job" with society's rejects which is what all rich people were born to do. Who wants to count their billions or polish their Rolls Royce when there are so many undesirables in need of being taught the finer things of life?

Nick was so taken with his bad self he suggested Pa spring for another pool table so they'd be able to organize a pool tournament; maybe even get on the Wide Worlds of Billiards TV show. Hell, there might not be more than four kids right now interested in pool, but they'd damn well get more involved. Pull them out of college or away from whatever jobs they might be holding down. When a Newman thinks of something so clever all the stops should be pulled out to make it a rewarding success - for them.

That Nick's warped dream might fizzle like so many others was apparent when Victor changed the subject. Had his dear son heard the bad news of the day? Had Nick heard that his old man's rapidly aged six year old daughter who should be coming up on three had gone for a pony ride at the Ponderosa and fallen off the horse? Had sonny any idea how guilty Pa was feeling although little Abby Carlton had only dislocated her shoulder and how Pa desperately wishes he could order time to go backwards?

Quickly switching into his role as the parent Nick told Victor to stop sweating the small stuff. Aren't there more important things to worry about like, what a relationship with his biological child is doing to Ma Newman? Didn't Pa know that when his kids first learned to ride they were younger than Abby? Doesn't everyone know by now that Newman kids are special? That they walk and talk at birth? Besides, with all his power Pa couldn't have predicted that there'd be wasps around horses. Not Newman horses, anyway.

And, Nick wanted to know, why can't Pa comprehend that Abby doesn't see Victor the same way she sees Brad Carlton? Shoot, it's just like Cassie Newman who sees Nick as a father when he isn't - not really - except in the ways that matter most.

But she "calls me daddy" Victor said of Abby as if to say, "Listen fool. Blood is thicker than that swill you're spewing. What if Noah thought of Carlton as his father? Wouldn't you be singing a different tune? Why am I wasting my time trying to explain this to a son who stabbed me in the back?"

Knowing damn well that his Pa's instincts are right where Abby is concerned Nick nevertheless whipped out the child is an idiot just like me card. Abby learned early in life a deep, dark secret that her baby-killing sperm-thieving mother kept hidden for years.

"She's confused. [Abby's life] was turned upside-down" Nick oozed, even though it's been said time after time what an overly intelligent child for her age Abby is.

Pausing to reflect Victor might have thought to himself for a moment. "Damn, where does this freaking moron come up with such crap?" Alas, he actually encouraged Nick by saying he might be right to which Nick had the audacity to say that Abby will never be his daughter in the ways that matter and that by holding out against hope that a child can grow up lucky enough to have not one, but two fathers who care about her will only outrage Ma Newman more than she already is.

Noting that Nikki Newman thinks only of herself Victor said the old cow has no reason to be taking her anger out on him and Abby. Then, like those who see weapons of mass destruction where none exist, Nick told Victor he doesn't have a say in the matter and if he'd only stroke Ma's ego more often she might not be such an insecure bitch.

Reduced to a little boy father asked son what he should do. How does a man sixty years play the bad cards life has dealt him?

Reeking with condescension Nick hurled another of those asinine statements often heard in father-son talks. "You and me are cut from the same cloth."

"What the hell does that mean?" Victor did not have a chance to ask as Nick was well into explaining it.

Since Nick loves that skanky whore he's married to the way Victor loves Nikki it's understandable why they keep finding their way back to the same despicable women time and time again. You see, Pa. "It takes hard work" to stay the course with a woman who you should have dumped years ago. And, Nick sensed, since Victor is being so childlike he may not realize that by wanting a relationship with his daughter he's pushing Nikki out of his life.

Just when it was hoped Victor would show the world that he really is the great man he claims to be by sticking to his convictions; that he would go home to tell his self-centered wife that the world doesn't revolve around her and that if she wants him she'll accept his daughter much like he's accepted the voices in her head, what did Victor say?

"I don't want that [losing Nikki] to happen" apparently even if it means having to give Abby up.

Saying he'd been given lots of fodder to digest Victor thanked his dad, um, son for the lesson in holy matrimony rather than do what he should have done by telling himself that this time he's really and truly gonna do that thing he always said he was gonna do and instead stop thinking so much about it and just stand up and put on his pants like a man and make the necessary calls, take a deep breath and get the hell off the couch of self-doubt and do it.

Carlton Kid Okay Following Pony Incident
October 4, 2004

How bizarre. For all the worrying she does about baby-killer Ashley Carlton sucking around her husband, hearing voices in her head Nikki Newman this week decided at the last moment not to travel into the city with the Carlton's injured child, Abby Carlton, following what was described as a small accident at the Newman Ponderosa.

Mrs. Newman choose, apparently, to stay behind so that she'd be on hand when the child's adopted father, Brad Carlton arrived at the last moment to spend 'Family Day' with the little girl and her biological father, Victor Newman.

Mr. Carlton's urgent trip on business that he had said only he could handle was postponed when coincidentally his flight to Cleveland was cancelled and there were no other flights leaving for his destination from what Genoa City calls its international airport.

Learning that his daughter had been bucked off a horse and rushed to the God Have Mercy Medical Center, Carlton zoomed to the hospital where he immediately placed full blame for the accident on Mr. Newman's shoulders.

Thanks to the ever on-duty Dr. Olivia Winters the Carlton girl was diagnosed with nothing more than a dislocated shoulder, treated and released.

'Family Day' Marred By Family Bickering, Tragedy!
October 1, 2004

What started out as a special "Family Day" at the sprawling Newman Ponderosa on Friday turned into what will undoubtedly be declared a tragic and horrific event.

