Sheila Carter entered Eric Forrester's life at his lowest. At that time Eric was going through the hell of loosing the only woman he really loved to his eldest son. A hell that was created specially for him by his "loving" ex-wife Stephanie, for the sole purpose of getting him back.
Being in such poor state of mind, it is no wonder that Eric was an easy prey for Sheila - the ex-resident evil of Genoa City.
Sheila has entered Eric's life when he hired her as Forrester's company nurse. Eric conducted the interview himself and Sheila was immediately attracted to him.
While babysitting for Eric Jr., Sheila realized how shaky Eric's marriage to Brooke was. So she caused Judy, Eric Jr.'s nanny to flee L.A., took her place and started chasing after Eric.
Eric, who by that time was at his lowest "thanks" to Brooke rejecting him, was more then happy for Sheila's feminine attention and became romantically involved with her. Or so he thought.
After being told, only couple of months ago that the biggest love affair of his life was only a fantasy, Eric simply mistook the sexual attraction to Sheila and the attention she gave him, for love and romance. Poor Eric (JMHO).
Sheila was frustrated because although Eric was involved with her, he still insisted on staying married to Brooke, and on trying from time to time to reconcile with her.
Sheila's frustration turned into real fear of loosing Eric when Ridge married Taylor and Brooke discovered that she is pregnant. Since there was 50% chance that the baby was Eric's, Sheila was afraid that if he will turn out to be the father, Eric will not finalize his divorce from Brooke and eventually they will reconcile.
Since Eric was so convinced that he was the father, a conviction that was only strengthened after a beautiful baby girl was born, Sheila had no choice other then fixing the paternity test.
So Sheila, volunteered her services as a nurse to the same hospital where the paternity test was about to be done, and snuck into the lab in order to switch the tags that identified Eric's and Ridge's blood samples. But just then, Mike Guthrie (the security guard who helped Sheila to enter the lab) entered and spun the carousel that had the unlabeled vials. A furious Sheila had to reaffix the labels uncertain as to which vial contained Eric's blood.
You can probably imagine that there was no one more happy then Sheila, and more devastated then Eric when it was announced that Ridge was the father.
The devastated Eric, who by then lost the last shred of hope to reconcile with Brooke, finalized the divorce and proposed to Sheila. Of course she accepted.
If you think that being engaged to Eric meant smooth sailing from now on for Sheila, toward becoming the 3rd Mrs. Eric Forrester, You are gravely mistaken.
Eric's family(i.e. - Stephanie & their children) disapproved openly and refused to support the upcoming union. Thorne even refused to be Eric's best man.
There was also Lauren Fenmore, Sheila's old nemesis from Genoa City, who started to sniff around when she realized who Eric's fiancee really is, and threatened to expose Sheila and her sordid past to the unsuspecting Eric.
If this wasn't enough, there came Eric, who hoped that a longer engagement will give his family more time to get to know Sheila better and maybe change their minds about her, and postponed the wedding till after the fall showing.
Sheila was overwhelmed with fear that she might loose Eric. And while she was involved in a car accident she had a nightmare in which she was modeling Forrester's show stopper (a bridal gown). Lauren suddenly rushed to the stage, tore the veil from her face, and exposed Sheila's criminal past to horrified audience that included the Forresters. The police joined Lauren onstage and dragged Sheila away while a horrified and disgusted Eric was shouting that he doesn't want to see her again.
Unfortunatley it was only a dream and the wedding day have finally arrived. The Forresters, except Brooke (who was the maid of honor) were still against the wedding. Lauren, Stephanie, Ridge Kristen and Thorne came to the ceremony wearing dark clothes to show their disapproval.
Faces with all this animosity, Sheila wasn't able to exchange vows and ran away. Leaving behind standing at the alter a very humiliated and devastated Eric, who by then was sure that he must have the plague or something.
The Forresters and Lauren gave a collective sigh of relief and left the chapel believing that the danger was over. But Sheila Carter is the last person to give up all the perks of being Mrs. Eric Forrester, just because his family detests her. So she waited for everyone except Eric to leave, came back and convinced Eric to marry her in a private ceremony.
