Elizabeth sat quietly curled up on the window seat in the room she shared with Anthony and watched the parade of red taillights exit the long drive. Rocco's many friends had departed for the evening only to return tomorrow for the burial. Burial, that word brought tears to Elizabeth's eyes once more. Tomorrow would be the final day that she would ever look upon Rocco's kind face again. It mattered very little to her that he was Mafioso, mattered none to her that Rocco had been a force to be reckoned with in his day. All that stood out to Elizabeth was the man who had taken her under his wing, given her a home and protected her in a way that few could. How had she repaid him for such kindness? Elizabeth had known for weeks now how poorly he had been feeling. She knew that Anthony's continuous vendetta against the Morgan family had worn Rocco to a frazzle. Yet, she had let her own yearnings cloud her judgment. That blurred vision had cost Rocco his life. Elizabeth fought the tears that pooled in her eyes.
The Malucci family crypt loomed large in the distance. A shiver ran down her spine as she was forced to recall the events of the past few days. Each image was etched in her memory but now they all had begun to mix with one another until not a single one was recognizable. The loud slam of the bedroom door startled her. Elizabeth turned to see Anthony barreling into the room. She felt her stomach roll end over end. Elizabeth ran her hands across her face and tried desperately to show no expression whatsoever. It wasn't something easy for her to do. All she wanted to do was run and hide. Without Rocco she was virtually alone, at Anthony's mercy. Mercy was a concept that Elizabeth was sure her husband knew very little about. Was this what the rest of her life was to be like? Was she to cower in the shadows waiting for what her husband would do next?"
"WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?!?" he barked angrily.
"Huh?" Elizabeth hadn't realized that she had been staring at him.
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU LOOKING AT?!?" Anthony closed the gap between them as he threw his black dress shirt on the floor.
"Nothing... ..." she stammered. Quickly Elizabeth stood up to put some distance between them again. "I wasn't looking at anything. I was just thinking about Rocco."
"Save your tears," he ordered as he watched her run her fingers under her eyes. "The show's over for the day," Anthony remarked callously.
"Show?" Elizabeth regretted opening her mouth the minute that single word escaped her lips.
"You heard me...ENOUGH!! I don't want to ever see you shed a tear for the man that's still raping me from his god damn grave!!" Anthony's thunderous voice echoed. His rage only served to bring forth more tears from her eyes. "ENOUGH I SAID!!!" His hand reached out and ripped at Elizabeth's hair causing her to wail in pain. "THAT BASTARD GAVE IT ALL AWAY... ... EVERYTHING. HE HANDED EVERYTHING TO JOSEPH!!" Anthony's voice was a hoarse whisper.
Elizabeth watched the fire building behind his eyes. It was that fury that terrified her. She silently begged for someone to come for her. She felt as though she was falling trying desperately to hold on to all that she once thought was safe.
"Well my dear," Anthony leered at her. "The last laugh will be mine. All of it will be mine! Morgan will be left with nothing, not his family, not his love." Anthony traced Elizabeth's quivering lip with his finger. "Hell maybe not even his life!" he cackled as he made his way across the room for the master bath.
Elizabeth stood frozen unable to cry, unable to move, unable to even think. How had she ended up here? How had she gone from a young woman with so much potential to a woman doomed? Those questions propelled her to seek solace the only place she knew where to find it these days. "Mrs. Malucci?" Helena's voice stopped Elizabeth's hand as she reached for the bottle of scotch behind the bar.
"Oh!" Elizabeth gasped.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Malucci. I didn't mean to startle you."
"Helena, please call me Elizabeth." She couldn't stand the sound of her title. Suddenly it was more like the sound of fingernails being scrapped against a chalkboard than ever before.
"Yes, Mrs.....Elizabeth. Can I get you something? Maybe a cup of tea?" Helena would have suggested almost anything but the amber liquor that the young woman almost had in her hand. It hadn't gone unnoticed to Helena how much alcohol that Elizabeth had consumed in the past few days. While she herself would admit to having several stiff drinks the morning she found Rocco, there was something about Elizabeth's decent into the bottle that worried Helena immensely. "It might help you sleep," the maid added when Elizabeth hesitated.
"Okay," she agreed not really feeling up to an argument.
"Here sit down." Helena pointed to one of the barstools. "It will only take a few minutes for the water to boil. How are you doing miss?" she asked tentatively.
"Like everyone, still in a state of shock."
"I am going to miss Mr. Malucci a great deal. He never treated me like a servant. That's rare."
"Rocco was an extraordinary man." Elizabeth heard the quiver in her voice she fought the tears she was told she was no longer allowed to shed.
"You meant the world to him," Helena offered. "He talked about you as if you were his flesh and blood."
Helena's words of Rocco's adoration for her only made Elizabeth feel all the more horrible. "He was like a father to me as well," she whispered.
"Here you are." Helena placed the steaming mug before Elizabeth.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome. Please try to get some rest. Would you like me to call the doctor and ask him to give you something to help you sleep?"
"That won't be necessary," Elizabeth replied. "Thank you again for the tea."
"Good night then," Helena said. She stopped for a moment and looked over her shoulder at Elizabeth sitting alone in the nearly dark room. Helena's heart broke for the poor woman. She knew Elizabeth was in for a tough life now. Servant or not, Helena had watched from a distance and was certain that everything for Anthony's wife was about to change.
Elizabeth wrapped her hands around the warm mug and padded her way through the empty house. Her eyes were drawn to the balcony. Immediately the image of Jason bombarded her. The agony in his voice and the pained expression on his face as she pushed him away blinded her. That had been the hardest thing she ever had to do in her life, besides saying goodbye to her own mother. The searing ache in her chest had grown by leaps and bounds that afternoon.
