With her company and personal life both in jeopardy of falling apart, Stephanie returns to Eden. Afraid of being caught hiding the source of Jake's shares, Cassie is having cold feet about working with Jake but he threatens to tell Dennis about their past if she doesn't cooperate. Jake invites Stephanie out to dinner, enticing her with the prospect of finding out where his shares came from. Dennis is eager to dig up some dirt on Jake to learn his secrets and receives Stephanie's endorsement. Having encouraged Stephanie to go after Dan, Jilly drives her sister to the airport and hears of Jake's intension to tell Stephanie about his shares.

Bill and his wife, Rena, agonise over revealing a long-held secret to Stephanie — that Tom and Sarah are brother and sister. Jake's glowing opinion of Stephanie causes Jilly to tell him about her sister's dark past, namely having a child when she was 18 — a child she was told died after she was sent oversees following the child's birth.

Tom wants Cassie's help to go through the company's share transaction records to learn where Jake got his shares. Cassie offers to do the work herself and destroys the last remaining paper records. Jake gives notice to the board to he intends to call a meeting to hold a no-confidence vote against Stephanie. Jilly asks her ex-convict friend, Olive, to track down proof of the birth of Stephanie's first child. Dennis finds Cassie crying in the office and she begins to confess her stock obfuscations when Jake interupts them. All of Bill's attempts to contact Stephanie to tell her about Tom and Sarah fail and their relationship progresses...

Dennis contacts Stephanie to tell her about Jake's attempt to take over her company. She hopes to chair the meeting over the phone but the line goes dead — cut but Olive. Bill tries to stall for time but the vote goes ahead. The no-confidence motion passes by a narrow margin and Jake is subsequently voted in as the new chairman of Harper Mining. Dan and Stephanie rush to their boat to get to another phone but a cut fuel line leads to the boat exploding with Dan onboard.

Bill is rushed to hospital and placed in Intensive Care as Tom and Sarah struggle to come to terms with their new relationship status. Bill gives Stephanie a full explanation of her father's deception and explains how he put Tom up for adoption before he and Rena subsequently adopted him themselves to help ease their guilt.

Jilly enjoys telling Jake about Stephanie and Tom but he's not interested in the gossip and tells her not to leak the story to the press. In exchange, Jilly wants her shares back and Cassie out of Tara's. Jake returns the shares, having got what he needed out of them, but he won't get rid of Cassie.

Stephanie accuses Jilly of helping Jake citing how everything in her life has been going wrong since the day Jilly got out of prison. Jilly denies the allegation and blames Cassie for having gone behind her back to transfer her shares to Jake. Philip returns from Hong Kong and wants to know where Jilly's been while he's been away. She refuses to answer and storms out prompting Philip to call Cassie to arrange a meeting to discuss a note she sent him.

Stephanie confronts Jake in her old office at Harper Mining and vows to have him removed from the board. When she rebuffs his offer to work together, he shifts focus to getting her out of the company all together. Still recovering in hospital, Bill signs over his Harper voting rights to Tom. Cassie presents Philip with the original records of Jilly's stock transfer to Jake.

Stephanie pays a visit to Sheik Ahmal, a long-time friend and business partner, to tell him about her struggle to maintain control of Harper Mining. In light of Cassie's revelation, a drunken Philip demands the truth from Jilly who again storms out. Stephanie vows to be more careful with Jilly but Dan is upset by her unwillingness to simply walk away from the company.

Jake informs Stephanie that he'll be asking for her to be removed from the board of directors and she counters by telling him she intends to asks for a full inquiry from the stock exchange into how he obtained Jilly's shares. At the board meeting, Tom backs Stephanie but Dennis surprisingly votes against his mother, citing Tom as the reason, ousting Stephanie from her own company.

Jake and Jilly celebrate in his office but Philip eavesdrops and overhears Jilly admit to her misdeeds. Philip makess an audio recording for Stephanie warning her about her sister before taking his own life. Stephanie informs Sheik Ahmal that he is Tom's father.