Liam pulled up to Brookes just as the ambulance was pulling away, he jumped out of his car and ran to the door, quickly rushing inside where he found Detective Baker and two strangers waiting.
"Detective, what the hell happened here." He said as he frantically looked around for either Brooke, Hope or his daughter." NO, Not my daughter, he thought savagely.
"Your wife collapsed, we called an ambulance to take her to the hospital, to be safe. Mrs Forrester is upstairs getting your daughter. Mr Spencer, there's something we need to talk to you about." He said seriously.
Liam swung around to him, his face a mask of barely suppressed rage, "For starters Detective, Hope is no longer my wife, or won't be as soon as the annulment that she had me sign yesterday morning goes through, I'm assuming it's already been filed. As to what you want to talk to me about, I already know, that's why I'm here, to find out if Hope knew, and why Brooke and her did this to me, and to Steffy."
The Detective frowned, "So you're saying you knew nothing of the other woman at the clinic, or the DNA test that."
"That's exactly what I'm saying," snapped Liam.
"Then tell me Mr Spencer, you say you've arrived her to get answers, so how did you find out about any of this?"
Liam sighed, "Steffy came around this morning to berate the living hell out of me. She told me some of what's happening, that somehow Beth might not be mine, and that Hope and Brooke lied to both of us about the DNA test. As soon as she told me I rushed over here to find out the truth, to find out if Beth is my little girl, or if the pair of them have been lying to me all this time."
Detective Baker winced a little at the explanation, taking pity on Liam he gave him a brief explanation of what was going on, and of what Brooke had done, followed by Hopes fainting.
"I'm assuming that Marius Van Deash told Steffy," the Detective adds once he finished his brief rundown to Liam. "I'm assuming they've become quite close if he's confiding in your ex?" he asks with brows raised in question.
This is something Liam hasn't even thought about, but now that the idea has been put in his mind, he's doubly angry. He's saved from answering by Brooke bringing Beth down the stairs.
"Daddy!" yells Beth as she breaks away from Brooke and runs to Liam.
Liam sweeps her into his arms and hugs her, whilst giving Brooke a venomous look.
"Grandma Brooke says that Mummy has to go to hospital, so she's taking me to see her. She says she's alright though." The little girl added reassuringly.
"Brooke is right," he said, refusing to use the honorific title, "Hope is totally, one hundred percent fine, she just needs a little check-up." said Liam smiling.
He raised his eyebrows in mock surprise as he looked at the little girl. "I have a great idea? Why don't you and I have a check-up too, so that Hope doesn't feel scared."
Beths eyes widened, "we could all have them together, and then mummy could come home with us."
Liam didn't answer, he just looked at Detective Baker, "Is it okay if I take Beth to the hospital with me?"
The detective thought a moment before asking, "Would you mind if you gave one of my friends here a lift?" He smiled at Beth. "They want to go to the hospital to."
Beth looked up at her father, feeling him tense slightly, before he finally nodded, "I'm just outside, let's go."
Brooke took a step forward as if to come with them. Liam swung around as he noticed her movement towards him.
Not you!" he snapped, glaring at her, before he swept out the door.
"Liam, please." Brooke cried, but it was to late, Liam was already gone, one of the child services officials hot on his heals.
Detective Baker turned to Brooke, "I'll need you to come down to the station and make an official statement Mrs Forrester."
Brooke turned to him, "I'm sorry, but I've told you everything I know, right now I have to be with my daughter."
She went to sweep past the Detective but he grabbed her arm. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to insist Mrs Forrester. Don't worry, it wont take long, and your daughter is in good hands, now let's go."
Brooke stared at him in horror as she started to cry, "But I told you, it's not my fault! It was a simple mistake!"
"And that's what I'm here to find out, whether or not it really was a simple mistake, or whether you deliberately withheld evidence in a child kidnapping case. Now, let's go."
He took- a now horrified, and scared- Brooke's arm, and ushered her out to the car.
Liam arrived at the Hospital a short time after Hope, he was told by a nurse that the Doctors were already running some tests on her and that she was now conscious and sitting up. After the child services officer, a Mrs Munro, had a brief -and private – conversation with the attending nurse he pulled out several forms and gave them to her before heading back to Liam and Beth.
