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Guest Character Profiles > Ricardo Romano Andrew Bongiorno

When it was revealed that Nicolette Stone and Audrey Hamilton had taken a winning lottery ticket from a dead patient named Marco whilst working as nurses in Canberra, Nic lost her job and was charged but was determined to prove that she wasn't a bad person, deciding that she'd pay the money back to Marco's family. She arranged a meeting with Marco's son, Ricardo, who was immediately hostile, but softened towards Nicolette when she mentioned the fact that he'd never even visited his dying father. However, after Nic showed him her payment plan, she was stunned when he suggested another option - she could join him in his hotel bed whilst he was in Melbourne. Aware that Ricardo's cooperation and paying off the debt could help her to avoid a prison sentence, Nic didn't turn him down but told Dipi Rebecchi that she'd never even consider sleeping with a man - and certainly not in such disgusting circumstances - but she needed to find a way to convince him to accept her original payment plan.

After a few days of ignoring Ricardo's messages looking for an answer, the stress of the situation started to get to a pregnant Nicolette, who fainted whilst working at her new job at Harold's Cafe. She was found by David Tanaka, the baby's father, and his husband, Aaron Brennan, who rushed her to hospital. After a check-up revealed that both Nicolette and her unborn baby were fine, she was alarmed to receive another message from Ricardo, wanting her to meet him at the pub in an hour. As she tried to make excuses, she was forced to tell David and Aaron where she was going, though she failed to reveal the full truth about Ricardo's proposition, claiming that she was just going to finalise the payment plan. However, when Nic told Ricardo that she was a lesbian, and pregnant, he turned the tables and told her that she was going to sue her to get his money back quickly and in full. After asking Tim Collins to represent her, Nicolette struggled to realise that it wasn't going to be easy to fight the lawsuit, and was worried to find out that Ricardo not only wanted the money he was owed but extra for the emotional distress he'd been caused.

Though Nicolette tried to deal with the situation on her own, she ended up getting involved with an illegal gambling ring and, when it all blew up in her face, she was forced to reveal the truth about the situation she'd found herself in with Ricardo. Finding herself on the outer with friends and family, Nicolette managed to repair much of the damage when she helped to track down Paul Robinson's granddaughter, Harlow, when she was kidnapped. Now aware that Tim Collins wasn't to be trusted, Nic found a new lawyer, who suggested that they file a counter suit against Ricardo, for sexual harassment, with plenty of text messages as evidence. This triggered a barrage of abusive messages and threats from Ricardo, with Nicolette eventually being persuaded to go to the police about it, finally bringing Nicolette's ordeal to a close.

Episodes Featured
8516, 8522

Biography by Steve

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