YR SHOCK: “I’m Going to Tell the Truth” – Holden Threatens to Take Matt and Claire’s Daughter to Genoa

A bitter wind swept in from Lake Michigan, rattling the metal walls of an abandoned warehouse on the edge of Genoa City. Inside, the air was cold and stale, thick with the scent of rust and neglect. Holden Novak stood alone in the vast space, checking his watch again and again as anxiety gnawed at him. Every breath fogged in the dim light, mirroring the fear tightening in his chest.

One name dominated his thoughts: Claire. Fragile, searching for stability after a lifetime shaped by manipulation, she was the one thing in this city that still felt innocent to Holden. And now Matt Clark had set his sights on her. Holden knew exactly what kind of man Matt was—cruel, calculating, and drawn to pain as leverage. The idea of Matt getting close to Claire filled Holden with dread.

Memories he’d tried to bury resurfaced sharply. Months earlier in Los Angeles, before Matt’s carefully crafted image had cracked, Holden had witnessed something unforgivable. In a back room pulsing with music and neon, he’d watched Matt calmly clean blood from his sleeve after arranging the disposal of a man who had become inconvenient. Matt’s warning had been soft but deadly: silence meant survival. Holden had agreed, choosing fear over conscience, telling himself it was the only way to live.

Now that choice haunted him. Silence no longer felt like protection—it felt like a weapon pointed at Claire.

The warehouse door screeched open, snapping Holden back to the present. Matt stepped inside, impeccably dressed, completely at ease amid the decay. His smirk carried confidence, his eyes sharp and alert. He mocked the setting, joking that Holden usually preferred a drink and a crowd. Holden didn’t rise to it. He’d chosen this place because Genoa City listened too closely everywhere else.

Holden didn’t waste time. He told Matt to stay away from Claire. The tone of his voice made it clear this wasn’t a request. Matt laughed it off, dismissing Claire as damaged but interesting, nothing more than a curiosity. That dismissal ignited Holden’s anger. He called Matt out for what he truly was and accused him of using Claire as a pawn in his vendetta against the Newmans.

Matt’s amusement vanished. He reminded Holden of Los Angeles—of the silence Holden had bought with blood-stained complicity. One word from Matt, he warned, and Holden’s new life in Genoa City would collapse. Holden didn’t deny it. Instead, he countered with a threat of his own.

He claimed he’d kept evidence. Footage Matt believed destroyed—proof of murder and cover-up. Holden said he’d saved a copy, hidden in the cloud, and rigged a dead man’s switch that would release it to the authorities if anything happened to him or to Claire. The color drained from Matt’s face. For the first time, fear flickered behind his eyes.

Holden pressed his advantage. Prison would erase Matt’s future, his plans, his revenge. Everything would end. Matt tried to call the bluff, arguing Holden would implicate himself too, but Holden insisted the footage showed only one killer. He was just a witness.

Cornered, Matt backed down—at least on the surface. He agreed to stay away from Claire, sneering as he did it, making it clear he felt humiliated, not defeated. As he left, he warned Holden that leverage never lasted forever. The threat lingered in the air long after the door slammed shut.

Alone again, Holden sagged against a crate, shaking. The truth was far simpler—and far more dangerous. There was no video. No dead man’s switch. Just an old coffee receipt folded in his pocket and a gamble fueled by Matt’s own paranoia. Holden had won for now, but he knew the cost. He had painted a target on his back.

Elsewhere, at the Abbott mansion, Claire sat uneasily between Kyle Abbott and Holden, torn between two very different sources of safety. Kyle represented stability and a future she desperately wanted. Holden, however, understood the darkness she couldn’t escape. Lately, her sleep had been plagued by vivid nightmares—visions of a life she didn’t recognize, a man whose presence felt terrifyingly familiar.

Drawn by instinct, Claire wandered into the attic and discovered a small, battered wooden box hidden among old belongings. Inside were Polaroids and a legal document that shattered her reality. The photos showed a different Claire—reckless, hardened—wrapped around Matt Clark. The document was a marriage license. She had been married to him.

When Kyle and Holden confronted the truth with her, Claire broke down. She swore she hadn’t remembered. The memories had been erased, locked away by trauma. Kyle struggled to reconcile the woman he loved with the image in the photographs. Doubt crept in, reopening wounds she thought had healed.

Then Holden delivered the final shock: Matt was back near Genoa City. He was looking for something he’d lost. Claire understood instantly—he was looking for her.

Determined, Claire refused to run. If she had been Matt’s wife, then she knew his secrets. To be free, she had to face the truth of who she had been—and why her mind had buried it. The past was no longer a shadow. It was a threat moving closer, and this time, Claire was ready to confront it, no matter the cost.