Your Update Link: Whatever It Takes, Part 9
Hey — I’m delaying the site move a day so tomorrow’s flash fiction will be posted here, and I’ll start posting at the new address on Friday. My sister asked me to babysit for an hour today, and I want to make sure I still finish writing Mad World — that’s obviously more important. So just to be on the safe side, I’m going to start the big part of the move tomorrow. If you’re not sure what I mean, please check out yesterday’s post.
Written in 26 minutes. No time for edits.
Elizabeth found Patrick Drake in his usual spot at General Hospital—in his office, scribbling on a patient’s chart and in a state of general irritation with anyone he didn’t think was as smart as he was.
“Hey, you.”
Patrick glanced up, ready to snarl at whomever was interrupting him—then his handsome face exploded into a grin. He shoved back from his desk and enveloped her in a hug. “Hey! What are you doing here?”
“I came to town for the funeral,” Elizabeth said, hugging him back, grateful for an uncomplicated, friendly face. She’d always liked Justus—but she could tell he was still gravitating towards Jason and that side of the fence.
Patrick Drake would always be on Elizabeth’s side. He’d been like a brother to her since he and Steven had completed their internship together at General Hospital and planned a takeover of the entire place — Steven would take over for their grandfather as Chief of Staff and Patrick would make the surgery department the best in the country—and Elizabeth would run the nursing program.
How quaint those dreams seemed now.
“Really?” Patrick lifted his brows as he drew back and gestured for her to sit on the sofa in his office. “I didn’t think you and Carly were that close.”
“We weren’t, but she was kind last year,” Elizabeth said simply. “And I wanted to check on Michael. I wasn’t sure if…” She bit her lip and looked at her hands. “I didn’t know if anyone would be able to find Jason.”
“Right.” Patrick leaned back against the arm. “Is he back, too?”
“Yeah. He is. Um, nothing—don’t worry. I’m not stupid about it,” she said. “Nothing’s changed. I know why he left, why he stayed out of touch, but it honestly doesn’t change much for me, you know?”
“Because he still left.” Patrick nodded. “What does Steven think?”
Elizabeth frowned at him. “He—I haven’t—” She cleared her throat. “That’s why I’m here, Patrick. Because I haven’t heard from Steven in a week. I came down to find out what’s going on. I called the hospital and he hasn’t been here either—”
Patrick frowned, tipping his head. “Well, no, he took some time off two weeks ago. But maybe that didn’t get down the grapevine.” He grimaced. “But—maybe that explains the message he left me a few days ago—”
“A few—” Elizabeth reached out, grabbed his wrist. “What do you mean? What did he say? How long ago exactly?”
“Wednesday,” Patrick told her. “He left me a voicemail in the middle of the night, telling me to send you back to Boston. I didn’t—I didn’t think about it much. I had two surgeries that day, and I thought Steven was with you. He said he was taking time to deal with family stuff, and you’re the only family he gives a damn about.”
Patrick got to his feet and went over to his desk to get his phone, then hesitated. He looked at her. “He never came to see you?”
“No. And if he left a message on Wednesday—he was still alive.” Elizabeth felt something release inside of her. “Oh, God. Thank God. I was so scared—no one else has even heard from him since Carly was found—but you talked to him—” Patrick had heard from her brother the day before yesterday—
“Why would he come to see me?” Elizabeth asked. “I was planning to come here in a week or so. For, um…” She twisted her wedding ring. “My divorce is almost final, and I wanted to clean out Lily’s room.”
“Right.” Patrick exhaled slowly, then went to sit behind his desk. “It’s been a year already. It doesn’t seem that way, you know?” He was quiet for a moment. “You know, Steven must have been thinking about it, though. He was trying to find the doctor who delivered her.”
Elizabeth frowned. “What—no—why? Why would—”
“I don’t know. Maybe—you know, Dr. Quartermaine is thinking of retiring soon, and Steven should be stepping up. I know he was thinking of quitting the moonlighting he was doing for Sonny. He only stayed for you. Maybe he was just…tying up loose ends.”
“Patrick—why would he need to find Kelly? She still works—” When Patrick met her eyes, Elizabeth’s throat tightened. “Kelly doesn’t work here?” Elizabeth had left the hospital the year earlier, unable to continue working in the place where her daughter had died.
“No. Kelly left about a month after you did. I always figured because she blamed herself. It—it was a rough delivery. You know—or maybe you don’t. You were hurt, too, and you needed surgery. I think Kelly blamed herself—maybe she went too fast—something she did—” Patrick sighed.
