Second Chances: Missing Gifts
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Jason smiled as he heard Elizabeth humming along with the soft music that wafted from his, no their he corrected himself, bedroom on the second floor. She had been quiet on the ride back from her studio. He knew that she had been lost in her own thoughts about what they had found there yet when they arrived at the penthouse it was like all of that had been forgotten. He was worried that she was trying to be strong for him, not showing him how truly frightened she was. Jason hated when she did that especially when she did it with him, but something told him not to push her at the moment. He recognized he needed to give her space to deal with her own feelings first even though all he really wanted to do was scoop her up in his arms and whisk her away to where Ric Lansing could never hurt her again.
On that note Jason picked up the phone sitting on the corner of his desk and placed a call to Max. He wanted to know exactly where Mr. Lansing was and what he was doing.
"So what's the update?" Jason asked after Max answered.
"Nothing really. He's sitting in his living room."
"Did you notice him lurking around Elizabeth's building at all?"
"No, he was sitting at Kelly's when I found him nursing a cup of would you believe hot chocolate?" Max laughed.
"Yeah I would." Jason almost asked if it had whipped cream and sprinkles on it as well but held his tongue. "Where did he go from there?"
"Home and he's been there ever since."
"Well keep me posted."
"Sure thing." Max closed his cell phone and slipped it in the pocket of his overcoat and went back to observing Ric sitting on his sofa starring blankly into space.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Ric shook the glass in his hand as the ice bounced off the sides of the crystal. Empty again he thought as he poured more scotch into it. He leaned back into the sofa and with one swig consumed the light brown liquid. He repeated the pattern several more times before bringing the photo he had fished out of the charred rubble from beside Elizabeth's building into his line of sight. Through his liquor induced haze the picture was no longer distorted by the flames. To him it looked as perfect as the day that it had been taken. What expectations they had on that night, he sighed. They were going to be a family, a family like he had always wished for himself.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"You sure you don't need any help up there?" Jason called from the bottom of the steps.
Elizabeth had insisted on unpacking her things herself and he wanted to be sure that she was feeling okay, but there was a bigger part of him that just wanted to be nearer to her. Since allowing her into his life fully it was like he was seeing things in a different light. He didn't want to waste a moment that they had together. In these last months he had come to understand how precious life and those that you loved truly were.
"Would you stop worrying about me?" Elizabeth poked her head out from the bedroom door. "I'm fine." She smiled and blew him a kiss. "Not sure I can say the same thing for the contents of your closet, though," she giggled.
"Just leave me a little space okay?" He shook his head laughing slightly knowing that he used very little of the closet anyhow. It would be nice to be able to see her clothes hanging there beside his few required business suits.
Jason pulled the leather chair back from the desk and settled down to get some work accomplished. He had had some files brought over from the warehouse that needed his attention. He hadn't wanted to leave Elizabeth alone just yet, not until he got a better handle on what Ric's next move might be.
He flipped through the pages but couldn't keep his thoughts focused on the task at hand. His mind wondered to the shredded divorce papers that had come up missing from Elizabeth's studio. He rested his hand on the phone and pulled it away. The last thing he wanted to do was call Sonny, yet what choice did he have if he wanted to get to the bottom of all of this. And he figured that a phone call versus an in person confrontation was the lesser of two evils.
"Yeah?" Sonny barked.
"Who does Alexis use as a messenger service?" Jason asked without a formal greeting.
"What?" Sonny was surprised by the question.
"Messenger service, do you know which one Alexis uses?" Jason questioned again.
"Don't you think we have something more important to discuss?"
Jason rolled his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "No."
"Like hell we don't! You want to tell me what the hell is going on between you and my wife?"
"Nothing. I told her a few things she obviously didn't like or agree with. Now about Alexis." Jason chose to ignore Sonny's request for an explanation.
"To hell with Alexis! I want to know what you said to my wife!" Sonny sounded, as though he was talking to a man he didn't even know. Jason heard the hard edge in his voice that was normally reserved for those who had ignored an order or had fucked up.
"I told her I was in love with Elizabeth," Jason said matter of fact. "Getting the picture now?" He almost sounded sarcastic.
Sonny was silent for a moment as he recalled his own argument with Carly over Jason's relationship with Elizabeth Webber. "What happened?" He asked with a softer tone.
