The couple Sophia Armonti and T.J. Daniels
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Flirtation. Genuine affair. Indiscretion. Interested relationship. Desire for change. Provocation... These could be the definitions of the relationship between Sophia Capwell Armonti and T.J. Daniels. It is hardly, or half-words, that one could speak of love between the mature woman and the former gigolo also known as a ski instructor. The paths between these two people should never have crossed, but it was without jealousy; that feeling that carries you away, that transforms you and sometimes condemns you to seek out the shadow within you, and makes you become the one you are not...

At the beginning of 1988, Sophia is a defensive woman who feels attacked by the return of C.C.'s first wife, Pamela Conrad. Sophia knows Pamela. Sophia knows that several years ago, she stole C.C.. And today, Sophia is afraid. Sophia is afraid because she knows that Pamela came back to Santa Barbara with the firm intention of taking C.C. back. So, out of fear of losing the man she loves and her place in the family, but also out of desire to fight against her rival, Sophia lets the shadows take control of her decisions. And one day, she commits the irreparable : she detonates an oil rig off the city, suggesting that Pamela is at the origin of this drama.

Caught in the trap of her own conspiracy, Sophia does not know how to undo the trap she has herself initiated. Suffering the assaults of a blackmailer, Ed Thompson (the man she paid to blow up the oil rig), Sophia abandons herself to The Lair, under the eyes of T.J.. He hurries to help her and to offer her a shoulder and strong arms to support her. Not hesitating to fight for her, for her honor, T.J. quickly becomes her confidant, the only person to whom she can entrust the mistake she made. Very quickly, Sophia begins to feel a certain affection for this man who does not hesitate to fight for her, and to give her the attention that C.C. no longer gives her. From an abandoned wife, she becomes a courted woman again... Curiously, Sophia does not manage - voluntarily or not - to see the other personality of T.J., and lets herself go totally closer to this seducer with a powerful and virile body and the sweetest blue eyes.

Caught in the trap of her blackmailer, Sophia sells the jewelry offered by C.C., thus breaking, over the sales, the ties that unite them to each other. Other ties are forged in parallel, since T.J. continues to show himself, like a modern hero, the man of all situations, even going so far as to offer Sophia the copy of the ring of her previous engagement. From small gestures to big attentions, T.J. and Sophia get closer, and a tender and sweet kiss ends up closing one of their meetings.

For a new story to be born, the previous one must die... Without knowing it, T.J., in his nascent relationship with Sophia, is helped by Pamela who, as usual, works in the shadows. Having discovered the role of his wife in the oil rig explosion (explosion for which he is himself accused), C.C. breaks up with Sophia, leaving her no chance to explain or justify herself. C.C.'s words are harsh, leaving no room for a possible reconciliation. Betrayed, C.C. rushes to find Pamela, believing to find in her the fidelity lost with Sophia.

Wounded, humiliated, jealous of C.C. and Pamela's affair that she surprises, Sophia, carried away by her emotions, rushes to The Lair to join T.J.. Since C.C. betrayed her, she feels ready to break the last ties, and asks T.J. to make love to her. Sophia wants to exist again in the eyes of a man and, since C.C. 's eyes have turned away from her, Sophia goes to look for this brilliance in T.J.'s blue eyes (Years ago, it was in Lionel Lockridge's eyes that she had found this glimmer). Now, Sophia and T.J. can live their love in broad daylight, under the eyes of the members of the Capwell family and their friends. In broad daylight... including within the walls of the Capwell mansion where Sophia settled with the departure of C.C. at Pamela's. And one evening...

And one evening, C.C. surprises Sophia and T.J. in the conjugal bed, in the own bed that he shared with Sophia. C.C. is angry. C.C. is hurt. C.C. is betrayed. Mad with rage and anger, he takes a weapon and threatens T.J.. As a mad man, he wants to throw him out, at the door of his own house. If Sophia manages to calm him down, all chances of reconciliations are now lost... With the break between them, it is also the family that explodes, since Ted decides to leave the villa. But C.C. is not finished with his anger against T.J.. He goes one day to The Lair to force T.J. to break up with Sophia. The tone goes up. The fight is coming. C.C. hits T.J. and, by falling, he hits his head against a table, awakening in C.C. the memory of another argument he had in the past with one of his first wife's lovers.

