But could you find it in your heart
To make this go away
And let me rest in pieces?
(Let me rest in pieces)
Would you find it in your heart
To make this go away
And let me rest in pieces?
(Let me rest in pieces)
— Saliva, Rest in Pieces
“We shouldn’t be doing this,” she murmured, tilting her head back and moaning as his lips scorched a trail down her throat.
“I know.” His fingers fumbled with the buttons on her shirt before pushing the fabric off her shoulders. It slid to the floor, forgotten immediately.
“We’re going to stop,” she tried again, sliding her fingers into his short hair. He backed her up to the couch and they fell over the arm of it, their legs tangling together.
“Right now,” he breathed, his calloused hands smoothing over her porcelain skin.
“It’s just going to complicate things,” she managed to say before their lips found each other again.
“I think they’re already complicated,” he told her, raising his head. His eyes searched hers. “Do you really want to stop?”
He would if she said the word and she knew that. All she’d have to do is say yes and he’d put his shirt and his boots back on and he’d leave.
“No,” she whispered. “I don’t want to stop.”
Still, he hesitated and she frowned. He glanced away. “I don’t have anything.”
“I don’t care,” she replied softly. She freed a hand from where it was trapped between their bodies and touched his cheek. “Do you want to stop?”
And just as quickly as the hesitation had entered his eyes, it was gone and he lowered his lips to hers again.
The memory faded from her mind as she stared at Dr. Meadows. “Are you sure?” she asked softly.
“Yes, without a doubt,” the obstetrician remarked. “Are you all right?”
Elizabeth nodded, numbly. She stood. “I’ll call and make another appointment,” she whispered. She left the office without another word.
Once outside, she leaned against the wall, her mind racing. What the hell was she going to do? Telling him was out of the question – it had to be, he was getting married in three days. To her knowledge, he’d never told his fiancée about that night.
She’d been on the docks–on her way home from her lawyer’s office. She and Ric had finally finalized their divorce and she was finally free from him.
She had so many plans–so many ideas on what she wanted to do. She wanted to convince Emily to run away to the city for a few days or maybe finish school.
Jason had been sitting on the bench when she came down the stairs and she paused to talk to him. He’d offered to walk her home…and somehow one thing led to another.
She still wasn’t quite sure who made the first move or what had spurred either of them to do it, but they’d made love right on her couch–three times if she remembered right.
The next morning, she’d woken up and he was gone.
When she’d seen him again, he was dropping Courtney off at work and things seemed to be normal between them and when she’d seen Jason kiss Courtney goodbye, she’d made a decision not to talk or think about that night again.
But now…
“Hey, are you okay?”
Elizabeth tuned back into her surroundings and saw Zander standing in front of her, concern written across his features. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Are you okay?” He reached out and touched her shoulder. “You look kind of pale.” He smirked. “More so than usual.”
She managed a weak smile. “No. I’m not okay. Not at all.”
Alarmed, Zander pulled it back quickly. “Whoa, babe. What’s going on?”
“I can’t drink coffee,” she said between hitching sobs.
“Well, you’re probably better off without it,” he replied. “This stuff will put hair on your chest. Elizabeth, will please tell me what’s wrong?”
She took a deep breath, looked into his concerned brown eyes and blurted it out. “I’m pregnant.”
Zander sat back and looked away. “Oh. And you don’t want to tell Ric. Well, that’s understandable–”
“It’s not Ric’s baby,” she whispered breathlessly, her eyes huge and terrified.
He stared at her and swallowed hard. “I’m guessing it’s not Lucky’s.”
She shook her head.
“Oh.” He shifted and stared at the doors to the hospital cafeteria. “I didn’t realize you two were together because well…he is getting married in a few days.”
“I know.” She sighed and looked down at the table. “It was just….it happened just once. I don’t even know how it happened. He found me on the docks one night. I’d just finalized my divorce and we were talking so he walked me home. And the next thing I knew, we were all over each other,” she admitted.
“And when it was over?” Zander prompted.
“He spent the night and when I woke up, he was gone. The next time I saw him, he was with Courtney so I wrote it off as a mistake on his part.” She bit her lip. “I don’t know how it could have been. He seemed so sure–I mean, he asked me if I wanted to stop a few times and it wasn’t like it was just once, you know? We made love three times and each time, we were conscious of the fact we didn’t have protection.” She searched Zander’s face. “Does that sound like someone who’s making a mistake?”
“No,” Zander answered her, honestly. “It sounds like a guy who knew exactly what he was doing.”
