Written in 76 minutes. Sorry, the ending was a struggle. I had a plan and then once again, I just kept writing and I’m not sure if maybe this chapter goes off the rails, lol, but that’s the beauty of Flash Fiction. I’ll go where the story wants me to go, and fix it later.

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Luke’s was quiet, generally deserted in the morning, but it was easy to lose your sense of time in the place, Jason thought as he descended the stairs from the second story the next morning. There were only a few windows in the place — just enough to be legal, Jason suspected, and they were kept shaded. You couldn’t see in — or out. Once inside, it always felt like night.

This morning, however, the club wasn’t completely empty. Jason could hear Mike Corbin, the kitchen manager in the kitchen, talking with his prep cooks. And behind the bar, a clipboard in her hand, was Elizabeth doing daily inventory.

At his approach, she glanced over then quickly away. “Hey. Um, good morning.”

“Morning.” Jason rested his elbows on the bar, watched her work. He still wasn’t sure of the rules between them and he didn’t like uncertainty. She’d agreed to help last night, but she’d still seemed sad, and he didn’t know if he’d really explained himself well. He didn’t know what he wanted — only that he didn’t like the idea of not talking to her. Not seeing her.

“Did you talk to Justus?” Elizabeth asked, keeping her eyes on the line of bottles, counting the second row. “Um, I’m due back in court next Wednesday. They’re trying to dismiss my objection to the last settlement offer. They’ll probably win,” she added with a mutter. “I had to write it myself, and I’m pretty sure I messed it up.”

“I left a message for him this morning. And he said he’d take over your case—”

“No. No, it’s okay. He’s better off focusing on you.” Elizabeth’s eyes darted in his direction, then away again. “I can take care of myself.”

Jason clenched his jaw, thought about arguing with her, but it was her life. Her mistake to make, he thought. “Fine. Is there anything I can help with? For inventory.”

“Oh. Yeah, you can go back into the storage room and check on the delivery we got this morning from our distributors. Thanks.”

Jason waited another moment, but she didn’t say anything else, and he wondered if he’d misunderstood the last conversation they’d had. He wasn’t exactly sure what he was expecting, he thought, heading down the hall to complete the inventory, but some sort of acknowledgment that they were going to be staying married, at least for now. And he was hoping she’d know what to do next. He sure as hell didn’t.

Lila’s words were still in his head — he had all the pieces of his old life in his hands now, but what did he want to keep? Did he want any of it? He felt sure that he didn’t want medical school. Couldn’t imagine spending his life in that damn hospital. And he wasn’t interested in being the Quartermaine son Monica and Alan seemed to want.

He thought he could be Emily’s brother. Ned and Justus’s cousin. Those pieces didn’t demand anything from him, and they all seemed nice enough. But the last two labels he’d learned of — husband and father. He couldn’t be a father anymore. That opportunity was gone. Being someone’s husband—that was asking a whole lot. And what did it mean to commit to one woman for your entire life? Did he want to do that?

And if he did, was he obligated to make it Elizabeth because they were already married? These were all questions he didn’t know how to ask — or if he should even try. But if he didn’t have answers to them, how was he supposed to know what came next?

——

It was closer to noon, just after Elizabeth had finished her inventory and was looking over the schedule for the next week, when the door to the club opened and Justus strode in. “Elizabeth. Hey. Jason left a message that he’d be here today. Is he around?”

“Yeah, he’s in the kitchen with Mike. Um, before you go back to talk to him—” Elizabeth said as Justus stepped back. “He left you a message, you said. Did he tell you that he talked to me?”

“No, just that he needed to see me. I told him you were hesitant to agree, and I got the impression he wasn’t going to push you.” Justus paused. “Did he?”

“No. No, but we talked about it, and, um, I told him yes. So I’m telling you yes. I’ll do it.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “I still don’t know if it’s a good idea, but if you think it’s the best way to get Jason out of this situation, then I want that to happen.”

Justus slapped his hand lightly against the bar. “That’s great. Really, you won’t regret it. Let me go grab Jason and we can talk strategy.”

“Fantastic,” she murmured as Justus disappeared into the back. A few minutes later, he re-emerged with Jason following. Elizabeth tossed down the towel she’d been wiping down the bar with, and went to sit with them at a table, leaving a chair between she and Jason at the four-seater.

“All right, here’s what I’m picturing for our attack,” Justus said. “Next week, you have a status conference scheduled,” he told Elizabeth. To Jason, he said, “That’s the last step before the divorce gets set for trial. The Quartermaines have been offering her a buyout of her interest in your estate in exchange for her signature on the papers.”