"It doesn't really matter. I really need that information about Alexis."
"It does matter Jason. What happened between you two?"
"She waltzed in her giving Elizabeth a hard time and well when she asked me if I loved her I just told her that I did. And when she couldn't get me to change my find she got upset. Typical Carly."
"I'm sorry she went after Elizabeth." Jason was taken aback by Sonny's words almost enough to lull him into thinking that he might have a chance to get his friend to see the light. ".but you know how Carly feels about her involvement in what Ric did to her."
"What involvement? Elizabeth didn't have anything to do with what Ric did.except for having a miscarriage which I highly doubt she planned!" Jason raised his voice forgetting that Elizabeth was right up the stairs. "Forget it! I'll handle this myself!"
"Handle what? Jason. Jason." The line went dead in Sonny's ear.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Ric staggered his way to the second floor bedroom that in the last few days Faith had seemed to take over. Her black negligee was draped over the chair in the corner, a tube of blood red lipstick and bottle of nail polish to match rested on the bureau. He felt himself want to heave as he glanced at the disheveled unmade bed in the middle of the room. He didn't know if that feeling came from the puddle of alcohol swirling around in his stomach or the fact that he had let Faith Roscoe take up residence in a place that he had once held for Elizabeth and Elizabeth alone.
He shook his head slightly to rid himself of the images of having sex with Faith. He reached into the back of the closet and pulled out the box of Elizabeth's possessions he had hidden there. He laid the scorched photo on the floor next to him as he sat down and ran his fingers through the contents of the box as though he was a pirate who had just located a sunken treasure. Finally he pulled out a small box and lifted the lid carefully. He folded back the tissue paper to reveal the brilliant red glass.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Elizabeth had nearly finished emptying the boxes that Marco had brought from her studio. She was amazed at how much that little room had actually held when it was scattered around the master bedroom of Jason's penthouse and that didn't include the art supplies and canvases that were waiting for her across the hall in the room that would be her make shift studio until she could return to her real one.
Elizabeth sat on the edge of the bed and tried not to think about Ric or the bizarre things he was capable of yet that was much easier said than done. How had she missed all of the signs when they had been together? How had she been so stupid to fall for so many lies even when her head was telling her not to? In the back of her mind she knew the answer. She was looking for a way to forget about the hurt of leaving Jason, the hurt of him not racing after her to try and stop her or to get her to listen to his explanations. And when he did finally come to her with his concerns about Ric she pushed him away and said horrible things to him. She had no one but herself to blame for what Ric was now doing. She had given him the opportunity, means and possibly the motive.
Elizabeth smiled at the baseball bat that sat in the corner by the door. She almost laughed thinking that she probably wouldn't be needing that now. But the memory of when Jason taught her the best way to defend herself sprang to mind. She remembered how his arms felt wrapped around her as he tried to show her how to level a powerful swing.
Jason had given her what most women would have considered an odd array of presents - certainly not typical in the least but she loved each and every one of them. She still had the leather jacket he had given her that first Christmas they spent in her studio. It was one of her most prized possession along with the post card from Italy, the baseball bat and her piece of beautiful red glass. She hadn't thought about that in a long time. She had tucked it away for safe keeping when she had left Jason's penthouse all those months ago. She had the sudden urge to see it again.
Elizabeth walked across the room to where she had sat a small wooden box on the bureau. She lifted the lid and first found her postcard and a few other pieces of jewelry that her grandmother had given her, but the small box she was looking for was no where to be found. She turned it upside down and emptied the contents out onto the top of the dresser. Not that that helped since what she was looking for was still missing. Frantically she began scouring the room and the empty boxes scattered about - still nothing.
"Where the hell can it be?" she asked herself as she turned around too quickly sending a pile of her belongs to the floor with a resounding crash.
"Elizabeth?" At the sound Jason immediately bounded up the staircase fearing the worse. "Elizabeth, you okay?"
"No."
"What's wrong?"
"It's gone."
"What's gone?"
"My red glass. The red glass you gave me on Valentine's day it's gone."
"Are you sure?" Jason's mind immediately leapt to Ric but he didn't want to verbalize his thoughts. "You sure it's not in another one of the boxes?" he asked as he began rummaging through the empties himself.