With her mother and step-mother hurling insults at one another six-year-old much fought over Abby Carlton was whisked away by the Newman slave to a horse barn where she was to ride her very own pony named Starfire.

Later, and within moments of the little girl's biological father following after her, Victor Newman returned holding the child in his arms.

"There's been an accident" is all the great man would say as he piled into an SUV with his injured daughter and the two squabbling female magpies for what was expected to be a one hour drive to the God Have Mercy Medical Center.

While her injuries were not immediately known it was thought Newman's daughter may have only sustained a kick by the horse to the head which could have explained why Newman lugged the child around like a sack of grain. Had Abby Carlton's injuries been life threatening it would seem Newman would have known better than to move the patient and would have called Life Flight.

In a previous accident at the ponderosa victim Cassie Newman was rushed to the hospital via Life Flight which, or course, just happened to be in the area at the time which in this latest case, it was not.

Poor Excuse For a Mother Skips Child's First Day At School
September 7, 2004

This is the reality the living in Genoa City. If your beautiful bundle of adorable mewling diaper-clad genius baby you've kept in a cage most of its life cannot lift its head up off the floor as it flounders around on its tummy, bumping into the furniture and eating stray lintballs and annoying the unexpected house guests, send it off with the sitter who conveniently lives next door.

If you've been pregnant for something like thirteen months with yet another baby created with sperm you stole from the man you've always loved and the toxic cosmetics company you work for is on the brink of war with the unborn baby's father, pack up said sitter and genius baby and go off to wait the war out at an otherwise unknown motel named the Inn of the Sixth Happiness without telling your husband where you'll be in the event you pop baby #2 at any moment.

While your husband wrings his hands and wonders what is to become of you, welcome to your motel suite Dr. Nora Thompson, Dr. Olivia Winters - both of whom still travel great distances to make house calls - and the man of your dreams, Victor Newman.

As Mr. Newman begs you to concentrate on the birthing of your overdue baby, welcome your husband who you didn't tell where you were staying but somehow found where you were. And after everyone has told you to remain calm and the two men have had verbal spat number 3,156,229 over you and told you to stay away from the war, jump into a gas-guzzling SUV, barrel down the highway at excessive speeds, crash and subsequently kill your unborn baby.

Because you sent your living child home with the sitter who was told to find her own transportation back home, baby #1 remains alive today. But since the child seems destined to grow up to become a monosyllabic sex-addicted adult so much like yourself and could, like you, be shunned by her peers and never able to get into an overrated college you can't really afford, rapidly age the child by about four years so that she can, in about five minutes, know the difference between daddy #1 and daddy #2 and everything about the scourge that plagues Genoa City, multiple parents.

And of course since said kid will likely not become an over privileged corporate drone or the proper kind of Xanax-popping upper-class automaton and will be forced to attend, gasp, the Genoa City Public School System, and will surely grow up to worship Internet stalkers, be at her side when she enters school for the first time.

Right?

Wrong.

Not if your name is Ashley Carlton. Not if you've said over and over how you treasure your little girl named Abby and would die, well, maybe that's pushing it, for the little tyke and want to be involved in every aspect of the child's life and never miss, oops, her third, fourth, fifth and sixth birthday's and have not so much as a photograph of any of the missed parties so that maybe one day if Abby remembers she shot her best pal, there will be no photo of said pal in a box of memorabilia somewhere.

If your name is Ashley you don't take your daughter to her first day of school, but rather sit around at home in curlers talking with her biological daddy on the phone while adopted daddy - but real dad in all the ways that matter most - Brad Carlton does the job.

And while you may have thought your folks were crazy, what a guy that Brad is. Returning from Abby's school on Tuesday he was asked by Ashley how it was to have dropped the kid off on her "first day of school."

"I'm so happy I had a chance to do it. It only happens once a year," Brad actually said, causing the flying monkeys huddled in the corner to shudder. Did he really say that the first day of school happens once each year?

Worse yet, did she say, "now I feel left out"?

Indeed, they did which in turn reinforced the allegations that these are two of the most creepy and misguided parents there are and may ever be.

What parents, so overly concerned with every aspect of experiencing baby grow up, would miss their child's very first day at school?

While it may be technically true that the first day of school happens each year, there is nothing like THE very first day. It's a day parents, if they truly have an interest, would not want to miss.

And, as Brad said, Ashley can go with Abby when she attends her very first day at the Newman wreck center, but this would in no way compare to that first day of school considering Abby has already spent her first day at the center.

Not that Brad would know this, of course. As the lies Ashley deals out just keep on coming. And not that it matters since many of the children in this city really matter all that much. It is all about the parents, about bragging rights, name dropping, social status and prestige and about whose kid made it into what school because her mom is a billionaire contributing debutante and the tot could be getting her degree next year given how children here age.

Genoa City kids are just trophies used to enable and empower the parents and ensure they have sufficient trust-fund income to pay for all the therapy and the Prozac from all the guilt they will suffer in the years ahead as a result of both the pressure and the feelings of subsequent crushing disappointment the parents will feel when the kids run off at 16 and get cool tattoos and finally have sex and fun and maybe gain a hint of soul.

Then again it might be that the Ashley's intentions were good. She only wanted to please her husband by letting him take Abby to school to show that, like a puppy being trained, Brad can be trusted after running off with Abby an entire 24-hours.