Elizabeth couldn’t breathe. “How could she blame herself?” she asked softly. “Lily—she was stillborn. She was—she was gone before I came to the hospital—”
None of this was making sense. Kelly had told her—
“I—” Patrick grimaced. “Maybe I’m remembering it wrong. But the paperwork I saw—Lily died a few hours later. While you were in surgery—”
“No! Jason told me he—” Elizabeth slapped a hand on his desk, forcing him to look at her. “Jason saw her. I have a photograph of her—” Her voice broke. “Jason or Steven—or Emily—someone would known she lived that long—”
“Okay, okay—” Patrick held up his hands. He turned to his computer. “Let me look it up. I can just—” He frowned.
Elizabeth darted around the desk to see the monitor and her heart sank. Because Patrick had been wrong. “See, it says it there,” she gestured. “Stillborn.”
“Yeah—but—” Patrick shook his head. “Wait—wait—” He typed a few more keys. “No—no, this isn’t right. How—”
He scowled and got to his feet. “Come on, let’s go downstairs to the file room. Where we keep the paper files.”
“Patrick, what are you looking for?” Elizabeth demanded. “What’s wrong?”
“Just—” He walked out of the offie, and she scurried after him, surprised when he took the steps.
“Damn it, wait—”
She caught up to him two floors later, her shorter legs making it harder to match his longer stride. He was already in the archives, searching for the right cabinet. “Patrick—”
He pulled out the file, then scowled. “This is wrong. The blood type doesn’t match—and—there’s no—there’s no cause of death. Or time of death.”
Elizabeth stared at him, her breathing catching in her throat. “I don’t—I don’t understand.”
“This file doesn’t say anything about Lily’s death,” Patrick muttered. He gave her the file, then looked in another cabinet. “Here—I knew I remembered—another baby was born that day—” He pulled out the file. “This baby was born stillborn, due to placenta previa. The placenta separated and the baby lost too much oxygen.”
He stared it for a long moment, swallowing hard before looking up at her. “Two babies born that day, both delivered by Kelly Lee. A stillborn and a live baby girl. I remember—I knew Lily had been alive. You were in surgery, Jason was getting stitched up, and the PCPD grabbed them—Steven took that picture of Lily, but she wasn’t dead in that photo, Elizabeth. She was alive. He wanted you to see her—”
“But—”
“But then she died,” Patrick continued. “And I guess—I never asked. I never talked to Steven about it, and we didn’t talk about Lily. You know?”
Elizabeth pressed her fist to her mouth. “Patrick. Patrick, is my little girl alive?”
——
At the penthouse, Jason shoved the door open, so irritated and frustrated from his meeting with Emily that he didn’t notice he wasn’t alone in the penthouse.
Across the room, sprawled out on the ground—lay the still form of Sonny Corinthos.
Your Update Links: Desperate Measures, Part 9 & Darkest Before the Dawn, Part 5
Hey! I’m starting the move to the domain today, so it’s important that you guys read this update in case you have any questions about how it’s going to work and if there’s anything you need to do as visitors.
It turns out that moving the WordPress installation from one address to another is both simple and difficult. It’s simple in that there are only a few steps. It’s difficult because I have to do them in a specific order to prevent data loss and minimize downtime. I also have to do a lot of clean up after words to make sure all my internal links are corrected.
As you can see — most of what you guys need to do is just update book marks and be patient. Other than that, it’s on me to take my time and do everything right the first time. I’m excited to make this move — I never thought CG would be big enough or active enough to warrant its own domain or I would have made the move back in 2014 when I reopened. That’s largely because of you guys — without you, I wouldn’t still be writing about this couple in 2020. #Liason20 as a great celebration, but I have a feeling #Liason21 is going to be even better —
And I’m kicking it off with daily flash fiction updates from August 1-August 24 to make sure all current flash fiction series are finished before I scale back the updates during the school year. I’ll see you guys tomorrow!
Written in 21 minutes. No time for rereading or typos.
Jason wasn’t entirely sure what was happening with Elizabeth.
A few months ago, it had seemed clearer. His marriage was breaking up, and he was reconnecting with her—remembering the son they’d shared, regretting how he’d handled things with Sam.
Then he’d kissed her that day on the bridge, starting stopping by her house, spending time with her and her boys. He’d saved her from Ewan Keenan, the crazy doctor who had helped Jerry Jacks poison the town through the water system. Since then—it was different.