"Jason it's not here. I kept it in this box in its own box wrapped in tissue paper. It's gone." He saw the tears threatening escape from behind her big blue eyes. "I can't believe I lost it," she sighed her voice filled with anguish.
"Maybe it's still at your studio," Jason offered.
"I don't know. I haven't taken it out of the box in months. I put it away from safekeeping. So much for that." Elizabeth slumped down on the bed in defeat. It felt like she had lost a piece of their past.
"I'll go back and look for it if you want." There wasn't a thing that he could deny her.
"Would you?"
"Of course."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Ric sat on the floor holding the red glass up to the light. It cast a brilliant kaleidoscope on the cream walls of the room.
"Hi honey I'm home." Faith's voice entered the room before she did giving Ric just enough time to push the box of Elizabeth's things back into his closet. "Miss me?" she purred in his ear as she ran her hands over his shoulders and down his chest.
"Always," he answered as he tilted his head to kiss her. "Where were you?" he asked. There was still a part of him that trusted her very little when it came to Elizabeth. Ric wasn't about to put anything past Ms. Roscoe.
"Keeping tabs on our little business venture. Apparently there is descention in the ranks. Sonny and Jason are feuding." Faith smiled like the cat that had just swallowed the canary. She was loving every delicious minute of what she considered the beginning of Sonny's downfall.
"Feuding huh?" Ric stood up removing himself from Faith's entangling arms. He had to wonder exactly what they would be arguing about. To him the pair had always been thick as thieves to coin a familiar phrase. Ric had known that Jason was less than pleased with Sonny's unwillingness to kill him so he was sure that was part of the trouble.
"I think it's time we make a move. Strike while the iron is hot if you know what I mean?"
"What did you have in mind?" Ric turned around to face her. He wasn't against any plan that would rid him of his brother not to mention adversary Jason Morgan.
"Well," Faith began as she edged her way closer to him reaching for his hand. "What's that?" she asked as she felt something smooth in his palm.
Damn, he thought to himself as Faith easily took the red glass from his hand. He had completely forgotten that he was still holding it. He fumbled for a second without a quick remark for her question. "It was supposed to be a surprise."
"Surprise?" Faith gave him a suspicious look.
"Yes," he said capturing her waist in his arms. "I can't have a surprise for my lady?" Ric vaguely wondered to himself if he was laying it on a little to thick even for her. But seeing the smile tug at Faith's lips he knew he hadn't.
"What is it?" she asked giving a closer inspection.
"I was going to turn it into a heart pendant for you. The fiery red immediately made me think of you." It amazed him how quickly he spun this web of lies and how easily Faith bought it. He almost felt sorry for her, she seemed to crave attention and with him she let down her guard more than he had ever expected her to. "I was getting ready to run to the jewelers to have it done."
Faith stared at the vibrant red. "This made you think of me?"
"Yes. Look how well it matches your signature color." Ric continued to spin his tale when he picked up the bottle of nail polish to illustrate what a close match the reds were in color.
"I like it the way it is."
"What?" Ric furrowed his brow confused by what she meant.
"I like it the way it is." Faith ran her fingers across the jagged edges of the glass's misshapen form. "I want to keep it the way it is - no heart. It suits me don't you think?" She smiled seductively.
"You don't want it made into a necklace then?" In a way Ric was relieved to hear that since he intended at some point to return it to its rightful owner.
"No, I want the necklace just not in the shape of a heart."
"Oh, I see."
"You said you were on your way out to the jewelers, I'll come with you." Faith picked up her coat she had dropped on the bed and led Ric from the room.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"What's taking him so long?" Elizabeth said to no one in particular even though Marco chose to answer her.
"I'm sure he's just making sure he didn't miss anything."
"I'm going up there." Elizabeth reached for the door.
"Miss Webber, Mr. Morgan left specific instructions that you were to wait here in the car with me."
Where was Max when she needed him, Elizabeth thought to herself? Before she could protest further Jason emerged from the building.
"Well?" she asked before he even had the back door to the sedan closed.
"I turned the place upside down, baby. It's not there." Elizabeth let out a disappointed sigh as Jason wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "I promise when we go to Italy, I'll get you as many pieces of red glass as you want."
"It's not the same."
