Tuesday, October 30, 2007, Episode #5177

Brooke assures Ridge that he's where he belongs.

Brooke and Ridge continue to cuddle in her bed after making love as they talk about their future. After remembering how they used to walk on the beach together, they agree that even though they both mistakes, they've waited a lifetime to get where they are now. Ridge points out that they should be together for R.J. and Hope's sake, too, but Brooke admits that she knows that he doesn't want to hurt Ashley. Ridge agrees that hurting Ashley and her daughter Abby is the last thing he wanted to do. Meanwhile, Ashley returns from Paris and arrives at her beach house. After checking in with Abby, who's in Genoa City with her dad, and confirming how Ashley's brother Jack is - he was almost buried alive after an accident on "The Young and the Restless" - Ashley calls Ridge to tell him she's back. She asks if he can come over, telling him that they have the house to themselves. Ridge tells her that he'll be right there. Ridge sighs as he hangs up the phone. Brooke tells him that it's OK for him to go over, since she has to pick up the kids anyway. "I know this is hard for you," she assures him, "but this is where you belong."

Ridge tells Ashley that he's sorry.

Ashley puts a bottle of champagne that she brought back from Paris on ice and anxiously waits for Ridge. When he arrives, she rushes to kiss him, but when she notices his cool response, she knows something is up. Ridge tells her that he is so very sorry. Ashley concedes that she gave him an ultimatum and challenged him to confront his true feelings before she left, so he obviously did what she asked. Still, she hopes he doesn't expect her to wish him and Brooke the best. Ridge states that she has every right to be furious. Ashley wonders if she really does. She recalls how everyone warned her about his history with Brooke, but he was so persuasive that she believed in him. Ridge admits that he believed in her, too, and he really wanted a life with her and Abby. But Brooke's rape changed that, Ashley fumes, feeling like a fool for believing she could have a future with him. She sobs that she even took their wedding invitations to Paris to mail, so they would have a Paris postmark (not mentioning that Rick pointed out on the plane home that she didn't actually mail them). She then recalls how she walked in on Brooke, who had mistakenly tried on the engagement ring Ridge bought for Ashley and thought it was for her. "She was right," Ashley muses, "you were hers all along."

Ashley gets upset after hearing Ridge's news.

Ridge assures Ashley that he really loved her. Ashley weeps that she thought he did, and Abby did, too, and she recalls how thrilled Abby was to have Ridge for a stepfather. Ridge says the three of them can still spend time together, but Ashley tells him that when he walks out that door, he's walking away from her and Abby for good. Ridge asks if there is anything he can do. "You can be happy," she replies, insisting that she'll be fine. But she admits that she's worried about him, since he and Brooke have tried to build a life together so many times, only to fail. Ridge tells her that it's different now, since he and Brooke have changed, and since his mother's out of the picture now. Still, Ashley suggests, there is always something going on with Brooke, like her attraction to Nick. Ridge admits that in all the years he;s loved Brooke, things have happened to split them apart, but he really thinks that this time, it's going to be forever for the two of them. Ashley hopes that's true. Ridge tells her that she's an exceptional woman; Ashley takes the champagne bottle from the ice bucket and tells him to leave. Once Ridge is gone, Ashley sits down on the couch and cries.

Katie tells Brooke about their sister and Eric.

Katie arrives at Brooke's and tells her sister that she noticed when she drove by earlier and saw that Ridge was there, so she didn't come in and instead went to hang out with Thorne. Speaking of Thorne, Brooke guesses that Katie likes the younger Forrester son. Katie admits that she does, although it feels weird to have her with Thorne, Brooke back with Ridge and Donna sleeping with Ridge and Thorne's fath... She tries to stop herself, but Brooke hears what she said. The two sisters agree that if they were both shocked to learn about Eric and Donna, they can only fear for their sister when Stephanie finds out.

Donna is surprised to find Stephanie in Eric's office.

Donna enters Eric's office and sees his office chair facing the wall. Seeing a patch of grey hair sticking up above the chair, she assumes it's Eric and asks him what happened with him and his witch of a wife, so she's shocked when the chair spins around and Stephanie is sitting there. Donna reminds Stephanie that she's not welcome here. According this this agreement, anyway, Stephanie notes, holding up the sales agreement Nick and Eric signed. She admits that Donna was quite clever to get the clause about Eric divorcing her into the agreement, but Donna assures her that Nick was the one who came up with that idea, to get Stephanie out of the company forever. Even so, Stephanie scoffed, the clause is unenforceable, and Nick probably knew that. Donna contends that Eric is a man of his word and will follow up on his promise to Nick and Jackie. Stephanie laughs at the idea that Jackie would trust Eric after all the times Eric has lied to her. Donna counters that Eric only married Stephanie as one of Felicia's dying wishes, but Stephanie quips that a girl who went after a married man when his wife went away is hardly one to talk. Donna retorts that Stephanie only left to escape Eric and Ridge's wrath for what she did to Brooke, but Stephanie insists that she didn't do anything to Brooke. Donna counters that there wouldn't have been a rape had Stephanie butted out, although she finds it ironic that the rape brought Brooke and Ridge back to each other.