And standing in front of her, in his penthouse, the place where they’d reconnected six years ago and created a little life that hadn’t survived—where he’d proposed to her twice—Jason knew she was calling his bluff.
Elizabeth fully expected him to step back again—like he had after the bridge, like he had a thousand other times in their long history. For too many years, he’d stepped back.
Run away.
“I am the Queen of Regrets,” she’d said with a smirk the night he’d saved her life. “And you can be the King.”
He didn’t want that anymore.
So Jason did what he knew she didn’t expect. He stepped forward, took the strap of her purse between two fingers and slid it off her bare shoulder. “You know where the stereo is.”
Elizabeth blinked at him, her breath caught in her throat, and then she searched his eyes for a moment—as if trying to figure out what he was thinking.
“Or did you change your mind?” Jason asked. He set the purse on the desk, next to his keys. He lifted a brow.
“No.” She bit her lip. “That’s what you do.” Elizabeth wandered over to the shelf by the stairs and glanced at the old stereo that had been sitting for years. She didn’t even wait for his reaction—
Because he knew what she was thinking. What she was remembering. He’d never had any trouble remembering their history or the moments that should have changed his life.
They were standing nearly in the same spot where he’d asked her to marry him the last time. And she’d looked so scared, so excited—and she’d said yes.
And then he’d promised not back out.
He swallowed hard as she finally found a station and turned it on low. Then Elizabeth came back to stand in front of him.
Making him choose. Leaving it up to him.
So Jason stepped forward, took her arms and slid them around his neck, his fingers trailing down her bare skin as he settled them around her waist. He didn’t hear the lyrics, didn’t even really register the music.
Only the way she looked up at him, at her eyes, and the way it felt to have her back in his arms—wondering why he’d ever let her go.
They swayed there, barely even dancing, barely even breathing. He couldn’t have said how long it was until the song she’d found drifted from a slow ballad to something more upbeat and rock.
Elizabeth started to pull away, started to break eye contact, but Jason tugged her back and bent his head to brush his lips against hers. Her mouth parted beneath his, and then she kissed him back.
For only a moment before she jerked back, then nearly flew away from him, standing by the sofa, her eyes large on her face.
“Should I apologize?” Jason asked roughly, his stomach rolling with worry. Had he ruined everything? Should he have just let her go home?”
“N-No.” Elizabeth took a deep breath, closed her eyes, then shook her head. “No. But I can’t— Ican’t do this again.”
“Elizabeth—”
“I love—I love being around you,” she told him. “But you—” Elizabeth bit her lip, looked away. “You just finalized your divorce. And the last time—” She straightened and seemed to find her strength. “The last time we were here, in this position, you walked away from me. And the family you told me you wanted.”
“I know—it was a mistake—”
“You didn’t want it with me,” she continued, her eyes glimmering with tears. Tears that felt like a punch to his stomach. “You chose them with Sam. Less than a year later. You always—you go back to her. So I can’t—” Her voice quavered slightly. “I can’t be the second choice.”
“You’re not—” Jason took a step towards her, but Elizabeth lifted her hand to stop him from coming any closer.
“I am. Right now. Because we’re spending a lot of time together, you know? And it’s great. I don’t want to lose that. Every time we do this, and we fail, I lose you again. And I’m—” A tear slid down her cheek. “I’m not strong enough to do it again. Please.”
He let his hands fall to his side. “You’re stronger than you think,” Jason said softly. “But okay. I won’t—we’ll just—we’ll just put this away.” Again.
“Okay.” She wrapped her arms aroud herself. “And I’m sorry—I know I was probably sending you mixed signals—”
“You weren’t—”
“I was,” she insisted. Elizabeth closed her eyes, took a deep breath. “The truth is that I am always going to be in love with you. And I’m sure—I’m sure that, in some way, it’s the same for you. I’m willing to accept that. I just—I’m not sure it’s enough. Not after the last time we went through with this.”
“I know.”
“And I also know—I can even accept that it was circumstances—you know, the world around us. We let it ruin things. What happened with Michael, then the Zaccharas, and the Russians—we let it mess things up. You walked away, and I let you go.” Elizabeth walked past him to pick up her purse.
He turned to face her as she walked towards the door. “You walked away from me once, too,” he reminded her. “I let you go.”
“Twice.” A hint of a smile. “We’ve both walked away twice. You left town, then I wouldn’t leave Lucky.”
“And you left after Sonny—”
“And then you left after Russians.” Elizabeth exhaled. “I’m not walking away, this time, Jason. We’re not going down this road. Not again. Not now.”