"I know." Jason agreed.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Jason smiled as he heard Elizabeth humming along with the soft music that wafted from his, no their he corrected himself, bedroom on the second floor. She had been quiet on the ride back from her studio. He knew that she had been lost in her own thoughts about what they had found there yet when they arrived at the penthouse it was like all of that had been forgotten. He was worried that she was trying to be strong for him, not showing him how truly frightened she was. Jason hated when she did that especially when she did it with him, but something told him not to push her at the moment. He recognized he needed to give her space to deal with her own feelings first even though all he really wanted to do was scoop her up in his arms and whisk her away to where Ric Lansing could never hurt her again.
On that note Jason picked up the phone sitting on the corner of his desk and placed a call to Max. He wanted to know exactly where Mr. Lansing was and what he was doing.
"So what's the update?" Jason asked after Max answered.
"Nothing really. He's sitting in his living room."
"Did you notice him lurking around Elizabeth's building at all?"
"No, he was sitting at Kelly's when I found him nursing a cup of would you believe hot chocolate?" Max laughed.
"Yeah I would." Jason almost asked if it had whipped cream and sprinkles on it as well but held his tongue. "Where did he go from there?"
"Home and he's been there ever since."
"Well keep me posted."
"Sure thing." Max closed his cell phone and slipped it in the pocket of his overcoat and went back to observing Ric sitting on his sofa starring blankly into space.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Ric shook the glass in his hand as the ice bounced off the sides of the crystal. Empty again he thought as he poured more scotch into it. He leaned back into the sofa and with one swig consumed the light brown liquid. He repeated the pattern several more times before bringing the photo he had fished out of the charred rubble from beside Elizabeth's building into his line of sight. Through his liquor induced haze the picture was no longer distorted by the flames. To him it looked as perfect as the day that it had been taken. What expectations they had on that night, he sighed. They were going to be a family, a family like he had always wished for himself.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"You sure you don't need any help up there?" Jason called from the bottom of the steps.
Elizabeth had insisted on unpacking her things herself and he wanted to be sure that she was feeling okay, but there was a bigger part of him that just wanted to be nearer to her. Since allowing her into his life fully it was like he was seeing things in a different light. He didn't want to waste a moment that they had together. In these last months he had come to understand how precious life and those that you loved truly were.
"Would you stop worrying about me?" Elizabeth poked her head out from the bedroom door. "I'm fine." She smiled and blew him a kiss. "Not sure I can say the same thing for the contents of your closet, though," she giggled.
"Just leave me a little space okay?" He shook his head laughing slightly knowing that he used very little of the closet anyhow. It would be nice to be able to see her clothes hanging there beside his few required business suits.
Jason pulled the leather chair back from the desk and settled down to get some work accomplished. He had had some files brought over from the warehouse that needed his attention. He hadn't wanted to leave Elizabeth alone just yet, not until he got a better handle on what Ric's next move might be.
He flipped through the pages but couldn't keep his thoughts focused on the task at hand. His mind wondered to the shredded divorce papers that had come up missing from Elizabeth's studio. He rested his hand on the phone and pulled it away. The last thing he wanted to do was call Sonny, yet what choice did he have if he wanted to get to the bottom of all of this. And he figured that a phone call versus an in person confrontation was the lesser of two evils.
"Yeah?" Sonny barked.
"Who does Alexis use as a messenger service?" Jason asked without a formal greeting.
"What?" Sonny was surprised by the question.
"Messenger service, do you know which one Alexis uses?" Jason questioned again.
"Don't you think we have something more important to discuss?"
Jason rolled his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "No."
"Like hell we don't! You want to tell me what the hell is going on between you and my wife?"
"Nothing. I told her a few things she obviously didn't like or agree with. Now about Alexis." Jason chose to ignore Sonny's request for an explanation.
"To hell with Alexis! I want to know what you said to my wife!" Sonny sounded, as though he was talking to a man he didn't even know. Jason heard the hard edge in his voice that was normally reserved for those who had ignored an order or had fucked up.
"I told her I was in love with Elizabeth," Jason said matter of fact. "Getting the picture now?" He almost sounded sarcastic.
Sonny was silent for a moment as he recalled his own argument with Carly over Jason's relationship with Elizabeth Webber. "What happened?" He asked with a softer tone.
