Steffy is sitting on her lounge, watching Kelly and Hayes playing together, she's just had a call from the gate that Liam is on his way up to see her. She's unsurprised, she'd already booked a playdate with him for Hayes and Kelly, and the results of the paternity test she'd had done separately and sent to a private clinic, so she could "trust" there would be no interference, have just been delivered to her, this will be yet another mess that she has to clean up, but hopefully, it will be her last.
Liam knocks briefly on the door and enters, immediately Kelly jumps up and runs to him laughing in joy. He picks her up and swings her into his arms, kissing her forehead before looking at Steffy.
Steffy nods before saying, "Well, I'm going to have a nice long shower, so how about you three all play together for a while."
"Okay Mommy, "says Kelly who immediately starts to lead Liam over to Hayes and the pile of leggo blocks they've been putting together.
"Steffy, we need to talk," says Liam as he's led reluctantly forward.
"Later," says Steffy nodding towards her children, "For the moment I just need a shower, okay?"
Liam frowns but nods and Steffy leaves the room.
A while later she returns with damp hair and dressed in what Liam knows is her favourite old tracksuit pants and an ACDC t-shirt she'd picked up years ago, he immediately knows she's settling in for a day of reflection. It's what she's always done when she's hurt or confused, he knows the feeling well.
Amelia arrives shortly after and Steffy asks her to take the kids upstairs for a while as her and Liam need to have a private chat. Amelia gathers the kids and quickly heads upstairs to Kelly's room and her Barbie doll collection.
When Steffy is sure they're gone she turns to Liam with a sigh. "Go ahead!"
Liam frowns for a moment, the only question he can think of is, "Why?"
Steffy shrugs, "Why what Liam? Why did she throw you over to bed my husband, again. Why did she betray you? Why did she throw everything you thought you had together in your face, just to wrap her legs around another man? Why did she betray every vow you made to each other? Why did she betray me? Why did she destroy another of my marriages again? Or are you wondering why I did what I did to her, why I finally decided I'd had enough and retaliated?"
Steffy snorts derisively, "Which why would you like to know Liam? Which one do you think would explain everything to you so you can just go back to the way things were between you and Hope? Which answer would make you forget what she did, what she is!"
Liam looks at the floor as tears flood his eyes. "All of them . . . None of them, I don't know Steffy, I just feel lost, bewildered, and so damn devastated I can barely think straight. I gave up everything for her and Beth. I gave up you, I gave up Kelly, because she needed me so badly, and it still wasn't enough. I don't know what to do anymore."
He looks at her pleadingly. "I never should have left you and Kelly, I never should have believed anything she said to me, and now it's to late, to late to even begin to fix the mistakes I've made."
He looks up at her a question in his eyes, "Isn't it?" he asks.
Steffy stares at him for a long moment, "Liam, you're a married man, and unlike your wife, I don't have affairs with married men, it's that simple!"
With that she turns to an envelope laying open on the table and pushes it to him. He frowns as he takes it, until he notices the name of the lab in the corner.
His eyes widen, "The final results?" he asks in a half fearful, half excited voice.
Steffy nods and he opens the envelope quickly and scans the contents. He is silent for a long time, his hands trembling, his bottom lip beginning to quiver.
"He's mine! He's really mine!" He smiles as tears start to fall. He moves over to Steffy and grabs her hand pulling her to her feet and into his embrace.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you, he mumbles into her hair as he hugs her. "You've given me two of the greatest gifts of my life, I love you Steffy, so much!" He moves his head to kiss her but Steffy pushes him away.
"I won't do this Liam, I'm not a fill in, and as I said earlier, unlike your wife I don't cheat with married men. I just wanted you to know for sure, so there's no doubt in your mind. We can move forward more positively now, but I warn you Liam, I still do not want my children anywhere near Hope or Brooke! You can bring Beth here if you like, But I won't have my kids near either one of those woman!"
