1977 (#12) - Vanessa's plan to kill Lorie and Lance's injury

Tensions between Vanessa and Lorie, meanwhile, do not diminish. Actually, if Lorie is threatened by Vanessa about her second book, in turn Vanessa is threatened by Lorie because of the lies about her health condition. It is Vanessa, at this point, who is planning a plan to resolve the issue in her own way: to kill Lorie. And so, when Lance is forced to go to Chicago for job-related issues, created on purpose by Vanessa through a stratagem, the situation becomes ideal to accomplish the woman's plan. By getting a revolver without too much trouble, Vanessa intends to simulate a robbery to shoot Lorie and the blame the fact to a simple fatality, thus discharging the responsibility on the fictitious thieves. What the woman did not anticipate is that Lance, at the last moment, gives up leaving, as he has been informed by telephone that there is no reason to go to Chicago and that the whole thing was probably the result of a misunderstanding. When Vanessa hears movement in the house, therefore, she fires two shots convinced she was targeting Lorie; soon, however, she is horrified to see her son on the floor. Taken urgently to the hospital, a desperate Lorie is comforted by the doctors when they tell her that Lance has received no fatal shots and that he will get away with it in a short time. Vanessa, despite her plan having failed, does not give up on her plan and threatens Lorie with publishing her book in case she has not taken responsibility for what happened. Lorie, reluctantly, is forced to accept, in exchange she obtains to catch Vanessa away from their home. Once he regains consciousness, then, a mortified Lorie confesses to Lance that she was the shooter, convinced that there were robbers at home; but even this attempt by Vanessa fails when Lance forgives the woman. However, it is Lance himself who begs the mother to retrace her steps when she confesses to her son that she intends to go and live alone; Lorie is forced by the circumstances to pray to Vanessa to stay too, since she cannot reveal to her husband the agreements made with the woman, and the woman, in the end, gladly accepts Lance's offer. In spite of all the vicissitudes, therefore, neither Vanessa nor Lorie manage to prevail in their fierce struggle that takes place behind the backs of an unaware Lance.