Written in 21  minutes. No time for eidts.

---

Cameron jumped off the sofa to follow his mother, but Jason stopped him — holding his hand up. “Wait, just give her a minute.”

“But—”

“Hey.” Jason looked at teen’s wild eyes, saw the fatigue and worry there. He’d been through more in the last ten hours than any sixteen-year-old boy deserved. “Do me a favor. Talk Diane through any questions or details she has. She’ll be your lawyer, too, if it comes to that.”

“I just—my mom—”

“I’ll take care of it.” Jason scowled when he heard a knock at his door. He didn’t miss the Towers and their highly secured lobby often, but on days like this— “Wait here.”

He strode across the room and threw open the door. “Carly—”

“I came as soon as I saw the news—” Carly pushed past him and went straight for Cameron. “You’re okay? It was all I could to keep Joss at home—”

“I’m—” Cameron swallowed. “I’m fine.”

“Carly, this isn’t a good time—”

“No, I know. But I saw the news about the murder, and Elizabeth’s arrest—” Carly turned back to him. “The reports said the boys were missing—”

“Misunderstanding,” Diane said smoothly, rising to her feet and patting her hair as if she were wearing one of her finely tailored outfits rather than jeans and a cardigan. “It’s been sorted. Jake and Aiden were here last night, and Cameron was out past his curfew.”

Carly narrowed her eyes, looked at Cameron, down at the hands she held in hers—the bruised knuckles. “Right. Should I be asking Joss about this curfew?” she asked him, and Cameron blinked.

“I—”

“It’s fine, Carly. Joss doesn’t have to get involved,” Jason promised her. “But I really need to—”

“Okay. Okay. I was just—” Carly exhaled slowly. “What do you need? What can I do?”

“Why—” Jason frowned at his friend. Why was she asking him?

“My mom needs clothes,” Cameron said quietly and all the adults looked back at her. “I know Jake probably has things here, but—” He exhaled slowly. “Mom’s still wearing what she wore to bed.”

“Oh. I can handle that. I can do that. I’ll bring things by for all of you. No telling when they’ll let you back in the house.” Carly hugged him briefly. “I can keep Joss and the others away for a few more hours, but if you could just text her—”

“I’ll—I’ll try.”

“Let me know if I can do anything else, but I’ll bring something back.” Carly hugged Jason, then left. He frowned after her.

“She likes me more than Mom,” Cameron said, and Jason turned his attention to her. “Joss and I—I mean, we’ve always gone to school together, but we—it doesn’t matter.”

“Right. Cameron, why don’t you and I discuss last night to make sure I have everything I need, and Jason—” Diane looked at him. “Go check on Elizabeth. She needs sleep.” She sighed. “We all do.”

Jason left Cameron in Diane’s capable hands and traveled his short hall to the bathroom. He knocked lightly. “Elizabeth—”

“Go away—”

He glanced back at the living room, then sighed. “Can we just—let me make sure you’re okay. Are you—can I come in?”

There was silence for a long moment, and Jason struggled with the desire just to shove the door open, to see for himself—

Cameron’s depiction of the scene he’d walked in on—the fact that Elizabeth with her history, had been assaulted again by a man Jason should have cut into tiny little pieces and set on fucking fire—

“Yeah.” He heard a sound that must have been the door unlocking. She opened it slightly. “I can’t—”

“I know. You need sleep,” he told her. Elizabeth opened the door more, and he walked her down to his bedroom. She seemed to have hit her limit—her eyes were empty, her hands listless, and she let him guide her into the room and close the door.

“Carly is going to bring you clothes,” he told her as she sat on the bed, wrapping her arms around herself.

“I don’t understand how any of this is happening,” she murmured. Elizabeth looked at him, her eyes glassy with tears, with shock. “I went to bed last night, and it was fine. My life—it was okay. I was getting there anyway.” On a deep shuddering breath, her shoulders shook.

Jason sat next to her. “Why don’t you try to rest—”

“I can’t. I can’t. Because I close my eyes, and he’s there again, and I can’t—” She put her hands over her face. “I made a mistake. I thought—I thought he was different. But no one ever changes. Not like that. Why did I think I could change him?”

He remained silent because his opinion on Franco was well-known and wouldn’t help.

“I thought he was out of my life—I—he’d just lied so much—and I can’t do it anymore. I can’t be a liar. I can’t be lied to.” She bit the nail on her thumb, wincing—he could see she’d bitten the nail to the quick.

“Did he—” Jason hesitated. “Cameron said he was trying—” He paused. “Should you go to the hospital?”

“Oh.” She looked at him blankly. “Oh. No. It wasn’t—He was—” She looked at her pajama pants, and he saw now that the string that tied them closed had been ripped—that the elastic had been destroyed and it was being held together a rubber band.

He crossed to his dresser and took out a t-shirt, one that he knew would be long enough to cover her. “Here,” Jason said, roughly. “Carly will come back with something—”

“Thanks.” Her lower lip trembled. “He tried to rape me,” Elizabeth said finally — and while Jason might have expected the statement to upset her more—something about saying it out loud seemed to give her more reassurance.

“He said that he was going to make me remember how it had been, and that no one was allowed to leave him.”

“I’m sorry—”

“It didn’t happen, and that’s going to help when I can think better, I know that. I just—if I didn’t—if I didn’t kill Franco, then it means someone else was at the house.” She searched his eyes. “Who would do that? Who would wait while he tried to rape me, then kill him—”

“And leave you there to pick up the pieces,” Jason finished. “Whoever did this called the cops, Elizabeth. They wanted you to pay for it.”

“Who could hate me that much?” Elizabeth asked. She closed her eyes. “I can’t—I can’t believe someone could do that to me. To my boys. He tied them up, and someone else let that happen—”

“Elizabeth—”

“I can’t think about this anymore. I just—” She twisted her hands in his shirt. “Can I just change? And—and when Carly brings me something else—I just can’t stand to be in this anymore—”

“Yeah, yeah.” He squeezed her hand and got to his feet. “Try to lay down. If you can’t sleep, that’s fine. But the boys will wake up soon—”

“And I need to handle this.” Elizabeth managed a smile that looked almost real. “Thank you. I can—I can do this.”

“I know you can.” He leaned over to kiss her forehead. “Get some rest. I’ll take care of Cameron.”

← Flash Fiction: Desperate Measures – Part 7 | Flash Fiction: Desperate Measures – Part 9 →