"Steffy, I" Liam begins to say before Steffy shuts him down.
"I mean it Liam, If I ever find out you have taken my innocent children anywhere near those two I will take them both and leave the country if I have to. Do you understand me?"
Liam nods, he's shocked at the amount of sheer venom in Steffi's voice, not that he should be surprised given what's happened, and what she was prepared to do in retaliation. And that brought him straight back to his own problems.
"I agree," he says quietly. "I haven't even spoken to Hope as yet." At Steffi's questioning look he shrugs and sighs. "I never left dads, I stayed there the night drinking dads best scotch and talking to him and Wyatt about everything."
"How is Wyatt?" asks Steffy with concern. "I've been meaning to visit him but, well, with everything that's been happening . . . "
Liam nods, "He's getting there, I think scattering her ashes on the hill where he and Flo used to spend all their time as teenagers, and then spending the night there talking to Shauna about her, well, I think it gave him some peace. He's sad, but he's slowly starting to move forward again. Dads offered to send him over to the European division and I think he'll go . . . he's offered me the same deal." He says looking at Steffy, that same question in his eyes.
Steffy sighs and shakes her head. "Then I guess you have some decisions to make about your life and what you want from it. I am happy about Wyatt though, he's a good man, and he deserves some peace."
The phone rings and Steffy answers, after listening for a moment she nods and tells the person on the other end, "Let him in."
At Liams look she says simply, "It's my dad, I guess he has questions too."
"But," begins Liam.
Steffy shakes her head, "What more is there to say that we haven't said to each other a hundred times Liam? You know where I stand, what you do with that is up to you."
"Do we have a chance Steffy, that's all I want to know?" says Liam as he hears the car pull up to the front of the house.
"Not this time Liam. This time you make your decisions on your own. I'm not Hope, I'm not here to give you permission to do anything, or to convince you one way or another. This time you need to grow a god-damned spine and decide for yourself, with-out any outside interference. What you do next is all on your shoulders Liam, and I'm not going to get the blame for whatever you decide to do!"
She turns as the door opens and Ridge walks in. A shocked Liam stares at Steffy for a moment before grabbing his phone and saying.
"I'll leave you two to talk," he leans over and gives Steffy a peck on the check before saying. "Thank you, Steffy. Thank you for giving me something to hold onto. I need it, trust me." He turns to Ridge and nods as he walks past him to the door, finally leaving Steffy alone with her father.
"Are you okay?" asks Ridge as he moves to where Steffy is standing.
Steffy sighs heavily, "Honestly, I have no idea, but I'll get there; I always do!"
Ridge grasps her shoulders and looks into her eyes, "I'm here, if you need me for anything, at any time, just call."
Steffy raises an eyebrow, "Is Brooke allowing you off the chain then?"
Ridge closes his eyes for a moment and lets Steffy go as he sags to the couch. "She has no choice, I left her."
Steffy glances as his finger, a clearly surprised look flashing across her face as she realises there's no ring there. "What happened?"
Ridge runs a hand through his hair and tells her everything that was said the previous day, and his response. Clearly shocked Steffy also sits, she regards her father for a long time before finally finding the words she wants.
"You'll work this out Dad, you always do, and soon everything will return to the way it was . . . like it or not, it's what always happens."
Ridge shakes his head, "Not this time Steffy, I just can't do it any more, I won't, she's taken everything I had left to give her, and she threw it in my face, for Hope, a woman who has hurt my daughter endlessly. As I told you, I tried to compromise and she refused, once again everything had to be her way, that's when I finally understood. That's how it's always been, all our life together was about her and her kids getting everything that she wanted, while I threw you and Thomas to the side."
He rakes a hand through his hair again as he looks at Steffy earnestly. "I don't expect either of you to forgive me for the past, but from now on I'm going to be putting you both before anyone else. I swear to you Steffy, I won't fail you again!"
He then tells her of his selling his share in the company to Eric.
