Daniel Romalotti was setup by a fake FBI man to forge a painting and became a suspect in his subsequent murder. Jana Fisher discovered Deacon Sharpe had possession of both Daniel's forgery and the original painting. Ryder, who worked for Deacon, confessed to Jana's husband Kevin that he killed the guy, whose real name was Ray Elkins. He said his dead father, who knew Elkins in prison, locked him in a cellar when he was a kid and Elkins treated him the same way too, so he killed him. Kevin didn't believe the coincidence when Ryder claimed his dad was Tom Callahan (an alias Kevin's father Terrible Tom used) but had a DNA test done which confirmed that he was. Ryder told Kevin he grew up in Green Bay, and played ball to stay out of trouble.

Deacon visited Ryder in jail, confirming that Deacon had made him confess to the murder. Daniel got Ryder to confess the plan, making a deal to use the key to Tom's safe deposit box in Detroit to retrieve the original of the Terroni painting Daniel forged for Deacon. Because the bank refused Daniel admittance to the box, he returned with Amber posing as Tom's bereaved widow Gloria. But just after they got into the box and retrieved the painting, Gloria showed up. They convinced her to play along, and got the painting back to Genoa City, where they bickered about what to do with it since Deacon had promised Gloria five million to get it for him, Jana felt it should be returned to the museum, and Daniel needed it to give to Deacon for his freedom. Kevin hid the Terroni painting at Crimson Lights, but Gloria found and took it to Deacon. Daniel tricked her, got it back, and returned it to the museum. He received a $25,000 reward, but gave it to Kevin to bail out Ryder. Remembering when no one would give him a second chance, Kevin insisted Ryder come live with him and Jana while he got a new start working at the coffee shop.

Daniel was arrested and jailed again, but his mother Phyllis Newman led a search of the landfill where all their friends showed up to help, and found the satchel that was tossed by the killer as he ran away. DNA evidence on the ski mask inside proved that the killer was a female, and Daniel was released. Unknown to everyone else, Deacon, Ryder and his twin sister Daisy discussed their plot against Daniel which was masterminded by an unknown woman, their next target being Lauren who started getting visits by dead and live rats.

College girl, Daisy, convinced Lauren to hire her at her boutique and that she was a sweet, hard-working girl who had no family. When Eden began seeing through Daisy's con job, Daisy set the Carlton house on fire while Eden and her boyfriend Noah were upstairs making love. Noah's uncle Adam arrived in time to save them and Noah's dog Fisher. Eden confronted Daisy with a Fenmore's card found at the scene, certain that Daisy set the fire. Not long afterward, Eden was contacted by an Aunt in Paris, asking her to live with her for awhile and attend a prestigious school there. While she hated to leave Noah, she persuaded Michael and Lauren to let her go. Once Eden got to Paris she told Noah she was confused that her Aunt thanked her for contacting her and requesting to come. Noah soon got permission to join her there.

Daisy got Lauren to feel sorry for her and allow her to live in Eden's room. While packing up Eden's things, Michael found a receipt for the purchase of a rat from a pet store. The clerk remembered selling it to a young dark-haired girl with an attitude. Michael phoned and confronted Eden, who swore she was being setup and suspected Daisy. Lauren began having terrible headaches and being short-tempered with everyone, refusing to believe that Daisy was not the sweet helpful girl she appeared to be. Jana was suspicious of Ryder, suspecting he and Daisy were more than new acquaintances. After convincing Kevin, Ryder was fired from Crimson Lights and asked to move out of their apartment. Ryder began living on the streets by day, and sleeping at the boutique at night, then later at the homeless shelter. One day Ryder watched some young trick-or-treaters and gazed at a ripped photo of himself as a young boy. Ryder recalled arguing with another boy about costumes. As Ryder remembered the boy taunting and calling him "chicken boy," he wiped a tear from his eye, saying, "I didn't mean for it to happen." Jana found a photo of Daisy with a kid named Max Potter, and discovered on the Internet that he had disappeared from camp one Halloween night. During a date at the Athletic Club, while Kevin was trapped in the elevator, Jana found a card on her plate inviting her to a movie theater to finish their date. On her theater seat was a scrapbook with photos of Daisy and Ryder as babies. Realizing they were twins and who their mother was, Jana screamed, then was abducted. Kevin began frantically searching for Jana, finally enlisting the help of Michael and Detective J.T., convinced that Ryder and Daisy were behind her disappearance. Meanwhile Jana was being held in a cage in the zoo next to an abandoned amusement park near Twin Lakes, attended by a reluctant Ryder, and Daisy plotted to get rid of Jana by leaving a trail to convince everyone that she had left Kevin and disappeared.

