Caroline's ingenious plan to cast Maya in an adult movie didn't have the desired effect — Rick was outraged by her actions. She then tried to make amends by helping Rick keep his job at Forrester Creations, and when he learned that Carter Walton (Lawrence Saint-Victor) had spent the night at Maya's place, he went back to Caroline. The couple subsequently got married in 2013. However, Caroline had also been helping Ridge (now Thorsten Kaye) with his designs because an accident made it difficult for him to use his hands, and their closeness put a strain on her relationship with Rick. 

When Rick learned that Ridge and Caroline had kissed, he took a gun and shot at them, but luckily missed and no one got injured. While Ridge and Caroline grew closer, she was upset when he claimed that he didn't want to have kids with her. Ridge's son, Thomas Forrester (then Adam Gregory), was also romantically interested in Caroline, so he comforted her. Caroline had taken too many anti-anxiety pills, and in a strange and twisted story, when she woke up the next day Thomas told her they'd had sex. 

Caroline fell pregnant and later learned that Ridge had had a vasectomy, and the baby was Thomas's. So when Ridge found out, the two conspired to keep the baby's paternity a secret from him. When their son was born, the couple named him Douglas as a tribute to Stephanie Forrester's (Susan Flannery) maiden name.