After the dark of sadness comes the glory of happiness!

It's always the same!

The next morning, Taylor and Ridge overslept and therefore they had to rush to get finished. They had arranged a hiking tour with the others and were in a hurry to get to the meeting place on time. After the feast last night, they had spontaneously decided to go dancing afterwards and had gotten home very late. A little exhausted and still tired, they finally arrived at their destination. However, they were not the last ones. Marc and Steven were not there yet. Ridge pulled Rosa along with him.

"Do me a favor please, don't mention Brooke's visit in Taylor's presence."

"You didn't tell her?" hissed Rosa softly.

"I couldn't!" Taylor just proudly presented her cover photo. "She was so happy about the article, I just couldn't tell her! I didn't want to ruin her night!"

"Okay, in some way I understand that, but still it wasn't right!"

"I promise you, I'll tell her the first chance I get."

"Hey, you two! It's the weekend, so no more whispering about work!" Taylor had come up to them and squeezed in between them.

"You're right Doc! Sorry!" He pulled her with him to join the others, Rosa looked after them shaking her head. This couldn't go well, but she had decided to stay out of it. That was Ridge's problem.

There was no opportunity for Ridge to talk to Taylor on the trip. Again they came home very late that night and were so tired and exhausted that they barely managed to brush their teeth and fall into bed. The next morning, Ridge surprised Taylor with breakfast in bed, determined to tell her the truth now. However, when Taylor began to feed him and obviously had other things on her mind than talking to him seriously, Ridge again couldn't bring himself to do it. Secretly, he calmed himself with the thought that perhaps Brooke had already left. Taylor spent Sunday afternoon at the orphanage. Ridge stayed at home alone, working on new designs. He had checked his phone; Brooke had tried to call him several times and had left him some messages, but he deleted them without listening to them first. His thoughts circled back and forth. He actually knew it wasn't right to keep this secret from Taylor, especially because it was about Brooke. On the other hand if she left quickly, then Taylor might never have to know about it. After all, it made no difference to their relationship whether Brooke was in town or not. He calmed his guilty conscience and gradually convinced himself why he should needlessly upset her.

On Monday morning, to his great annoyance, Brooke showed up at his office again.

"Hey Ridge! Why haven't you checked in with me all this time!"

"Brooke?! What are you still doing here? I told you to fly back to LA! By the way, you knew I had other plans this weekend. When are you going to realize that it's over between us! I'm with Taylor now and we are very happy. So please do me a favor and stop coming back to me all the time!"

"Oh Ridge! I know you don't mean that. After everything we've shared, you can't not care about me. I just don't believe you! You love me Ridge!" He was getting more desperate. He stepped toward her.

"Of course I care about you, you're RJ's mother and because of that you will always be a part of my life, but you have to realize, I don't want to live with you anymore." 

Brooke put her arms around his neck.

"But we were so happy together..." Hastily, Ridge tried to take her hands away. At that moment, the door opened.

"Hey sweetheart! I wanted to..." Taylor stopped, startled by the image that presented itself before her eyes. "Brooke?! What are you doing here?" Taylor had to pull herself together very hard, she was full with anger. Brooke smiled sweetly at her.