Young and Restless: Dominic Kidnapping Is Abby’s ‘Worst Nightmare,’ Says Melissa Ordway (EXCL)
Abby has been living happily with her husband, Devon (Bryton James), and their son, Dominic (Ethan Ray Clark), on Young and Restless, but that’s all about to change. Unbeknownst to them, Mariah (Camryn Grimes) has been falling deeper and deeper into delusion, urged on by visions of Ian Ward (Ray Wise) to take back the boy she carried for the couple during the 2021 surrogacy storyline. As this dramatic kidnapping storyline kicks off, Soap Opera Digest talked to Melissa Ordway about Abby experiencing every mother’s greatest fear.
That Sinking Feeling
The new arc introduces a new Dominic, who is now played by Ethan Ray Clark, and he impressed Ordway right away. “It’s so intimidating, I’m sure, as a seven-year-old kid — or he might be eight — to go on set and all of these adults and grown-ups are talking to you, and I’m like, ‘I’m going to be your mommy,’ you know?” the actress muses. “Like, how intimidating and weird and strange! It’s such a weird world. But he was so sweet. And thankfully, the first day we worked together, there was a bunch of fake snow outside that we were playing with, and I kind of hit him with a couple of snowballs, and we became really good friends [laughs]. He was like, ‘Okay, you’re fun. We can do this.'”
And while things start out innocent enough, with mother and son deciding to enjoy the winter weather with some old-fashioned snowman building, things soon take a dark turn. “She goes to grab a shovel and she turns around and he’s gone,” Ordway shudders. “But she thinks that maybe he’s playing hide and go seek, because he had wanted to play that earlier. So she just thinks it’s a fun game for a little bit. Then, after some time passes and she can’t find him anywhere, she starts freaking out. This is not what Dominic would do. He’s a really great listener. If he knows that[Abby and Devon] are worried about him, he would definitely come out and end the game. So at first, she’s just like, ‘Oh, it’s just a game.’ And then all of a sudden, she realizes that it’s something way more serious.”
The more time passes, the more alarmed Abby becomes at the likelihood that someone has snatched her son. “She’s just so confused,” the actress sighs. “She’s like, ‘Who would do this?’ And just freaking out because she’s like, ‘Is he cold?’ It’s cold outside. She finds a mitten in a hotel room, so she knows that, like, maybe his hands are cold. It’s all the things that go through a mom’s head of like, ‘Where is my son?’ And not being able to sleep or eat or do anything except for try to figure out where he went.”
Because Mariah has been isolating herself from her family and friends for months, Abby and Devon have no idea just how far gone she is — and therefore, they would never suspect that she’s the one who has abducted their son. Previews Ordway, “Her first fears are that it’s someone trying to get back at her dad,” Victor (Eric Braeden), “or at the Newman family.’ For me, I was like, ‘Yeah, that would make the most sense, because [Victor] is always in some kind of trouble!'”
Mariah absconding with Dominic is just the start of the turmoil the storyline has to offer, and Ordway is thrilled for the chance to sink her teeth into such meaty material. “I had kind of heard that there was something coming up for Abby and Devon, and I didn’t really know what it what it was,” she reports. “And then I heard that they were getting a new Dominic, and I was like, ‘Okay, it definitely has something to do with Dominic.’ And then when I got the script [where he disappears], I was like, ‘Oh no! Poor Dominic, he’s gonna get kidnapped!’ But honestly, I was really excited. I was like, ‘Yay me, because I get to act this out.'”
Close To Home
As the mother of two daughters with husband Justin Gaston (ex-Ben, Days of Our Lives; ex-Chance, Y&R), Olivia (9) and Sophie (8), Ordway didn’t have to work hard to channel the terror Abby feels over Dominic’s disappearance and her inability to protect him. “I mean, if someone even looks at my kid the wrong way, I’m like, ‘Wait, what was that look? What’s going on? Are you being rude to my kid?’” she says. “The mama bear comes out and you’re like, ‘You can’t talk to my kid that way.’ And then thinking about someone actually taking them?! I can’t even imagine. That would just be awful.”
Then there’s the overwhelming feeling of helplessness Abby experiences, able to do little more but wait for the police to bring back news, be it good or bad. “I just can’t imagine,” Ordway offers. “It makes my stomach sick even thinking about it. That’s why when everyone’s like, ‘Oh, how can you just cry in this scene?,’ I’m like, ‘All you have to do is just think about if this actually happened to your own child.’ Oh my gosh… everyone’s worst nightmare.”
While the emotions for these heavy scenes were easy for the actress to draw on, they were also sometimes difficult to shake off at the end of the day. “It was,” Ordway shares, adding with a chuckle, “It’s funny, because now, like, even if my kids go out back in my house for a while, I’m like, ‘Oh, I need to be able to see them at all times.’ Like, you just get so scared that something’s gonna happen to them because my greatest, greatest gift in life is those two little girls, and you just want to make sure they’re always safe.”
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