Michael and Elizabeth: An Ending

Chagrined invited other authors to finish his tale of betrayal. This is my contribution.

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Involuntarily, Michael took a step back. Her hand came up and laid lightly upon his chest. The effect was electric. "Michael, it is time for you to come home."

Like an overload on an electrical circuit, Elisabeth's touch blew the fuse that Michael had built between his conscious mind and the hurt and anger that he had managed to bury within his subconscious one. Without thinking, he slapped her hand away and pushed her back enough that he could move around her back into the openness of the room they were in.

"Don't touch me or talk to me about coming home. I have no home because of you." Michael spat angrily at Elisabeth.

"As for the children, you have sole custody so any problems you're having with them are yours to deal with. I'm leaving tomorrow for a UN security detail in Syria and I don't know when or if I'll ever be back."

Even though Harry had told her that Michael had volunteered for the assignment; hearing it from Michael made Elisabeth gasp in surprise.

"Please, Michael, don't go. I have a feeling if you go, you'll not come back alive. Our children need their father in their lives." Elisabeth managed to say barely loud enough for Michael to hear.

"Our children, you really think of them as our children even though you know that Oleg Swenson has as much of a chance of being their father as I do." Michael replied bitterly to her; noticing the momentary flinch and the sudden loss of color Elisabeth exhibited at the other man's name.

"Why are you shocked, Elisabeth? Did you think I've spent the last six months hiding in a dark apartment, crying in my beer? I'll admit I did that for about a week, but then the thought that if you could cheat on me now, you may have been cheating on me the whole time we were married, occurred to me.

"That thought led to another, which led to another, which led to...; well you get the picture. You know how I am, Elisabeth, so I started thinking back over our live together and then I started searching for answers to all of those questions your infidelity brought into my head.

"Kevin supposedly came late, but what did I find. The month after he was supposedly conceived, you were at the UN in Geneva and who did you spend a lot of time with, a blond haired, hazel eyed Swede named Oleg Swenson. You have to admit you have a type, Elisabeth, or did have until six months ago. The only mistake you made was Oleg's height. I guess that's why Kevin is almost as tall as I am at twelve years old.

"Brian supposedly came early, but back the truck up, here you and Oleg are again in another UN city, Vienna this time, one month before Brian's conception. And last but not least; your sweet, well I guess she's more sour now, daughter, Sarah. We were living in Paris when she was conceived, and lo and behold, who happened to be vacationing with his wife in Paris around the time she was conceived?" Michael ranted at Elisabeth.

Elisabeth could only stand there and shake as she fought the crying jag that was threatening to erupt at any moment. Several tears did manage to escape from her tightly shut eyes and flow down her ashen cheeks.

"Answer me, damn it." Michael yelled at her.

"Oleg." Elisabeth managed to whisper.

"That's right. Fucking Oleg." Michael screamed one last time at Elisabeth before turning his back to her.

Elisabeth watched as Michael struggled to regain some control over himself and his emotions. Finally, after ten minutes of silence, Michael turned back to face her.

"I know Harry sent you here to try and talk me out of going to Syria, but you can save it because I'm going. You need to leave now." Michael said to Elisabeth in the saddest tone she had ever heard from him.

"Please Michael, let me expl..." Elisabeth started to say before Michael erupted.

"DON'T SAY ANOTHER WORD! I DON'T NEED OR WANT ANY EXPLANATION FROM YOU ABOUT YOUR CHEATING ON ME! LEAVE NOW PEACEABLY OR I SWEAR I'LL PHYSICALLY THROW YOU OUT THE DOOR!"

Elisabeth fled in terror and shame from Michael's apartment as the sobs of pain and uncertainty escaped her body via her eyes and mouth.

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ONE MONTH LATER

"Mom, hurry come look. Daddy's on TV." Elisabeth's middle child Brian yelled from their living room.

"Why is he tied up like that, Mommy? Why do those men around him have hoods over their heads and those big knives in their hands?" Brian asked her as soon as she entered the room.

Elisabeth grabbed the remote from her son's hand and jockeyed the TV station to the next one and off of the frightening scene of the only man she had ever truly loved bound and kneeling in the sand surrounded by men in dark robes and hoods.