“A buyout,” Jason echoed. “Money.” He flicked his eyes to Elizabeth. “Was it a lot of money?”

“It started that way,” she murmured, picking at a cuticle. “Half a million to sign the papers and relocate. They wanted me out of the area. I refused. Then they divided that offer in half, and I think, the newest settlement offer is something around fifty grand.”

“Forty,” Justus corrected, and she sighed. “And a promise not to evict you from the marital home.”

Jason furrowed his brow, looked back and forth between them. “But that doesn’t make sense. Elizabeth refusing to sign—shouldn’t they offer more?”

“The closer we get to trial, the more sure Edward is that he’ll win,” Elizabeth told Jason with some reluctance. “My lawyer — who resigned in protest when I turned down the second offer, told me that the judge is some old golfing buddy of Edward’s. The divorce is happening whether I like it or not. I, um, didn’t believe him then,” she admitted. “I do now. The judge refused to even listen to me about the conservatorship.”

“And you think we can make this work?” Jason asked, switching his attention to Justus. “It seems like Elizabeth tried everything.”

“She did. But she didn’t use her own leverage. I’ll be serving my notice of appearance to Edward and Alan at Easter dinner this weekend. They don’t have a clue that I’m involved — they know you’re here,” Justus told his cousin. “Ned’s been playing double agent for us, and one of the maids overheard Edward and Alan deciding to let things play out until the court date. They were interested in how Elizabeth would approach this. How you would react,” he told Jason.

“They’ll be confused if you serve them, though. No one in the house knows about the conservatorship. At least I know Lila doesn’t. Monica…” Elizabeth made a face. “Harder to say.”

“I’m sure that Monica is out of the loop, as well. And I confirmed with Ned that he didn’t know, and yes, I believe him,” he said even as Jason opened his mouth. “Serving them means making sure they know about the conservatorship. Then, we go to court and I file an injunction on behalf of Jason to stop the divorce. The judge will have to let us argue the motion, and I’ll appeal up to the state court to stall out. And believe me, this will go public.”

Elizabeth froze “Public,” she repeated. “You’re looking to use the media against them. You didn’t say that before.”

“Elizabeth, listen, I know the media isn’t your favorite thing—”

“That’s putting it mildly.” Her heart was pounding. “Why not fight it in the court?”

“Because Jason, believe it or not, does not have legal standing. But I can’t get a look at the papers without something. I’m hoping we get a sense of how they were able to establish it in the first place. What reports, what doctors — they have to attach something to defeat my injunction.”  Justus hesitated. “All of that and a leak to the press—”

“No. No. I’m sorry.” Elizabeth shook her head. “No. You never said that’d be part of it. I’m sorry.” She jerked her chair back, stood. “No. I won’t do that.”

“Elizabeth—” Justus began.

“What’s going on?” Jason asked, mystified. “I don’t understand.”

“Family court records are sealed. I don’t want—” Elizabeth shook her head. “No. It took them weeks to go away after—after. Weeks. I can’t do it again. Is that the only weapon the Quartermaines have? Leaks to the press? Don’t you have anything else?”

Justus frowned. “Wait. What leaks are you talking about?”

“Don’t act like you don’t know exactly why—” Her throat closed, and she couldn’t force out the words.

“What’s all the ruckus out here?” Luke emerged from the back, a newspaper in his hand. “What’s going on? Justus? You’re a little earlier for Happy Hour.” He came to Elizabeth’s side. “Lizzie, what’s the situation?”

“I can’t.” Elizabeth fled, and the front door slammed in her wake. Jason took a step towards following her, but Luke snagged his arm.

“Don’t touch me—” Jason shoved at Luke, who just stepped in front of him again.

“And don’t screw with my girl. I told you—what are you and the lawyer asking her to do?” Luke demanded.

“Elizabeth agreed to use her divorce hearing to start the ball rolling so we can get Jason out of this damn conservatorship. But I told her we’d leak what Edward and Alan are doing to the press, and she lost it—”

“Yeah, no shit. He gets a pass on it—” Luke jerked a thumb in Jason’s direction which only infuriated him more. “But you? Tell me you’re not that stupid. You know why she doesn’t want to have anything to do with the media. Not after what happened at the funeral.”