“I can’t tell him,” she whispered. “I mean, it’ll destroy his life. I’m almost positive he never said a word to Courtney a-and they’re getting married. How can I tell him?”
“I don’t think that’s what’s bothering you,” Zander told her.
“It’s not?”
“You’re thinking of course you have to tell him. Of course he has to know.” Zander shook his head. “You know you’ve already decided to tell him.”
“Every time I think I’ve decided not to tell him, I remember the way he looked when he’d talk about Michael,” Elizabeth admitted. She looked away. “He loved that little boy so much, Zander. How can I take that away from him?”
“Which is why you already decided to tell him.”
“Yeah…I know.” She rubbed her forehead. “I mean, logically what happens to Courtney is his problem. She’s his fiancée. He cheated on her. None of that has anything to do with me.”
“Of course it does.”
“It does?”
“Well, yeah,” Zander shrugged. “You’re also his friend. Not just a one-night stand. You’ve been his friend for years, you’ve been his sister’s best friend for even longer. So of course that matters to you. If you’d been a random girl he’d picked up, you wouldn’t have gave a damn.”
She sighed. “Yeah…were you always this smart?”
“Naw, I think it’s a new improvement.”
She stood. “I guess I’d better go face the music.”
“You said it was an emergency.”
The last time he’d been standing in her studio, it’d be a few seconds before he’d kissed her and now…it just felt awkward for him to be back here.
She’d spent the last hour waiting for him to get here–an hour in which she’d thought carefully about the events of that night and she’d concluded that he’d made the first move–he’d kissedher.
“I’m glad it wasn’t a real emergency because I would have been dead by the time you got here,” she began shortly.
He narrowed his eyes. “So if this isn’t an emergency–”
“It’s not one of life or death, but it certainly felt like an urgent matter to me.” She shrugged. “Besides, I thought you wouldn’t come otherwise.” She paused a moment before just saying it. “I’m pregnant.”
He stared at her, his mouth parted, his eyes wide and for the first time, Elizabeth knew she’d really shocked Jason.
“And just in case you’re interested, it is your child, there’s no doubt in my mind,” Elizabeth told him hesitantly, not all that sure he would challenge that fact.
“I wouldn’t…” Jason shook his head. “That wasn’t what I was thinking at all.”
“So…what are you thinking?” she asked softly. She folded her arms and looked away. “Because it’s crossed my mind that the whole night was a mistake and I’ve spent the last month trying to convince myself of that except that I don’t think that at all.”
“I don’t think it was a mistake either,” Jason admitted. “But it’d be a lot easier if we both did.”
“Why? Why did you leave and why have you spent that last month pretending it didn’t happen?” Elizabeth asked, her voice taking on a pleading note.
“Do you remember the day that you came to the penthouse to tell me Emily was awake and you and Courtney got into that fight?” Jason asked.
“You mean when Courtney jumped down my throat?” Elizabeth corrected. “Yeah.”
He exhaled slowly. “After you left, she accused me of wanting you back–of never getting over you. That I wanted to be with you because you could give me what she can’t–a child.”
Elizabeth paled and she took a step back. “You wanted to get me pregnant?” she asked, stricken.
“No, no,” he said quickly. “That’s not it at all. That’s just what Courtney said. But I denied all of those things when she said it and when I woke up that morning, with you in my arms, I realized I lied to her and I didn’t even know it.”
Elizabeth hesitated. “I don’t understand.”
“All those things Ric and Courtney said when we started talking again–that we wanted to be together, that we never got over each other…we both denied them every step of the way. And I realized that morning I’d been lying to her, to you and to myself.”
“So you realized you wanted me back so you went home to Courtney,” Elizabeth said slowly.
“I know it doesn’t make any sense,” he told her.
“You’re right. It doesn’t.” She dragged her hand through her hair and turned to look out the window. “I guess it doesn’t matter. You went home to her. In the end, you still wanted her more.”
“No, that’s not true–”
“It has to be since she’s the one you’re marrying in three days,” Elizabeth cut in. She turned back around. “None of that matters. I had to tell you that I was pregnant and now I have. So what do you want to do about it?”
He exhaled slowly. “I guess we have to talk about our options.”
She bit her lip. “I know it would be the easiest and quickest way to deal with this–you wouldn’t even have to tell her anything but I want it real clear that I am not even willing to consider–”
“That’s not what I meant,” Jason interrupted. He frowned at her. “Do you honestly think I would ask you to abort our child?”
