ELIZA POV
I sit at the fireplace, looking deep into the embers and the ashes that fly away. I can't believe I'm going to do this… Do I really want to? I think, Yes, I do. A single tears escapes my eye and reach out behind me to the coffee table and pull up on the lid. Inside lies a smaller chest that holds all the love letters that Alexander ever sent me, I pull it out. When I open the chest, the first letter I see is the last he ever sent to me. I open it up and it reads:
My Dearest Elizabeth,
Words cannot express how excited I am to get married to you. General Schuyler is trusting me to love you forever, and I cannot say anything except that I am more than happy to. I hope that you will love me forever as well, Eliza. I will never betray you my dearest, Eliza. Never hurt you or make you hurt. I love you Eliza. Until our wedding day.
Love, Alexander
My tears flow at a faster pace. He said he will never betray me or make me hurt, and look at what he has done now. I throw it into the fire and watch as the flames eat up the paper, hungry for more. I read the next one, stating that he wants to meet with me for a surprise. That was the night he proposed. 16 years of marriage, down the drain for a 20 year old. I dump the rest of the letters that are in the chest into the fire. All my tears have escaped my grasp, and I start to compose myself. I hear a whimper coming from the door. When I look back, Alexander is slouched against the wooden door frame looking into the fire with tears in his eyes, "Did I deserve this?"
I nod, "You had an affair with another woman."
"Yes I did, but I did-"
"No 'buts' Alexander. You did it and I hate you for it." I say and brush past Alexander leaving him to stare into the fire. I start to walk up the stairs to head to bed when he calls me again, "Betsey, wait, I can explain. Please let me tell you everything."
"I really don't want to hear about your affair with Mrs. Reynolds, Alexander."
"Eliza, please you have to hear me out. You have to let me tell you, please!"
"The children are asleep do you really want to wake them with your story of how you slept with a 20 year old?" I ask, "I'll talk to you about it later as in once I give the children to Angelica so she can watch them."
I walk up the rest of the stairs and go into the bathroom. I sit on the floor and I cry when I thought I didn't have any tears left to shed. Everything leaves me on the floor by myself, and then I hear a knock at the door. I sniffle and ask, "Who is it?"
"Its Angie, I need to pee."
I laugh at my 8 year old daughter and stand up to open the door. She walks in and leave her to her privacy. I walk down the hall and I go into the bedroom, Alexander sits on the bed looking at the chest that held that letters I burned. "You burned them all?" He asks when he noticed I had walked in.
"Yes, in one of them you promised me that you would never betray or hurt me, and look at you now." I spit with hatred.
"Eliza you have to understand she needed money and then she-"
"She needed money? So to men money is sex?" I ask.
"Well, no, but she was so help-"
"Don't even say it. Don't you dare say that she was helpless or in need of someone who cares." I walk toward him with a fire in my step and I grab his collared shirt with the ruffles and say, "Don't you dare say anything that is along the line of she was helpless because I know what helpless is. I was helpless."
"Eliza, but she was. She was so helpless and-"
"Alexander, when were these sheets last washed?" I ask changing the topic, but all for a good reason.
"Four months ago? Why?"
"I've been sleeping on a bed that you had sex with another woman on for four months?" I ask, my temper rising.
"Well, yes, I guess."
"Get off the bed."
He stands up and backs away, his arms up with his hands by his head, surrendering, not trying to get on my nerves anymore. I pull all the sheets and all the pillow covers off the bed. I walk down the stairs, carefully so don't fall. I talk one step on to the floorboards of the lower floor when Phillip, my oldest child, ask, "What are doing, mother?"
"Go back to your room, I'll be there in a minute, okay?"
He nods and waddles back to his room, sensing the tension in my voice. I walk into the living room, I hear Alexander's footsteps right on my tail. I throw them into the raging fire one at a time and say, "Tonight, you will sleep in your office down here, I cannot even look at you, Alexander. I can't even." I walk past him and go to Phillip, taking the same route to go to the bathroom, just a little bit farther down the hall. Before I enter Phillip's room I pray that he doesn't ask any questions.