This adversity binds even more the relationship between T.J. and Sophia. Beyond C.C.'s anger, Sophia must also face her children : Ted and Kelly mainly do not accept the presence of T.J. at her side. Their resentment is all the stronger as Ted knows T.J.'s past as a gigolo; he knows that this man survives only by selling his body, his charms, to wealthy women. Ted and Kelly aspire to another future for their mother. Moreover, on several occasions, Ted and especially Kelly put pressure on T.J. so that he breaks up with their mother. Kelly even dares to be insulting and is not afraid of the knocks T.J. threats to give her.

Behind Sophia's back, Eden, Kelly and Ted work for the rapprochement of their parents. They manage to convince Sophia not to come to Eden's wedding on T.J.'s arm. Sophia accepts for her daughter's happiness, certainly fearing a new duel between the two men. There, touched by a real emotion, C.C. gets closer to Sophia and they find a certain complicity : Sophia arranging C.C.'s floppy necktie and C.C. buttoning Sophia's dress. There, between the walls of Pebble Creek, C.C. and Sophia miss their reunion. C.C. gets carried away when a call from T.J. breaks their new harmony. C.C. orders, C.C. demands, that Sophia does not take this call. Sophia understands that she can no longer go back to C.C. and that T.J. is perhaps the one who will allow her to emancipate. She asks him to move in with her. She listens to his advice, and agrees to take over the reins of Armonti's, while granting him the rights to manage the company on her behalf. She even plans to consider the lawyer hired by T.J. to manage her divorce with C.C..

Sophia is fully engaged in this relationship, ignoring the opinion of others and even her children's reproaches. She is happy. She is serene. She is in total confidence with this man who treats her as an equal. She is no longer obliged to accept the decisions of the man with whom she shares her life. He does not care that C.C. took a bailiff to put them at the door of the villa. She knows herself stronger today. Their idyll could be perfect because, for the first time, T.J. seems really in love with a woman, unlike his other conquests...

But these other conquests of the past are never far away. And one day, it is Olivia Welles who comes to break her dreams of love and passion. Olivia comes to claim the money she invested in The Lair. If he does not give her the money, T.J. takes money from the account of the Armonti company, to repay Jake Morton's shares in The Lair.

The other conquests of the future are never far away. Having to work with Kelly, T.J. and she spend a moment together and Kelly seems to bury the hatchet. Down with the flu, Sophia stayed in Santa Barbara and takes advantage of this moment to let C.C. get closer to her. Kelly's tragic miscarriage, during her trip with T.J., weaves a new link between these two personalities that the past and the present oppose.

In Santa Barbara, alerted by her accountant George Crowder, Sophia discovers T.J.'s betrayal. Then the words of others come back to her. Yet, she had placed all her trust in him. Out of love, she had closed her eyes to his past. She had not taken into account the other conquests, the past as a gigolo. She had opened the doors of her heart and also the doors of her society. Much more than by T.J.'s betrayal, Sophia is deeply hurt because she believed herself better than the others. She had thought, hoped, that with her it would be different. She thought she was smarter than an Olivia Welles... Wounded in her pride as a woman, Sophia summons T.J.. She confronts him on his embezzlement. Disappointed by his behavior, she refuses to listen to his excuses. Sophia's pain is extremely violent. Her breakup will be just as violent. She shows herself uncompromising with T.J. She chases him from Armonti Industries. And as a final act of anger and rage, she leaves him a blank check to honor his last expenses.

T.J. does not take the check. T.J. is in pieces... Perhaps for the first time, he suffers from being abandoned in love. He is wounded, as if he felt deep down that Sophia had used him... As he has used women so often... Fortunately for him, a new conquest will open up to him... An unexpected conquest, since it will be Kelly Capwell Conrad...

Strange love story that T.J and Sophia's, because few things connect this seducer with a tender heart and the sweet and cultured Sophia. Of course, C.C. needed a rival. Of course, it took another man to make C.C. jealous while he was dangerously flirting with Pamela. But why T.J. ? Why would Sophia, who in the past had found another love in the arms of Lionel Lockridge, a funny, romantic, cultured, charming man, be content today with a stereotype man, the perfect male seducer ? This is too simple and not very credible. Moreover, few scenes testify of their love, with the exception of the clashes with C.C.. Their relationship could only end quickly and without radiance, as the differences between them were so huge. It is a pity that no other men were thought about to touch Sophia's heart : men like Alex Nikolas, Phillip Hamilton or Arthur Donnelly could have met Sophia's expectations and aspirations, while being able to face C.C....

The image of Sophia falling in love with a younger man had to correspond to the expectations of the writers since, years later, the story will repeat itself... with the story of Sophia and Ken Mathis.

Text written for this site by Lilian