"You're saying RJ did this? Your son? MY BROTHER?!" Steffy stared at her parents and shook her head. She couldn't believe it. When she and RJ had lived together in Paris, he had been anything but vindictive and violent. Now he was making their dad look like a racist and punching her mom in the face? It didn't connect with what she knew of her brother. "This can't be right."
"He confessed to it, Steffy." Ridge picked up the snow globe on his desk and turned it over in his hands. "I had security look this over and there was indeed a recording device on it. It's been removed. Nothing else is getting out."
Steffy looked to her mom, silently asking for confirmation. Taylor nodded in agreement with Ridge's words. "He hit me, Steffy. He threatened to kill your father, too. RJ isn't... He's not handling this situation well."
"I should talk to him. He sees you two as his enemies, but maybe I can talk some sense into him. Get him to tell the press that he edited the whole thing together just to make you look bad." Steffy crossed her arms and leaned against the wall of her father's office. "This isn't right. He's trying to destroy Forrester. And for what? Because mom outed him? Because everyone already knew he was gay. I mean, we've all seen him sashaying pretty much everywhere since he was a little kid."
"He's also mad because your dad left Katie for Caroline. You know how close he and his aunt were whenever he came home during his breaks from school," Taylor reminded Steffy. "He never got over their breakup."
Snorting, Steffy looked at her dad. "I've never had much of a use for Katie, but I do have to agree with RJ on Caroline. You totally traded down, Dad. And because of that, Forrester is going down the drain and Rick is gonna use this to try to force you out of the company. He bragged to me that the Forresters were going to keep control and the Marones were going to end up on the street."
"He would use this to try to get rid of me and Caroline." Ridge scratched his beard and grunted. "It won't work. Between me, you, and Thomas, we're safe. And Bill would never let Spencer vote to terminate his daughter. Rick can't do anything to us."
"Maybe not, but he can hurt the company. The fact that he condemned you and Caroline in the press release is evidence enough. He said that he is 'exploring his options' in regards to your continued employment here, Ridge." Taylor shook her head and rolled her eyes. "But you aren't an employee. You own part of this company. Rick doesn't. He's only in control of Forrester because he and Maya conned Eric into making him CEO."
"At least Maya's gone," Ridge said with a nod to his ex-wife. He looked back to the snow globe in his hands.
"Why do you even still have that?" Steffy marched to her father and took the snow globe from him. "This means nothing! RJ used it to start this whole thing."
"I have it because your brother gave it to me," Ridge explained. He reached out to take it back but Steffy jerked away.
"He gave you a bug, Dad. RJ gave you a lie." Steffy threw the snow globe to the floor and the glass sphere burst open. She began gathering her things to leave. "Mom, I need the address of RJ's apartment. You two may not have been able to put a stop to him, but I will."
B&B
Liam was glad he had Noah in his office. He had pulled him away from Jenna and the D-Pad office for the day to help him brainstorm what to do. He was as close to a neutral party as one could get in regards to Ridge and Caroline.
"Shouldn't your PR department be handling this?" Noah asked as he scratched out another statement Liam had decided wouldn't work. "Things like this are kinda why they exist."
"It's a family matter. It needs to have that familial touch," Liam reasoned. Noah nodded but didn't look as if he got it. "I can't just have those guys throw out something that says nothing."
"I couldn't agree more. Your cousin did nothing wrong. It was all that idiot Ridge," Bill stated loudly as he stormed into Liam's office. Eden was hot on his heels and Liam saw Noah tense up.
"Why did you bring her?" Liam asked, nodding to his father's intern. "I'm sorry, Eden. I just don't know what you can do about this. I don't know what I can do about this."
"I brought a smart, hard-working journalism student. You brought an unemployed guitar player. No offence." Bill looked at Noah, who looked to Liam and shrugged.
"Noah, why don't you go home? I'm sure RJ isn't taking this well. And my dad is about to make an ass of himself."
"Nonsense!" Bill protested, clapping one hand on Noah's shoulder and holding the other up to Noah for a fist bump. "Noah and I are buddies. Aren't we?"
Noah looked at Liam with wide, pleading eyes, then gave Bill a fake smile and performed the expected fist bump. "We sure are, Bill."
"Go home, Noah. It's an order."
"Are you sure?" Noah asked, a genuine smile on his face.
Bill scoffed. "Really?"
"Noah. I'm your boss, and I'm telling you to go home. Leave before I have security escort you out of here."
After mouthing "thank you" to Liam, Noah stood and put his notes on Liam's desk, then sort of bowed to Bill. "Sorry man, I'd love to stay, but I also don't want to be fired."
"You're annoying when you make power plays to spite me," Bill complained to his son. Liam ignored him and watched how Noah's pace picked up as he walked past Eden. Even though Noah did his best to avoid looking at her, she stared right at him. It was so intense Liam felt a chill run down his spine.
