"Logan"
Brooke turned around at the voice that had belonged to the person she had once believed would have been the love of her life.
"Ridge?"
She was surprised at the audacity this man had, interrupting her on her wedding day and at the altar none the less. And yet, because of all the history the two of them had shared, she could not resist that little twinge of happiness that flickered in her heart at the idea of him wanting her enough to stop the wedding. Not that it would have mattered anyway. Because Bill...
Bill Spencer was her ending, and there would never be another.
That man was wasting his time.
"What the hell are you doing here Forrester?" Bill demanded, firming his grip on Brooke's arm and positioning her behind him.
"I've come to tell her the truth," Ridge spat at Bill before he turned to face her.
"You can't marry him Logan."
"For Christ's sake, how many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me that? That right will never be yours again so you better get rid of that habit, and fast," Brooke spat in Ridge's face.
"Fine," He acceded, "Brooke," even though you could tell from the annoyance in his voice he didn't want to.
"I've come to save you from marrying this lying bastard.'"
"I don't want to hear it," Brooke interrupted him. "No matter what you have to say, I don't care. I am tired and I am done with all your attitude of pretending that you care when all you ever wanted to do was keep me under your thumb like I was your science project. I am not yours!" Brooke screamed, frustrated and just wanting to get Ridge gone.
"You heard her Forrester. GET!" Bill said, the smirk on his face as he said it evident that he was enjoying Brooke tearing Mr Fancy Designer down a peg.
"No," Ridge said, "You don't even have to listen to what I have to say. All you have to see."
Whipping out his phone, Brooke couldn't make out for a second what her eyes were seeing, until she noticed Quinn on the screen. And in the background was...
Wait a minute, that couldn't be right.
Was that Bill?
Undressed?
In what appeared to be bed...
And next to him was an equally undressed Quinn?
Bill whipped Ridge's phone out of his hands, tossing to the ground, uttering "Son of a bitch."
Turning to face him, Brooke waited for the denial to spout out of his mouth.
There was none.
"I can explain," he began.
"Don't listen to his lies Brooke. Cause that is what they will be, lies."
"Shut up Forrester," Bill barked, "Look at me," he implored group who had turned to look at Ridge.
Their gazes met, hers filled with confusion and hurt, and his, his with regret and guilt, and unsurprisingly, anger.
"It was one time," he whispered, "I was drunk, and I was hurting, and it was a mistake."
Bill paused, cocking his head down to further look into Brooke's eyes, imploring her to show him a sign that she was listening, that she would listen, that she would understand, that she would...
"He lied to you Brooke; do you want to be married to a liar?"
She didn't want Ridge's words to find purchase within her, but they did. Bill continued to hold her gaze, ignoring the commentary coming from Ridge.
"It meant nothing," he said.
"Why didn't you tell me then?"
"Because it meant nothing," he said, voice rising in volume.
"Why didn't you tell me all this time?" she asked, her voice rising to match his.
"Yeah Spencer, why didn't you. I'll tell you why, it's because..."
Faster than Brooke's eyes could track, Bill turned around and hit Ridge in the face with an uppercut. He went flying to the ground. Bill wasted no time on him, turning around and grabbing Brooke by the shoulders once more.
"I..." Bill started but couldn't add anything further.
He paused for a moment, the only thing disturbing the silence was the crash of the waves and Ridge's laboured breathing. The minister was nowhere to be found she noticed.
"Brooke," his voice was nothing more than a whisper, "I love you, and only you.'
"Then why did you sleep with her?" she blasted.
"Because you were marrying him!" he shouted, pointing to Ridge who was still on the ground.
"It was the day of your wedding," he added, as if that would make it any better.
Brooke shrugged his hands off her shoulders.
"Brooke, don't..." he admonished her.
"Throwing her bouquet on the ground, she began pacing for what seemed minutes.
Finally stopping, she told him, "It's not even the fact that you did sleep with her. Who am I to judge right? I was getting married to another man." She was rambling a bit.
"It's the fact that you could have told me, all this time..."
"And risk you telling me that I was like every other man in your life and wasn't loyal to you. You were going on and on about how I had been loyal to you and only you. How that made you feel more special than you had ever felt, before..." he paused giving her a moment for it to sink in.