In exchange, while not three days ago Brad threatened to take Abby by legal means and walk out on their marriage, Ashley got a good porking. You could argue that she did it to save her marriage and thus like the paving stones to Hell, Ashley was willing to forego one of the most important days in her daughter's life. You might even be right.

But you could also say there's no excuse for a mother to miss her daughter's first day of school just as Ashley Carlton is the poorest excuse for a mother. She is dangerous because she cares far, far too much about exactly the wrong things.

Crap, Or Get Off The Pot!
August 27, 2004

Paul Williams is unable to walk and chew gum at the same time. So who, in their right mind, would want to hire the most clueless private investigator in all of Genoa City?

The great Victor Newman - that's who!

And for what?

To find the culprit who ruined the grand opening of Newman's safe haven for troubled youth and assorted gang members.

This was the overall sentiment on Friday deep in the confines of Newman's recreational office.

Noticing that her father-in-law wasn't himself, Sharon Newman stopped by to tell the mustache he seemed upset. Was it something he ate? Tossing Sharon one of those looks that says you are a complete and total idiot, Victor asked if Sharon was not aware of the terrible thing that had happened there earlier. Something so dastardly as to take the shine off his badge of honor.

Tilting her head to one side so that the rocks inside could slide to one side, Sharon asked if he was speaking of the Lily Winters incident in which a 15-year-old girl had allowed herself to be once again victimized by an unsavory character.

Victor acknowledged that the incident had him all worked up not so much because it meant that the Winters clan was now dealing with another crisis less than one year after the last, but because something so tragic could have happened in a place that was meant to be a safe haven for local thugs and gangsters in-training. In addition, Victor wanted to make sure that Sharon was helping her daughter cope with the stark reality that there are creeps in this city on the prowl for young girls to rape. Girls like Cassie Newman.

And while it's Cassie who mother's Sharon most of the time, Sharon said she has spoken with Cassie about talking to strangers although Cassie continues doing just the opposite of what she's told since mother doesn't practice what she preaches.

Then, without warning, Victor revealed that he's been trying his damnedest to reach Paul Williams without success and had not, apparently, seen Williams there earlier with his wife, Nikki, who did not, apparently, witness the commotion earlier when paramedics arrived with sirens blaring to work on the Winters girl.

"I want him to nab this guy," Victor said, of the bad person who attacked Winters and of his reason for seeking Williams whom he did not indicate would be paid for services rendered.

Changing the subject, Victor asked Sharon why she had come by and was told that his infatuation with his biological daughter was taking a toll on his darling wife. Like many, Victor couldn't understand why his seeing Abby Carlton would cause anyone to get all bent. As for his wife, Victor said it would be nice if Nikki Newman would just "get over it" and let things take their natural course.

Victor's highly intellectual conversation with Sharon was cut short when the mother of his youngest child called to say they had to talk. Of course it wasn't true, but just a change in the wind direction can be reason enough for Ashley Carlton to think someone's out to get her so Victor invited her over to the center.

Carlton was there in a flash to say she had news about her husband which really wasn't news to Victor at all. Listening to what Ashley had to say go in one ear and out the other gave Victor another brilliant idea. What if she were to bring Abby by the center after Day Camp each day? What if he reads stories to the six-year-old who, if she's really six, should be reading on her own and not be treated like the three-year-old Abby really should be?

Ashley thought it was a marvelous idea! Surely her husband, who has sworn in blood never to allow Victor alone with his daughter, would agree.

There's something to be said about nitwits like Ashley and for that matter, Victor. Have they not seen any of the fits Brad has thrown? Did they not hear him say that if push comes to shove, which it did long ago, he'll seek full custody of the child? Do they really think Brad is going to change his position?

Rather than continue the endless and pointless Battle of the Babies Newman should, as the Genoa City News suggested long ago, file for custody. Maybe then a lawyer will tell him to get a paternity test; something Newman was quick to do when Diane Jenkins pulled a similar stunt, but hasn't in this latest case because the mother is his darling Ashley.

Barring a DNA test Brad Carlton won't let go so Newman needs to either crap or get off the pot.

Bring It On!
August 20, 2004

Missing an entire 24-hours, Genoa City's great liberator, Brad Carlton returned on Friday with his rapidly aged six-year-old daughter to say that he and the kid had just been out getting wasted on fun and frolic because, well, this is what Daddy's do much to the consternation of Mommy's who weren't told that their children and husbands would simply disappear one day without warning.

Sure, Carlton left behind a cryptic note which to his wife was but a riddle even Robin would have trouble figuring out and was so confusing Ashley Carlton had to call in her husband's whore to decipher it. To paraphrase, the note said:

"Listen bitch. I'm tired of you hanging around with Victor Newman. Doing so threatens our marriage and has from day one. Why I married you knowing you really loved another man I'll never understand. Maybe it's because Victor's ex-wife left me standing at the alter. Maybe it's because having sex with Lauren Fenmore gives me heart attacks or that my waxed chest turns so many women off. Whatever the reason, we've done nothing but fight since our marriage. And while I've told you in so many words that it's okay for me to whore around but not you, one thing is certain: you keep it up and I'll snatch that baby away from you faster than you can say breast cancer redux. You got that?"

Worried to death, and on the brink of becoming another Nikki Newman who has become like Sharon Newman who has become like Nikki Newman worried that Sharon Newman is acting strange and maybe it's true given what mother tells a six-year-old capable of playing miniature golf to go talk to her dolls, Ashley Carlton demanded an explanation, how could Brad have taken the baby like he did?