“And I’m not letting you go. Not again. Not now,” he repeated softly. “I’ll walk you out.”
Written in 23 minutes. No time for typos or edits.
When Jason checked on Elizabeth ten minutes later, she was curled up on her side and fast asleep. Relieved she was going to get some rest, Jason left the door partially ajar so he’d hear her if she woke up. Then he checked on Jake and Aiden, who were still asleep. They’d been out about four hours at this point, so he knew they’d be waking soon.
He hoped Elizabeth was ready to talk to them — Jason really didn’t know how much they should know or what to do next.
“Cameron,” Jason said when he came back into the living room. “Why don’t you take the other bed in Jake’s room?” he said. He sat down next to him as Diane put away her notepad. “Jake and Aiden are sharing the bottom bunk. You can take the top.”
“I couldn’t—” Cameron shook his head. “I can’t sleep.”
“That’s what your mother said,” Jason said. “She laid down and now she’s asleep. Come on. You need to rest.”
“Just lay down for a few hours,” Diane told him. “I need to contact the PCPD anyway.” They all got to their feet as Cameron reluctantly nodded. “I had them cancel the APB when you picked up the boys, but we’ll need to figure out what to tell them. And if you’re pulled in for questioning, Cameron, I want you alert.”
Cameron scrubbed his hands over his face, then nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, okay.” He looked at Jason, hesitant. “You’re sure Mom is sleeping?”
“Yeah, I am. I’m here if she wakes up. I’m not going anywhere,” Jason promised. Even though he knew he should check in with Sonny, Jason didn’t plan to leave this apartment until he was confident Elizabeth and the boys were okay.
“All right.” Cameron nodded. “All right. I’ll try to get—or at least I’ll be there if Jake or Aiden wake up.” His voice trembled slightly on those last words. “What—what do I say to them?”
“I don’t know,” Jason admitted. “We’ll—we’ll deal with it when we have to.”
He watched Cameron disappear down the hallway, then heard the bedroom door gently close a moment later. Jason looked back at Diane. “What do you think?”
“I think we might run into a few problems because of Elizabeth’s actions after it happened,” Diane admitted. “She sent the boys away before Franco was murdered in her kitchen. That looks guilty. Like she got rid of them to finish the job.”
“She didn’t—”
“You and I know that, Jason, but they already matched her fingerprints to the knife. Now, we have a great case for self-defense with Cameron’s statement. We can argue that Elizabeth came back in to call the police but was attacked again—except—”
“She doesn’t remember anything. But—someone else was there, Diane.” He rubbed the back of his neck, trying to sort through his thoughts. “Who?”
“Well, I’ve been thinking about that,” Diane said, slowly. Her dark eyes met his. “And you’re not going to like my answer.”
Jason frowned at her. “Diane?”
“The list of people who hate Franco? Endless.” Diane shrugged. “The list of people who wanted Franco dead? Nearly as long.”
“I know, but—”
“But—and hear me out—we have two possibilities. One — Franco went to the house last night with a partner. A look out. Or Two, someone followed Franco there, and took their opportunity to get rid of Franco and frame Elizabeth.”
Neither of those possibilities were good ones. Jason sat back down, clasped his hands between his knees and looked at her. “You have someone in mind.”
“I do.” Diane perched at the edge of the chair and studied him. “Franco has very few friends in this town—that probably does not surprise you. There’s Ava Jerome. Her daughter, Kiki. And his father, Scott.”
Jason hesitated. “I don’t know Kiki that well, but I can’t—I can’t see Ava or Scott helping Franco—”
“Really?” Diane lifted her brows. “You don’t think Ava Jerome would do something like this? You really haven’t been here that long—”
“I know she’s capable of violence,” Jason said flatly. “But everything Sonny and Carly told me happened more than a year ago. The woman I know risked her life to help me escape. I don’t see her turning around and putting kids in danger, putting Elizabeth in danger, to help Franco attack her.” He shook his head. “No.”
“Fair enough. She wasn’t on my list either.” Diane tipped her head. “And I agree with you about Scott. So that’s possibility one out of the way. Which means we need someone who hated Franco enough to kill him as well as someone who didn’t mind Elizabeth and her family being terrorized. Didn’t mind Elizabeth paying for his murder.”
Jason stared at Diane for a long moment, then shook his head again. He shoved himself off the sofa with another shake of his head. “No.”
