"No you didn't!" Stephanie exploded as she leapt out of the chair. She stormed over to the opposite end of the office and back again as if she did not know what to in order to vent the anger that was boiling inside of her. "No you didn't just say that to me!"

Vince stood up, "Stephanie sit down please."

Her face had gone bright red and she carried on screaming, "Sit down? That's what you've got to say to me? Sit down? You fucking sit down!"

Vince had never been spoken to like that by his daughter before. He raised his own voice now, "Do not speak to me like that Stephanie. Ever. Sit down, now!"

Stephanie did not back down, she leaned over the desk, nose to nose with her dad and the veins stuck out in her neck as she carried on raging, "Mom hasn't been dead for six months and you're... you're... in a relationship? With that... that..." She couldn't think of an insult bad enough for the purpose." You make me sick. I am actually going to be sick."

Paul stood up now and wrestled his wife back into her chair as gently as he could, "Stop screaming Steph, for god's sake calm down."

Stephanie's face was still red and she was short of breath and shaking, "I'll kill her. I'll fucking kill her."

Vince sat and decided to make an attempt to calm his daughter, "Steph do you think your mom wanted me to be alone forever?" The question wasn't well thought out and predictably had the opposite effect to that which he had intended as she growled at him, "No dad, I'm sure her last living thought was I hope in six months time my husband is fucking someone ten years younger than my daughter!"

The shock at the way his daughter was talking to him meant that Vince did not think his next response through either, "She's seven years younger than you."

Stephanie leapt out of her chair again, "Oh, right! Well then I'm fine with it! My dad is in a relationship with someone seven years younger than me! Isn't that fucking perfect?"

"Stephanie that's enough now! Calm down!"

Stephanie was storming towards the door, "Calm down? I'll calm down!" She slammed the door shut behind her so hard that the pictures rattled on the wall.

"Well done Vince, I told you that would happen," Paul sighed with his head resting in one hand.

Vince was still shocked by the intensity of his daughters explosion, "I knew she would be angry but my god. I've never seen her like that."

Paul rubbed his forehead with his fingers, "You know she's not going to work with Nikki. I mean, you do know that, right?"

"Oh, she is. If she wants this job she is. Nikki and I are together and we love each other so Steph will have to get used to the idea. It's that simple."

Paul rose from his chair and headed for the door to try to find and pacify his wife, "Good luck with that." It was not hard to figure out where his Stephanie was as soon as he was through the door because he heard the sound of something smashing from the direction of her office. He also noticed that there was nobody else around. He figured that they had realised that attracting her attention right now would be a bad idea.

He put his head around the doorway of his wife's office. He noticed paperwork all over the floor which he imagined had been piled on the desk a short time before and what he presumed had been a cup in pieces in one corner where it had just been thrown, "Do I need a white flag?"

Stephanie was standing behind her desk and leaning on it with both hands as if she did not trust her legs to hold her upright and she was still hyperventilating. When she looked up at him her eyes burned into his, "Don't come near me Paul, don't you fucking dare. You knew this and you didn't tell me."

Paul was worried about her now. This was way out of hand and he needed her to calm down, "It wasn't my place to tell you Steph, and in any case your dad made me promise not to."

"So you've got more loyalty to my dad than you have to me? That's where we're at with this?"

Paul walked towards her, still trying to remain calm although it was tough after that accusation, "How can you say that? After these last few months you can say that to me?"

Stephanie closed her eyes tightly for few seconds, "No Paul. I'm sorry."

He hugged her and she began to cry, "How could he? I mean so soon after mom? And with that little slut? I'm going to be sick."

"It's not your decision honey, it's your dad's."

Stephanie wriggled her free from Paul's hug and stormed towards the door, wiping her eyes as she did so, "Yeah but I don't have to like it."

"Where are you going now?" Paul sighed as he headed after her.