Because around and around they go and where they stop is always predicable Brad did not say, "Jesus! Didn't you read my note? Didn't you get the message? I took the kid so you'd know what it's like to have your baby taken away. Yes, I understand this is not my biological baby but I'm her father in every way that matters and if Victor keeps trying to see his biological daughter - who wouldn't have been born had you not stolen his sperm - I'm gonna hold my breath until I turn blue because I'm a goddamn hypocrite. Okay! Do you understand now that it's not okay for a father to see his daughter except for those times when it's okay for a father to see his daughter? Good."

Making the point again that Victor was just a "sperm donor" Brad, having just passed Victor on his way out the door, said "I see you've been talking to Victor" as if it was completely unreasonable for a woman worried that her child may have been kidnapped to talk to the child's father and her closest confidant.

Then, stunningly, but no surprise, Brad warned that unless Ashley stays away from Victor and vice-versa he will file for full custody of the child!

"I'm not sure I want you raising my little girl," he actually told Ashley.

It's took some gall, but this is what low-lowlifes like Carlton do. So go ahead, Mr. Carlton. Bring it on. File for custody but be prepared to have your ass laughed out of town. No man on this planet has ever succeeded in taking a child away from both its biological parents in cases where one of the parents is the most powerful man in Genoa City.

Translator Called In To Explain Note
August 13, 2004

There's a rumor going around Genoa City that antidepressant usage among tensely grinning tightly wound women in particular is nearly twice the national average which is already staggeringly high to begin with and isn't that just the least shocking thing you've heard in, oh, days?

It may, however, explain why this town's sperm-stealing bitch Ashley Carlton can't comprehend the simplest of things, like posted speed limits and notes from her husband saying he's taken her daughter and fled the terrible wrath of the girl's biological father, Victor Newman.

Here's the actual text of the note Brad Carlton left behind:

"I want to spend some time alone with my daughter before we embark on this disastrous idea and I lose her forever."

Ashley looked at the words over and over. What did they mean? What did "spend time alone" mean? What did "and I lose her forever" mean?

Ashley thought and thought and then she called Abby Carlton's new day camp. No, the six-year-old had not been dropped off. Then Ashley called Brad's cellphone. No, he did not answer.

Ashley was so confused she had to call only the biggest bitch in Genoa City to help translate what it all meant.

In a flash Dr. Olivia Winters, once Ashley's beastly best friend and Brad's lover, arrived at the Carlton home. She looked at the note, squinted her eyes and blinking rapidly asked Ashley why wasn't she very worried. A first grader could have figured it out. Brad had run off with the baby.

Ashley went into immediate denial. Oh, no! Brad would never do anything like that. What reason would he have?

Olivia spelled it out. Victor being in Abby's life is having a devastating affect on Brad. Brad will never accept sharing the child with its biological father and Ashley is making the situation untenable by "being on Victor's side".

The moment Ashley heard those words she should have known it's true that Olivia had been sucking around Brad again and has taken his side.

But no, a whimpering Ashley had to ask, "What can I do?" only to hear Olivia say again that Ashley should get down on her knees before the bare-chested Adonis, kiss Brad's butt and obey his every command. Then, to rub it in Ashley's face, Olivia said she knows all about the "history" Ashley and Victor share and that she agrees with Brad's decision!

Why or why Ashley didn't say, "Listen you black devil. Don't talk to me about history. What about when you screwed Brad behind my back? What about that history?" can only be attributed to the fact that in Genoa City prior betrayals and sleeping with spouses are easily forgiven and forgotten. This is a town where women can plot to break up marriages and when the plots fail switch sides, do nothing and be credited with saving lives. This is a town where a son can stab his father in the back, spew hatred for the father for months and when the chips are down ask daddy for a favor and instantly all the father's perceived sins are forgiven.

Genoa City is a place where people constantly have to ask if the ashes on their mantle are really those of Grandma, or just a pile of dirt and concrete dust. That's how untrusting they are. Is there a need to go to the videotape? Does it need to be said how many times before Brad cheated on Ashley he swore he would love her forever and that nothing could rip them apart? Does it need to be said how many times Brad swore he'd love Ashley forever after he was caught?

Why then is Ashley shocked? Why is she wallowing in self pity and trying to write what should be a simple matter of visitation rights off as "a complicated situation"?

Any man who has literally and figuratively screwed Ashley over like Brad has screwed Ashley should have been kicked to the curb long ago. Instead of another year of Ashley fretting why doesn't she get a lawyer and end this farce of a marriage? Brad has no legal claim to the baby girl and thus, Ashley would be rid of what amounts to a ton of excess baggage. She would be free to come out of the closet, confess she's in love with Victor and go after the man.

But no, Ashley prefers living in the hell pit. She loves having to deal with that butchering bitch and telling herself that everything's okay. Brad is probably just out enjoying the day with their daughter. "That's what father's do" she said Friday as just about everybody within earshot openly laughed and heckled or fainted outright at the utter absurdity and hilarity of it all, at the appalling gall, at the direct insult to, once again, the common sense.

But, as the saying goes, Ashley represents the worst kind of willful blindness and the worst kind of accepted ignorance. She gets the marriage she deserves.

August 12, 2004
There Will Always Be Ice Cream
If there's one thing children of the rich and famous in Genoa City can be sure of, that one constant in their lives, is that there will always be ice cream. Lots and lots of ice cream.

Using the high in fat and carbohydrates ice cream as bait, Brad Carlton lured his six-year-old adopted daughter away from her mother on Thursday to what Abby Carlton thought was to be yet another day camp where she'll be watched like a monkey in a cage.