A short time later a Doctor walked out from the room that they were treating Hope in. "Mr Spencer,?" At Liams nod he continued. "I was told you were here in regards to Miss Logan. I'm Doctor Marshall, her treating physician, Miss Logan seems to be quite well at the moment and is fully conscious and aware of her surroundings. Her blood pressure was a little elevated, but otherwise she's fine. I'm running some more tests to rule out a couple of things, but apart from that she seems to be healthy. She says she had quite a shock this morning, so it might have been that which caused her blood pressure to spike and for her to faint. Has she been un-well lately, is there anything else going on that you can think of that might have caused this?"
Liam shook his head, "She's been under some enormous pressure the last couple of months, especially the last couple of weeks, she hasn't been eating or sleeping well, and I can't see it getting any better, especially not now."
The Doctor shook his head, "Well I'll see what the tests say when they get back, but if they're fine she should be able to go home in a couple of hours."
Liam looked down at Beth who had been quiet the whole time, just clinging to her father as she listened. "See, Hopes all good." He said with a smile.
The little girl grinned up at him, "can we go and see her now daddy?"
Liam noticed the nurse from before return and speak briefly to the officer accompanying them. Mrs Munro walked over to them with the nurse.
"Hi honey, you and your daddy can't go in just yet, don't you remember, you were both going to have some tests too, even your mummy is going to have the same test."
Liam looked at his now pouting daughter. "Remember, we talked about this, and as soon as we do, I'll be able to take you into see Hope, and then you'll be able to tell her all about it."
"It won't hurt, will it?" she asked, in sudden concern.
Mr Munro smiled at her, "Oh no, we just rub a little cotton bud inside your cheek, that's it, and then it's all done."
"See," said Liam with a laugh. "Easy peasy!"
"Nice and sneezy," laughed Beth as she added their daddy daughter joke to Liams words.
Tears formed in Liams eyes at her joke and he hugged her tight before looking at the Mrs Munro and the nurse.
"We'' just need you to sign these," she said holding out some consent forms for him to sign. Liam signed the form with-out a second's hesitation.
"What about Hope, is she having the test?" he asked.
The nurse nodded, "The police have already talked to us, and we've actually had a court order just come in requesting the tests from all of you, so we will be collecting her sample the same time as yours."
Liam nodded, "good, I need to know the truth, we all do."
"Come on then poppet, let's get this done, I'll go first, to show you it won't hurt, okay?" Liam said as he smiled at Beth.
"Okayaly doakaly, Daady" she laughed as he carried her off, following the nurse and the child protections officer to another room.
Meanwhile . . . . .
Steffy has rung Marius and asked to meet with him and his family, they have arranged to meet in Mariuss office.
Once Steffy arrives back at Forresters she immediate goes to Felicia and tells her everything that's happened and what she intends to do, Felicia is shocked to the core at the news of Beths potential paternity, and of Marius' part in everything. She tells Steffy that she wants to be at the meeting with her, because she doesn't want her to be ambushed, and she intends to have her back. An extremely grateful Steffy agrees, right now she's so on the edge she feels like she's injected a quadruple expresso directly into her veins, but she knows that this meeting is something she must do – Mother to Mother.
After a brief knock her and Felicia walked into Marius' office to find him and his family awaiting them.
She looked at everyone briefly, noting the varying degrees of curiosity on everyone's face, bar Antonio, he just looks angry, and suspicious.
"Thank you all for coming," she said, as the walk to the centre of the room where Steffy faces Cat.
"Who is this," asked Antonio, a clear edge to his voice as he look at Felicia.
"This! As you so eloquently put it, is Felicia," said Felicia pointing to herself with a raised eyebrow. "And she just happens to be Steffi's aunt."
Antonio's eyes narrowed, "And what may I ask are you doing here?"
"Probably the same reason you are, Steffy is my niece, my family, and I'm just here to make sure that no-one bullies or browbeats her while she says what she wants to say." She said with a challenging half smile directed straight at Antonio.
He frowned at her, totally taken aback by her confrontational attitude, but before he could say another word Cat said, "Enough father, Miss Forrester wanted us here for a reason." She raised her hand, palm open, "please continue Miss Forrester."
Steffy nodded, "Thank you, and it's Steffy, please.
"Cat" said Caterina, as she heard her father snort of annoyance in the background.
"I invited you here to explain some things that you may not know about, things that I think you should." She said looking directly into Cats eyes.
"Firstly, as Marius may have told you, I am the original woman who adopted Beth, I named her Phoebe, after my twin sister who I lost several years ago. I had already divorced Liam Spencer, and Hope was already over four months pregnant when my daughter Kelly was born."
