Enemy Territory

Tad and Adam recently had a breakthrough, of sorts, in their relationship: Tad shook Adam’s hand to thank him for coming forward (in the better-late-than-never sense of the phrase) with the knowledge that Kathy Mershon and Kate Martin (Tad’s long-lost daughter with Dixie) are one and the same. Of course, Tad made it clear that he still hates Adam’s guts, and the feeling, Adam made equally clear, is mutual. Their enmity stretches back nearly two decades. Here’s a timeline of its evolution.

1989: Brooke hired Tad to uncover the identity of Dixie’s unborn baby, who Brooke’s hubby, Adam, wanted to adopt. Tad cozied up to Dixie and learned that Adam had impregnated her. Tad fell in love with Dix and gladly accepted the role of her hero, stymying Adam’s scheme to take her newborn — Adam Chandler, Jr., now known as JR — from her. Though Adam wed Dixie and had her institutionalized to secure the baby, Tad helped Dixie regain her freedom, both from the nuthouse and her marriage. At the close of ’89, Dix became Mrs. Tad Martin.

1993: A back-from-the-dead Tad wed Brooke, who by then had given birth to his son, Jamie.

1999: Adam, who had more or less shared paternal responsibilities where JR’s upbringing was concerned, was none too pleased when Liza picked Tad’s younger bro, Jake, to sire the baby she craved. In 1998, Adam switched the junior Martin’s sperm sample with his own. The result? Baby Colby, whom Liza and Jake (and Tad) all believed was Jake’s daughter. JR and Tad grew closer than ever when Dixie learned she might be dying. Unhappy with Dixie and Tad’s influence over JR, Adam bought WRCW on the sly to ensure that Tad would lose his job there…. The Martin clan all had more reason to despise Adam when the truth about Colby’s paternity came out.

2000: Adam tried to destroy twin brother Stuart’s marriage to Marian. Liza, now divorced from Adam, discovered his machinations and blackmailed him into signing over his power of attorney. She promptly had him committed to Oak Haven, the same asylum to which he’d once sent Dixie, and she and Tad took control of Chandler Enterprises. Tad then outed Adam’s scheme about Marian to Stuart, who denounced his bro. Adam’s desire for revenge against Tad intensified when Stuart was presumed dead in a fire shortly thereafter. To that end, Adam worked to sabotage their pet project, the ColMar Towers, rigging it to collapse.

2001: Adam and Tad clashed over how best to handle an increasingly troubled JR, who turned to drugs to cope with Tad and Dixie’s faltering marriage.

2002: Adam regained control of Chandler Enterprises and fired Tad and Liza.

2003: Tad and Liza briefly resumed a sexual relationship in the wake of her final split from Adam.

2004: JR, now married to Babe, began to exhibit more and more Adam-like behavior. Concerned for what this portended for Colby, Liza sought — and received — help from Tad to go on the run with her daughter to spare her from Adam’s influence. To say the least, this did not improve relations between Adam and Tad…. JR disowned Tad when Tad took baby Bess/Miranda away from him.

2005: Adam went ballistic when he found out that Tad had helped Jamie and Babe go on the run with Adam’s grandson, Little Adam, whom he had never even met, and allowed JR to believe his son was dead…. Adam and Krystal (who had been Tad’s lover) married, then developed real feelings for each other, turning Tad’s stomach….

2006: Colby returned to Pine Valley. Adam continued to hold a grudge against Tad for depriving him of having a role in Colby’s childhood…. Tad and Krystal had a one-night stand, about which Adam was in the dark. Krystal became pregnant and Adam was over the moon, planning to name the new baby Charlotte after his late sister.

2007: Adam’s world shattered when the truth came out: Krystal was expecting Tad’s baby, not Adam’s. He abandoned Krystal on the floor of the Chandler manse while she was in labor, and after baby Jenny was born, he kidnapped her from the hospital nursery, planning to sell her on the black market. If Tad didn’t already hate Adam, that would have clinched the deal (though he and Krystal did safely recover the girl). Outraged by her father’s actions, Colby moved in with Tad and Krystal, and JR and Adam’s relationship also suffered as a result of his nefarious deed. Adam was further crushed when Krystal wed Tad.

2008: Adam, who found the adoption papers proving that Kathy was Kate, kept the news to himself. Tad had stolen his daughter (Charlotte/Jenny), he reasoned, so why should he help Tad reunite with his own child? But when Dixie’s ghost began haunting him, Adam finally did the right thing, revealing the truth to Tad.