“Oh, come on, Luke. You can’t think they had anything to do with that. I know they’re ruthless, but the police investigation was hardly secret,” Justus scoffed. “Anyone who knew the details would have asked the questions—”

“What funeral are you talking about?” Jason cut in sharply. “If someone doesn’t tell me what the hell is going on right now—”

“The day we put that baby in the ground,” Luke said in clipped tones, not taking his eyes from Justus, “the press showed up. WKPC shoved a microphone in Elizabeth’s face, asking if she had any regrets about being at a bar and then getting into a car with her baby.”

Jason stared at him. “What? What—”

“It was bullshit, Luke, and everyone knew it—”

“Everyone? Really? That’s not what I heard. It’s not what I saw. All the public knew was that it was a drunk driver who caused the accident, and that succubus on the news made sure they thought it was Elizabeth who’d been drinking.” Luke shook his head, looked to Jason. “It wasn’t. But that didn’t stop the press from going after her. They tried to get her hospital records — and then they found out they didn’t test her for alcohol, they started screaming cover-up—”

“Why do you think the family was behind any of that?” Justus demanded. “No way—they were as devastated—”

“Really? Really? You don’t think they were hoping Jason would believe them—” Luke looked over to Jason — only to find the space empty, and the front door swinging closed. He returned his focus to Justus. “You got a lot of nerve walking in here, trying to get her to let the media into her life again. One call from Edward Quartermaine, and they shut their mouths. You damn well know that.”

“The way I hear it, it was one call from Sonny that took care of it—”

“It shouldn’t have gotten to that. They wanted that marriage over, Justus, and you know it. Edward used that tragedy, and he would have kept using it if Jason hadn’t cracked his head open and forgot all of it ever happened.”

Justus grimaced. “It’s all I got—”

“Yeah, well go find something else. The Quartermaines are done using Elizabeth for their amusement, you hear me? Best thing for her to do is to sign those papers and start over.”

—

Jason should have gone after her immediately, he thought. As soon as she’d fled the bar — but he’d stayed and listened — and now, standing at the entrance of Luke’s, he had no idea where to look for Elizabeth.

And then she cam around the corner of the building, swiping her hand over her mouth as if she was trying to wipe away the taste of something. She stopped when she saw Jason standing there.

“You told me that you didn’t read any of the newspaper coverage.” It wasn’t what he’d meant to say, but it escaped his mouth anyway. “That I handled everything.”

Her eyes looked too big for her face, and she was still maybe ten feet away. “I didn’t have to read it to know what they were saying. That wasn’t a lie.” Her voice was hoarse, and he wondered why. Had she come out here to scream? To cry?

“Okay. Then tell me what they were saying.” Jason fisted his hands at his side. “Tell me what they did.”

She exhaled slowly, then closed the distance between them, passing Jason to go to the front door. Elizabeth rested her hand on the door, staring at the cheap wood. “No. I wasn’t. I wasn’t at a bar, I was here at Luke’s. I brought Cady here to visit with people who care about me.” She looked back at him. “And then you called because I was late. I got in the car, I was only a few blocks away. And then the car was hit. It rolled and hit a tree, nearly slicing it half. I saw the pictures from the accident report. Edward threw them in my face when he accused me of killing my baby. Cady died on impact. And I was in a coma for almost a week after.”

She sighed, looked back at the door. “You handled everything because I almost died. And then later, because I couldn’t. Everyone blamed me anyway. They didn’t believe I wasn’t drinking, and the press reported that I wasn’t tested. They were screaming cover-up, just like AJ’s accidents had been covered up. Your mother blamed me. Edward. Alan. Emily asked me that question, too, you know. But you never did.”

Elizabeth met his eyes. “I didn’t tell you because it’s over. Sonny made the media go away, and once AJ nearly killed you, everyone had something else to obsess about. You don’t remember. You don’t remember any of it.” She squeezed her eyes closed. “If you want my help with the court hearing, I’ll give it. But no leaks to the press. I don’t want them involved. If even a hint of this ends up in the papers, I’ll take their blood money, sign the papers, and let you fend for yourself.”

Jason slowly nodded. “Okay. I’ll tell Justus. I’m sorry. I didn’t know—”

“I know you didn’t. It’s okay.” But she looked a thousand miles away, and he didn’t know how to make it better. With every passing day, he learned another fact about the life he’d lived before and he thought less and less of the man he’d been before the accident. What kind of husband had let her be blamed? Had he ever defended her from that damn family?

“It’s not okay,” Jason corrected. He pulled the door open. “But I’ll make it clear to Justus. I want his help, and I want to be free of this. But not at your expense.”

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