'We're done. It was a mistake......all of it ... you and me ...it was all a bit mistake......'
What a lie those words had been. Elizabeth set her mug down on the bar and filled it to the rim with scotch before she continued out onto the balcony. The summer breeze was warm as it skirted past her. Elizabeth closed her eyes tightly and replayed her scenes with Jason that afternoon a thousand times in her mind. Yet no matter how she played them the outcome was always the same. Jason always ended up on the wrong end of Anthony's gun.
"If you are thinking of jumping it's not high enough to do any real damage," Anthony sneered. "You think by coming out here you can hide from me? You can't. There isn't anywhere on this earth I wouldn't find you."
"Your point?" Elizabeth asked as she longed for another stiff drink rather than the scotch diluted by luke warm tea.
"You're mine. Every inch of you is mine." Anthony wrapped his hands around her slender waist. "So you better get used to it! Let's go to bed."
Elizabeth let herself be lead into the confines of the house. There was no fighting this anymore. She didn't have any fight left in her. The idea of throwing herself off the balcony suddenly became a very appealing one.
'If Anthony can kill his own flesh and blood – his own father. It won't take anything for him to kill you too!!'
Jason lay awake staring at the ceiling as those words circled his brain like a freight train out of control. Nothing he did enabled him to tame his mind. Slowly slings and arrows were killing him inside as the thoughts of Elizabeth living under the same roof as Anthony ate away at him. It was a roof that no longer held the person who was her buffer. Without Rocco, Elizabeth stood little if any chance at all against Anthony.
Jason didn't care what she said that afternoon. He couldn't believe that after all they had shared together that she had meant any of those words. Deep inside him, deep within his blood Jason knew that Elizabeth loved him nothing she said would change that. He looked at his watch. It was nearly morning. He had spent the better portion of the night trying unsuccessfully to locate the elusive Reggie, whoever the hell he was. Jason's gut screamed to him that for one reason or another Reggie was the key to everything. He was the key to bringing Anthony to his knees. All Jason had to do was find him and convince Joseph. Jason was unsure which would be the harder of the two tasks.
"You are up early," Joseph commented to his son as he joined him in the kitchen.
"Couldn't sleep."
"Me either. Listen Jason, there is something I would like to discuss with you," the older man began.
"So would I. We can't leave Elizabeth alone with Anthony. She isn't equipped to handle him!" Jason blurted out.
Joseph expelled a heavy sigh. He understood Jason's concerns for he had concerns of his own regarding Elizabeth's safety yet each step that had to be taken was a delicate one, not one with a battering ram. "I understand your concerns... ..."
"Concerns?? Did you even notice how devastated she is by Rocco's death? Did you happen to notice that she is living on vodka or whatever liquid comfort gets her through the day?" Jason's anguish was self-evident.
"Jason, I assure you that Rocco made provisions for Elizabeth's safety....."
"What about keeping her safe from herself?" Jason cried.
"Things are completely under control."
"Nothing is ever 'under control' when Anthony Malucci is involved. I can't let you play with Elizabeth's life like this. I can't just sit by and assume that things are being handled."
"That's exactly what you will do!" Joseph countered authoritatively.
"God help you Papa, if anything, I mean anything happens to her...I am no longer playing by anyone's rules but my own!!!" Jason stormed from the room leaving his father speechless.
Joseph rubbed his hands against the tight muscles in his neck as he closed the door to his study. Jason's distress regarding Elizabeth was well placed and Joseph knew it. He hadn't been oblivious to her drowning her sorrows in alcohol as Jason had thought. Joseph hadn't missed the staunch fear he saw in Elizabeth's eyes every time Anthony entered a room. Just as much as Jason wanted to whisk her to safety, Joseph wanted to do that as well. Yet at that very moment it couldn't be done – not for his and Rocco's plans to come to fruition. The last leg had been set in motion the previous evening. Joseph would have savored his victory quite a bit more if it hadn't come on the heals of such a great sorrow in his life. He would miss his friend terribly and maybe one day Joseph would look back on his triumph and smile but that wouldn't be anytime soon. Joseph picked up the receiver and dialed hoping that Rocco was correct in who he could and couldn't trust.
"Malucci residence."
"Helena?"
"Yes? Who is this?"
"A friend of Rocco's."
"I'm sorry, you mustn't have heard Mr. Malucci died a few days ago."
"I know that."
"Would you like to speak with Mr. Malucci's son?"
"No. It's you who I would like to speak with."
"Who is this?" Helena asked again.
"Are you alone?"
"No."
"There's a man with you, isn't there?"
Helena looked to the corner of the kitchen and indeed there was a man in a black leather jacket poking around her cookie jar. "Yes," she answered.
"Besides him, are you alone in the room?"
"Yes. Who is this?" she demanded.
"I will tell you but there can be no expression of surprise pass over your face. This is Joseph Morgan."
"Excuse me?"
"The man in the kitchen with you is Marco. He is there to be sure that Anthony doesn't get out of line. He will be my lookout and your go between."
"What?" Helena couldn't hide her confusion. None of this was making any sense to her in the least bit.
"Rocco made arrangements for his daughter in law to be protected. I am the one to see that that protection is carried out. I will be doing that with your help. Rocco said that I could trust you, that you were loyal to him and that you would be loyal to me as well."
"I don't understand."
"I realize that this is a shock, I am sure. But your only concern is looking out for Elizabeth. If anything seems off or out of sorts to you report it to Marco and he will get the information to me."
"If Anthony catches me... ..."
"He won't. Marco will see to that. This is my one and only call to you, Helena. One last thing."
"Yes?"
"We never had this conversation. Do you understand?"
"Yes – yes I do." Helena placed the receiver in the cradle and looked across the room at the man sent to protect them and wondered if just one man would be enough.