"It doesn't really matter. I really need that information about Alexis."
"It does matter Jason. What happened between you two?"
"She waltzed in her giving Elizabeth a hard time and well when she asked me if I loved her I just told her that I did. And when she couldn't get me to change my find she got upset. Typical Carly."
"I'm sorry she went after Elizabeth." Jason was taken aback by Sonny's words almost enough to lull him into thinking that he might have a chance to get his friend to see the light. ".but you know how Carly feels about her involvement in what Ric did to her."
"What involvement? Elizabeth didn't have anything to do with what Ric did.except for having a miscarriage which I highly doubt she planned!" Jason raised his voice forgetting that Elizabeth was right up the stairs. "Forget it! I'll handle this myself!"
"Handle what? Jason. Jason." The line went dead in Sonny's ear.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Ric staggered his way to the second floor bedroom that in the last few days Faith had seemed to take over. Her black negligee was draped over the chair in the corner, a tube of blood red lipstick and bottle of nail polish to match rested on the bureau. He felt himself want to heave as he glanced at the disheveled unmade bed in the middle of the room. He didn't know if that feeling came from the puddle of alcohol swirling around in his stomach or the fact that he had let Faith Roscoe take up residence in a place that he had once held for Elizabeth and Elizabeth alone.
He shook his head slightly to rid himself of the images of having sex with Faith. He reached into the back of the closet and pulled out the box of Elizabeth's possessions he had hidden there. He laid the scorched photo on the floor next to him as he sat down and ran his fingers through the contents of the box as though he was a pirate who had just located a sunken treasure. Finally he pulled out a small box and lifted the lid carefully. He folded back the tissue paper to reveal the brilliant red glass.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Elizabeth had nearly finished emptying the boxes that Marco had brought from her studio. She was amazed at how much that little room had actually held when it was scattered around the master bedroom of Jason's penthouse and that didn't include the art supplies and canvases that were waiting for her across the hall in the room that would be her make shift studio until she could return to her real one.
Elizabeth sat on the edge of the bed and tried not to think about Ric or the bizarre things he was capable of yet that was much easier said than done. How had she missed all of the signs when they had been together? How had she been so stupid to fall for so many lies even when her head was telling her not to? In the back of her mind she knew the answer. She was looking for a way to forget about the hurt of leaving Jason, the hurt of him not racing after her to try and stop her or to get her to listen to his explanations. And when he did finally come to her with his concerns about Ric she pushed him away and said horrible things to him. She had no one but herself to blame for what Ric was now doing. She had given him the opportunity, means and possibly the motive.
Elizabeth smiled at the baseball bat that sat in the corner by the door. She almost laughed thinking that she probably wouldn't be needing that now. But the memory of when Jason taught her the best way to defend herself sprang to mind. She remembered how his arms felt wrapped around her as he tried to show her how to level a powerful swing.
Jason had given her what most women would have considered an odd array of presents - certainly not typical in the least but she loved each and every one of them. She still had the leather jacket he had given her that first Christmas they spent in her studio. It was one of her most prized possession along with the post card from Italy, the baseball bat and her piece of beautiful red glass. She hadn't thought about that in a long time. She had tucked it away for safe keeping when she had left Jason's penthouse all those months ago. She had the sudden urge to see it again.
Elizabeth walked across the room to where she had sat a small wooden box on the bureau. She lifted the lid and first found her postcard and a few other pieces of jewelry that her grandmother had given her, but the small box she was looking for was no where to be found. She turned it upside down and emptied the contents out onto the top of the dresser. Not that that helped since what she was looking for was still missing. Frantically she began scouring the room and the empty boxes scattered about - still nothing.
"Where the hell can it be?" she asked herself as she turned around too quickly sending a pile of her belongs to the floor with a resounding crash.
"Elizabeth?" At the sound Jason immediately bounded up the staircase fearing the worse. "Elizabeth, you okay?"
"No."
"What's wrong?"
"It's gone."
"What's gone?"
"My red glass. The red glass you gave me on Valentine's day it's gone."
"Are you sure?" Jason's mind immediately leapt to Ric but he didn't want to verbalize his thoughts. "You sure it's not in another one of the boxes?" he asked as he began rummaging through the empties himself.