"Go to your room." She said to Brian with a tone he knew meant business. She made sure he was out of the room before toggling back down to the news broadcast her son had been watching.

"Do you want to say any words of good bye to your loved ones before you are put to death?" Elisabeth heard one of the men ask Michael.

"I have no loved ones. God Bless America." Michael yelled before the TV screen went black.

"I'm sorry but "SNN" refuses to show the horrific death of American hero Michael Quinn who was beheaded by ISIS forces mere moments after his patriotic last words. Although he must have known he would be a target for ISIS, he volunteered to be a member of the UN security detail sent to Syria to safeguard the well-being of the doctors and nurses who had also volunteered to try and help the less fortunate people caught in the middle between the Syrian government and ISIS forces. From all the information "SNN" has managed to gather, Mr. Quinn was the only member of the UN constituency to be captured during the roadside ambush of UN personnel.

"SNN" has not yet been able to confirm that Mr. Quinn had no loved ones to say good bye to when he was given that chance. Be assured that "SNN" will be following any and all developments related to the events we have witnessed today."

Elisabeth sank to the floor in a daze by the time the announcer had finished his commentary and began wailing in anguish which brought all three of her children running to see what was wrong with her. It took several minutes before she was able to tell them that their father was dead and that they would not be able to see or talk to him ever again. The four of them clung to each other as their shared grief poured out of each of them.

Their grief was compounded a couple of days later when Michael's boss, Harry Burns, came to their house and explained to them that the ISIS forces who had killed Michael had cremated his remains and scattered the ashes into the desert winds.

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Twelve months later

Elisabeth Quin was seated at a table in the farthest corner from the door of the small coffee house her meeting was to take place in Stockholm, Sweden. She did not stand to greet the man she was waiting on when he finally arrived ten minutes late and pushed him away when he bent down to try and kiss her.

"Don't." She hissed at him with a noticeable tone of hatred.

"What's the matter, Liz, aren't you happy to see me?" Oleg Swenson asked her with a touch of anger.

"No, I'm not happy." Elizabeth managed to say. "I wish I'd never met you. I wish I'd been stronger and resisted when you first seduced me in Geneva. I wish I had told Michael everything when you started blackmailing me. I wish I'd never gave in and became a whore for you and your partners in their smuggling ring. I wish I hadn't let you pressure me into taking Mr. Cross to my apartment instead of taking the time to get a hotel room.

"I wish Michael hadn't come home early and caught me with him. I wish he had let me explain and tell him everything. I wish he would have given me a chance to make it up to him; but the greatest wish I have is that I could have proven to him that he was the father of our children.

"None of those wishes will ever come true, but my last wish will definitely come true. I wish you a miserable life in prison from now until the day you die and then burn in hell for eternity."

"Wh...wha...what do you mean life in prison?" Oleg sputtered out in confusion.

"You're going to prison and I'm sending you there. You should have been more careful when talking about your illegal activities while I was around, you sorry son of a bitch. I've told the authorities everything I know. Names, dates, monetary figures, goods, and most importantly; how to access all the records to substantiate everything I told them."

"You fucking bitch!" Oleg yelled at her before springing up from his chair and grabbing Elisabeth around the throat with both hands.

His rage blinded him to the point that he did not see the gleam of happiness in Elisabeth's eyes. He screamed in pain as the serrated blade of the bread knife that was on the table pierced his right eye and his hands came from around her neck and flew to his face. Elisabeth slapped the handle of the knife with all the strength she had, driving the blade all the way to the hilt before beginning to laugh and cry hysterically as Oleg quivered and jerked on the floor for a brief moment before he was still.

"I did it, Michael. I made him pay for what he did to us." She was muttering when the Interpol agents who had been assigned to her finally reached the corner of the cafe. They hustled her out the backdoor into a waiting van.

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Epilogue

After five years of being under constant guard and with all of the appeals exhausted by all of the people involved in Oleg's illegal activities; Elisabeth Quinn and her three children vanished and a new family of four began living the rest of their lives in anonymity somewhere in middle class America.

The End