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Guest Character Profiles > Veronica McLain Ellen Grimshaw

After Kiri Durant met Sasha McLain through church, then starting having doubts about her relationship with Nicolette Stone, Nicolette worried that Sasha was planting doubts in her mind. Having noticed that Sasha would flirt with her at every opportunity, Nicolette set out to prove that he wasn't as holier-than-thou as he claimed to be, by giving Sasha the impression that she was interested in him too. Though she stopped things before they slept together, Nicolette's actions brought about the end of her relationship with Kiri, as well as ending Sasha's marriage to Veronica. In the aftermath, Sasha disappeared, whilst both Kiri and Nicolette also left Erinsborough.

A year later, Nicolette was back in town, and worried when a key was left in a pair of shoes outside her front door. Knowing that this was how Sasha had secretly arranged for them to meet up in the past, Nicolette was convinced that he had returned and was quietly threatening her over the end of his marriage. When he then left the key to a serviced apartment in the Docklands, where Nicolette found a bag containing lingerie - something else he'd done in the past - she was sure that he was back, even though his phone seemed to have been disconnected when she tried to contact him. However, Nicolette was in for a shock when she returned home one day to find Veronica sitting outside in her car. She had struggled without Sasha and had eventually found his old tablet, where she found emails between him and Nicolette. She had used this information to mess with Nicolette, before confronting her and asking her to find Sasha and bring his back. Nicolette insisted that she hadn't had any contact with Sasha in the last year, but Veronica threatened to tell Nicolette's mum, Jane, about everything if she didn't help. When Nicolette then tried to contact Kiri, hoping that she might be able to put her back in touch with Sasha, she hit another brick wall. Nicolette then confided in her brother, Byron, about everything that was going on, but was alarmed the next day when she found Veronica having coffee with Jane, as well as David and Aaron, the co-parents of Nicolette's daughter, Isla.

David and Aaron remembered Veronica from a church function they'd attended with Nicolette and Kiri, and Jane was delighted that her daughter might have found herself a good, sensible friend. Once Jane, David and Aaron had gone, however, Veronica turned nasty again, wanting to know if Nicolette had managed to track down Sasha. As Nicolette explained that she'd tried and failed, and had now run out of options, Veronica seemed to accept this and left, though the look on her face suggested that she wasn't about to let the matter drop so easily...

It soon became clear that Veronica wasn't going to give up that easily, determined to make Nicolette pay. With a jumble sale being held at the Community Centre, Veronica turned up, leaving Nicolette feeling very uncomfortable. Her fears proved to be well-placed, as Isla went missing, later found sitting outside the police station nearby. As Isla said that a nice lady had taken her there, and Byron found a copy of the novel The Games We Play, Nicolette knew that Veronica had been behind it - though she had no way to prove it, and worried that things would only get worse if she reported it. Deciding that the best course of action was to be honest with her mum, and take away Veronica's hold over her, Nicolette revealed the whole sorry story to Jane, who was disappointed, but became angry when she heard what Veronica had done to Isla. Jane and Nicolette then went to Veronica's home, confronting her outside - and although she didn't confirm that she'd done anything, Veronica made it clear that maybe the incident had made Nicolette realise how difficult it is when someone you love goes missing. Later that day, Veronica's next move became clear, as Jane and Nicolette returned to their car in the Lassiters car park and found a picture of Nicolette in skimpy lingerie left on their windscreen, not to mention the windscreen of every other car in the vicinity.

This incident led to Nicolette finally having to be honest with David and Aaron about everything that had happened, and she went to the police to see if they could do anything. Veronica was brought in for questioning, but the CCTV simply showed Isla wandering off, and not Veronica taking her. Veronica insisted that she'd found the child and left her at the police station, and with no fingerprints on the pictures of Nicolette that had been left all over the complex, it seemed that Veronica had done nothing wrong in the eyes of the law. Having brought up the fact that Nicolette disappeared whilst pregnant, reminding David and Aaron that she wasn't always the most trustworthy person, Veronica then managed to bump into David the next day. She handed him an envelope containing print-outs of emails and SMS messages that Nicolette had sent to Sasha, and encouraged him to read them and then make up his own mind about who was actually at fault.

The following week, worried that nobody believed her story, Nicolette finally managed to find out where Sasha had gone, and went to visit him on Philip Island. There, they spoke about their connection, with Sasha convinced that Nicolette had genuine feelings for him, and she told him that she needed him to contact Veronica and explain that there had been no affair. He did this, but Veronica was furious when he got in touch by email, feeling that Nicolette had known all along where Sasha was. She tracked down Nicolette, Aaron and David, telling Nicolette that she'd destroyed her life and that she was going to get her revenge.

A few days later, Sasha returned to town, as Nicolette was planning to go to a holiday rental in the bush for a few days with David, Aaron, Leo and Krista. As he and Nicolette spoke things through, he tried again to convince her that she'd shared his feelings towards her, but realising that nothing was going to happen between them, he made plans to leave. Nicolette asked him to contact Veronica again, but this time to call her and have a proper conversation, allowing her to get her point across, as she was still threatening Nicolette and convinced that something was going on with Sasha. As Sasha and Nicolette shared a hug before they left, Veronica watched from a distance, then picked up a piece of paper that Nicolette had dropped - the booking for the holiday home.

Convinced that Nicolette and Sasha were going there together, Veronica followed her out to the bush and, once the rest of the group had gone out for a walk, Veronica confronted Nicolette. Having failed to find Sasha in the house, Veronica became increasingly distressed and Nicolette told her to call Sasha. After a difficult conversation, Veronica realised that Sasha wasn't with Nicolette, and that there'd been problems in the McLain marriage for years before he'd left. Veronica apologised for her behaviour, and Nicolette admitted that, although she'd never been attracted to a man before, there'd been something there with Sasha, so Veronica wasn't imagining the whole things. Veronica thanked her for her honesty, but their conversation was interrupted as Aaron and Leo returned carrying David, who had died following an accident out in the bush.

Episodes Featured
8967, 8968, 8969, 8972, 8973, 8974, 8978, 8981, 8982, 8983