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Last week, Days of Our Lives‘ Peter dropped a bombshell during his DiMera rant when he told the family that Stefan had died. (And his death had inspired Peter to set the whole crazy kidnapping plan in motion.) It was a surprise, but Vivian’s story didn’t change even when Rafe called to confirm. In fact, she promised she’d send proof, but we were still left wondering how it could have happened.

Well, we got our answer on Monday’s episode, as the Hernandez family was still celebrating Christmas! Rafe came home to tell Gabi the news and she was, of course, rightly skeptical. Peter’s clearly cracked and Vivian has never and will never be someone to trust. But then Rafe showed Gabi a picture Vivian sent of Stefan’s tombstone and explained what happened: His heart finally gave out.

Technically, of course, Jake’s heart had finally given out. Dr. Rolf had kept Stefan alive on a machine for years without a heart, so when his twin brother Jake was shot and died, Rolf snatched his heart out for a quickie transplant to finally put Stefan back into the land of the living. It worked, but mad scientist or not, there’s always the chance of a rejection after a transplant. And it looks like Stefan’s time may have finally come.

We haven’t seen Stefan, of course, since Vivian kidnapped him and forced his divorce to Gabi. EJ supposedly got a Get Well Soon card from his brother after getting shot, but it seemed awfully suspicious. Since then, there’s been no trace of him. Though with the DiMeras disappearing, everyone had been wondering if he, too, was a part of whatever had been happening. It looks like he was… but not in the way everyone was thinking!

Granted, Vivian could still be lying just to keep people from sniffing around Stefan. But as Rafe pointed out to Ari, what would be the point? Keeping Stefan a prisoner for the rest of his life never seemed like a great plan. And Jake’s heart failing is honestly the most logical, down to earth way Days of Our Lives could have killed Stefan. It’s also just about the only explanation we, like Gabi, are ready to accept.

Vivian snatched him and did something to keep him from returning to Gabi. Maybe during his captivity, she wasn’t as careful in administering the immunosuppressing drugs that Stefan would have needed after a heart transplant as she should have been. Or maybe the transplanted heart just couldn’t handle the strain that she put Stefan through. Rafe’s still searching for independent confirmation, but the more we learn, the more it seems certain that the borrowed time Stefan was living on finally ran out.