Santo vows revenge against the Bradys for losing whom he now considers the love of his life, and a vendetta begins.

In later years, Shawn goes to great lengths—including having his step-son Bo roughed up and briefly held captive in Ireland—to keep the feud's origins a secret.

Years later, in a letter written to Stefano in Rome from his deathbed in New Orleans, Santo tells him the Bradys are living in the American city of Salem and orders his son to come to America and continue the family vendetta, a move that proves beneficial to DiMera Enterprises.

Stefano dutifully picks up Santo's mantle, and uses it to his own advantage, carrying out the vendetta and amassing great wealth in the process.

Various letters among DiMera family members reveal that the key to ending the vendetta is contained in a portfolio that was left in Colleen's church in Galway, St. Malachy's.

In February 2008, Colleen is found alive and it is revealed she left Santo, faked her death, and went into hiding in a convent in South America where she had his son, Ryan Brady – then believed to be John Black – and gave him up for adoption.

In the summer of 2012, the DiMera family begins to fall apart as Stefano's wife Kate Roberts has an affair with Ian McAllister, Stefano reveals that he isn't EJ's real father and disinherits him, and Lexie Carver dies from a brain tumor which is an after effect of André DiMera holding her captive in a tunnel years prior.