Once more Kendall was pacing the floor of her rooms, but now the anxiety was replaced by anger. Anger that the kidnappers had been so cruel to trick them this way; anger that the consulate could believe it to be true; anger that Bianca and her mother was still somewhere out there and nobody was lifting a finger to find them!

Griffin stepped into the room and stood in the doorway, watching her pace.

"I heard about Erica and Bianca." he said sadly, "I'm so sorry."

Kendall rounded on him. He was the first person she had seen since hearing the news and her rage had been building for a while.

"What is there to be sorry about?" she snapped. "They are not dead! My mother is Erica Kane! She is immortal. She has never faced a crisis, tragedy or disaster without coming out the other side of it stronger and more beautiful than before! She is not going end up dying on a rusty old garbage scowl in some forgotten ocean! She wouldn't let that happen to herself! And Bianca… Bianca is too a good a soul to end up like that. It's not true. Those devils wanted Bianca and now they have. We just have to wait for the ransom note. That's what we are waiting for. We are not here to wait for them to pull the bones of some strangers from the sea and claim it to be them…"

Griffin stepped forward, seeing through her anger and put a hand on her shoulder.

"I know this hard for you…" he began to say.

"No!" screamed Kendall back. "What is hard is seeing people giving up on my mother and my sister. I've seen too many people I love come back from the dead to believe that this time it is true! It isn't real."

"But if it is?" Griffin asked.

He stepped forward again and tried to pull her into an embrace but she pushed back.

"It's not… It's just not!" said Kendall, the grief she was trying to push down creeping past her anger.

Kendall pulled away from him and moved to the window, to look out at the ocean view she now loathed.

"I can't accept it." she said frankly. "Not on the evidence of one earing and one bracelet. It's not enough."

Griffin followed her to the window but this time he gave her space.

"And if they find more would you believe it them?" he asked.

Kendall turned and looked him in the eye.

"Even if they laid a whole body in front of me and a page of DNA evidence and the affidavit of a hundred scientists, I won't believe. Erica Kane and my sweet, sweet sister could never die like this. It isn't real. It can't be real! They are out there somewhere; I just know it!"

Griffin sighed.

"I'm so sorry Kendall, but you can only hold on to denial for long."

Kendall glared at him.

"This isn't denial, this is hope!"

…