Steve was informed by the Governor that his team would have four more people and one of these people would be appointed by him. Steve didn't like this very much.

"It sounds like Lori's time, do you remember? It looks like he's sending someone to keep an eye on us," Steve said to Danny when they were in the car on the way to headquarters.

"Well, who are we to differ with the Governor," Danny replied.

Steve was upset about the Governor's meddling with the team, but his uneasiness about the big discovery of the day made the Governor's meddling a minor thing. The big discovery of the day was named Cecilia.

Steve went home after work at headquarters and he had been preparing all afternoon to meet Brooke when he got home. He knew that the atmosphere in the house would not be good. But she surprised him and did not touch the subject. She ignored the events of the day and kept quiet most of the time. Steve didn't talk about Cecilia either and went to bed early.

The next day, Catherine opened the door to someone who rang the doorbell insistently.

"Hmm... why am I not surprised that you are here even when I didn't give you my address," Catherine said to Steve.

"I tracked your phone," Steve answered her in a low voice.

"No need to whisper, Cecilia is at school,"

"School?" Steve asked surprised.

"Yes, but I didn't enroll her in the school your wife teaches. Rest assured."

"How long have you been on the island so that you had time to arrange a school for her so quickly?"

"We've been here for a week," Catherine indicated the couch for him to sit on.

"I don't want to sit down, Catherine. I just want to know why you have kept my daughter from me for all these years."

Catherine put her hands on her waist and looked at him with a serious expression. "Oh, you don't know?"

"Was it revenge then?" Steve said to her.

"No. I gave up, I got tired of you. I came to Hawaii to get you, we traveled the world together, and I was already making plans for the two of us again when you decided to come back to the island and I asked you for two months to come stay with you and you denied me that. You came back and married another woman. You didn't hesitate to hurt my feelings."

"The last time you asked me for two months, and I was going to ask you to marry me, you disappeared for years, Catherine!"

"According to you, I'm always the wrong one, aren't I? You're the perfect one." Catherine sat down and was silent for a while.

Steve went to the window and took a deep breath as he looked out. "Why did you come back now then?"

"I came back for Cecilia. She was going into a depression from being bullied by the kids at school for not having a father to pick her up from school, a father to watch her performances at school. She was always strong and never missed any performances even though she knew she wouldn't have a father to watch her. But lately this was affecting her a lot and the psychologist advised me to bring her to meet you."

"It's your fault," Steve was being hard on her.

"I don't care what you think about me anymore. Just don't hurt my daughter's feelings. If you don't want her as a daughter, say so now. If you think she's going to get in the way of your 'dream marriage' to your wife you don't even have to come back here."

"I didn't say that," Steve told Catherine.

"I will always do what's best for my daughter, I will always protect her happiness even if it means I have to left my self-love go to be here again."

Steve was silent. He was very angry and his thoughts were scrambled like a roll of barbed wire.

"We've been here for a week, and in that week she's been preparing to meet you. She chose her best outfit, her best shoes, she tested several hairstyles on her hair until she decided on the best one. And this is out of vanity? No. It was fear of not being accepted by you. And she is such a good child that she wanted to come to your door alone because if you rejected her I wouldn't see it. In her childish language that's what she wanted to tell me."

"You know I would never treat her badly," Steve replied.

"I know. And that's only why I let her knock on your door alone," Catherine told him.

"Call her school and tell them I'll pick her up, and then I'll take her to lunch. Also write down the school's address, please," Steve ordered her.

Catherine did as he asked and he left. Catherine leaned against the door and let the tears fall. Even after all this time she couldn't stop loving him and the fact that he had married a woman he had only known for a short time hurt her very much. "Everything I did for him for so long..." she lamented that he never gave her the true value that she had.

Steve went to work and a few hours later he picked Cecilia up from school. Cecilia smiled and ran up to him when she saw him, "Hi Dad! Did you come to pick me up?"

Steve smiled at her and hugged her. "Yes. I came to pick you up for lunch with me. Do you like shrimp?"

Cecilia was really happy that he was there. "I love shrimp, Dad!"

"Great. I'll take you for the best shrimp on the island. Steve took her backpack and held her by the hand.

"I have to tell Mom," Cecilia said to her father.

"She already knows, honey."

"Okay," Cecilia went with Steve. She was beaming with happiness.

PS: Thank you for your review in the previous chapter.