Bet you all thought I was done with this story, didn't you? Well, I'm not! And if I was, I would have made that clear.
A lot has happened in my life in the past two years: I graduated, I moved, I found a job, relatives passed away, I moved again... Just craziness all around, and I had to focus on that. But I'm back with an update!
So put your glasses on (or not) and let's get to reading.
Downstairs, in the main-living room of the Forrester estate, a glass of martini in their hands, Eric and Thomas couldn't help but vocally express their concerns for their granddaughter and sister respectively.
"Well, Steffy seems a bit less delighted to marry Liam than I thought she would be." Eric commented as he took a seat on his couch, followed by his grandson.
"That's a euphemism." Thomas replied more dryly than he intended to.
"It is truly surprising." Eric mused out loud and Thomas imperceptibly nodded. "Steffy has been head over heels in love with Liam for what seems like forever. She has fought for him so hard and for so long… and now that he's finally ready to settle down and fully commit to her, she's reluctant?" he reasoned, disbelief dripping from his voice. His granddaughter's earlier reaction to the idea of marrying who he believed to be the love of her life made absolutely no sense to Eric.
Thomas let out a huff. "It is rather ironic, isn't it?"
"Quite."
Silence momentarily filled the room as both grandfather and grandson were lost in their thoughts, albeit opposing thoughts.
Thomas turned to Eric, hesitant to disclose his true feelings about the matter under lens. He finally opted to be honest anyway, "I'm actually kind of glad about the way Steffy is handling this situation." He declared, catching Eric completely off guard. "I'm glad she's listening to her head instead of her heart. I wasn't sure she was capable of that where Liam is concerned, and I think it was about time." He elaborated at his grandfather's apparent confusion. "I mean let's face it, two years ago, hell, six months ago, if Liam had set all this up, Steffy would have grabbed that wedding ring from him and ran with it!"
Eric chuckled at that, clearly agreeing with Thomas who soon joined him in mirth. "Seriously! We both know she would have!" Thomas insisted, still laughing. He waited for his amusement to die down before continuing more seriously, "But now, now, she's taking a step back to fully consider the repercussions of the choice she's about to make before actually making it. This isn't about Stef not wanting to marry Liam. She is irretrievably in love with the guy, she just wants it to be right. I think she just wants to make sure that she can live with the consequences of whatever decision she settles on today." Thomas explained as he tried to imagine what could be going on in his younger sister's mind. After everything that Steffy had been through with Liam, after everything Liam had put her through, taking the time to think long and hard before choosing to dedicate the rest of her life to him was the sensible course of action.
/
Steffy got inside one of the many guest bedrooms in her grandparents' estate, followed suit by her mother who shut the door behind them.
Taylor slowly walked towards her daughter, closing the distance between them. "Now that we're alone, do you mind telling me what's going on, sweetheart?" she gently asked.
"That's what I would like to know, Mom." Steffy retorted, distressed, as she turned to face Taylor. "I didn't plan any of this, I didn't expect this!"
"I know." Taylor said, in a low and soothing voice, hoping her calm would rub off on her daughter who seemed to be growing more agitated by the minute. "Liam wanted to surprise you. He'd thought you be happy about this." Taylor explained, her confusion as to why Steffy wasn't in face happy about this initiative evident in her voice. Last she knew, there was nothing Steffy wanted more than to make her union with Liam as a family solemn and official.
Oh, she was surprised alright. "Well, he thought wrong!" Steffy drew a breath in an attempt to calm herself down and slowly released it, considering her next words carefully before she spoke them. "Listen Mom, I'm sorry. I'm not angry with you – at all. I know you meant well."
"But you're angry with Liam?" Taylor surmised.
Steffy declined to answer directly and instead skirted around the matter. "I would like to talk Liam, Mom. I suppose he's somewhere around here."
"He is." She reluctantly admitted. "I'm not sure it's a good idea for you to talk to him though. It's bad luck for the betrothed to see each other on the day of the wedding." While Taylor was never much of a believer in superstitions, she reckoned that after all the trials Steffy and Liam had already been through, there was no point in tempting fate.
Steffy raised and then lowered her eyebrows dismissively. "You know what's bad luck, mother? For the groom to be stood up at the altar."
Taylor's eyes widened in utter stupor at her baby girl's words. When had this happened? How had she missed it? She should have anticipated it, especially given the feeling she had during her earlier conversation with her ex son-in-law. Heaving a small sigh, she walked near the room's door to a drawer where she retrieved a letter before she turned back to Steffy to hand it over. "Liam gave me this for you."
Steffy seized it and turned it over, staring at the paper as Taylor continued, "Please read it first, and then let me know if you still need to talk to Liam." Taylor made to step outside, giving her daughter the privacy she deemed she needed, leaving her to mull over her future. "I'll give you a moment. I'll be in the room just across this one."
/
"I see your point. Marriage is a rather serious commitment, even more so when a child is involved. When you put it like that, it does seem wiser to think things through instead of diving head first and then being surprised to end up with a hematoma." Eric conceded, causing Thomas to turn to look at him with a curious expression on his face, his brows furrowed. "Still though, I was under the impression that Steffy and Liam were in a really good place. Was I wrong? Is there something going on that I'm not aware of?" He asked, hopeful that Thomas secretly had some inside information that would help clear up his confusion.
"If there is, I'm not aware of it either." Was Thomas' laconic reply as he took a sip of his martini.
"You haven't noticed anything strange between them? Any distance? Any tension at all?" Eric inquired.
"Not particularly, no. I had dinner with them a couple nights ago, and they appeared to be fine to me." He responded, to a nod from Eric. "I guess maybe I missed an episode."