Having spent the night with her sitter the child virtually beamed into her home late this week and was sad to learn that the day camp she was just getting used to, the one where she had just made a couple of friends and had such high hopes of not growing up to be like so many of her friendless peers, grumbled over the change of camps.

"Sometimes change is good," Abby's senseless sperm-thieving mother said, totally unaware of how ironic her statement was and as if to say that internment camps for American-Japanese were good too.

As a distraction from the real issue, Abby was asked what she did with the sitter and told of having fun, watching a movie and eating popcorn.

"Any ice cream," Brad asked, only to be verbally slapped for asking such a preposterous question. Who in their right mind eats ice cream with popcorn?

Not that it mattered, Brad went on to say that any daughter of his can have ice cream whenever she likes. It keeps her cool, is loaded with fat and carbs, rots young growing teeth and guaranteed to make six-year-olds as fat as that girl they've seen around the Newman Jitter Joint.

Sensing the timing was right, that his wife was lost in a brutish hellpit thinking about the man she really loves, Brad told Abby to say goodbye and be sure to tell mommy she loves her.

For a split second Ashley caught the imminent danger. Tell me she loves me? Abby, dear. Why would you say that? I know you love me. But after a hug Ashley trotted off seemingly happy that all was right with the world.

Later, as Ashley was about to leave for - gasp - work, she found the note Brad had left before absconding with Abby. It must have been written in crayon because Ashley did a double-take. What did the words I'm taking my daughter away from your sperm stealing ass mean? Oops, looks like work will have to wait. Ashley has another tragic bump in her rocky life to deal with maybe right after a bowl of ice cream. There's always ice cream.

August 10, 2004
Daddy #1 Going On The Run!
Anyone who couldn't see from a mile away that Brad Carlton is going to take his adopted daughter and go on the run must be blind. Indeed, the Genoa City News projected that this would be the case as Carlton left enough clues behind to gag a scab-eating clueless detective that he intends on running as early as this week.

Clue #1 was when Victor Newman's biological daughter called daddy #1 on Tuesday to say that she would be staying overnight with the baby-sitter. Instead of the sitter asking the parent if it would be okay the six-year-old gets to make these decisions.

Clues #2-101 were the endless times Carlton has said that he'll do whatever it takes to protect his little girl from Victor Newman who Carlton's sperm-stealing wife reduced to the lowest common denominator this week when Ashley Carlton told Newman that he's only Abby Carlton's father "biologically."

Unfortunately, Newman has been sitting around on his ass and won't be able to go after Mr. Carlton for kidnapping since he has yet to assert his legal rights to the child and thus allowing this non-event to drag out for several more months.

July 30, 2004
Intruder Tossed Off Ponderosa!
What a fool Brad Carlton is. Upon learning that Victor Newman had picked up their daughter from Day Camp this week and taken for the briefest of visits at the Newman Ponderosa, Carlton demanded Newman return the little girl immediately. Told in essence to shove it, Carlton snarled that he was calling the police.

But for whatever reason, maybe because the cops told him they don't get involved in child custody cases where there is no court order, or that getting the police involved would be detrimental to Abby Carlton's fragile well-being, Carlton went to the ponderosa alone.

The moment Carlton stepped onto Newman property he was strong-armed by two security guards and after hurling a few insults at Mr. Newman was escorted off the property yelling, "This isn't over. Not by a long shot. Have you got that?"

Sadly, everyone has gotten that these pointless shouting matches aren't over. As previously reported, all Carlton and Newman's betraying wife Nikki need to do is wait a few weeks. Victor will grow tired of playing with his newest toy and move onto something new. The more Brad and Nikki antagonize the great man, the longer Victor will toy with them and the greater the odds that Victor and Ashley Carlton will become attached at the hip as in married with child.

Of particular note on Friday was that Newman's otherwise absent security force had returned to their posts in time to waylay Carlton unlike the many times "dangerous" men like Cameron Kirsten have made repeated treks to the ponderosa and allowed to roam about the property terrorizing the women folk at will.

And too was the always thinking ahead Miguel Rodriguez. As if to show why he's so well paid, the Newman slave had the forethought to purchase a swim suit for the little tyke while Mr. Newman was picking Abby up at the camp.

Hysteria of Mass Proportions
July 26, 2004

If you believe that in this modern day of electronic everything Nikki and Victor Newman still have an old-fashioned answering machine I've got some swampland in Louisiana you might be interested in buying. What else could explain why Nikki was able to intercept a message Ashley Carlton left for Victor this week?

Of course! The Newmans have an old answering machine. They haven't gone totally wireless or have individual phones with personal voicemail. They still have rotary-dial telephones too. Maybe a Betamax. A Commodore 25 with important documents stored on 5 1/2 floppy discs.

Oh god, if only Ashley had a brain. If only she'd gone to see Victor in person before leaving town to tell him that her snarling husband has agreed to unsupervised visits with his daughter but to stay away from baby Abby until she gets back. If only she'd at least called Victor's office and left a message with whomever is taking the great man's calls these days and told the receptionist that the message was extremely personal, for Victor only, and not to tell another soul, Nikki wouldn't have been able to hear the message.

And without questioning how it is that Ashley was in such a rush to leave town she couldn't go out of her way to find Victor when just the other day she had time to make the one-hour trip each way to the Newman Ponderosa, let's listen to the actual message.

