Fffriday challenge: obsession Word Count: 525 A/N: Thanks to Neroli for feedback and betaing. Any mistakes left are my own.

Obsession Revisited

She had abandoned everything. She'd seen a crack in the prison and she ran for it without taking a moment to consider how they would haunt her. First, she'd dreamed of the luxurious furnishings, the helpful servants, the clean silken sheets. Later, memories of the gifts he'd given her began to intrude her thoughts during the slow days of planning.

Yolanda, the name she carried before leaving it all behind, could pinpoint the exact moment her obsession began. She'd married another mark, a real pitiful excuse of a man. Thing was, he really wanted to make her happy. Thought that they were in love and that she actually cared about the things he did for her. He brought her a little puppy the night after they wed, had bought it because of some nonsense story she'd told him during their "courtship".

The whole gesture repulsed her. She'd never been in more of a hurry to have a con be over, but at the same time, it reminded her of the last time she'd truly been moved by gift. It had been the week after their first wedding anniversary. She and Durran had celebrated their anniversary in style and spent extravagant amounts of money on the vacation of a lifetime. Yet one week later, her husband came home carrying a single red rose and a small red velvet sack. She'd assumed he was apologizing for needing to cancel the party they were planning or even maybe an affair. When she opened the jewelry bag, real tears fell from her eyes. It contained a simple brass locket on a plain metal chain, identical to the one her mother had worn when she was a child. He'd been so pleased that he'd made her happy. And she'd left it behind.

At that moment, her obsession started. She'd left the last true happiness she'd known behind, but she was sure he'd moved on. A man like Durran wouldn't let a little thing like a lost wife make him sad. No, but a lost trophy, that would crush him. The perfect job awaited; only needed to wait for the perfect time and the perfect dupe.

Even as he pressed the button on his ring, he couldn't believe she was really standing in front of him. Returned to him after all these years, he'd dreamed of this moment, truly he had. He'd been obsessed with finding her, and then with rescuing her after his investigators discovered Heinrich's body. No amount of money could buy him the smallest clue or trace of his Yolanda though. She'd vanished and taken a little bit of him with her.

After a time, his friends berated him for being naïve. They'd told him during the courtship that it would never work. A woman like that didn't belong in their circles; moreover, she'd never want to. He couldn't begin to count the number of times that they congratulated him on having the presence of mind to keep the security codes secret from her. In the end, she'd taken some of his happiness, but he still had his collection. A collection envied by most of the 'Verse.

Durran's obsession rekindled the moment he saw her in his gallery. He allowed himself to hope that she'd really come back to him. Ultimately, he couldn't be sure of why she'd returned. If she only wanted to steal from him, she could have done that at any time. But to return on that day, the day of their anniversary, it was beyond belief.

At the police station, he burned to ask her why. He refused to give in though. No reason to give her the satisfaction of knowing he was obsessed.

FINIS