Salem felt like someone had switched on DiMera hunting mode, and Chad was the one bearing the brunt of it on December 12th.

He was locked up with DiMera’s family, so he should have been focused on finding a way out, but what truly terrified Chad was something far more “real”: he realized he was missing right when the custody trial for Thomas and Charlotte was taking place.

This meant that his absence alone could finalize the case against him, and he would be standing outside watching his life being sealed.

Chad sat opposite Theo, his face expressionless, voicing a father’s deepest fear: not death, not humiliation, but the fear of losing his child forever, the fear of waking up from the kidnapping only to find he wasn’t holding his child anymore, but a cold, impersonal legal decision.

Chad listened and tried to reassure himself with his usual self-assured confidence, but the more he tried to calm himself, the more helpless he felt. This wasn’t a mental matter that could be overcome; it was a matter of life or death. And true to Days’ style, just when Chad was most distraught, another layer of drama unfolded: Salem automatically shifted all suspicion onto EJ because everyone saw DiMera disappearing one after another while EJ remained seemingly “normal.”

This trope sounds all too familiar: the more people side with someone easily disliked, the more it seems like some unseen hand is orchestrating the whole thing to mislead everyone. There’s even a theory spreading rapidly that Rafe is the one with the motive and ability behind the disappearances, and if Rafe wants revenge on DiMera, the most cruel way isn’t to capture EJ immediately.