Elizabeth walked to the docks and sat sadly. She often came to the docks to think but today there was so much to think about she could not even wrap her brain around where to begin. She was 24 years old but felt 50. Just a few short days ago it looked like she was finally going to capture the happiness she had felt eluded her for most of her life.
Now her life was anything but the picture of impending happiness. She was pregnant with a deceased friend's child and the man she thought she loved showed his true colors leading to the death of his brother a man Elizabeth did not always agree with but someone with whom she had found a surrogate father in times past and although they had not spoken friendly in quite some time; Elizabeth loved Sonny dearly flaws and all and felt the feeling was mutual but now she would never know. All because of the man she had chosen to marry. Twice. She numbly took off her wedding ring and chucked it into the water with all her might.
She shivered but she knew it wasn't from the cold. It was from the way that Ric had looked at her unfeeling as he told her methodically that Sonny, Jason, Nikolas, Zander, and Alexis had all perished in the fire. She knew it was too much to hope that Ric would feel badly about Jason in deference to her but it was the frosty-hearted way he spoke of his brother's passing that unnerved her. She and Sarah had a much tamer version of Sonny and Ric's relationship but she would be devastated if Sarah was gone and with her the possibility of fixing things. All that she could forgive though, lord knew she and Ric were different maybe the way they grieved was just one more difference she swore to doubters endeared her to her again soon-to-be-ex. Yes she could have gotten passed Ric's unemotional reaction to losing his brother. What she could never forgive; what really ended things in her mind was the near giddy way he informed her that since Zander was now departed Ric and she would be able to raise the baby without any messy complications. She was galled by the way he brushed off Zander's death. Zander was the father of her child. If she had been thinking clearly she would have slapped him. She didn't. She was too engulfed in grief. Too distraught because in just one night four men she cared about deeply were ripped from her life along with a woman who she had only just began to know personally but had long admired and strived to be like. Remembering now the anguish she felt two nights ago she soothingly massaged her ever-growing belly. "You don't need to worry baby," she whispered. That awful man is out of our lives. We'll be ok just the two of us."
As Elizabeth spoke gently to her unborn child a man watched from the shadows behind her and was reminded once again that her loved her. He had never stopped loving actually. He knew that's why he had let her walk away the last time. But as he had sat there handcuffed to that railing waiting to die he thought only of her. Not of his wife. Not of the best friend he found out later died with the woman that had done so much for them both despite what it cost her. Now as he sat her watching Elizabeth he hoped that Sonny and Alexis had the time to tell each other their truths. Because even though he had promised both God and the vision of his baby girl that if he managed to escape alive he would go to Elizabeth and find a way to be in her life again. He would tell her he loved her still but if she insisted on staying with Ric he would stand by her this time and be her friend his desire be damned. But as he gazed at her in the moonlight he knew he must once again swallow his truth. He knew it was it was too late. It wasn't just the two of them anymore, She had a new little life growing within her. He would not allow anyone including himself the cold and unfeeling mobster, Jason Morgan, to bring anymore pain to his sweet Elizabeth or her innocent child but even still in the shadows he watched.