Adrienne Johnson was new in town when her apartment was burglarized. Her friend Kayla Brady invited Adrienne to stay with her. Kayla's beau Steve saw some personal mementos from his own childhood in Adrienne's possession. When confronted, Adrienne revealed to him that she was the sister he had never known. Their mother, Jo Johnson, then pregnant with Adrienne, had given up her two sons, Steve and Billy, to protect them from their abusive father Duke.
Duke learned of Jo's whereabouts and followed her and Adrienne to Salem. Steve helped Jo obtain a restraining order. Enraged, Duke found Adrienne, a virgin, and brutally raped her. In self-defense, Adrienne shot and killed him, and then passed out. She was so traumatized by the episode that when she woke up she remembered nothing of what had happened. To protect his sister, Steve took the murder rap. Later, in therapy with Kayla's sister Kimberly, Adrienne remembered everything. Following an official investigation, the act was ruled self-defense and all charges were dropped.
Victor Kiriakis' playboy nephew Justin came to town and had a brief affair with Anjelica Devereaux, but wanted nothing more to do with her once he met Adrienne. To keep Adrienne from being intimidated by his wealth and social standing, Justin pretended that he was nothing more than an ordinary construction worker. Once she learned his true identity, however, Adrienne felt betrayed and humiliated. Jo convinced Adrienne to accept Justin anyway. Deeply in love with him, Adrienne accepted Justin's proposal of marriage and the two were married in an opulent ceremony in the land of Justin's heritage, Greece.
Concerned about Justin's family ties to organized crime, Adrienne became distraught when she learned that she was pregnant. Desparate to keep her child from being raised in criminal surroundings, Adrienne considered an abortion, but couldn't go through with it. Justin was infuriated that she had even entertained the notion, and when she miscarried, he believed that she had deliberately terminated the pregnancy. Tension between them escalated.
After helping Roman rescue Diana Colville, the victim of another Kiriakis criminal endeavor, in Peru, Justin finally broke away from his uncle to Adrienne's joy. She became pregnant again, but miscarried a second time. It was Victor who rushed her to the hospital. After this, Justin's feelings toward his uncle began to warm again.
When Justin testified in Washington, D.C., against organized crime, Victor was shot in retaliation by a member of a rival crime family, the Torres family. While Victor was incapacitated, Justin felt obligated to move back into the Kiriakis mansion to run the family business. Adrienne refused to go with him.
In light of Adrienne's rejection, Justin resumed his relationship with Anjelica. She became pregnant but denied that Justin could be the father, claiming her husband Harper had fathered her baby. Victor, upon learning that Harper was in fact sterile, suspected that Justin was really the father. Anjelica continued to deny it.
Adrienne and Justin eventually reconciled but were unable to conceive. Adrienne befriended a groundskeeper at the Kiriakis mansion, Emilio Ramirez. Spying the two of them together, Anjelica suspected that there was more to their relationship that mere friendship. Learning of Adrienne's infidelity, Justin devised a trap for Emilio in the horse stable. The plan backfired and Justin was left paralyzed, confined to a wheelchair. Victor took advantage of Justin's incapacitation and had him moved to a private hospital in order to keep him and Adrienne apart. Emilio, however, helped Adrienne find Justin and orchestrate a reunion for them.
They returned to the mansion and Justin recuperated. As a result of his injuries, however, he was impotent. To add further strain to their tenuous union, Victor slipped pills to Justin to prolong his condition. Upon learning of his uncle's deed, Justin and Adrienne moved out of the mansion permanently and into a penthouse apartment of their own.
Worried about her baby's future, Anjelica made a videotape in which she named Justin as Alexander's father. In spite of all Anjelica's best efforts, Justin and Adrienne stayed together. With no other alternatives, Anjelica moved into the Kiriakis mansion and agreed to marry Victor, who longed for an heir. Justin wouldn't hear of his uncle raising Alexander, so he moved Anjelica and the child into the penthouse. Fed up with the whole situation, Adrienne moved out. Her friend, Dr. Neil Curtis, advised her to obtain a legal separation. Adrienne was desparate to get Justin back, so she lied and told him she was pregnant. Anjelica learned about the deception and told Justin. He promptly filed for divorce. Defeated, Adrienne signed the divorce papers.
After a time, Justin and Adrienne began dating again. Jealous, Anjelica tried to sabotage Adrienne's fledgling construction company by hiring the foreman, Hank, to plant a bomb. Hank was killed in the explosion, and Anjelica, fearing her role in the blast would be exposed, fled Salem. Her flight crashed and she was presumed dead. Victor, blaming Justin for Anjelica's death, disowned his nephew. Anjelica, however, had caught a different flight, leaving her alive and angry, vowing to one day return to Salem and get her revenge.
Justin and Adrienne remarried and honeymooned in Tahiti. Adrienne became pregnant again and delivered a healthy baby boy whom they named Jackson. She and Justin also adopted twin boys, whom they named Victor and Joseph. The family moved to Dallas to get away from Victor and his negative influence and to start a new life.
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