Mariah checked herself out of a mental health clinic in Boston and immediately started heading SOUTH — further away from her family,

not closer. Tessa tracked her on their family app and watched helplessly as Mariah moved in the wrong direction. She’s now holed up in a

motel room, completely isolated, doodling Dominic’s name on a notepad over and over again. She’s been scrolling through photos of Abby

 

 

and Devon’s happy family with obsessive intensity. On Friday’s episode, she called Abby, heard her voice, and hung up WITHOUT SAYING A WORD.

Meanwhile, Tessa has officially filed for divorce and moved on with Daniel Romalotti. She told Daniel she can’t save Mariah — she can only save herself and Aria. Tessa said the last time she checked, Mariah was headed further south, even further away from her family, and all she can hear in her head is that Mariah is never coming home.

Mariah Copeland sits in that motel room telling herself she’s “a terrible person who destroys everything she touches” and doesn’t deserve her wife or daughter. But Dominic? The child she carried? The child she delivered? In her fractured mind, that’s different. She MADE him. She brought him into this world. And Ian Ward keeps reminding her of that fact every single day.

He keeps telling her it’s time to “reclaim what is truly hers” and make the “separation permanent.” He told her that her memories of delivering Dominic are “etched into her soul” and she gave “the perfect gift.” He quotes scripture. He talks about her “destiny.” He insists that “life will be better on the other side of this.” He told Mariah that she needs to show the courage of her conviction by doing what needs to be done.

On Friday, Mariah Copeland tried to back out. She told Ian Ward it was wrong, that it didn’t make sense, that she wasn’t going through with it. But he wouldn’t let her abandon the scheme. He said thinking time is over — they already discussed that this was the best course of action.

The real question is whether Ian Ward is actually there or if Mariah is hallucinating him entirely. He appears and disappears like a ghost. She tells him to “go away” like he’s a figment of her imagination. What if her fractured mind created him to give her permission to do something she’d never do on her own?

When Dominic vanishes, Abby will lose her mind. Devon will tear Genoa City apart. Sharon will be devastated watching her daughter accused of kidnapping her own surrogate son. And Tessa? The woman who just filed for divorce and told Daniel she couldn’t save Mariah? She’s going to carry that guilt forever.

Whether Mariah is acting alone or being manipulated by Ian Ward, one thing is clear — she’s about to do something that will destroy her life and shatter multiple families. After watching her check out of that clinic, track south away from everyone who loves her, and hole up in that motel room obsessing over photos of Dominic, we should have seen this coming.