White Space Season 2

weaving together as one. The gem was an emerald, tiny and beautiful. Liz always thought emeralds were so much prettier than diamonds. Though they had never discussed it, Roger clearly agreed, drawn to the ring as he was. It was about two counties and a canyon outside his budget, but he saved for a year anyway. When he finally went back to buy the ring, it was gone. The jeweler had sold it to someone just two weeks before.
    Roger was devastated.
    He asked the shopkeeper if there was any way to get another ring of that kind, but the man said there wasn’t. The manufacturer no longer made it. But he knew a custom jewelry maker who might be able to come close. It might cost more. Though Roger didn’t have the money, he’d already spent a year saving to get what he did have, so he agreed, knowing he would find a way to pay for it someday. That someday came five months later.
    Liz felt tears trickling down her cheeks as she remembered the night he proposed.
    Roger wrote her the most beautiful love note, with a simple Will you marry me? like a kiss at the end, then slipped it into the book she’d been reading at the time — The Princess Bride — so it would fall out when she opened it, which it did, since he had written the note on stock that was slightly too thick for the book.
    The Princess Bride was one of Liz’s favorite books. She still had the hardcover originally bought by her father, and read it at least once a year. The note was the most romantic thing anyone had ever done for Liz, and what it said was even more romantic than that. Of course she said yes immediately, screamed it out loud as she slipped the gorgeous ring on her finger. Roger ran into their bedroom laughing and smiling.
    And then she had somehow lost the ring, probably her life’s most precious physical possession. She had hoped to find it as they packed for the movers, but even though their house was inside out and sitting in cardboard, she had found it nowhere.
    And now that they were leaving in the morning, she couldn’t help but imagine the ring laying in some unseen corner, to be found by whoever owned the house next — someone ignorant of the ring’s significance, or the love it once symbolized.
    As Liz thought of Aubrey and Alex, she knew their safety was far more important than any ring. They couldn’t stay on the island. She knew that the minute she saw the video on the flash drive, then had it confirmed when their car was vandalized outside the library with the word “murderer.”
    Ironically, it was because of the flash drive that they were even able to leave the island.
    Brock Houser, the investigator she asked to look at the drive had lost it in a horrible car accident. Odd as it was, he didn’t even remember her hiring him. When she hadn’t heard from Mr. Houser, she reached out to his employer, Jon Conway, telling him what happened, and why she was afraid. Jon felt so bad about everything, he offered to pay for them to resettle elsewhere, somewhere safe. People could say what they wanted about the Conways, but Jon had bought her a tiny place in a small beachside community called Balboa Island — not really an island — without her having to ask, and even after she insisted he didn’t, where the schools were excellent and their world would be safe.
    At first, Liz couldn’t imagine taking the money, and refused it outright. But Jon Conway was nothing if not persistent. So she’d finally said yes, she’d take the money — as a loan which she promised to repay.
    “Take your time, Mrs. Heller. You’ve been through a lot. You worry about your family first.”
    She thanked him, let him buy the house, with her name on the deed, then dared to dream that they might truly be able to start over.
    But now, in the still of the night, Liz wondered if she’d taken blood money. If Jon was merely acting as an agent for his family, and trying to get her out of town. She’d been on to something, the same something which she was becoming increasingly convinced got Roger killed — or perhaps made him snap.
    Regardless of the evidence and accusations, she would never believe her husband capable of shooting a schoolroom full of his students. No, something else was happening. Something which no doubt led back to the Conways. They were behind everything that happened on the island, so it only made sense that they knew something about Roger’s death, or maybe even had a hand in it.
    Her stomach turned at the thought that she had taken