Arianna Shapour showed up in Port Charles on January 2 and she sure brought in the New Year with a bang...and a crash! She was speeding down the street in her car and accidentally ran over Eve!
She was taken to the police station, but no charges were brought against her, and Eve survived the accident so Arianna went free. The problem was, she had nowhere to go. But she trusted Ian, the one person who was nice to her during this whole thing, even though he was in love with Eve, the woman Arianna ran over.
She then followed him home when she was released and snuck into his apartment to hide. When he woke up and found her, he also found out the reason she was running in the first place. Back in her home country, Arianna was raped, and because of that, was thought to be bringing shame onto her family who wanted to conduct an "honor killing" on her. When Ian heard this, he was more than sympathetic to her and his passion for saving lives made him want to help her even more so he took her in.
Not too long after that happened, Arianna found out she was pregnant as a result of the rape. Her brother, Ben, found her in Port Charles and they had a struggle with eachother. Arianna was pushed down a flight of stairs by Ben, and lost her baby because of it. While she was in the hospital, Ben came to visit her, and Ian over heard him saying that he was going to have her deported. Ian promised Arianna that he'd protect her, and tried to hide her but Ben found them once again. The only solution Ian could see then, was to marry Arianna so she couldn't be deported.
As time went on, Arianna started to have feelings for Ian, knowing that he had only married her to help save her life, and that the woman he really loved was Eve. Also as time went on, she continued to get threats from Ben. Ian knew they had to do something, because he wasn't giving up, so him and some friends staged a fake shooting to make it look like Ben killed Joe. It worked, for the being, and Ben left town, thinking that he had taken a life. Ian had a fake newspaper printed about the "murder" and sent to Ben so that he would be afraid of being caught, and stay where he was.
Meanwhile, Arianna was developing deeper emotions for Ian than just a feeling of security. They decided they couldn't tell many people that their marriage wasn't real, just incase it got back to Ben somehow, or the INS found out and would deport Arianna. At a valentines party, Ian and Eve shared a warm kiss infront of everyone to show that they were a "real" happily married couple. Arianna later told Gabby, a friend that she had made in Port Charles, that that had been her first kiss and she'd do what she could to make Ian happy, hoping someday he would love her in the way she loved him.
Ian, however, made it clear that he was in love with Eve, and was only trying to protect Arianna from her family and nothing more. He cared for her as a friend, but not a lover. They did have to pretend to be in love, though, so they decided to take photos of eachother at various places, and in their home, to make a photo album for people to see. Ian decided they should also make a list of eachothers features, likes, and dislikes and memorize them incase they were asked any questions. Arianna got her feelings hurt by this, because she knew every detail about Ian, down to the colour of his eyes, yet he didn't know that about her. She was aware that he still loved Eve, but was hoping that would change. Eve showed up, and tried to tell Arianna how things were, but it didn't help, and she became upset and ran to the docks to think and be by herself.
While she was there, a fisherman saw her and asked her what she was doing there. Because of what she had been through, this reminded her of the rape, and she started screaming and trying to fight the man who was just trying to help her. She was taken to the pshyciatric ward of the hospital, where Kevin tried to get some answers out of her, but she was scared of him also, and wouldn't let him near her. They brought Ian in, and he was the only one she would talk to. She ran into his arms, and told him the whole story of what had happened the night she was raped. Ian consoled her, and took her home, and eventually, she started calming down and almost returned to her old self.
Not too long after that, Joe went to a big medical event and there was an article in the newspaper about it. Keeping track of the news in Port Charles, just incase, Ben saw the article where he was. He then knew that it was all a set-up and he hadn't killed Joe. He went back to Port Charles, this time determined and more angry than ever.
Arianna's friend, Gabby, saw Ben and told Ian that he was in town. Ian decided that it would be safer to get Arianna out of town as soon as possible and make sure no one could find her. He arranged for her to be put into a kind of protection program for woman. She was to be sent away and given a new name, identity, and eventually a new home and life. She didn't like this idea at all, because she couldn't stand not being with Ian. She was in love with him, she felt secure with him, and he was the only one she wanted to be with. But eventually, she reluctantly agreed to his plan. But she wanted a reminder of the short time they had together. She wanted to keep the photo album they had made. Ian thought it would be much safer if she didn't have anything to connect her to him, incase somebody found it someday and Ben might track her down. She begged for just one picture, but Ian just wanted to ensure her safety, so he said no and threw the album in the trash outside.
When he left that day, to go to the hospital for some records on Arianna, he told her to stay in the house and lock the door. She said she would, but when Ian was gone, she went out to get the photo album. When she came back into the house, Ben was there and he stabbed her. Kevin came to the house to talk to Ian, and found Ben and Arianna. Ben ran away, and Kevin called an ambulence for Arianna and she was rushed to the hospital. They operated on her, and found out that her liver was damaged as a result of the stabbing. She needed a liver transplant to survive.
Ben went to the hospital, and was caught. He was taken to the phsyc ward, but he knocked out a guard, and escaped to the roof of the hospital building. Ian found him there, and they had a struggle and Ben ended up falling off of the roof and died. A few days later, she overheard Chris, one of the doctors at the hospital, talking to a nurse about Ben dying.
Several people had been tested to be a possible donor match for a liver transplant, and finally Karen, a friend of Eve's, decided to be a donor. Arianna came through the surgery with flying colors and thanked Karen and everyone else for helping to save her life. She had a talk with Ian about the rest of thier lives and realized that he still loves only Eve. She wanted Ian to be free and happy, and knew she couldn't be with him, so she contacted someone from the witness protection program, and left town.