Lauren's headaches got worse, and she was taking medication, but Daisy was lacing her water with a drug. One day Daisy slipped her some ecstasy which made Lauren euphoric and amorous. When Michael was too busy, Lauren was photographed by Daisy making out with Paul. She slipped the photo in Michael's briefcase – all to stir up trouble at the direction of her mother whom they called "Mama Bear". Michael, Paul, and Lauren realized that Daisy was behind the photos, had put a toxin in the paste for Lauren's new office wallpaper to cause the headaches, and was probably behind the disappearance of Jana. With Chance's help they arranged for a text message to be placed from Daisy's cell phone to get Ryder to go to the Baldwin apartment, and when he arrived, both Daisy and Ryder were arrested. Sarah Smythe, posted their bail saying she was their mother, and all three showed up in costume at the annual charity ball where they kidnapped Lauren. Paul later found that in 1993, Sarah Smythe was a night nurse in a hospital in Green Bay who was cleared of charges when elderly patients died in her direct care. Ryder had second thoughts and sent Kevin a text message with a clue to find Jana, but Kevin did not find her at the amusement park. Lauren ended up in a cage near where Jana had been placed in a crate after she tried to escape and they were able to talk. Daisy confronted Lauren, admitting to being involved in everything from framing Daniel for murder, sending Eden to Paris, planting the rats and the toxin in her office wallpaper. Daisy claimed that she and Ryder were twins were raised by someone else because the ongoing feud between Lauren and their mother Sheila Carter stole her away from them, and inferred that Sheila was still alive and there with them.

Lauren demanded Sheila show herself, and "Mama Bear" appeared – with Lauren's face. Lauren and Jana ended up together in the cage where "Mama Bear" told them she was Sheila's sister Sarah, and that she intended to avenge Sheila's death. Sarah then took Lauren's wedding ring, and left in Lauren's clothes, and stepped into Lauren's life. Michael's joy at "Lauren's" return was dashed when she told him she had awakened that morning in a strange man's bed, and began acting very abnormally. Michael got her an appointment with Psychiatrist Dr. Emily Peterson. When Sarah passing for "Lauren" met "Emily" she recognized her immediately as Patty Williams. Sarah had been Patty's nurse at the surgical center in Argentina where they both had their plastic surgeries. Sarah made a deal with Emily who was tired of Jack continually going to Phyllis for solace, that Sarah would kill Phyllis if Patty would kill Michael. Sarah, impersonating Lauren, visited Phyllis with Daisy waiting outside ready to strangle Phyllis. But when Lauren heard that Daniel was on his way there, she called Daisy and told her to stop him. Sarah attempted to kill Phyllis herself but Phyllis got away. Meanwhile Daisy kept Daniel at his apartment by drugging him, and was having sex with him when Amber and Little Eric walked in on them.