"Jason it's not here. I kept it in this box in its own box wrapped in tissue paper. It's gone." He saw the tears threatening escape from behind her big blue eyes. "I can't believe I lost it," she sighed her voice filled with anguish.
"Maybe it's still at your studio," Jason offered.
"I don't know. I haven't taken it out of the box in months. I put it away from safekeeping. So much for that." Elizabeth slumped down on the bed in defeat. It felt like she had lost a piece of their past.
"I'll go back and look for it if you want." There wasn't a thing that he could deny her.
"Would you?"
"Of course."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Ric sat on the floor holding the red glass up to the light. It cast a brilliant kaleidoscope on the cream walls of the room.
"Hi honey I'm home." Faith's voice entered the room before she did giving Ric just enough time to push the box of Elizabeth's things back into his closet. "Miss me?" she purred in his ear as she ran her hands over his shoulders and down his chest.
"Always," he answered as he tilted his head to kiss her. "Where were you?" he asked. There was still a part of him that trusted her very little when it came to Elizabeth. Ric wasn't about to put anything past Ms. Roscoe.
"Keeping tabs on our little business venture. Apparently there is descention in the ranks. Sonny and Jason are feuding." Faith smiled like the cat that had just swallowed the canary. She was loving every delicious minute of what she considered the beginning of Sonny's downfall.
"Feuding huh?" Ric stood up removing himself from Faith's entangling arms. He had to wonder exactly what they would be arguing about. To him the pair had always been thick as thieves to coin a familiar phrase. Ric had known that Jason was less than pleased with Sonny's unwillingness to kill him so he was sure that was part of the trouble.
"I think it's time we make a move. Strike while the iron is hot if you know what I mean?"
"What did you have in mind?" Ric turned around to face her. He wasn't against any plan that would rid him of his brother not to mention adversary Jason Morgan.
"Well," Faith began as she edged her way closer to him reaching for his hand. "What's that?" she asked as she felt something smooth in his palm.
Damn, he thought to himself as Faith easily took the red glass from his hand. He had completely forgotten that he was still holding it. He fumbled for a second without a quick remark for her question. "It was supposed to be a surprise."
"Surprise?" Faith gave him a suspicious look.
"Yes," he said capturing her waist in his arms. "I can't have a surprise for my lady?" Ric vaguely wondered to himself if he was laying it on a little to thick even for her. But seeing the smile tug at Faith's lips he knew he hadn't.
"What is it?" she asked giving a closer inspection.
"I was going to turn it into a heart pendant for you. The fiery red immediately made me think of you." It amazed him how quickly he spun this web of lies and how easily Faith bought it. He almost felt sorry for her, she seemed to crave attention and with him she let down her guard more than he had ever expected her to. "I was getting ready to run to the jewelers to have it done."
Faith stared at the vibrant red. "This made you think of me?"
"Yes. Look how well it matches your signature color." Ric continued to spin his tale when he picked up the bottle of nail polish to illustrate what a close match the reds were in color.
"I like it the way it is."
"What?" Ric furrowed his brow confused by what she meant.
"I like it the way it is." Faith ran her fingers across the jagged edges of the glass's misshapen form. "I want to keep it the way it is - no heart. It suits me don't you think?" She smiled seductively.
"You don't want it made into a necklace then?" In a way Ric was relieved to hear that since he intended at some point to return it to its rightful owner.
"No, I want the necklace just not in the shape of a heart."
"Oh, I see."
"You said you were on your way out to the jewelers, I'll come with you." Faith picked up her coat she had dropped on the bed and led Ric from the room.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"What's taking him so long?" Elizabeth said to no one in particular even though Marco chose to answer her.
"I'm sure he's just making sure he didn't miss anything."
"I'm going up there." Elizabeth reached for the door.
"Miss Webber, Mr. Morgan left specific instructions that you were to wait here in the car with me."
Where was Max when she needed him, Elizabeth thought to herself? Before she could protest further Jason emerged from the building.
"Well?" she asked before he even had the back door to the sedan closed.
"I turned the place upside down, baby. It's not there." Elizabeth let out a disappointed sigh as Jason wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "I promise when we go to Italy, I'll get you as many pieces of red glass as you want."
"It's not the same."
"I know." Jason agreed.