in early 2013, connie deals with the guilt she feels for causing the accident that left trey brain-dead. she is initially resistant to take trey off of life-support, but sonny is able to convince her it is the right thing to do. as connie reveals she wanted to get to know her son, sonny is surprised and amazed that connie is developing a compassionate side. they both start to develop feelings for each other, and sleep together on valentine's day. that night connie tells sonny that for the first time in her life, she was truly happy. then kate reemerges and is shocked to find sonny in bed with connie. sonny and olivia tell her everything she missed in the 5 months connie was in control. on march 8, connie is revealed to have control again and vows revenge against sonny for sleeping with kate. connie goes to the book launch at the floating rib, where she eventually tells the crowd that molly is the actual author. sonny catches up with her, though, and convinces connie to check into shadybrook. on april 16, kate returned to sonny and said she is integrated and will go by connie and loves him but can't be with him. soon afterwards, connie decides to return to crimson and focus on her work again. while fully integrated, she convinces maxie that she can have her old job back. she then begins to get closer with olivia and reveals she is still in love with sonny. in june 2013, olivia is accidentally shot by an unknown assailant, who was targeting franco. while fearing for her cousin's life, connie confesses her lingering feelings for sonny, but fears he may have feelings for olivia instead. in july 2013, olivia begins staying with sonny to recuperate, and connie decides to get sonny back before she loses him to olivia. connie then goes to sonny's house and tells him that she wants to be with him. olivia promptly decides to move out of sonny's house so he and connie can rekindle their relationship. in august 2013, in order to save her newspaper, connie publishes a story about kiki jerome (kristen alderson) not being franco (roger howarth)'s daughter, after promising sonny she wouldn't. connie overhears olivia admitting her feelings for sonny. connie overhears her boss derek wells (william devry; really julian jerome) talking on the phone and referring to himself as julian. on august 27, 2013, sonny finds connie shot in her office. before she dies, she writes in blood the letters "aj." on february 25 it was revealed that she was shot and killed by ava jerome (maura west) after it was revealed that connie found out about derek wells being julian jerome and finding out about ava's connection with him.