"What?" Liam looked at his father. "Sorry, I didn't hear you. I was thinking about what we're going to do about Caroline."
"Do? We're doing nothing. Caroline doesn't work at Spencer. She never has. I talked to her moms and we're going to play that up. And we'll blame Ridge. It's his damn fault this whole thing happened anyway. I'm more than happy to throw him under the bus. Provided he'll actually fit under it."
Liam rolled his eyes. It was going to be such a long day.
B&B
"RJ?" There was a knock on the door.
"How did you find me?" RJ asked. "This was Julian's office. Nobody ever comes in here. They all want to act like he didn't found the company with me. Mom and Amber were more than happy to change the name of the company after my great aunt Pam killed him. It was PR reasons or whatever, and Amber owns half the company, so I guess that makes it okay."
Thad closed the door and joined RJ on the floor. "I read about your dad and his fiancée. How are you handling it?"
"I punched my dad's ex-wife in the face and I'm hiding in a dead man's office. All things considered, I'd say I'm handling it poorly." RJ sighed and pulled at one of the laces on his right shoe. "Thad, I know you've only been here a few weeks, but you'll realize soon enough that this insanity is my normal."
"What do you mean, RJ?" Thad crossed his legs and RJ wondered why this man was even talking to him.
"The scandals, the infighting, the affairs... Nobody in my life seems to know how to be normal. That includes me, by the way. Did I forget to mention I punched a woman today?"
Thad put a comforting hand on RJ's knee and smiled. "I'm sure she had it coming."
"She did," RJ agreed, returning Thad's smile for a couple seconds. "That's not the point, though. The point is that, until today, I've never hit anyone. Not really. I mean, I did throw a woman out of an elevator, but she tripped and fell and it doesn't really count. I've never been violent. It was something I prided myself on, my ability to handle everything with words."
"Who are you hiding from, RJ?" Thad ran his thumb across RJ's kneecap. "Your dad? His ex-wife?"
RJ buried his face in his knees and thought about the answer. He didn't even have his phone. It was still in his loft with everything else. He was lucky security had let him into the L&M building without his keycard.
But none of that mattered because he knew why he was hiding. RJ knew who he was avoiding and it hurt too much to admit to himself, let alone a man he barely knew. It was obvious, though. Even Ridge's stupid ass had figured it out. It was what had set him off, why he hit Taylor. RJ wasn't sorry he hit her, she had gotten off lucky, but he was terrified of what else he was capable of if he could do that.
Thad ran his fingers through RJ's hair and told him that it was going to be okay. He promised him that things would calm down eventually and, if he wanted one, RJ could resume his relationship with this dad.
"That implies I had one to begin with," RJ said as he looked up. He wasn't crying. He had tried, when he was out on the street and in the crowd, and nothing happened. He made a second attempt when he came to L&M and sought out Julian's office. Maybe, just maybe, being in the same room where RJ's friend and mentor had died would bring something out, a couple tears, but nothing happened.
"I'm sorry to hear that. My dad and I weren't close, either," Thad told RJ, his hand on the back of RJ's neck and his fingers playing at his hairline. "He was never an international fashion icon who was had a racist rant leak to the internet, though."
RJ leaned into Tad and sighed. He was a warm body and RJ found that comforting. There was a time Noah would have been the one comforting him, sharing stories about his dad the sex addict or his grandmother the former stripper to make RJ feel like he wasn't the only person whose family was messed up beyond repair.
And RJ knew that if he asked, if he went to Noah and just told him that he needed him, Noah would drop whatever he was doing to make RJ feel better. But it wouldn't work because he was Noah.
"Thad, why did come to this office? How did you know I was here?" RJ laid his head on the man's shoulder and closed his eyes. Thad began stroking his hair again. It was nice.
"Everyone is looking for you, RJ. You didn't show up at the shareholder meeting. Maya doesn't even own any shares and she was there. This whole Forrester thing caused our orders to increase again. The company is seeing numbers near what we had at launch."
"That's nice." RJ was so tired and Thad was so comfortable. "Can you... Can you not tell them that you found me? In fact, can you stay here just a little bit longer?"
"Sure. But if your mom calls, I need to go," Thad told him.
RJ reluctantly raised his head and looked at Thad. He was so close. So handsome. "That reminds me. I don't have my phone. Can I borrow yours?"
Thad nodded, and RJ watched closely as the man licked his lips while retrieving his phone from his pocket. He handed it to RJ with a smile that bordered on smoldering. "If you're calling or texting someone, go for it. But I've almost used up my data for the month."
"Okay," RJ said as he fiddled with the phone until it shut off. He handed the powered down device back to its owner. "Now nobody will call you. You can stay here with me."