“I don’t enjoy this possibility either, Jason, but the list of people who do not like Elizabeth? I can count that on my hand and skip fingers. There are two people in this town that activey dislike her. And only one of them has a history of terrorizing her.”
Jason dipped his head, took a long breath. “It can’t be here. She wouldn’t—”
“Wouldn’t do what, Jason? Watch as Jake was kidnapped?” Diane sighed. “Hire men to scare Elizabeth and her children with guns? You haven’t even been here long enough to know what Sam could do. She also had an illness last year that—well, she tried to kill Sonny and almost killed Drew. She’s supposed to be in recovery from that—” She shook her head. “I’m sorry, Jason. But unless you can think of someone else that hates Franco and Elizabeth the way Sam does—”
“It could just be opportunity,” Jason said roughly. “Someone who wanted Franco dead and didn’t care—”
“That’s true,” Diane allowed. “That brings us back to a very long list of suspects. I suppose we’ll have to see how this turns out. But let me—” Jason looked at her sharply and she held up her hands. “Let me just ask Spinelli to look into Sam quietly. I know she left town a few weeks ago, when Drew filed for divorce. Let me just make sure she’s where she’s supposed to be and hasn’t left.”
Jason finally nodded, then sighed. “Yeah. You’re right.” He looked down the hallway where Elizabeth and her boys were sleeping. “I don’t—I can’t believe she’d do it, but it’s better to know for sure.”
——
Elizabeth only slept for another hour. Then she showered and changed into the clothes Carly had sent over. By then, Jake and Aiden had woken up and were in the living room, playing video games.
Aiden had asked a few questions about why Franco would tie them up, but Jason had managed to avoid answering them. Laura Spencer had called a few times, asking about Aiden—but Jason had, again, deflected.
When Elizabeth emerged from the bathroom, her wet hair clipped up, she looked a bit better even if there were still dark circles under her eyes.
She accepted hugs and kisses from her boys, and smiled faintly at Jason. “Thanks for making sure Cameron slept. Can—” She jerked her head towards his small kitchen. “Can we talk for a minute? Jake, Aiden, can you guys go back to your game?”
“Mommy—” Aiden began, but Jake took his brother by the shoulder.
“Sure, Mom. We’ll be right over here.”
“What’s up?” Jason asked, his voice pitched low as they stood by the sink, the furthest they could get from the boys.
“I—” She sighed. “I was in the shower—and I remembered something.” Elizabeth bit her lip. “I came back into the house—and I fell—but something hit me. And then—then I remember being dragged.”
She stared at her hand. “I tried to run,” she murmured. “Or at least crawl, but someone grabbed my hair and yanked it back. I turned over, and—I think—I saw who was there.”
Jason held his breath, searched her eyes. “Who?” he asked quietly.
“I—I don’t know. It was a woman. She was a small, but I can’t—” Elizabeth shook her head. “ I can’t bring her face—”
But she was lying. He knew it. He looked away, towards Jake, the little boy who’d been kidnapped once while she watched and knew the truth.
“It was Sam, wasn’t it?”
Written in 20 minutes. No time for edits or typos.
Elizabeth took a deep breath and stepped back from Jason. “Thank you for your advice,” she told him. “I can handle it from here—”
“Elizabeth—” Jason stepped forward, tried to grab her elbow but she smoothly evaded him and opened the door. He followed her outside. “Please–
“I have—” She closed her eyes, put up a hand to keep him away. “I have humiliated myself quite enough, Jason. Sheriff,” she corrected. It was important to remember that. He wasn’t the boy of her youth—no matter what he’d said or the letters that had been stolen—
He could have simply returned. He hadn’t.
“I feel satisfied that if Ric attempted to take legal action with custody of my child, that I am protected. My husband’s will was handled in Sacramento. I have my own copies. He can take whatever else he wants—Cameron is what matters.”
“I can help,” Jason promised her as she started across the street to the livery stables. “Let me—”
“Sheriff Scorpio said he would help us when Ric stole Cameron’s home.” Elizabeth lifted her chin. “He couldn’t. Ric has too many friends in powerful places in this county. I need—I need to leave.”
“But—”
Yes, that was the answer. She’d hoped to stay—hoped to continue her family’s legacy, her grandfather’s dream but the ranch was already lost. All she could do was start over somewhere else.
“Thank you again, Sheriff. But I don’t need you.” She met his eyes. “I can manage on my own. I always have.”
Jason flinched. “I’m sorry—”
“You have nothing to apologize for. You made the decisions that felt right to you, and now it is up to me to do the same.”