“When people say options in regards to pregnancy, that’s usually what they mean,” Elizabeth remarked coldly.
“Not when I say it,” Jason snapped.
“Fine,” Elizabeth replied. “Then what did you mean? There’s very few options that I can think of. You go home, you tell Courtney and the two of you deal with this. We raise this child with joint custody. Or you decide that this is something you don’t want to deal with and you go home and we forget this conversation ever happened. Or you figure out who really want to be with and we raise this child together. What do you want to do?”
“You’re not even willing to discuss this?” Jason demanded. “You’re just leaving the ball in my court?”
“It’s been in your court all along,” Elizabeth replied simply. “You just refused to play.”
Her jaw felt unattached to the rest of her head–no matter how much she moved it up and down, it didn’t feel like it was part of her face anymore. It was an odd feeling, but so was the fog she was fighting through as she sat on the couch, staring into space.
When the last the time she’d taken a pill? An hour? Twenty minutes ago? She blinked and stared at the coffee table where her glass of water and a half-empty bottle of hydrocodone sat. Had it been longer than that? Had she even had any all day?
Somewhere in the distance a door open and she heard a voice start to speak. “Courtney. We have to talk.”
She turned her head to look at her fiancé, but it took almost a year it felt like and by the time she could finally focus on him, his words had already started to fade. She heard things like “care” and “family” and “three days” but she squinted and tried to pay more attention when the words “Elizabeth” and “spent the night with” were put together.
“Wait, what did you say?” Courtney said. She stood on shaky legs and tried to focus on the conversation. Why was the room spinning?
“Last month, I slept with Elizabeth,” Jason repeated. He narrowed his eyes. She looked kind of distant–almost sleepy. Had he woken her up? “And she’s pregnant.”
That got through. Elizabeth, the perfect pretty little china doll, had gotten her hooks back into Jason and now she’d given him the one thing that Courtney could never give him. A child.
“Well, that’s just great,” Courtney declared, grandly sweeping her arms, her movements just a little off and she stumbled a bit.
“Are you drunk?” he asked, curiously. He tilted his head to the side and took a step towards her. “Have you been drinking?”
“So, what is it? You wanted a child that bad you decided to screw your ex-girlfriend or was it because you j-just couldn’t resist her?” Her cheeks felt wet. She idly brought her fingertip to her skin and frowned. Was she crying?
He took another step towards her, genuinely concerned now. “Courtney–”
“So, you leaving me now?” she demanded, her voice rising and bordering on hysteria. “Is that what you came to do? Y-you calling off the wedding and you’re going to be with her now?”
She stumbled forward and managed to move away from him when he reached out to steady her arm.
“I was right wasn’t I?” Courtney cried. She tried to glare at him, but he was spinning–or was she spinning? And he was wet–or was she crying? “You love her! You never loved me!”
He reached for her then and she wondered why until she realized that the entire room was tilting and then there was a sharp pain and her vision exploded in bright pain before blackness coated everything.
Carly rested her hands on her protruding abdomen and was about ready to scream. They’d bee at the hospital for hours now and they still weren’t any closer to finding out if Courtney was okay and why she’d been so spacey.
She’d known her best friend was acting a little oddly but with the upcoming wedding and her fertility problems, she hadn’t blamed her. So if Courtney had been a little distant–a little strange…Carly had shrugged it off.
But maybe she’d been wrong. Maybe her sister-in-law had taken up drinking or something.
Something was off–she could see it in the way Jason was pacing. Guilt was in his eyes–in his movements, she could feel it coming off his body in huge waves.
“Go talk to him,” she hissed at Sonny.
Sonny shook his head. “I won’t be any good. He just feels bad because he wasn’t able to catch her before she hit the pool table.”
“Yeah,” Carly said before looking at Jason again. She didn’t think that was true at all, but she let it go.
She waited all night for him to come back and as the colors of the morning streaked across the sky, Elizabeth knew he wasn’t. The last time he’d promised to come back, she’d waited up all night for him. And she’d waited all day but he hadn’t come. Not until the next night when he’d shown up after she’d been trapped in the stairwell and he saw her with Zander.
But like that time, she’d believed him when he said he’d be back that night. He said he was going to go home and tell Courtney what had happened. It might take some time, he said, but he was going to leave her. And he was going to come back to Elizabeth.
But he didn’t come back. Not at eight, not at ten, not at midnight. She didn’t go to sleep and when dawn hit, she felt the tears well up in her eyes. Once again, he’d wanted her more.