"Hello, Victor. This is Ashley. I'm at the airport. I told Brad I'd call you before I left town. I have some great news. Brad agreed to unsupervised visits with Abby once I get back but he prefers that you stay away from Abby while I'm gone. Please respect that since we're so close to getting this whole thing settled. I really think we'll prevail."

The question that does come to mind is: why would Nikki find this message so disturbing she had to summon Brad all the way to the ponderosa to hear it? Couldn't she have played it over the phone? Shouldn't she have been pleased that perhaps the Carlton's had reached an agreement and that their marriage she was so worried Victor was destroying might have been saved?

There is no explanation for Nikki's action other than evolution. Constantly evolving, Victor and Nikki are destined to be unhappy. There must always be spasms in their lives that sorta stifle a yawn, says yeah, well, what's new? What's the fuss about this time?

Or maybe Nikki gets off watching Brad throw his trademark hissy fit. What? My wife saw, or talked, or dreamt about or left a message for Victor? Can't have that. Especially when I thought she wants what's best for our daughter, Brad yelps.

And because she loves fanning the flames and likes it when Victor slaps her down like a bad dog, Nikki moos, "She's [Ashley] obviously in cahoots with Victor."

Oh yes, Victor is in cahoots. He wants only to see the daughter created with his stolen sperm and this puts him in cahoots? In Nikki's warped mind, it does. This in turn causes Brad to whimper that Ashley isn't taking his feelings into account and Nikki works him up all the more by claiming that Ashley and Victor have "grown closer" and thusly this confirms Brad's overall delusion.

"I can't trust him," Brad says of the great man, then frets that if Victor sees Abby one-on-one it'll mean he's going to lose "my little girl."

But it's all about Victor's need for control, Brad says, desperately trying to control the situation himself without much success.

There's always a kicker. Always one shocking event that seems to rise above it all to encapsulate the whole dizzying spectacle of Brad's paranoia and makes you go, well, this is special.

Victor is nothing more than a sperm donor!

How rich is that? Brad's creepy wife stole a man's sperm, had herself secretly impregnated with it, gave birth to a baby, refused to tell Brad who the father was yet Victor is the bad guy for wanting to know the child? Can it get sicker?

Yes, it can.

Because she's such a bitch, such a troublemaking old cow who should have her teats cut off, Nikki asked "can't we talk this out" when Victor and Brad began squabbling again over who should be Abby's Pa.

It was already talked out you dumb ____ (fill in the blank). If you hadn't stuck your big nose in where it don't belong and maybe concentrated on those voices in your head, you'd know, Nikki, that an agreement had been reached. But no, you had to go and tell Brad that you now have definitive proof that Ashley and Victor are more or less terrorists planning to strike very soon and disrupt your shopping and screw with your piano playing and blot out the sun. You just don't know where, or when, or how, or what the hell to do about it.

Like a typical old warhawk, all talk and no action, who sends young men off to fight their wars, Brad snarled, "I'd like to punch it out".

Oh Brad, you are such a nothing. Stomping around all aggressively macho like a globally disrespected isolationist nation that has burned all its bridges and molested all relationships and mocked all sympathy. Stick a finger in you and out pours sawdust.

"But I'm thinking about Abby," Brad retorts, wondering gosh, why would Victor want to see Abby alone? Why is he trying to drive a wedge between them as Nikki sneers through her Botox?

See the hypocrisy? See that this, whatever it is, is nothing more than leftover rehash from when Ashley had cancer and lost her hair? That's right, they've simply invented more nonspecific, unsubstantiated threats of sufficient hysteria so that the gullible, timid players will have more time to reconsider their choices and maybe vote for who should be Abby's bonded daddy based on fear instead of, you know, their heart, or ethics, or brain.

It is pointless aww-shucks dumb-guy shtick designed to appeal to the lower intellects. A deal over Abby has been reached. But so that they can continue to fight when there is no reason to fight Brad and Nikki keep the Abby's a well adjusted kid report hidden.

Whatever Nikki does, Brad doesn't want her to tell Victor about the message from Ashley. Erase the tape. Cover up or spin the evidence that says there are no excuses to keep Abby from Victor or he from her. No justification for snarling war they've sunk into. If she doesn't, Brad says, oh god, he'll lose Abby. The war will end. Can't have that. Too much misery yet to be wallowed in.

Twisted Logic
July 22, 2004

Do you feel it? Can you smell it in the air? The sensation that the Carlton marriage, though various Victor Newman tentacles, is nearing an end? It's the feeling that, during the next few weeks, it's all about to get very shrill, and very surreal, indeed.

It's not like we haven't known for weeks. Each and every time Brad and Ashley Carlton get together this is all they talk about. How about another, imminent Newman threat? Pretty much a given, really. Followed, of course, by another. And then another. And then another and another until every other day a thin-necked, shaved-chest Brad says yes, oh my God yes, he has reached the definitive decision that if protecting his daughter means breaking up the marriage, then so be it.

This is Carlton's twisted logic. Destroy the only family Abby Carlton has ever known. Create yet another child who must be shuttled back and forth by the baby-sitter between two different daddies and a mommy. Create yet another excuse for Ashley Carlton to slip into a state of depression. Give Victor Newman a reason to slap a custody suit on both their sorry butts which would probably be for the best given that Daddy #1 is trying to turn Daddy #2's little girl into a boy.

It's true!

As a surprise for his darling, Brad has arranged to take Abby to a baseball game. Not to a manly Cubs game like all other little tykes are taken to, but rather a Brewers game because, well, aren't the Brewers more like girlie-boys?

