![\"Vivian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/stefan-vivia-ivan-days-jj-jpg.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n\tAll products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Soaps.com may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.<\/p>\n
Last week, Days of Our Lives\u2018 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\u2019s story didn\u2019t change even when Rafe called to confirm. In fact, she promised she\u2019d send proof, but we were still left wondering how\u00a0it could have happened.<\/p>\n
Well, we got our answer on Monday\u2019s 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\u2019s clearly cracked and Vivian has never and will never be someone to trust. But then Rafe showed Gabi a picture Vivian sent of Stefan\u2019s tombstone and explained what happened: His heart finally gave out.<\/p>\n
Technically, of course, Jake\u2019s 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\u2019s always the chance of a rejection after a transplant. And it looks like Stefan\u2019s time may have finally come.<\/p>\n
We haven\u2019t 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\u2019s 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\u2026 but not in the way everyone was thinking!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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\u2019s heart failing is honestly the most logical, down to earth way\u00a0Days of Our Lives\u00a0could have killed Stefan. It\u2019s also just about the only explanation we, like Gabi, are ready to accept.<\/p>\n
Vivian snatched him and did something to keep him from returning to Gabi. Maybe during his captivity, she wasn\u2019t 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\u2019t handle the strain that she put Stefan through. Rafe\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
![\"Text](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Days-of-our-lives-wigdet.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n