She turned her back on him to retrieve her horse and cart, and Jason finally returned to the jail.
But he couldn’t get his conversation with Elizabeth out of his mind, and the conviction that there had to be a way to stop Ric from continuing to destroy Elizabeth’s life and the lives the people around him.
When the sun had dipped behind the Sierra Nevadas and the night deputy had arrived, Jason took his hat off the post and headed back to his grandmother’s.
Lila Quartermaine had some questions to answer.
“Dearest.” Lila beamed as he entered the parlor. “I was hoping you would join me for some dinner. You remember Mrs. Barrington—” She gestured to the other elderly woman seated on the chaise.
“Sheriff,” Amanda Barrington murmured with a hint of disdain. He’d never live down his illegitimacy to some of these people, and Jason had stopped caring long ago.
“Grandmother, I can’t stay but I was hoping we could talk in private for a moment.”
“Jason, I have a guest—”
“That’s quite all right, Lila.” Amanda got to her feet. “You should deal with…” She sniffed. “His problem. I’ll see you another evening.”
She swept by Jason as if she were still swanning around the parlors of New York City, as if her family hadn’t lost most of its wealth before the gold strike.
“Jason, I hope you can explain your rude behavior,” Lila said as he strode forward, closing the parlor doors behind him.
“If you can answer a question honestly.” Jason perched on the edge of the sofa, narrowing his eyes at his indomitable grandmother. “Did you do anything to keep Elizabeth’s letters from me? Or mine from her?”
“I hardly see what relevance that has.” Lila rose to her feet and crossed to the mental. She folded her arms and stared into the fire. “It was ancient history—”
“So the answer is yes.” Jason’s stomach sank. He had trusted her—had trusted this beloved member of his family with the person he loved and Lila had let him down.
He’d let Elizabeth down by trusting the wrong people.
“Jason—”
“If you don’t tell me what happened, I will leave this town and never come back,” Jason told her bluntly. “And Dillon will be all that’s left.”
Lila pursed her lips. “That’s a terrible thing to threaten an old woman.” She squared her shoulders. “Jeffrey Webber told me that he found you to be an unsuitable husband for his daughter. I disagreed, of course. You might not have been born in wedlock, but the Quartermaines were certainly better than the Webber or Hardys.”
“Grandmother—”
“And when I refused to help him keep you two apart, he made sure I regretted it. He had been your grandfather’s doctor, you know. He refused to come to see Edward when he had his last—” Lila pressed her fingers to her lips. “He refused to see to Edward. Dr. Lewis did what he could, but the delay—your grandfather never recovered fully. He remained weakened .”
“I—” Jason swallowed. “But—”
“I was going to write you. To demand you come home and take care of this. To—to help.” Lila met his eyes. “But then Richard Lansing came to the house. And he showed me—”
She closed her eyes. “Somehow he had a copy of a mortgage. He said our bank accounts were empty. That he owned my house. And that the only way I could have the money restored in the bank was to…was to tell Elizabeth what I needed to tell her.”
Jason clenched his fists. Ric had tormented his family? What hadn’t anyone told him?
“I—I knew how you felt about her of course, and I thought, well I’ll tell him but I’ll tell you the truth. But then—he told me he owned shared in the railroad you had signed on with—that he could arrange to assign you to the—” Lila’s lips pursed. “To work with the Chinese. Blowing up tunnels, doing the worst of the work—he’d put you on the front. And he could do that before I could reach you.”
Jason remembered the two years he’d worked on the railroads in Northern California, and the Chinese workers with the company had been the most dangerous and lethal jobs—many had died. Ric had threatened to kill him.
“Grandmother—”
“He just—he wanted me to tell Elizabeth that you’d married someone else.” Lila swallowed hard. “And I did. I’m so sorry, darling—”
“When—” Jason stared at her. “When did you tell her? How?”
“Elizabeth had come to me shortly after Alexander and Peter had died. It was a terrible time—she wanted to send a letter to you. She’d written you for the first time in a few months—apparently, she had given up but their deaths had, I supposed, encouraged her to reach out again. She wanted to send a second one with my letters, to make sure it reached you.”
“And you told her—”
“That you had married someone else nearly a year earlier. That you’d…” Lila looked ghastly as she finished her statement. “That you must have forgotten her because you’d never asked about her. Not even once.”
