After Lucas Roberts found out that William Robert Reed was really William Robert Brady-Roberts, his biological son, the Brady-Roberts Alliance was dissolved. Lucas then began to assert his parental rights as they pertained to Will. Needless to say, Sami was not pleased by this turn of events. She'd been found as a liar and a manipulative bitch in front of everyone in St. Luke's, as she had failed to fully disclose her knowledge of William's parentage. Austin dumped her faster than a sack of goat chow and Carrie demanded that she and Austin finally be married. During the ceremony, Sami pathetically banged on the church door, pleading for the wedding to stop.
Sami got her revenge on Lucas by forcing his mother, Kate (who never liked her in the first place) to give her a job at Titan and let her live in the Kiriakis mansion in grand style. She did this by alternately playing into Kate's need to be near her grandson, and by blackmailing her with the fact that she was a call girl before she came to Salem. While working at Titan, Sami met Franco ("The Italian Stallion") Kelly, model by day and Roberts henchman by night, who'd been trying to split up Sami's uncle Bo and Hope Williams so that Kate's daughter, Billie the Tramp, could snag him. Franco, in need of a green card, had begun to woo Sami without Kate's blessing. But with Sami's mind on Franco, Lucas and Kate thought they could take over Will's upbringing. Unfortunately, Lucas developed a serious drinking habit and during one of his binges, Will disappeared, causing Sami to distrust as well as resent him.
Lucas was none too thrilled with the idea of having to battle Sami for his right to see his son, the interference of his brother who was telling him how to raise Will, and, strangely enough, the amount of attention Sami was receiving from Franco. Could a Brady-Roberts reunion have been on his mind? Not very likely, considering all that happened later.
Franco had asked Sami to marry him in a desperate attempt to stay in the United States, and Sami has accepted. Their wedding was planned for August 26, 1998, one year to the day that she was supposed to marry Duh-Boy. Lucas' drinking had led to major troubles on account that after he consumed some a few more martinis than were necessary, he took Will on a "plane ride," and accidentally dropped him. Sami just happened into the room to see her son on the floor, crying his eyes out, and decided that enough was enough. She sued for sole custody of Will, claiming that Lucas hit him, hiring uber-lawyer Mickey Horton (who's never been awarded a judgment) to plead her case. Lucas went to his grandmother, Alice Horton, for assistance and she comforted him and told him to stop the drinking. She stood by him all through the trial, as did Kate, for once.
Duh-Boy testified against Lucas, citing the incident when Will disappeared and couldn't be found as an example of neglect. In between sessions, Lucas threatened to expose Sami as a blackmailer in the courtroom if she didn't drop the suit, but she just ignored him and took the stand. Lucas was worried for his mother's reputation, but Kate told Gregory to go for the throat, no matter what the cost. Sami's tearful testimony almost won the case over until the Roberts' lawyer, Gregory, accused Sami of blackmailing Kate. Kate revealed that she'd been the one responsible for hiring Franco Kelly to break up Bo and Hope, hoping that the lesser of two evil would pacify the court. Sami won anyway, and Duh-Boy has proclaimed that he and Carrie would move into the Kiriakis mansion to take care of Will while Lucas stayed at Grandma Horton's home and continued his 12-step program. But the battle wasn't over yet, not by a long shot!
Carrie and Duh-boy moved into the Kiriakis mansion, and she was miserable. She's turned to Mike more and more for comfort. Plus, she sided with Lucas against her loser "husband" and her half-sister because Sami got a restraining order slapped on Lucas when he snuck in to see Will in an unsupervised visit. The whole custody battle between Sami and Lucas sucked Duh-Boy in, and Mike, poor guy, benefitted from his half-brother's anguish.
But his luck really changed for the worse when Lucas kidnapped Will and drove drunk with him on Sami's wedding day, right after he killed Franco Kelly for trying to attack his mother. Lucas and Will got into a car accident and, though Lucas managed to get Will to the hospital in time for Mike and Craig to save the little guy, he probably kissed good-bye any chance he might have had of seeing Will unsupervised ever again.
After a sound butt-kicking by his AA sponsor who was also his aunt, Maggie Horton, Lucas entered rehab and met Taylor Walker, Nicole's sister. Taylor, merciless in her drilling, proved to be just the kick in the pants Lucas needed to get going again. At Kate's request, Taylor moved into the Kiriakis mansion to continue Lucas' rehabilitation.
