When it comes to The Young and the Restless' Audra (Zuleyka Silver), she may not have been a perfect angel when she arrived in Genoa City, but in the aftermath of Tucker (Trevor St. John) leaving town she's been relatively on her best behavior. Although, why wouldn't she be?
Audra's finally in a co-CEO position and is being backed by the most powerful man in Genoa City, Victor (Eric Braeden). Unfortunately for her, while she may be living the professional life of her dreams, she may not be able to escape all of the missteps of her past, which could result in some harsh consequences.
Currently on the soap's canvas, Kyle (Michael Mealor) and Summer (Allison Lanier) are engaged in a nasty custody battle over Harrison (Redding Munsell). Kyle's recent choices to move out of the Abbott Mansion and work with Audra as co-CEO over Glissade have been the biggest sources of contention between the two parents.
Focusing on the latter, Summer can't fathom why Kyle would agree to partner with Audra after what Audra did to Noah (Rory Gibson). Plus, the Marchetti CEO is still pretty peeved with Audra for sleeping with Kyle when she was trying to work things out with her then-husband. As far as Summer is concerned, Audra is a dangerous woman and she doesn't want her anywhere near Harrison. Now we have to point out the irony in seeing Audra as a threat considering Summer lets Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) hang around the young boy, and Phyllis has a healthy rap sheet. But, we digress.
In The Young and the Restless episode airing on August 12, Summer and Kyle have one final sitdown in an attempt to work out their differences before relying on the courts. Summer previously went to Victor and batted her eyelashes for help, prompting Victor to lean on Kyle to work things out with his granddaughter, and the exes wind up at Crimson Lights to talk.
While the co-parents may agree they want to do what's best for Harrison, they just can't agree on what that looks like. They again start arguing with Kyle accusing Summer of trying to control his life, and with her being adamant that she's Harrison's mother and sees Audra as a threat. Summer goes so far as to demand Kyle stop working with Audra, saying she'll drop her custody suit if he agrees. Of course that doesn't sit well with Kyle, and by the end of their conversation he storms out claiming he'll let the courts decide who gets Harrison.
Now all this doesn't mean Audra's job is safe. In fact, it may be in more danger now than it was before.
Since Summer has started to open up about her custody problems with Victor, she may further emphasize to him her concerns regarding Audra. Summer could share with her grandfather that she offered to drop the custody suit with Kyle if he stopped working with Audra and Glissade, and he refused. The news could leave The Mustache concerned and cause him to rethink having Audra work alongside Kyle at Glissade (by the way, Summer still has no idea that Kyle and Audra work for her grandpa). Would Victor fire Audra for the sake of his family?
We can't forget that even though Audra is the reason Victor even owns Glissade, he refused to make her the sole CEO of the company. In fact, he said if she didn't help sway Kyle to join her as co-CEO, there was a strong chance she would be out of a job entirely. So against her better judgment, she talked with Kyle and helped push him into joining her. Victor's initial stipulations make us think he'd have no problem making more.
However, given Victor also likes Audra and didn't let Kyle talk him into firing her shortly after Kyle agreed be her CEO, we can picture a situation where the Newman patriarch speaks with Audra and pressures her to make Summer see her as less of a threat, putting Audra's job on the line.
If this proves to be true, Audra's best shot in trying to soften Summer is to vehemently apologize for sleeping with Kyle, and for Audra to call up Nate (Sean Dominic).
Audra and Nate have been pretty hot and heavy since Tucker left, and if she can get Summer to buy into the fact that she loves Nate, that could help Summer realize that Audra has no romantic interest in Kyle and would therefore have no real reason to be around Harrison.
Considering Audra and Nate are just having fun and haven't defined the parameters of their dynamic, viewers may soon see Audra speed up a relationship timeline with Nate and orchestrate Summer to catch them in some romantic moments. But if this were to occur, we have to wonder how Nate would feel being used to save Audra's job considering he clearly likes her. She likes him too, but is she willing to manipulate their "relationship" as another career move?
New episodes of The Young and the Restless air weekdays on CBS. Episodes become available to stream on Paramount Plus the next day.