And what will Ashley be doing at a time when she's had to have seen the writing on the wall? She's going out of town on a business trip for a few days. Sure, isn't that what she said the last time only to slink off to Chicago to have herself impregnated with stolen sperm?

Because there is no middle ground with these whimpering freaks Abby needs to be taken away from both of them until they grow up. Brad's constant whine that Ashley is either with him, or she's a Newman lover has grown old. Ashley is either on the side of the patriotic, pro-Brad party of Newman lies, or she's a put Victor's feelings first liberal.

What else could Brad to guarantee a win over Newman besides end his marriage and send Ashley straight into Victor's arms where they'll both gang up on him and for sure he'll never see Abby again? Just about anything, really.

How about running off with Abby to a remote cave somewhere as Victor receives an "anonymous" delivery of a big glossy photo of Brad standing outside said cave looking all tough in his open to the belly button shirt and confused smirk as he waves a list of demands in one hand and holds onto Abby by a chain in the other?

What? Too radical?

Well, then, maybe something a bit more devious?

How about Brad spewing that if Abby is allowed to see Victor it won't be long until she'll want to move onto the Ponderosa much the way Daniel Romalotti moved into Damon Porter's opium den? How long will it take until Victor poisons Abby's mind against her Uncle Jack Abbott? Why can't Ashley see that Victor only wants to make their lives miserable and eat their baby?

No, it's going to be far worse. And more nauseating.

So then, let this be a warning. Get ready. Expect the unexpected. Watch the parks late at night for a distraught Ashley looking for a solution and not noticing the muggers waiting to pounce. Dust off your stash of barf-bags and smelling salts because Brad isn't about to go down without a screaming, sickening, fiery fight.

And if Ashley has proven anything in the past four violent, baby-gutting, sperm-stealing, nearly unbearable years, it's that there ain't no fear that can't be hammered to death, no fraudulent I'm so helpless and shocked tactic that can't be abused. Anything is possible.

Newman Blamed For Shaky Marriage, Daughter Attending Day Camp!
July 20, 2004

When did all bitch week start? Was it last week when Cassie Newman said she didn't give a rip that she didn't get to know her biological father or did it start this week when Nikki Newman said that what her husband is doing could very well ruin the Carlton marriage?

Why the hell should she care? Shouldn't Nikki be sticking pins in her Ashley Carlton doll and praying with every fiber of her being that God strike down that sperm-stealing bitch? If it hadn't been for Mrs. Carlton's dastardly deeds Victor Newman might not right now be upset that the Carlton's are hindering the bond between himself and his newest daughter, Abby Carlton.

Except that Ashley has now changed her mind and says she'd support unsupervised visitation, Brad Carlton continues to fret that Victor only wants to bond with Abby because his other children have abandoned him. Of course, because she's such a hypocrite, Ashley said she really hasn't taken Victor's side in the matter but only wants what's best for Abby. That's why she supports Abby sharing moments alone with the great man.

Not satisfied that Newman hasn't sued for custody rights, Brad keeps poking a stick into the hive. Maybe that's the plan. Maybe he needs an excuse, any excuse, to get away from the wicked woman who has lied to him from day one. That's why he keeps harping that their marriage is on shaky ground and oh, lord, what will become of us if Victor sees his biological daughter?

As if this weren't already ridiculous and sad, Nikki had the audacity this week to tell Victor that what he's doing is cause for the Carlton marriage to fail?

"Don't you see what you're doing to that marriage? Or, don't you care?" she spat at Victor, adding that the entire mess will probably hurt Abby in the end and everyone knows that it's the children that suffer most.

Then, because she's such a bitch you might want to grab her around the throat and squeeze until she's dead, Nikki said she had more important things to worry about, like her darling daughter-in-law whom last year at this time she worried was trying to steal her husband and oh heavens, what would she ever do without Victor?

Baring death, Nikki could use a few good slaps. Screw the Carlton marriage! Let it fail. Is she saying that she wouldn't interfere if the situation were reversed? If her eggs had been swiped and a baby born as a result, would she just sit back and do nothing?

As for Abby. Victor might want to look into how the Carlton's are treating his daughter. Sure, they let the kid out of her cage from time to time to be given sugar fixes at the local restaurants, but now they've started sending Abby to Day Camp! Does Victor not know what happens to kids in this town sent to camp? They wind up like Nate Hastings never to be seen again. Not only that, but the Carlton's are so damn lazy they can't even take Abby to the camp. She must be driven there by the Abbott maid! When Abby is old enough she'll have to start riding the bus to camp. From there it's just a matter of time before she doesn't come home one day.

Don't Call Me Daddy!
July 14, 2004

How much longer do we have to put up with Ashley and Brad Carlton's mindless ranting? Isn't three years of their flagellating enough? From the day she came down with breast cancer Ashley has bitched and moaned about her meaningless life. She has whined and wrung her hands and asked repeatedly what is to become of her while Brad stood by swearing up and down that he would always be there for her.

But when the going got tough and/or the name Victor Newman came up once too often, Brad walked out on his wife and wasted no time having sex with Ashley's best friend. Then all was forgiven. Ashley took Brad back and all was well until he heard that Newman was the father of Ashley's baby. For months Brad has seethed with bilious hate. Damn that Victor. The nerve of that man wanting to bond with his child. A child that was created with sperm his wife stole. Just thinking about Newman makes Brad want to break out some major weaponry.