Your Update Link: Darkest Before the Dawn, Part 4
Hope everyone’s weekends are going well and that those of you who celebrate Independence Day had a safe celebration. I spent a little time with my nieces and nephews (and had to wrestle the four year old into clothes because he’s a big fan of just wandering out naked, lol) but I got a lot of work done yesterday! I told you I was going to spend the weekend thinking about what I had written and planning the rest of the story. I have some great stuff planned for second half of the novel and will be getting back into writing again tomorrow. Today, I’m going to finalize the chapter breakdown for the next group of chapters.
In other news, this week, I’m also prepping for the move to the new domain. I haven’t updated the Recent Updates page with last week’s posts because I don’t want to create more links to fix. Because I’ll have a redirect, none of the links will actually be broken, it’ll just send you to the CG home page. I’m going to try to make the move as painless as possible. Crimson Glass might be down for a day this week — a few hours at most while I download the files, reupload them, and change links. I won’t do it until the afternoon due to Flash Fiction, so I’ll warn you the day I make the move.
Written in 22 minutes. No time for edits or typo checks.
Elizabeth knocked on the door to Jason’s penthouse, then nervously ran a hand down the front of her dress.
This was not a date.
Jason pulled open the door and offered her a grin. “Hey—sorry—I’m running late.” He stepped back to let her walk through the front door, and Elizabeth arched her brow as he grabbed a tie from the back of the chair and wound it around his neck. “I got back late from the warehouse.”
“Oh, it’s fine. It took me longer than I thought to drop Cameron and Aiden with Patrick.” She wrinkled her nose, thinking of the third-degree her best friend had given her about today.
This was not a date, she’d told Patrick with exasperation. Just two friends attending the same event.
An event to which she hadn’t been invited, Patrick had reminded her with that irritating smirk. She was Jason’s date.
Guest, Elizabeth had thrown back at him, but now she was flustered because why had Jason invited her in the first place? It wasn’t like he couldn’t go alone—Carly would be there.
With Johnny Zacchara, her boyfriend—
“What’s going through your head right now?” Jason asked as he knotted the tie. He still had that sparkle in his eye—the one that told her he was teasing her.
She liked seeing that—liked remembering how nice it was that they were friends again, like they had been in the beginning. Jason had teased her all the time back then—
“Oh, nothing.” She played with the strap of her tiny purse. “Just thinking about something at the hospital.”
“Uh huh.” Jason grabbed his suit jacket and put it on. “Let’s get this over with,” he said, with a grimace.
“Oh, come on, it’s a wedding.” Elizabeth rolled her eyes as she followed Jason out the door and towards the elevator. “And Sonny and Kate deserve this. I mean, they’ve worked so hard to get back here.” And she would absolutely not mention where she and Jason had been in their relationship when Sonny and Kate’s first wedding had ended tragically.
She’d been left waiting at an airport gate, so close to their dream trip. She should have known better.
They stepped onto the elevator. “I know. But the Haunted Star?”
Elizabeth made a face. “I know. It doesn’t really seem like Kate, does it? And it guarantees Carly will bring Johnny. Anywhere else, she might have left him home.”
“No, she wouldn’t have. Carly lives to annoy Sonny.” He looked at her. “Thanks for coming with me. If I’m alone, Carly tries to make me have a good time.”
“We can’t have that.”
The elevator stopped at the parking garage level, and Elizabeth started towards her car but Jason took her hand and led her in the other direction.
“We’re going to a Corinthos wedding,” he told her. “Do you mind if we take the SUV?”
“The bullet proof SUV?” Elizabeth repeated. “Don’t tell me you’re expecting mayhem. I thought all of that was over—”
“It is, but it’s—” He unlocked the door with his remote. “Has Sonny ever been able to get married without something going wrong?”
“Yeah, but both those times were to Carly, so point taken.”
——
Elizabeth sighed as she watched Kate walk down the aisle towards Sonny. “She looks so happy,” she murmured to Jason, then caught Carly’s eye in the row behind them. Carly narrowed her eyes with a dirty look.
Some things would never change.
Kate reached the end of the aisle, and the guests took their seat. She could feel Jason’s tension next to her—this had been the moment in the last ceremony when Kate had been shot by Anthony Zacchara. She reached over and took his hand in hers, lacing their fingers together.
“Relax,” she said softly. Their eyes met. “It’ll be fine—”
“I’m sorry, Sonny. I can’t marry you.”
They both looked to the front of the room as Kate Howard smirked, then angled herself towards the audience. She tossed her bouquet at a stunned Maxie Jones. “I’m already married!” she declared.
“What the—”
Elizabeth heard a groan behind her and twisted in her seat just as Kate declared. “To Johnny Zacchara!”