"I think we all missed the same one." Eric concurred. He took a small sip of his martini. "But that's not ok, Tom." Setting his glass down, he lifted his eyes and met his grandson's expectant stare. "Your father may be away at the moment, but your sister still has family in LA."
"What do you mean?" Thomas asked, unsure where his elder was getting at.
"I mean more than ever, it falls upon us to look after Steffy." Eric deemed it their duty to make sure that Steffy was ok and was being treated the way she deserved to at all times. Liam hadn't exactly done right by Steffy in the past. He'd let her down on countless occasions, and Eric was determined to make sure that didn't happen again. Though he believed that his granddaughter's relationship with Liam was better and stronger than it was at the beginning, his assumptions weren't enough for Eric, he wanted certainty. He wanted assurances directly from the main players. With a child in the equation, the stakes were much higher now, and somebody had to ensure that the new Forrester generation was protected.
Thomas nodded as understanding of his grandfather's implications finally dawned upon him. He raised an eyebrow at him. "Isn't that what we've been doing?"
"We need to make a better job."
"You're saying I should go talk to Liam?" It sounded more like a question than a statement.
"As a matter of fact," Eric started, rising from his seat. "I'm saying I should." With that, he left the living room where his grandson still rested and headed for the stairs.
/
'Thank you so much, man! I appreciate it.' Liam acknowledged over the phone. He hung up a few moments later and turned to address his father. "Carter has a meeting, but he'll be on his way shortly."
"I didn't know Carter was a marriage officiant."
"Neither did I." Liam replied, momentarily diverting his attention from his phone to look up at his father, his widened eyes emphasizing his statement. "But thank God he is!" he exclaimed.
"Pure stroke of luck?" Bill arched a brow, smiling kindly at his progeny. "I can't believe you thought of everything but a minister." He mocked, amused, to a shrug from Liam.
"It slipped my mind."
"Mmmhhhm"
"Worst case scenario, you could have always gotten ordained and married us." Liam offered half-jokingly, earning a chuckle from his old man. "It would have been very fitting. I mean you were on the Steffy/Liam bandwagon from Day minus one. You've been driving the train all along, well before either Steffy or I expressed any interest in one another." Thinking about it, Bill had somehow been a prophet from the very start. The latter had predicted how the story would end before it even began. He'd extolled Steffy's qualities and virtues in every spoken language, relentless in his purpose of convincing his son that Stephanie Forrester Jr. was the one for him.
In hindsight, Liam realized that had he not been so focused on making things work with Hope for the sake of all the time and efforts invested into the relationship, he might have been more receptive to his father's words of wisdom, thereby avoiding hurting two of the most exquisite women he had ever met.
"I have been, haven't I?" Bill recalled with a complacent smirk. "And what have I gotten out of it?" he sardonically asked.
"An 'I told you so'?" he shrugged. "A grandchild?"
Bill's eyes piqued in interest. "Named after me?" he tried and received a meaningful look in response. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and exhaled a sigh. "It was worth a shot."
Liam shook his head at his father's antics. "I don't hold it against you." He dismissed casually.
/
My dearest Steffy,
My best friend, my confidante, my soulmate, my love,
There must be a thousand thoughts racing through your mind. You must be filled with uncertainties. I know I am at the moment I'm writing this letter. But there is one thing that I know undoubtedly: I love you. I love you infinitely as I know you love me. I can only hope and pray that this one certainty gets us both through this day and every day thereafter.
A few days ago, I asked you to set a wedding date, and although you tried to cover it -most likely to spare my feelings, which I know are always at the forefront of your mind -I sensed your hesitation. This letter is my attempt to lay your concerns to rest.
You, Steffy Forrester, were a complete surprise. You stumbled into my life unexpectedly, like a storm appearing out of a clear blue sky. And like a storm, you ravaged my life, overturned my world, challenged my beliefs and my way of thinking. You opened me up to a whole new world of possibilities. You offered me a new perspective on things. You redefined what it meant for me to feel alive. When you and I got to know one another, you were like a breath of fresh air bringing me back to life when I didn't even realize how stale the air I had been breathing had become.
I never meant to fall in love with you. I never saw it coming. Truthfully, I'm still not sure how it happened, but now that I'm reminiscing about our history, a truth imposes itself on me: it had to happen. For you and me, Steffy Forrester, were written in the stars.
I'll admit I was more than a little terrified by you at the beginning, by the force of nature that you are. You are so wild, Steffy, so unpredictable. As you know, I did not have the smoothest introduction to life, and from that arose an absolute need for control, a need that was already innate in me, being the son of William Spencer the second. And you are anything but a pushover, you have got to be one of the most volatile person in the world. I never know what's coming or going with you, and that used to scare me. But I'm not afraid anymore. I have a solid grasp on who I am and who I want to be -and that is your partner. I embrace the unknown. I welcome the unexpected. I look forward to whatever lies ahead of us, as long as we go through it together… as husband and wife.
I suspect that you worry about my feelings for Hope, as can be expected given everything. I have given you many reasons to question my loyalty to you, and I cannot express how much I regret it. But my love, I promise you, you have nothing to worry about. Hope is not a threat to us, and she will never be again. My feelings for her are gone, and whatever is left of them does not compare to my everlasting love for you. Please believe that. For it is the absolute truth.
I will never again give you a reason to doubt my commitment. I will never again jeopardize our love. I will be a loyal husband to you as well as a devoted father to our children, if you'll let me.
I sincerely hope the next time I see your perfect face, you will be walking down the aisle towards me, as anxious as I am to begin the rest of our lives together.
I belong to you. Now and forever.
I love you. Always and in all ways.
Yours forever,
Liam.
Thank you so much to those of you who stuck by me and are still enjoying this story. I HATE hate what has been done to this couple and particularly to Steffy on the show, so this is really my opportunity to make things right and give my fave the ending she deserves.