Katherine Chancellor eventually replaced Derek Thurston as head of Chancellor Industries with Victor Newman. Katherine immediately saw her profits skyrocket. Victor was a ruthless and cunning businessman with a strong competitive streak. But Victor's wife, Julia, viewed him as cold and distant. He stayed late at the office, rarely phoning to say when he'd be home. On the few evenings that he did arrive home at a reasonable hour, Victor barely uttered a word to Julia. Even though she'd been Victor's wife for several years, Julia felt as if she was married to a stranger. Feeling isolated and lonely, Julia turned to Katherine's son Brock for friendship. Julia found Brock's warm nature, which was in stark contrast to Victor's coldness, appealing and it wasn't long before she was interested in more than just a friendship with him.

Casey continued to work with Snapper at the clinic, where Greg was also contributing his legal services. One day when Nikki stopped by the clinic to see Casey, Nikki met Greg. She was instantly attracted to him. They began dating. Eventually, their involvement developed into serious love and they made plans to marry. But Nikki was still deal with the emotional aftermath caused by killing her father, which led her to question her self worth. When Paul learned of Nikki's plans to wed Greg, he tried to stop her. But Nikki insisted that she loved Greg and Paul settled for being good friends with his former lover.

Meanwhile, married life proved too dull for Nikki, who decided to pursue a modeling career as a way of bringing excitement into her life. She soon signed with "La Plus Belle Rose," a modeling agency run by Rose DeVille. It wasn't long before Nikki discovered that Rose's models didn't specialize in walking down runways or posing for fashion shoots. Their main source of income was prostitution. By the time Nikki figured things out, however, she was in too deep to simply walk away. Rose arranged for Nikki to meet with a client in his hotel room. But when the man tried to pressure Nikki into having sex, she ultimately resisted. The man chased Nikki around the hotel room and suddenly collapsed from a heart attack. In a panic, Nikki called Rose, who arranged for two thugs to carry the client's body to a nearby alley and ditch it. A street kid named Tony stumbled upon the body and went through the corpse's pockets in search of a wallet. The police spotted Tony and booked him for murder. Ironically, Greg was appointed Tony's public defender.