Then, Sheila miscarried, but she bought a baby off the black market, and she swapped the child with Lauren's newborn son.
She "delivered" Scott Grainger Jr. in 1991, and Lauren raised Sheila's black market baby, Dylan, until he died from meningitis at the age of one year in 1992.
Soon after, Sheila's mother, Molly Carter (Marilyn Alex), revealed the truth to Lauren and Scott.
After a failed internet search, Michael's half-brother, Kevin Fisher (Greg Rikaart), called Scotty from Lauren's cell phone, and they traced the boy to Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Michael went to Canada to meet his future stepson, now a 24-year-old college student, working on his master's degree in education with a specialty in creative writing.
John Abbott (Jerry Douglas) discovered that Lauren was being held hostage, and in his attempt to rescue her, Tom was fatally shot in 2006.
In 2012, when Daisy Carter, Sheila's daughter, is freed from prison, Lauren feels extremely endangered.
By 2017 Scott was writing articles for a news service, and was working on a refugee project in a war zone, South Sudan Ukraine Thailand.
Lauren received word that the State Department believed that Scott was missing, although alive and possibly held captive.
Lauren received another call traced to the Middle East, the caller claiming to be holding Scott captive, and asking for ten million dollars or he would die.
Sharon explained that she wasn't ready for a relationship, not being over Dylan, plus she was now managing Crimson Lights and going back to college to get her degree.
Even though his aunt Christine offered to be his contact in the future and tried to lure him into a sex trafficking case in the Midwest, Scott told her they could go to hell.
Victor later canceled the book idea, and hired Scott as Sr. Vice President of Special Projects at Newman to keep an eye on Abby.
Scott hated the idea of wearing a suit and sitting behind a desk, but felt he owed Victor his life.
Sharon discovered a potential "sex slave" named Crystal, a young caller on the crisis intervention hotline.
But Christine was livid that Sharon had met the girl at a hotel room where Crystal had been dragged away by a beefy guy.
Nick and Sharon were shocked to recognize Alice Johnson sitting at The Underground bar, decked out in expensive clothes and looking great.
But Sharon was convinced that Alice had left in same car she had seen at the Night & Day Motel where the sex slave operation was going on.
Sharon and Nick shared with Scott and Tessa that they were convinced that Alice was working in the sex slave ring.
After failing to persuade Abby to run away with him, Zack shoved her and Scott inside, locked the door, and fled.
They started digging through the records stored there and found an envelope of the girls’ travel visas, a list of properties Zack owned and his dummy corporations.
Victoria Newman welcomed them home by shutting down Scott's Hashtag webzine, calling a press conference, and giving Abby a statement to read taking responsibility away from Newman for DesignDate and the sex ring, which made Abby look pathetic, inexperienced, and naïve.
Abby agreed to return with stipulations that she report directly to Victor, get an office with theirs, and a bump in title and salary.
Afterward, Scott was elated to be offered a job as an on air reporter, but it meant moving to New York City so he declined.
Scott showed Sharon the engagement ring he had intended to give her New Year's Eve, but she ground it into the dirt with her heel and asked him to move out.
Sharon ran into Abby at the club and caused a scene with accusations that turned into a cat fight.
Unhappy with Hashtag being part of Newman Enterprises, Scott hoped to buy it but Lauren refused to bankroll it.
Abby had an idea, called and convinced Victor to sell Hashtag to Scott and take payments from its profits.