Paul had spent the last half hour working. He had decided to ignore the fact that Stephanie had said 'Rocky' again even though it pissed him off something crazy. Aside from that the conversation had not been too bad, he had gotten everything that he had hoped for. He was interrupted from his work by a knock on his office door. Sighing at the impending interruption as when he had told Stephanie that he was behind with his reports it had actually been true and he had deliberately arranged for no meetings this afternoon to give himself time to catch up. "Yeah?" He yelled irritably.

The door opened and Nikki walked in. "Do you have a minute to talk?"

What was it with this woman? She was really going to come in here and start asking about what happened with Stephanie? Everything that his wife was involved in Nikki was there like she was her fucking shadow or her guardian angel or something. He was really getting tired of it fast. "Not really Nikki, I'm busy. What is it?"

Nikki sat down in front of Paul's desk despite what he had just said. "How did it go with Steph? I know she came in here."

Paul fought his irritation as much as he could. "Why don't you go ask her? As I said, I'm busy."

Nikki raised an eyebrow, apparently something that she had picked up from Stephanie and it was equally if not more irritating to Paul to see it from her. "Seriously? She's in a meeting with someone and Lucy said she will busy for the rest of the afternoon. Why do you have a problem talking to me?"

"Things went okay," Paul began, somehow managing not to give the first answer that came to mind, which was a lot less pleasant. "She's promoting me to CEO and I'm going to be in charge of creative and production as Steph is now. It's just her ego that gets to me, she's... I don't know... she just irritates me. I'm considering talking to her about marriage counselling."

Paul thought that he saw a hint of something in Nikki's eyes at the mention of his promotion. Jealousy maybe? She also reacted to the mention of marriage counselling. "You should consider taking a vacation, give yourselves a break from each other."

Paul could control himself no more. "I don't need you to tell me about my marriage and what I should do."

"This is exactly your problem," Nikki said, not backing down. "This is the problem with your marriage..."

"I'll tell you the problem with this marriage!" Paul exploded. "It's that pointy thing on the front of your fucking face! It's always in our fucking business! Fuck off out of my office! Fuck off out of my life! Fuck off out of both of our lives! Just fuck off!"

Nikki had stood up during Paul's rant and it had shocked her but she had seen Stephanie bark at people often enough and they always backed down from her and she had encouraged Nikki to learn to do it too. Nothing had pushed Nikki far enough, until now. "I'm trying to help you, you fucking idiot!" She screamed back. "Steph is doing her best, you don't know how hard it is when you're sick like she is. She's desperate for your marriage to work, she's carrying your baby and you don't have a fucking clue how to support her!"

Paul could not believe what he had just heard. "That's my wife you're talking about..."

"And she's my step-daughter!" Nikki yelled right back. "You're making her miserable you bastard! She's doing her best trying to make this place work, she's struggling with her illness and she's carrying your baby for fuck's sake and what are you doing? Telling her that you want a divorce and calling her a slut? Why don't you do us all a favour and fuck off yourself?"

"That's the most one sided bullshit I've ever heard! Get the fuck out of my office Nikki! Now!"

Nikki stormed towards the door and as she was about to leave she turned around to face him once more. "You're a real asshole Paul," she said icily. "I can see now why Steph struggles so much with you for a husband. Frankly I don't know how she has put up with you this long." With that she stormed out and slammed the door behind her.

Paul sat down and felt himself boiling. Who the hell did that bitch think she was? It was as if she actually thought she was Stephanie's mother or some crazy shit. Even if she did think that how could she look at everything completely from Stephanie's side like that? What about what was best for him? All anyone thought about was what was best for Stephanie. No one gave a fuck about how he felt apart from himself. The girls would be just as happy if not more so with him if he got a divorce, he was sure of that. He had already seriously thought about divorcing Stephanie but maybe it did not have to come to that. He decided to suggest marriage counselling that night when he get home, unable to see what else could save his marriage at this point.

His thoughts moved on to Nikki, the little bitch who had wormed her way so snugly into Stephanie's life and now would not stop interfering in it. He never should have kept asking Nikki to help Stephanie, all along he had thought having Nikki around was helping but looking where they were now revealed the truth. Their lives were a mess, their marriage was damn near destroyed and their family was falling apart. How could it have been worse than this if Nikki had been there supposedly helping? When they talked later he needed to speak to Stephanie about Nikki and she needed to stop relying on Nikki and rely on him instead. He convinced himself that it was not that Nikki was doing this on purpose, she thought that she was helping Stephanie but really she was not.

As Nikki had stormed out of Paul's office she had nearly walked right into Vince. Nikki figured that Paul's secretary must have gone to fetch him as the shouting could not have been hard for her to hear. "Nikki what's going on?" Vince demanded.

Nikki let out a deep breath and tried to stop herself shaking with anger. She had never yelled at someone like that in her life, Stephanie's influence had definitely started to take effect on her. She was learning. "Not now Vince," she growled angrily. "Paul is driving me crazy. He's making Steph ill, he's ranting and swearing at me, he's making everyone miserable, he's becoming a real problem. I'm going to get some air."

Vince sighed as he watched Nikki storm away. As she did so Nikki considered that Paul and Stephanie getting a divorce might not have been what she intended but maybe it was time for her to adapt. A divorce could work.