The Carlton's go about their daze cowering in a pit of lost hope, fearing for their lives and wishing their enemies extreme painful death and eternal damnation. Despite all the painful evidence and political urgency currently screeching at them that they must allow their daughter to have contact with her real father if there is any hope of her not growing up to be one of the growing amount of at risk-kids, Brad and Ashley can't stand it that shrinks, each more expensive then the last, have told them to let Abby Carlton have contact with Victor Newman.

Even Abby wants to see her real dad. Calls him "Daddy #2". Gives Brad the pleasure of being "Daddy #1" and still Brad isn't satisfied.

So now it's back to square one with Brad blathering again this week and blinking madly that so long as Newman is in their lives he doesn't see how the marriage can last.

And twice now Ashley has ignored the obvious preferring instead to focus on ordering her child not to call Victor her daddy. "Call him Victor," the wicked bitch said Wednesday.

What a sad commentary.

With all the concern in Genoa City these days for children who have been harmed because they don't know who their parents are, or have been abandoned and lied to or otherwise denied emotional stability, shouldn't the Carlton's be encouraging their daughter to know her father rather than sowing the seeds that will cause Abby to grow up to be the next Daniel Romalotti or Devon Hamilton?

What's It All About, Abby?
April 2, 2004

by Vicki Johns

The question of "Who's your daddy?" has now been answered. Finally. Thank God. But don't think the torture is over.

Yes, Victor Newman, sitting in the restaurant section of the Genoa City Sweat Club, was treated to the news that Abigail Abbott Carlton is his daughter. By Abigail Abbott Carlton.

Remember the B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay? That's the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That bomb was called "Little Boy." That's kind of like what happened there in that oak-paneled, leather-clad chair and preposterously pompous environment of the sophisticated Sweat Club. Except this bomb is called "Little Girl." People's lives got ripped apart irreparably by a few words uttered from the proverbial mouth of a babe.

And Victor Newman's no dummy. Let's add it up, now: the strangely out-of-place interest he's always had in the little tyke, his ability to reach Ashley Carlton whilst in the depths of her catatonic state, Ashley's foreboding requests for a meeting, Nikki Newman's inexplicable fear and anger where Ashley is concerned, and Brad Carlton's just overall weirdness. Yeah, the kid's not lying, Vic's got to be thinking to himself: The squealing little rug rat's mine.

Like those towns in 1945 Japan, it's not the initial bomb detonation that's ultimately so devastating. It's the survivors who lingered for days, months, years and all of the fall-out and clean-up. The genuinely innocent people who suffered in unimaginable ways. Same here.

Ashley, thinking only of herself and not of her child, husband, marriage or of the marriage of Victor and Nikki Newman, wants the secret out. She wants, for some baffling, mystifying reason, the entire world to know that she stole the sperm of Victor Newman, impregnated herself, and gave birth to his child. Well, yee-haw. That's not quite the admirable type of stuff you find in "Town and Country" or "Millionaire" magazine. That's tabloid trash, but it's clearly what Ashley wants. Everyone else be damned.

Will Victor make Ashley pay for her crime? Gosh, when he thought Diane Jenkins had done the same thing he nearly had the woman quartered. Don't count on that happening with his "Beautiful Ashley." No, it'll be considered a tribute to her deep, unending and pathetic obsession with the sexagenarian.

Brad will suffer. The man that stood by the woman who killed his unborn son, who patiently waited by her side while she suffered a nervous breakdown, and who tolerated the degrading process of watching his zombie-wife only respond to her ex-husband and his arch rival. Because once the truth is out, it's just a matter of time before Ashley begins her full pursuit of Victor. Yes, because he loves the idiot, Brad will suffer.

Nikki Newman will suffer for not telling Victor the truth sooner, as Victor's warped sense of loyalty will condemn her. The woman who is unquestionably the Juliet to Victor's Romeo, the Cleopatra to his Antony, and the Liz to his Dick. The woman who has subjugated herself in every way possible to hang on to the love of her life. She'll suffer, too.

And so will Abigail, not that anyone will genuinely give a rat's ass about the child. It will all be about the adults instead of what's good for a six-year-old who could not possibly begin to comprehend the messed-up value system and psyches of people capable of eating their own young.

RAD Strikes Three Year Old!
March 29, 2004

Last known to have infected Genoa City children of the corn Colleen Carlton and Lily Winters, Rapid Aging Disease (RAD) struck again this week when the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Brad Carlton revealed that seemingly overnight she has become six years old.

Born November 13, 2000, Abby Carlton made the announcement Monday while awaiting a sugar fix at the posh Athletic Supporter Club where she was escorted by her half-sister and where manager Gina Roma continues a policy first enacted when she opened the RoadKill Cafe of feeding the town children ice cream, chocolate pudding, cake, cookies and other sugar-laden swill potent enough to rot the teeth of jigsaws.

Of all the children Roma is accused of inflicting a life-long sentence of diabetes the effect has had the opposite effect on at least one. Born long before Nick Newman and regardless the amount of hot dogs and other toxic junk food pumped into him, 10-year-old Nate Hastings never aged but did go missing years ago. Hastings' mother, Olivia Winters, has occasionally said the boy is away at a summer camp learning to sail but in recent years rarely mentions him. Hastings is thought to have become an oil tanker captain and sailed away in disgust when his mother failed to produce a qualified role model for him.

The RAD virus has also reportedly spread overseas where it is said to have infected another former Genoa City child, Daniel 'Danny' Romalotti Jr. Born in 1994 the estranged son of Mrs. Phyllis Abbott should be 10. But by the time he arrives in Genoa City in a few days will be sixteen.

There is no known cure for RAD. Once absorbed into the blood stream it is impossible to eradicate.