Around noon, she was curled up on the couch, drifting in and out of sleep. She heard the locks click open but she didn’t sit up and didn’t even greet him as he came in. The door closed with a soft click.
“She’s addicted to painkillers,” Jason began quietly. His voice was hoarse and she wondered idly that if she looked at him–if his eyes would be red like they were that night in the chapel. “And when I started to tell her, she got angry and she stumbled and hit her head.”
Elizabeth still didn’t speak and he let out a slow breath. “She had a concussion and needed stitches. But she’s addicted to pills, she nearly overdosed.”
She could hear what he wasn’t telling her. She could hear that Jason wasn’t going to leave Courtney. Not even to raise his child with her. She could understand that. He couldn’t turn his back on her–he obviously loved her a great deal more than he’d realized. Her near overdose had probably convinced him of that.
“I can’t leave her now, Elizabeth. She needs me a-and if I did, she might…” the words hung in the air, unspoken but clearly understood.
She sat up but still didn’t look at him. “I’ll talk to a lawyer about drawing up some custody papers,” she said. She cleared her throat–she’d spent the morning crying and now her voice felt rusty and unused. “I’m sure we can come to some sort of agreement.”
“Elizabeth…”
“For the first few months, she’ll have to live with me. Because I’ll need to be able to feed her at all times of the day,” Elizabeth remarked softly. “But after that, we can work out some sort of joint custody arrangement.”
“It’s just for a little while,” he told her, his voice almost pleading with her to understand. And she did–she understood all too well.
He’d chosen someone else over her. Again.
“If you’re not going to choose me now, you never will and I’m not asking you too. It’s not an ultimatum. It’s not like I’m saying leave her or I won’t let you see your child. I’m just saying that you chose her all along and you will continue to do it.” She stood and started to fold her afghan. “I’m just sorry I ever believed you’d choose me.”
“This isn’t about choosing one person or the other,” he told her frustrated. “She needs me, Elizabeth–”
“And I don’t?” Elizabeth asked, looking at him for the first time. Her eyes were flat and determined. She’d made up her mind. “I’m pregnant with your child. I’ve got a drafty studio and a part-time job. And you’re saying your drug addicted fiancée needs you more than me?” She shook her head. “Ship her off to rehab, get her some counseling. This is not a difficult decision, Jason.”
“I can’t just abandon her–”
“But you can abandon me?” she asked, startled. “It’s okay to abandon me? I’m sorry, I’m not following your train of thought.”
“You know I’ll make sure you have everything you need,” Jason assured her. “We’ll find a house for you to live in–you won’t need to work–we can work this out, Elizabeth.”
“Where does it end?” she demanded. “If she tells you that she doesn’t think she can survive without being married to her, will you do that, too? Do you really believe you can get her off this addiction and then come to me and everything will be okay?”
“I–”
“This isn’t a negotiation, Jason. There’s nothing to work out. I told you that I wasn’t going to make demands. I’m not. But we need to make this clear from the very beginning. I’m not going to be the other woman waiting for you to get a divorce so we can be together. That’s not who I am.”
“You’re not making demands?” Jason scoffed. “What is this then? Leave her now or we can never be together? You don’t think that’s an ultimatum?”
“Maybe it is,” Elizabeth remarked. “You stood here yesterday and told me that you loved me, that you wanted to be with me and have a family. And a month ago, you kissed me. You’re the one who’s made the decisions in this relationship. And now I’m just supposed to say, well go ahead, go back to your fiancée while I go through this pregnancy alone?”
“You’re not going to be alone!”
“If she can manipulate you now, then it will never stop,” Elizabeth told him. “Because I guarantee you that the day I have an ultrasound, she’ll have a relapse. The day I need you for Lamaze classes, she’ll have a relapse. The day I give birth, she’ll have a relapse. You don’t think Courtney knows exactly how to keep you around?”
“And what about you?” Jason accused. “You didn’t think getting pregnant would do the same thing?”
It hung between them for a moment. He seemed shocked that he’d spoken and she was devastated that he thought so little of her.
“Get out,” Elizabeth said softly. “Get out right now. I can’t–I can’t look at you right now.”
“I didn’t mean it,” he said quickly. He came forward to try and touch her–take her into his arms, she didn’t know but she backed up quickly.
“I did not get pregnant to trap you,” Elizabeth said in a low voice. Tears stung her eyes. “I would never do that to you. I can’t believe you’d even suggest it.”
“I didn’t mean it,” Jason said again. “I’m just frustrated with the situation. Please, just….we can work this out.”