"But..." Thad started to say something, but RJ was already leaning in to kiss him. He nearly fell into the man's lap when Thad jerked away.
Recovering, RJ sat upright and looked to the floor in embarrassment and shame. What had he been thinking? He had a boyfriend! "Sorry."
"It's okay. You just caught me by surprise. I had no idea." Reaching out, Thad turned RJ's face back to him and he licked his lips again. When he kissed RJ, any feelings of guilt over Noah vanished.
In his twenty years of life, Noah was the only man RJ had kissed like this. He was the only one RJ had slept with. And it didn't seem fair. If Noah could pine after Eden while in a relationship with RJ, if he could kiss her and RJ could forgive him, then fair was only fair.
"Lock the door," RJ ordered after he had already unzipped Thad's pants. It was his turn to lick his lips.
B&B
When Noah had arrived home, the door to the loft was wide open but nothing was missing. RJ had probably just forgotten to close it when he left for work. The news had shaken him up that morning, and he'd been acting odd even before it broke.
He spent the first hour just double checking that nothing had been stolen. RJ's phone, the TV, and the PlayStation were all still there. As was the portfolio filled with whatever designs RJ and Amber had come up with. There was a broken vase. That worried Noah, gave him enough pause to wonder if RJ had maybe been kidnapped, but it was more than likely RJ himself had broken it. Whenever he got really mad, RJ could break things. The loft had been trashed when they returned home from Genoa City.
The second hour was spent waiting and reading about Ridge and Caroline. They were all over Twitter, Facebook, and the blogs. There were even videos on the big news sites about it. It was weird for Noah, because he'd only met Ridge once and Caroline twice, and they were both really lovely people to him.
During the third hour of waiting, there was a knock on the door. Noah hoped it was RJ even though his usual workday didn't end for a while. It wasn't RJ.
"Who the hell are you?" The woman asked after she had pushed past Noah and stormed into the apartment. She seemed familiar, like Noah had seen her before, but he couldn't place her. "Where is RJ?"
"Um, I'm Noah Newman," he answered nervously. "RJ's out. You can probably catch him at L&M."
"Oh. You're the boyfriend." The woman slowly looked Noah up and down, an appreciative grin on her face. "My brother may be an asshole, but he apparently has good taste in men."
There was nothing Noah could say to that, so he didn't. Instead, he focused on a throwaway line. "Brother? RJ is your brother?"
"That's right, Noah Newman. We haven't had the pleasure of meeting until now. I'm Steffy Forrester. RJ and I share the same father. That's why I'm going to wait here for him to come back. Because there's no point in me going to L&M. I'll never make it past security."
"You're worried about him, too? About the stuff with your dad and Caroline?"
That was obviously the wrong thing to ask, because Steffy got the same pissed off look RJ did whenever someone mentioned his father and his fiancée.
"Did RJ not tell you, Noah Newman?" Steffy asked, crossing her arms and leaning to the left.
"Just... Just call me Noah," he insisted weakly. He had no idea what Steffy was talking about.
Steffy gave a hateful laugh, which was not unlike something RJ would do. It was kinda scary has many mannerism they shared.
"Okay then, Noah. RJ was the one who leaked that recording of my dad and his child bride. He hid a recording device in a snow globe and gave it to him yesterday as a peace offering. He pretended to want to make up with them just so he could ruin them. Not such a standup guy, my brother."
Noah gave a nonchalant shrug. It totally sounded like something RJ would do. When he hated someone, nothing would stop him. He would do anything he could to get his way. RJ's visit to Genoa City was evidence enough of that.
"He didn't put those words in their mouths, though," Noah argued, which set Steffy off even further.
"That doesn't matter! What matters is that RJ betrayed our father. He has no family loyalty. I guess a Logan wouldn't." Steffy rolled her eyes then shook her head. "Noah, you may be living with and sleeping with my brother like the rentboy model you resemble, but how well do you know him? Because this was just his opening move. He punched my mother in the face."
"Your mom is Taylor?" Noah asked. Steffy nodded. "I've gotta be honest: that doesn't break my heart. She outed me and Noah to the entire world. If I weren't a gentleman, I would have punched your mom in the face, too."
"Ugh. Like anything even came of that. People stopped caring almost immediately. We all knew RJ was gay, and nobody even knew who the hell you were beyond the guy who fucked Brooke the week before. Not. A. Big. Deal."
"Did you just dismiss Taylor outing me?" Noah blanched at Steffy.
"I'm dismissing you in general. You may be hot, but you aren't very smart. I'm not going to stick around after all, but I will find my brother. He's not going to stop unless I stop him."
Steffy pushed past Noah and opened the door that led to the hallway. Before she stepped out of the loft, she looked back over her shoulder and ran her eyes across Noah one final time and licked her lips seductively. Then she left.