Back at Crimson Lights, Kevin decided to get help to find Jana from her Ouija board with Kay and Murphy. It kept pointing to letters that spelled out zoo, so Murphy helicoptered the three of them to find Jana with a heat locator. Once on the ground they searched separately, and Kevin found Jana suffering worse headaches than when she had a brain tumor. After Michael found Phyllis barricaded in her room, they drove to the zoo and arrived to find the real Lauren and Sarah having a gun standoff in the fun house mirrors. Meanwhile Daisy held Kevin and Jana at gunpoint, but Ryder stepped between them and convinced Daisy to give him the gun and run away with him. Kevin picked up the gun where Ryder had dropped it, but Ryder convinced him to let them go. Michael was able to tell them apart, and tried to convince Lauren to drop the gun, that the police would take care of Sarah. But Lauren was well aware that police never could contain Sheila either, so started shooting. A ricocheting bullet hit Phyllis in the cast on her broken leg, and she and Michael were caught between the two Laurens, each with a gun. Phyllis gave the password "karma" which she had been given by Jana, and Lauren confirmed herself as the real Lauren with the response "is a bitch", then Lauren shot and killed Sarah. Daisy and Ryder left together by car, and Daisy promised she would be back someday as her mother Sheila would want.

Murphy rushed Jana to the hospital in the helicopter where she was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm. At her bedside, Kevin told Jana they were two misfit toys stuck with each other for eternity, that he had never given up on her, and never would. Her surgery went well, but to Kevin's dismay, Jana woke from surgery with no emotions, possibly due to brain damage. Jana went back to work at Crimson Lights but was so unlike herself, she even cut her hair into a bob.

Lauren was still having nightmares of Sarah. She and Michael entered Crimson Lights and were shocked to find Ryder there ready to turn himself in to the police. Ryder apologized to Kevin, Jana, and Lauren for his actions saying that he spent his whole life taking orders from Sarah and Daisy, and even if he spent the rest of it in prison, he would finally be free of them. Kevin called the police and Chance took him to jail. Jana later visited Ryder telling him how much she could relate to his situation. Heather was reinstated as an Assistant D.A. thanks to Chance's recommendation and the capture of both Ryder and Patty. Jana's first returning emotion was compassion as she took a loan out against Crimson Lights to bail out Ryder. Jana admitted she had no feelings for Kevin, and that she intended to help Ryder change his life, justifying to Kevin and Lauren that although he had tried to kill them, he had also helped them escape. Kevin got drunk and told Jana they were done. Jana got separate rooms for herself and Ryder at the Athletic Club, and although Ryder was reluctant because she was his brother's wife, they ended up having sex together. Jana tried to find a way to pay Kevin back, and support them while Ryder began stealing from guests at the Athletic Club to do his part. Jana found out that Ryder was about to be arrested, so she agreed to run away with him. Kevin discovered they had run off together and was afraid he would lose Crimson Lights without the bail money Jana had gotten by mortgaging it. That came true when Ryder did not show up for his trial, but Mac came to Kevin's rescue, offered to buy back Crimson Lights, let him run it, and split the profits 60/40. Later Jana returned alone, told Kevin how sorry she was, and what a fool she had been to believe in Ryder. But Kevin refused to forgive her and take her back.

Seven months after he disappeared, Ryder grabbed Jana at Billy and Victoria's house where she was nanny to their baby Lucy. Ryder told Jana that Daisy had told him she'd delivered her baby and had left it at a church named St. Joseph's. Ryder said he needed to know that her baby was safe, and demanded that Jana help him find the baby or the police would find out that Jana had let Daisy escape. Then Ryder left. Days later, Jana got curious and searched for the church on the Internet. She found it, went there, and talked to the priest, but he knew nothing about any baby. Overhearing them was Agnes, the woman who had taken the baby from the church. Agnes told Jana the baby was sold to a horrible woman, and gave her Primrose's cell number. Jana, convinced that finding Daisy's baby would help her get Kevin back, called herself Stella, faked being pregnant and met with Primrose about adoption. Prim told her that she would receive $5000 for the baby upon delivery, but she required that Jana see their doctor. Jana got Primrose to agree to accept an ultra-sound and medical report instead, which she got from the Internet. Primrose got suspicious, called Billy, and accused him of sending the visitor she'd just had. Meanwhile, Michael traveled to Canada with Daniel and found Daisy, but while Michael left her hotel room to bring back a Mountie, Daniel let her escape so that no one would discover the identity of their baby.