“I’m not going to keep you from your child, but I can’t deal with you right now.” She backed up against the wall, her hands in front of her, warding him off. “Maybe you didn’t mean it, but you said it so you must have thought it and I need to deal with that.”
“I just reacted–look this is not what I wanted to happen,” he said desperately. “I just need to see this through and then–”
“No,” Elizabeth told him. “I am not going to stand by and wait like a good little girl while she manipulates you into staying. Because I’ve believed you far too many times–I’ve trusted far too many times and I cannot handle it anymore. Every time that I’ve trusted you lately, you’ve let me done and I just…I can’t do it anymore. So please…get out.”
“No. I’m not leaving until you listen to me and we work something out–”
“There’s nothing to work out!” Elizabeth cried. “You either love me and want to be with me or you don’t. And you obviously don’t. So get out!”
“Please–”
“Get out,” she repeated.
“So, why didn’t you tell me I’m going to be an aunt?”
Elizabeth glanced up at Emily and sighed. “Zander has a big mouth.”
Emily sat down across from her best friend and signaled for a waitress. “I’m not going to tell anyone and I won’t even breathe a word to Jason if you don’t want me too. I just want to know why you didn’t come to me.”
“Because I only found out two days ago and since then, I’ve been dividing my time between crying and cursing your brother,” Elizabeth reported. She pushed her scrambled eggs around her plate.
Emily frowned but Penny was there before she could reply. “Just give me some wheat toast and an orange juice.” When Penny left, Emily looked at Elizabeth oddly. “I understand why the news wouldn’t be a good thing, what with the wedding only tomorrow–”
Stricken, Elizabeth stared at her. “They haven’t cancelled the wedding yet?”
Emily shook her head. “Were they supposed to?”
“I…he didn’t seem that upset when I told him,” Elizabeth said faintly. “And we decided we wanted to be together. He left to tell Courtney but he promised to come back to me.”
Emily sighed. “And he didn’t.”
“Not until the next morning,” Elizabeth answered. She felt a lump growing in her throat and she struggled to speak past it. “Apparently, Courtney’s addicted to painkillers and she was high when he tried to tell her. She fell and hit her head.”
Emily gasped. “Oh my God…is she okay?”
Elizabeth nodded. “I guess so. Well, she nearly overdosed and Jason decided he couldn’t leave her after all.”
Emily groaned. “Oh, sometimes I think my brother is more like his old self than he likes to think.”
Elizabeth shook her head. “I don’t understand.”
“Jason Quartermaine,” Emily clarified. “This reeks of Jason Quartermaine. He’d pick his commitment to his family over anything else. All the time. And now Jason Morgan seems to have picked up one of the worst personality traits his former self possessed.”
“It doesn’t matter. I assumed that they’d call off the wedding but I guess I was wrong.” She placed a hand protectively over her abdomen. “I guess I know where I rank again.”
“Rank?” Emily repeated.
“On Jason’s list of priorities.” Elizabeth stared at her breakfast. “We argued about this yesterday, about him always choosing them over me. He said this would only be for a little while and then we could be together but that’s…it’s not good enough for me, Emily.” She felt the familiar sting of tears. “Is it so selfish to want him with me during this? To not want him running off to her all the time?”
“Not at all.” Emily sighed. “Elizabeth…there has to be something I can do to help.”
“There is,” Elizabeth told her. She reached across the table and squeezed her best friend’s hand tightly. “You can just be there for me.”
“Now, that I can definitely guarantee.”
“I can’t believe you didn’t postpone this,” Carly muttered, trying to fit the veil over Courtney’s hair.
Courtney shakily applied her lipstick. “It’s just better if we do it now,” she murmured. If they were married, he wouldn’t be so quick to run off to little Elizabeth Webber and maybe…maybe Courtney could convince Elizabeth to just give them the kid and pay her to leave town. They could raise the baby themselves. They didn’t need her.
“I can’t believe you let yourself get addicted to painkillers. What were you thinking?” Carly demanded. “Why didn’t you just come to me?”
“Because I didn’t realize it was happening,” Courtney tried to explain. “I just thought I was getting rid of the pain.”
Carly sighed. “I just have a bad feeling about all of this, Courtney.”
“I’m not going to let you do this.”
Jason turned and saw his enraged sister standing in the doorway of the penthouse. He shook his head. “Emily…I don’t–”
She stalked towards him and ripped the bow tie he’d been about to wind around his neck from his hands. “Look, I get that you want to support Courtney through this drug addiction. That’s great, that’s fine, whatever you want to do.”