At the looks of disgust around the room Steffy shrugged fatalistically, "Yeah, tell me about it."
"Anyway, after a few months I decided I would love for my daughter to have the same bond that Phoebe and I have, a bond that is so special between twins, or children that are close in age, so I decided to adopt. I put in my application and went through the home visits etc that are expected by the authorities, that's when Doctor Buckingham came to town. He made friends with my mother, and one night, a day after Hope lost her daughter, he told my mother he'd come across a child that a young unmarried mother had decided to put up for adoption."
Steffy took a deep brief as the memories began to resurface for her. "I believed everything he told me, and so did mum, he was a highly respected Doctor, and he had all of the official documents that I had Carter, my lawyer go over meticulously. Everything was in order, they were all perfect."
She snorted contemptuously, "He even had a young woman that he said was the babies "mother" come around to inspect my house, and myself, to make sure she was doing the right thing, and that I'd give her a loving home."
Steffy raised a hand to her mouth and blinked several times as she felt tears threatening.
"Steffy, are you okay? Do you want a break?" asked Felicia quickly.
"Let her continue," snapped Antonio impatiently.
"Will you just shut up for a moment!" snapped Felicia right back at him.
Marius and Bastion stared between their father and Felicia in surprise, it wasn't often anyone stood up to their father, and both, although enthralled with Steffi's story, were equally enthralled at the by-play between their father and Steffi's aunt, who was now glowering in Antonio's direction.
"No, I'm fine, it's just been a while since I thought about this, and what happened still hurts, to a surprising degree."
"Please, continue," said Cat gently.
"As you know, we paid the adoption fee agreed upon between my mother and Doctor Buckingham, and Phoebe became my little girl. Hope used to visit quite a bit, after losing her baby she became very attached to Phoebe, pouring all her love onto her, to what I thought was becoming, a dangerous degree, so I had to take some measures to cut her time back with her. Anyway, to cut a long story short, life was good, until the day I came home to find Phoebe missing, and Liam sitting on my couch. He explained to me about what Buckingham had done, and that Phoebe was really Beth."
She dashed a tear from her eye and took a deep breath, "They just took her, they didn't even give me a chance to say goodbye! Liam had said they had proof, and that the mother, who just happened to be Hopes cousin, had confessed to everything."
She stopped for a moment, the pain on her face clear to everyone, even Antonio.
"He took my child and just left me there, broken, destroyed. The only reason I was even able to go on was my other daughter Kelly, she needed me, so I survived, for her. At the time I didn't know what to do, whether to fight it or not, as the proof seemed irrefutable, a couple of days later Liam dropped over and said they'd had a DNA test and it confirmed everything. And that was the last I saw of my daughter for the next few months until Liam brought her over unbeknownst to Hope, so she could visit both me and Kelly."
Steffy reached out and took Cats hands in her own.
"I needed you to know this, as one mother to another. Cat. Your daughter was loved! I loved her with every fibre of my being! And as much as I loathe Hope, I know she and Liam adored her too."
Cat started to cry before she drew Steffy into a hug.
"Thank you, Steffy. You have no idea how much I needed to hear that! And I'm so sorry for what happened to you. No-one deserves that type of pain!"
Steffy gave her a watery smile, absently brushing tears from her eyes as she stepped back from the younger woman.
"Thank you, Cat, that means a lot, especially from you."
"So where may I find this cousin of Hope Spencers, the one who pretended to be the mother of Caterina's child?" Asked Antonio in a low dangerous tone.
"Flo? Unfortunately, she died a few weeks ago," said Felicia. "She'd had a huge fight with Hope and was extremely upset, so she decided to go and see her fiancée, Wyatt Spencer. There was a major collision on the freeway on the way over, she didn't make it"
Antonio frowned, as if Flo dying had been done to deliberately annoy him.
"Look, I've said what I've needed to, what I think you needed to hear. I think it's time I left you and your family to talk if you wish." Said Steffy turning to leave.
Cat grabbed her hand one last time.
"Thank you, Steffy. I know that wasn't easy for you, but from the bottom of my heart, thank you!"
Steffy smiled and turned to Felicia -who was still casting Antonio irritated looks, and together they left.
As the door closed Cat took a deep breath and smiled at her family.
"She has been loved! My baby has been loved!"