Maybe it's kismet that finds Kam Heskin playing Caitlin Deschanel, an heiress who never met a chance she wasn't willing to take. After all, only three years ago, the actress herself took a gamble that changed her life forever: She moved to Chicago to pursue her dream of performing. "I didn't know anyone there," she recalls. "I wasn't even sure where I going once I got off the plane. All I remember is while we were landing, I looked over Chicago and thought, 'What am I doing here' Should I just stay on the plane and go back home?"

Yet that whole escapade plains next to the gutsy moves that the nervy, nervous Caitlin has made in the last year. By passing off a borrowed baby as her own, the ingenue has ensnared herself in a web of lies more tangled than any spider could have ever wove. And now that her husband knows that Trey isn't their child, the whole house of cards is about to fall. "This is Caitlin's worst nightmare," admits Heskin. "All the lies were to keep this ideal family alive."

Tut-tut. Though Caitlin's marriage seems to be done for good, don't count this chick out before she's fried. "When push comes to shove, she's resourceful," Heskin notes. "She gets it from her parents, especially Gregory. He's very strong and conniving."

"But if Cole can't forgive Caitlin for keeping the truth from him, I don't think she should forgive him for sleeping with her mother. You have to draw the line!"

The Whole Wide Whirl

Although Heskin admits that she's very shy, like the fiesty Caitlin, she's no weeping willow. "You have to take risks," she states. "I see so many people who want to get into acting, then make up every excuse not to. You just have to be brave and go for it."

Her just do-it attitude really was put to the test last summer when SUN hired her to replace Vanessa Dorman. Just as Heskin was getting to know her alter ego, her life was as chaotic as her character's! "Fortunately, this time when I moved, it was easier because Jonathon [Cheriff, her hubby of six months now] made all of the arrangments," she says. "We're a good team."

Still, Heskin admits that, in the beginning, there were adjustments to be made, especially at work. "I thought I was just coming in as this girl," she says. "Then I found out it was a recast, and all these had happened to the character."

"I am a kind of uptight workaholic," she adds, "so I felt stressed. I wanted to get myself up to speed, but I tended to rush myself and not really take in what was happening in the scenes. Now, I've put it all together."

Life's a BEACH

As a soap neophyte, Heskin learned lots from SUN's vets. "I didn't want to bringng anyone down, but I am open to learning as much as I can," she confesses, citing Eddie Cibrian (Cole) and Sam Behrens (Gregory) as terrific mentors "Lesley-Anne Down (Olivia) is so affectionate; she makes me feel I'm really her daughter."

While SUN has been a springboard for such actors as Nick Stabile (ex-Mark; lately in Bride of Chucky) and Cibrian (seen recently in Living Out Loud), Heskin is happy to stick to the world of soaps. "I come from such a small town," she says. "The thought of being an actress in Los Angeles seemed so far removed from me. To even dream like that was to say, 'I want to be the queen off England.' So I just sit back and think, 'Is this really happening?'"

Heskin could retire on the thrills that 1998 brought her, she adds. "It's going to be a tough year to beat!"