He stared at her. “You talked to Elizabeth.”
“Well, Elizabeth didn’t really have a choice,” Emily remarked testily. “Because Zander told me the news anyway. So you’re just going to abandon your child?”
“I’m not abandoning my child,” Jason retorted sharply. “I will do whatever I have to keep that child in my life.”
“You’re not doing such a great job so far,” Emily snapped. “You know, if you wanted to convince Elizabeth just how little she means to you, you’re doing a great job.”
“Elizabeth knows I love her,” Jason said, irritated. “And I know she knows it–because I told her!”
“Words are cheap and words are easy,” Emily said scathingly. “You told me that once. Anyone can say the words. They’ve been saying them to her all her life. You need to show her. Because your track record this past year has sucked.”
“It’s too late,” Jason muttered. He reached for the bow tie but Emily held it away from him. “Emily–”
“Look, I don’t ask for much, okay?” Emily said. “All I ever wanted is for you to be happy and if I honestly thought you’d be happy by marrying Courtney and spending the rest of your life as a weekend father, I’d let you do this. But you won’t. You are a wonderful person Jason, with an incredible sense of loyalty.” Her brown eyes bore into his blue ones. “But you’re wasting it on the wrong people. They exploit you–they know you will always be there and they use that. All they care about is what you can do for them.”
She tossed the bow tie on the couch and put her hands on her hips. “I have watched you for the past few months–since Courtney lost the baby. You have withdrawn into yourself. You don’t smile anymore and you’re barely a shadow of the brother I adore. And I watch your so-called best friends plan this wedding around you without once asking you what you wanted.”
“Emily–”
“All Elizabeth ever wanted to do was love you,” Emily said softly. “She wants to be the one who takes care of you–to be the one who makes you happy and you’re afraid of that. Because you know she loves you. You don’t know what do when someone loves you with their whole heart and only cares about what you want rather than what they want. You’ve never had that in your life. Not with Robin, not with Courtney and you sure as hell never had it with Carly.”
“Don’t make this any harder than it already is,” Jason pleaded with his sister. “I can’t change the past.”
“But you don’t have to fuck up your future either.” Emily shook her head. “You argued with me when I married Zander because you knew how I felt about Nikolas. You wanted me to do what I wanted instead of what was best for Zander. And I’m returning the favor. Forget Courtney, forget Sonny, forget Carly. Think about you. Could you really be satisfied only seeing your child on weekends? With not being able to tuck him in every single night and see him every single morning?” Emily stepped closer to him, seeing that she was getting through. “You remember how you felt when you gave Michael to Carly and walked out of the house that day? When he was crying and screaming for you and you had to walk away?”
“Stop it,” Jason pleaded, his voice hoarse, his eyes red. “Stop it.”
“Imagine having to do it over and over again,” Emily said relentlessly. She knew she was hurting him–it was killing her to bring up this memory to him. She knew the pain he’d gone through after losing Michael, but she had to make him understand. “When you hand your son or daughter off to Elizabeth after every visit and you walk out and your child screams at you to come back. You remember how hard it was to walk away once…do you want to have to do it over and over again?”
“Emily…” Jason trailed off helplessly. He closed his eyes. “You know I don’t. God, I’d do anything not to have to do that again.”
“But what you’re doing right now…the path you’re choosing…you are making sure that it happens,” Emily said, forcing her voice to be cold. “You will be part-time father. And one day…Elizabeth will get married to a man who really does love her–who puts her first. And he’ll be the one that tucks your child in every night and cooks breakfast for them in the morning. He’s the one that will be there to raise your child when you’re off doing business for Sonny or saving Courtney or cleaning up after Carly’s messes.”
“Stop it,” Jason ordered, tears slipping from his eyes. “Stop it. Don’t say another word.”
“And trust me, Jason. It will happen,” Emily said, her voice thick. “Because Elizabeth is wonderful, loving and giving person and she deserves someone like that. Who loves her and loves her son because apparently you’re content to take care of the Corinthos family instead of your own. She loves you–she wants you to be that man but it’s glaringly obviously that’s not what you want.”
“I do want that,” Jason told his sister, pressing a hand against his chest. “I’ve spent every moment of the last month thinking about her–about being with her. And since the second I found out she was pregnant, that’s all I’ve wanted to do.”
“Then do it,” Emily told him softly. She brought her hands up and framed his face. “For once, just do what you want to do. She loves you, Jason. You both are so very lucky that you’re getting another chance at happiness. Please don’t throw that away.”