"How that made you fall more in love with me than you had already."
"You could have still told me!" she shouted, exasperated.
"Then what?" he asked her.
She couldn't answer that question. What would she have done? Would she have judged him on his actions and left him, would she have stayed with him knowing that he had simply done what every man does and looked to another despite all the times he had told her that he loved her and only her, that there was no one else, that there was no other woman for him?
"That's what I thought," he answered her, tone so low she could barely hear him.
His eyes reflected hurt to her, because he knew her well enough to know that were they were standing right now, here, on this sandy beach, it wouldn't have happened had she known the truth. Because he knew that she would not have trusted what they have.
"I can't be here right now," she said, feeling the constriction in her heart tighten.
"Don't leave. We need to talk this through."
"No."
"Don't walk away."
"I can't," her breath hitched.
"Brooke," he whispered and his voice was. Bill Spencer's voice had that emotion you would never thought he could articulate because it did not exist within him, anguish.
"I need time, away from..." she started. She didn't even get a chance to go further, Bill's face falling, his eyes shimmering.
And then she remembered. How every woman he had loved in his life had walked out on him, and how she had done the same, albeit it was under very different circumstances? What, with him lying to her then manipulating Katie into giving him back the papers to his company.
His hurt called to her on a level she could not have imagined. Not even when Ridge had been in pain did she feel it as much as she did in that moment, Bill looking at him as if she was his lifeline.
"Don't..." he beseeched her.
Brooke looked up to the sky, taking a deep breath in and letting the fresh ocean air seep into her, calming her down a little.
Sighing, she said, "Fine..."
"Oh hell no," Ridge interrupted, apparently having recovered. "You're not marrying him."
"This has nothing to do with you!" Bill shouted, turning around and advancing on Ridge.
"Tell me, why are you even here. You have Katie if I am not mistaken. So why the hell did you need to fly halfway across the world to stop your EX from marrying another man?"
"Because I'll always look out for her, and marrying a lying selfish prick is not what she deserves."
"And what does she deserve, being married to you?"
"No, of course not." But there was uncertainty in his tone.
"You want her, I can see it in your eyes," Bill taunted.
"If it wasn't for all your morale standards that you hold onto on how you think she should act and how she should be... You wish so bad that it was you standing in my place right now." Bill paused
"Well guess what, the lucky bastard to be in that position is ME."
By this point Bill was standing in front of Ridge, towering over him if that was even possible, resembling a savage. Despite the turmoil running through her right now, Brooke appreciated the man.
"It won't be for much longer," Ridge added, rushing around Bill and running over to Brooke to grab her hand.
"Come on Brooke, I'll get you out of here, away from this scum."
Brooke was overpowered and dragged by Ridge past Bill.
"Forrester, I'm warning you," Bill yelled, the fury in his tone...
"Don't worry I'll get you out of here," he added ignoring Bill.
"Ridge wait," Brooke pleaded, trying in vain to pull her arm out of his hand.
"Forrester, I'm gonna give you ten seconds..."
"Don't listen to him, we'll be at the helicopter soon."
"To get your hands off my wife!" Bill bellowed.
"She isn't your wife yet," he shouted back, smugness in his tone.
Before Brooke could get a word out, wrench her hand from Ridge's grasp, or even catch her breath, there was a growl.
Not the sort of growl you would expect to come from a man, but a growl none the less, the kind of feral growl that is only associated with creatures of the jungle, of the wild, of the untamed.
"Forrester," Bill roared.
Despite the fact that Ridge was still dragging her, Brooke managed to pull her hand back strongly, at the same time turning around to face Bill.
She didn't know how she felt it, how her senses picked up on the aggression emanating from Bill at that moment, but she did.
Ridge stopped with her having not expected Brooke to resist so strongly, only to find Bill charging at him, like hell on wheels.
Brooke decided in that moment, mayhap it was a stupid decision, but she did it anyway.
She jumped in Bill's way to protect Ridge.
Just as, with an explosion of power, Bill's fist was hurling towards Ridge's face ...
