After her meeting with Felicia to tell her the good news Steffy immediately head for her office, it's time to put her next plan for the day into action.

She enters the room and immediately see's two packages on her desk waiting for her, she knows one is the lingerie that Dee has given her, but the other is a complete surprise, she finds a note attached to the top and tears it open to read.

Hey Steffy, after you left the office this morning I got to thinking and I remembered one of your fathers' collections from about nine years ago – yeah, I know, a lifetime, but you know me and my fascination with the colour purple! Anyway, I remembered this one piece that had me hooked at the time, so I rang down to the storage rooms and voila, I found it! You can thank me later, I like Whiskey – scotch, perhaps a nicely aged Glen Fiddich? Oh, and just remember, I have no sex life of my own, so I want details, copious amounts of details – I've decided I need to to live vicariously through you - if you haven't noticed :D. Love you, D

Steffy couldn't help herself, she grinned, even knowing that Dee wasn't kidding about the copious details. She'd just started to unwrap the new box when a knock at the door made her turn, it was Liam.

"Steffy!" he said as he rushed into the room; before she had a chance to react he'd taken her in his arms and pulled her into a tight hug.

"Are you alright? I came as soon as I heard, I'm here for you, if you need anything, anything at all."

Steffy blinked in surprise, this was something she hadn't expected, she looked up at her ex-husband trying to figure out what he thought she might need, that's when he got a "look" in his eyes, and before she could say a word, he pulled her back into his arms and was kissing her.

Just as she was putting her hands up to push him away, she heard a noise from the doorway, they seperated and turned, it was Marius, and he was frowning at them.

"I was just bringing you my latest design to have a look at now I've made the changes I wanted to it, but I can see you're busy so I'll come back another time."

"No, Marius wait, please" Steffy began before Liam interrupted.

"Thanks Marius, Steffy and I have got a lot to talk about." He smiled and turned to Steffy and put his fingers across her shocked, open mouth.

"You can talk about your designs later, but right now, it's time for us."

Steffy swiped his hand away from her mouth, but it was to late the damage had been done, and a frowning Marius had already turned and stalked out.

"What are you doing?" she snapped at Liam. "There is no "us" and there hasn't been for years!"

"Steffy, I . . . "

"Stop it!" she raged, "just stop it. I'm so sick of this. Honestly Liam, did you just think you'd blow Hope off like you did me, now that she's become the latest big bad in your life, and somehow you'd waltz straight back into my bed? Because if you did, you can damn well think again! We're not interchangeable!" She snapped, incensed beyond words, beyond caring!

"You left me, you hurt me beyond measure, but guess what? I moved on from you, I found Finn, and just because that didn't work out it doesn't mean you can just come smarming back into my life as if nothing has changed!"

Liam stared at Steffy open-mouthed, shocked at her vicious diatribe, still, he knew she had loved him once, and he had a plan, one he thought would open her heart to him again.

"Steffy, I know I hurt you, and, God knows, it kills me to think of the pain I put you through but, you have to know, I've never once stopped loving you, not even when I was in bed with my wife. It's you Steffy! It's always been you, even when Quinn kidnapped me and kept me away from you, it wasn't Hope I dreamed of, it was you I saw! Every night your beautiful face haunted my dreams, and it's never left – never! Steffy, if you give me the chance, I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to you, I swear. We're a family; you, Kelly, Hayes and I, we're meant to be together, and for the first time in my life, I finally realise that. Please Steffy, I beg of you, let me come home. Let me come home to you and our kids! Let us become the family we were always meant to be before Bill, Hope, and Brooke conspired to break us up," he begged earnestly, as he captured Steffi's hands in his own.

Steffy snatched her hands away from him and turned away to move towards her desk, putting some much-needed space between them before she turned and looked at him again, a sad/angry look on her face.

"Do you know what I would have given to have you say those words to me when you first decided to let your ego and sexual frustrations do the talking when we first broke up? All those years ago when you so blithely turned to Hope over me-your wife, and Kelly – your newborn daughter."

"Steffy," began Liam, before Steffy held up her hand and continued.

"No Liam, there are no excuses for what you did to both me, and your daughter! Believe it or not I'm not a fool, I realise your perfect little miss Hope would have been working on you, telling you everything you wanted, and needed to hear. Oh, I can hear her sanctimonious voice now." She said with a sneer.

"I would never betray you Liam, Steffy can never be trusted, not really, she'll never be true to you, not like me – blah, blah, blahdiddy Blah! But guess what Liam? It was you, YOU, who chose to believe her and her self-serving lies, it was YOU who chose to betray me, to betray our wedding vows, and worse, to betray our newborn daughter. And why? Because, to put it crudely, you were horny, and your perfect Hope was offering it up free to you, always there, always waiting, always ready, so you went for it." She snorted in disgust.

"So NO, Liam, I won't ever be even considering re-awakening our relationship again, because if there's one thing that being married to Finn taught me, it's that you have no loyalty, not to me, and not to Hope. And despite your pretty pleas of love that I once might have fell for, I'm a different woman now. I'm stronger, more resilient, and for the first time in my life, I've decided to go after what I really want, not what I think would, or could, be right for me."

"Please Steffy, I'm sorry, I can't tell you how much I regret what I did, how I hurt you," Liam begged.

"No Liam, your more upset that you can't just slip back into bed with me again, this isn't about you being upset for what you did to us, or, God forbid, for what you did to me. This is all about you being upset for YOU, and what YOU lost because of what you did! Well guess what? You made that choice and now you have to live with it." She snorted in derision as she looked at the man she had once loved.

"The funny thing is, I wouldn't be surprised if you ran straight back to Hope and forgave her, now that I've rejected your advances! Why? because it's what you do! In fact, I'm betting on it! It's what you always do, running between the two of us every time one of us disappoints you, or fails to live up to the standards you set us. Standards, I might add, that you never apply to yourself! Well guess what Liam? I'm over it, it took me a long time, but I finally managed to rip you our of my heart, and I'll be damned if I'm ever going to let you back in, not that way, not as a potential lover – never again, you had your chance, now . . . we're done!"

Liam staggered back as if struck.

"Steffy, you can't mean that, please, I love you."

Steffy raised her eyebrows in disbelief.

"Please leave Liam, I have things to do, and we have nothing more to say to one another."

Liam took a deep breath, "you're wrong about me Steffy, and I'll prove it, no matter how long it takes, no matter what I have to do, I'll win you back!"

He took a step towards her, but at her angry, outraged glare he simply turned and left, shutting the door behind him as he went.

Steffy slumped against her desk, tears in her eyes. Although she had meant every word she had said, it was still incredibly sad to her. She had just closed the door on her old life, on her old dream. After a few minutes of pure melancholy, she noticed the unopened box still sitting on the desk where she'd left it.

She straightened up again, "Time for a new dream, and to fix this disaster, if I can."

After opening the box and peering closely at the contents she smiled and murmured softly.

"Thanks Dee."