Paul became captivated by a beautiful blonde woman he saw at an art exhibit and discovered she was also an interior designer. So he hired her to redecorate the office he had moved into at Newman Towers and then to decorate his apartment. Her name was Cassandra Hall.
They started dating and Paul fell deeply in love and proposed marriage but she kept putting him off.
One evening one of Paul's top clients - the wealthy George Rawlins invited him for dinner and to meet his wife. When George's wife walked down the long staircase at the Rawlins' estate Paul's jaw almost hit the floor as she was none other than his Cassandra.
To complicate matters further George confided in Paul that he was impotent and was afraid his young beautiful wife might have roving eyes for a younger more virile man so he asked Paul if he would agree to father a child for them with her. Paul of course refused.
In spite of the complication to their romance Cassandra assured Paul she loved him and would ask George for a divorce. But George took a heart attack when she brought up the topic and so never agreed to one.
George recovered from his heart attack only to discover that not only did he have a terminal illness and not much time left to live but also that Cassandra was cheating on him with Paul. He was furious and felt betrayed and plotted revenge setting up evidence to link Paul to his murder. Soon after his niece Britanny discovered him dead in their home from a bullet wound and the incriminating evidence had Paul's finger marks on it.
Paul was arrested for murder and realized that he had been framed and that once the evidence of his affair with Cassandra came out he would be convicted. The only way to clear his name was to fake his death. Which he did much to his mother and secretary Lynn's grief. (He did tell his mother soon after that he was alive but not Lynn)
Paul soon found out that Cassandra had been involved with another lover Adrian all along and once they thought Paul was "dead" the two of them escaped to Bermuda to relax. Paul and his police detective father Carl followed them to Bermuda in a remote shoot on the island and spooked Cassandra by gaslighting her with appearances from a "dead" Paul. She freaked out and confessed and was put under house arrest for George's murder even though she claimed her innocence.
Paul discovered that Adrian was a hit man who preyed on rich women and suspected that he had killed George.
Cassandra went along with the plot to expose Adrian by marrying him while Paul promised to protect her from danger. But Adrian was too crafty and set up a decoy and rigged up a gun on dry ice which would kill Cassandra when the ice melted. The decoy sent Paul and Carl on a wild goose chase through the city but luckily Victor got to Cassandra before the gun went off and when Adrian returned he was arrested.
Paul and Cassandra tried to renew their romance but Paul had difficulty putting the past behind him so Cassandra moved on to Brad.
She drugged Brad to trick him into a quick Las Vegas wedding.
Paul realized his true feelings for Cassandra too late and was devastated upon hearing of her marriage to Brad.
When Brad realized he'd been duped he filed for divorce.
Paul decided to propose to Cassandra as soon as her divorce was final and waited for her with flowers at Gina's.
As Cassandra rushed across the road to meet him she was hit by a truck and killed.
Paul was heartbroken. He blamed Brad for treating Cassandra badly and they came to blows after the funeral.
In her will Cassandra left her entire estate to Paul but by twist of fate the judge had a heart attack before he could file the papers and Brad as her legal husband got it all:
house, company and all her millions, and Paul got nothing.
He was left with only a photograph he took from the house as a memento of their love saying bitterly to Brad - "I'd hate to see this end up in the trash".