"So, you want to buy your shares back, sorry, but that won't be happening Dad, not now, not ever!"
"NO! That's not what I'm saying," pleads Ridge to his now angry looking daughter. "I'll be working under contract for Eric until he finds another designer, then I can get a job anywhere if I want, but I had to get out, I had to get away from them."
"And what if Grandad won't buy them off of you, what then?"
Ridge shrugs and then tells her of the ultimatum he offered Eric, as well as the potential reward for him if he bought him out."
Steffy can't hide her surprise at that, "Very clever, and you're right, I think he'll go for it, but it's not as if you've offered him a lot of choice, and we all know how he feels about Brooke, but dad, are you sure about this? Brooke has been a major mainstay for your entire adult life, can you really just let her go, just like that?"
Ridge shakes his head sadly, "I have to Steffy, she's killing me. Sometimes I feel like everything I ever was, everything I ever dreamed of doing or being, it's all been twisted into what Brooke wants, or what Brooke needs. I just can't do it anymore. I won't! Seeing her and Hope last night, it was like looking at both the young and old Brooke at the same time, the manipulation of facts, the tears to get their own way. I finally stopped ignoring what my brain had been trying to tell me for years. I looked at the real Brooke Logan, and it wasn't a pretty sight. Yes, I still love her, that's something I can't control, but I just can't live with her anymore, because she'll never change, she can't!"
"So, what now then?" asks Steffy curiously.
Ridge snorts derisively, "Now, I work from home, I've moved into a local hotel for the time being while I look for a house. I'll send my designs in to Eric until he hires a new designer, I've given him six months to find someone, if he hasn't by then, I leave anyway, but that's in the fine print. I learnt that much from Thomas and Felicia," he says with a grin. "After that I'll be a free agent, I can either continue with Eric if he still wants, or I can join another house. Quite honestly, I haven't thought that far ahead."
"Wow!" mutter Steffy shaking her head. "I never thought there'd be so much blowback from what I did."
"No!" says Ridge sharply, "Not from what you did! From what Hope did to you! Speaking of which, what did Liam have to say?"
Steffy nods and smiles sadly, "We didn't really talk about Hope to be honest, well not much anyway." She leans over and picks up the letter with the test results on it. "I just gave him the conformations results I had done on Hayes' paternity, Finn wasn't lying, he's Liams. Now on top of what has happened, he has that to contend with, although, I think he's happy about it, he loves Kelly and Hayes."
"Do you think he'll want you back again, now there's trouble in Hopeland?"
Steffy giggles at Ridges choice of words, "He did mention it, but I shut him down quickly. I told him in no uncertain terms that unlike Hope, I don't sleep with married men. I think he got the message."
Ridge gazes at his daughter in awe, "How was I lucky enough to get such a brave, beautiful daughter? You're amazing, after everything that happened, and you're still in the fight. And that show last night, it was incredible! You do realise that don't you? Even despite the stuff with Hope, you released a line that is going to put a whole bunch of panties in a twist and open up a whole new sales market. The entire fashion world is going to sitting up and taking notice of what you introduced the world to last night."
"Which reminds me, I have to start looking at all the fashion blogs and social media to get myself up to date with everything, and I think I'd like to do that alone if you don't mind?" says Steffy quickly.
Ridge nods and stands to leave, "I understand, just remember, I'm here for you, okay? If you need me just call and I'll come right over." He smiles and kisses her head before leaving Steffy to her own devices.
"Why do men keep telling me they'll be there for me?" she mutters to herself just as Ridges words remind her of the night before with Marius. This starts her thinking of him holding her while she cried, and his obvious reaction to her.
Why on earth am I thinking of that, she thinks, before another more surprising thought enters her mind unbidden, still, it's good to know I've still got it," now sporting a rather self-satisfied smirk, she wanders over to her laptop. It was time for her to see exactly how much of a kerfuffle she caused last night, and exactly how much fallout had landed back on Forresters because of it.