Susan was a horrible mother for Emily. She was always pursuing men she couldn't have, leaving her daughter in others' care, and finding solace in a bottle of liquor when things went wrong. For a time she had been on the wagon, only to fall off one Christmas when one of her rivals, Lucinda Walsh, shoved her, enabling a ladder to land on Susan, prompting her use of (and addiction to) pain killers.

Straight once again, Susan has become a successful doctor and has attempted as best she can to make up for lost time with her daughter, Emily. She does her best to show Emily when she's wrong, even though Emily finds this behavior demeaning and condescending.

In an attempt to show her daughter some tough love, Susan threw Emily out of the house while Emily was at her scheming worst, and upsetting Susan's other daughter, Alison, in the process. She took Emily back into her house after the ordeal of being imprisoned by David, and then for murder.

Susan and Emily had a falling out and rapprochement during the fiasco of David's attempted kidnapping of Alison.

Susan is often the sounding board for Emily's woes and plans, and a friendly shoulder for Dr. Bob Hughes to lean on, given their affair several years ago.