The Young and the Restless (Y&R) spoilers reveal that Sharon Newman (Sharon Case)

is struggling with guilt after her confrontation with Heather Stevens (Vail Bloom) went horribly wrong. Sharon assumes she must’ve killed

Heather, but she can’t be sure due to a blackout – one that raises doubts about whether she’s actually responsible.

It would’ve been so easy to have Sharon fling Heather into something and kill her in a freak accident.

Sharon recalls throwing Heather to the floor and knocking her out for a moment, but then Heather opened her eyes and said Sharon was out of her mind.

Next, Sharon blacked out and awoke to find Heather lifeless with a fatal head wound.

We have to consider why Y&R went to the trouble of including this strange blackout when Sharon could’ve just inadvertently killed Heather with that first blow.

In other words, the show created a pivotal window of time where Sharon can’t be certain of what happened in that penthouse.

That leads us to believe someone other than Sharon may have arrived.

If that’s true, who could have gone after Heather? What if Heather was actually killed by someone else in a fit of obsessed, vengeful rage?

That brings us to the ex-boyfriend that Heather fell for in Portugal. Heather initially refused to reunite with Daniel Romalotti Jr. (Michael Graziadei) because she’d already gotten together with someone new.

Later, Heather changed her mind and decided she was ready to fight for her future with Daniel.

When asked about her Portugal former flame, Heather suggested he was just a safe person who she knew wouldn’t break her heart.

What if that guy wasn’t so safe after all – and what if he didn’t respond well to essentially being used like that? Heather’s ex might’ve been fixated on getting her back and lashed out in the most horrible way possible when she said no.

We know Heather had a buddy from law school who hooked her up with a job interview in town. Heather was off on that supposed job interview shortly before she returned to the apartment.

In reality, that could’ve been a ruse of some sort. What if when Heather got there, her law school buddy was actually helping her ex from Portugal make a surprise reunion plea?

Heather’s ex was an attorney too, so maybe that was also his law school buddy.

Perhaps Heather was ambushed by her former flame and was forced to make it crystal clear to him that they were never getting back together.

Once Heather came home, her ex-boyfriend might’ve followed her.

It’s possible he came in while Sharon was blacked out – or maybe he’s the reason Sharon lost consciousness if she doesn’t remember him hitting her over the head.

From there, Heather’s ex might’ve killed her and walked right out the door to let Sharon take the blame! It would’ve been the perfect crime from his perspective.

The show has a history of bringing shady exes into the mix when they need to add some drama.

There was Amanda Sinclair’s (Mishael Morgan) abusive ex, Ripley Turner (Christian Keyes) – not to mention Diane Jenkins-Abbott’s (Susan Walters) menacing former flame, Jeremy Stark (James Hyde).

Heather’s ex may be the next surprise villain if it turns out he killed her and let Sharon think she was responsible instead.

Bottom line, Sharon’s blackout is incredibly suspicious, so our predictions point to someone else emerging as the real culprit.

Heather’s ex-boyfriend would be an excellent candidate, so we’ll bring you updates as more clues pile up.

The Young and the Restless spoilers say Sharon may be proven innocent when it comes to delivering Heather’s fatal blow, so stay tuned for more Heather-related news.