“What?” Carly screeched. She lunged to her feet, took one look at her shame-faced boyfriend sitting next to her. “What? You just asked me to run away with you?”
“What were you saying about everything being fine?” Jason asked Elizabeth as the room exploded in chaos. She didn’t get a chance to answer him because Jason had to stop Sonny from choking Johnny Zacchara.
——
“You know, it could have been worse,” Elizabeth told Jason as they pulled the SUV back into the parking garage at the Towers. She climed out of the car and waited for him to meet her at the back of the car.
“I guess. No one died,” Jason said with a sigh. “You want to come up?”
She hesitated. Cameron and Aiden were supposed to spend the night with Patrick and Emma since she’d expected to be a wedding reception until midnight, but it was barely seven at night. And they hadn’t eaten. “Um, okay—”
“I mean, we could get dinner. Or something.” Jason slid his hands into the pockets of his dress pants. “I promised you food.”
“True.” She wrinkled her nose. “But I guess we should have known better. Going to a Corinthos-Howard wedding. Oh, wait. Falconieri. Hey, how is that going to work?” She and Jason traced their earlier steps back to the elevator. “Didn’t the Connie alter cause that car accident?”
“I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.” He pressed the button. “Sorry.”
“For what?” She smiled at him as they stepped inside and he used his key to allow for the penthouse level.
“I don’t know,” Jason replied. He shrugged. “It feels like I should apologize.”
“Well, I was looking forward to the reception.” She glanced at him under her lashes. “I bet Carly could have made you dance.”
“Uh, probably not,” Jason said with a smile and shake of his head. His lips quirked up at the sides, that light in his eyes again. “You might have though.”
“Oh—sure, you say that now when you don’t have to.” She rolled her eyes. They stepped out into the hallway of the penthouse.
“I would have,” Jason protested as they stepped into the hallway and he unlocked his door
“Fine.” Elizabeth shrugged, walked into the penthouse ahead of him and spun to face him. “Then how about right now?”
31 December 2019: Added The Next Best Thing, Part 3
30 December 2019: Added The Next Best Thing, Part 2
29 December 2019: Added The Next Best Thing, Part 1
24 December 2019: Added Bittersweet, Christmas Epilogue.
30 November 2019: Launched Crimson Glass on YouTube Channnel
11 November 2019: Completed Mad World, Chapter 49 & 50
7 November 2019: Added Mad World, Chapter 48
4 November 2019: Added Mad World, Chapter 47
31 October 2019: Added Mad World, Chapter 46
28 October 2019: Added Mad World, Chapter 45
24 October 2019: Added Mad World, Chapter 44
21 October 2019: Added Mad World, Chapter 43
17 October 2019: Added Mad World, Chapter 42
14 October 2019: Added Mad World, Chapter 41
10 October 2019: Added Mad World, Chapter 40
7 October 2019: Added Mad World, Chapter 39
3 October 2019: Added Mad World, Chapter 38
30 September 2019: Added Mad World, Chapter 37
28 September 2019: Added Untitled Flash Fiction
26 September 2019: Added Mad World, Chapter 36
23 September 2019: Added Mad World, Chapter 35
19 September 2019: Added Mad World, Chapter 34
16 September 2019: Added Mad World, Chapter 33
12 September 2019: Added Mad World, Chapter 32
9 September 2019: Added Mad World, Chapter 31
5 September 2019: Added Mad World, Chapter 30
2 September 2019: Added Mad World, Chapter 29
29 August 2019: Added Mad World, Chapter 28
26 August 2019: Added Mad World, Chapter 27
22 August 2019: Added Mad World, Chapter 26
19 August 2019: Added Mad World, Chapter 25
15 August 2019: Added Mad World, Chapter 24
12 August 2019: Added Mad World, Chapter 23
8 August 2019: Added Mad World, Chapter 22 | Added Production Schedule | Revised Crimson Glass Patreon Support Tiers
5 August 2019: Added Mad World, Chapter 21
1 August 2019: Added Mad World, Chapter 20
5 July 2019: Added Short Story, Come On Eileen.
19 June 2019: Added Flash Fiction, Surprise Visit.
9 June 2019: Added Flash Fiction, Desperate Measures – Part 2
20 May 2019: Added Death By Candlelight.
11 May 2019: Added Flash Fiction, Answer to a Prayer.
8 March 2019: Added Flash Fiction, Fool Me Twice – Part 13.
6 March 2019: Added Flash Fiction, Desperate Measures – Part 1.
