1989 (#26) - Paul's fake suicide and the civil marriage between Adrian and Cassandra

In a desperate attempt to exonerate himself, Paul devises a plan with Victor, suggesting that he fake his own death. The two then drop Paul's car off a cliff and set it on fire. When rescue arrived, the car was completely burned to ashes, and the authorities, unable to find the body, dismissed the case as suicide and found the man unaccounted for. The court, considering Paul's suicide as an admission of guilt, closed the case despite the protests of a desperate Carl. The latter in the meantime, kept in the dark by Paul and Victor's plan to prevent it from being discovered, tries in vain to convince the officials to reopen the case, citing as possible evidence of Cassandra's bad faith a series of photos where the woman is wearing earrings that she had previously reported missing for theft the night of the murder. Paul, finally free to investigate and collect evidence against Cassandra and Adrian undercover, searches with Victor for evidence that could connect Adrian with George's death; however, any attempt to connect the man with the crime scene seems useless. Adrian himself, meanwhile, convinces Cassandra to marry him; it turns out that the two have always agreed to take advantage of George's plan to blame Paul and eliminate any possible trace of the murder for hire entrusted to Adrian, thus free to go out and live with his mistress, Cassandra. At the end of a hasty ceremony held in civil form at the City of Genoa City in front of Mayor Donald James, Adrian and Cassandra celebrate their union, now convinced that they have got away with it to the detriment of an innocent Paul who, realizing that from the beginning he was nothing more than a pawn in the hands of the couple, promises to himself that he will get justice.