Author's Note: This has been edited slightly to fix mistakes and fit better with future chapters.
Disclaimer: All characters were created by Margaret Mitchell. I'm just trying to give them a different chance at happiness. Warning: Not a Scarlett and Rhett pairing!
Saint Valentine's Day, 1877
Katie Scarlett O'Hara was not a beautiful woman, a fact she just now realized as she sat staring into her vanity mirror. The last sixteen years had not been kind to her. Her green eyes, now swollen and red, no longer held that twinkle which once attracted boys from five counties to court her. Her thin figure no longer filled out in just the right places—in fact, her appearance of late was rather gaunt. The stress from her series of unhappy marriages weighed heavily on her heart, as did her inability to meaningfully connect with her surviving children. She still felt the loss of her favorite child, Bonnie, and truest sister, Melanie, as if they had been gone for only days instead of years. After years of putting off unhappy thoughts until tomorrow, tomorrow had finally come.
Rhett had asked for a divorce. After several years of infrequent visits, keeping up appearances had become too unpleasant a chore and he wished to be free of her and her children. Scarlett finally forced herself to face the mistakes of the past.
As Miss O'Hara, she shamelessly flirted with any boy who looked at her and especially enjoyed flirting with other girls' beaux. At the start of the war, she rushed into marriage with Charles Hamilton to save face after making a fool of herself over Ashley Wilkes. She still felt guilty over the feeling of relief that greeted her at Charlie's death. Their son Wade, just recently fifteen, remained a stranger to her. She had failed both husband and son.
Just after the war ended, she shamelessly lied to her sister's fiancé, Frank Kennedy, and married him to pay the taxes on her beloved family home, Tara. Even after ten years, she still feared the everlasting torment she had surely earned for her role in his death. Their daughter, Ella, was even stranger to her than Wade.
Then there was Rhett Butler. She had never loved anyone more than Rhett, except possibly their daughter Bonnie. Unfortunately, she had never failed anyone as much as she had Rhett. She wasted much of the time they could have spent together dreaming of Ashley Wilkes. They lost both of their children due to their failure as a couple.
The faces and voices of all the people she had lost drifted through her mind. Charles, Stuart and Brent, Mother, Pa, Frank, a small boy who could only be her lost baby, Bonnie, Melanie, and all the other boys in the war. They all asked one question of her, "What would make you happy?"
Scarlett contemplated that question while thinking of her remaining family-Rhett, Wade and Ella, Ashley and Beau, and Suellen and Careen.
"That my family could be happy, and their heartfelt wishes would come true."
"Granted, Puss," replied the voice of Gerald O'Hara.
Fifteen year old Wade Hampton Hamilton walked towards home with a dejected look on his face. He had just left the home of his first love, having been turned away by the girl's father. The boy was reluctant to return home, embarrassed to face his mother and stepfather. They were, after all, the reason he had been turned away. No respectable family in Atlanta wished to have their daughter associate with the Butler family. Not even his Hamilton and Robillard connections were enough to counter Mother and Uncle Rhett's bad reputations.
Wade kicked a rock and looked at the flowers he held in his hand. It was so damn unfair. All his life, he had nearly worshipped his mother, regardless of anyone else's opinion of her. She was never approachable or affectionate like Aunt Melly or playful like Uncle Rhett, but he loved her anyway. She never loved him in return and now, because of her behavior, he had no chance with the girl he loved. Or with any decent young lady. It was all Uncle Rhett's fault. If only Mother had never married him. He and Mother and Ella could have lived with Aunt Pitty, who would have taken care of them while Mother managed the store and mills.
Wade's feet nearly carried him past the cemetery before he decided to go in. He found the graves of his father and Aunt Melly, and placed some of the flowers he had bought for the girl on each of their graves instead. He sat on his father's grave and wept all the tears he'd held in over the years. Through the tears he saw a man that looked much like him standing beyond the gravestone.
"What's your heartfelt wish, Wade?"
"I wish Uncle Rhett had married someone else instead of Mother."
"Granted, son.
Ella Lorena Kennedy sat under her mother's dining room table. She knew that at ten she was much too big to hide under the furniture, but right now it was the only way she felt close to safe. Momma and Uncle Rhett had fought again, right in front of her this time, and Momma broke all the china Prissy had carefully set out for the evening meal.
It all started with Momma wishing Uncle Rhett a happy Saint Valentine's Day. Ella didn't know why it made Uncle Rhett so upset-when she wished him the same, he picked her up and kissed her on the forehead. But when Momma said it, Uncle Rhett's face turned angry and he told her to quit. Then they started saying things Ella didn't understand. When the yelling started, she crawled under the table and had been sitting there ever since. Some time ago, Uncle Rhett left with a great slamming of doors. Momma had stopped breaking things, stopped crying, and went upstairs. Prissy had entered but quickly left when she saw the mess.
Ella just continued to sit under the table, hugging her legs to her chest while silent tears ran down her chest. She peeked out when she heard her Aunt Melly's voice.
"Ella darling, what's your heartfelt wish?"
"Aunt Melly, where are you," Ella cried while crawling out from under the table.
"I'm here for you darling, just tell me what it is you desire."
Ella sat still for a moment, deep in thought. Finally, she responded.
"I wish for a daddy who really loved us, made Momma happy and who took care of all of us all the time."
"Granted, darling."
Rhett Butler sat alone at a corner table in Belle Watling's establishment, a nearly empty brandy decanter before him. After avoiding the issue since the death of Bonnie, he had finally asked Scarlett for a divorce. She reacted much as he had expected—by breaking a great number of fragile things. It was fitting that his last conversation with her would be so like the first.
His thoughts drifted to Wade and Ella. He had always intended to love them like his own, but once Bonnie came along he found it impossible to not favor his own child. Once she was gone, it was too painful to spend much time around them. He resented their presence, the knowledge that they lived while his own precious daughter was buried in the dark which had so frightened her. The divorce would impact them negatively, but considering how low his and Scarlett's reputations already were it shouldn't matter much.
Scarlett. She was poison in his veins. He had been obsessed over her ever since that long ago barbecue when her green eyes and unladylike manners had attracted his attention. He'd seen her marry two different men while pining after another before finally claiming her, but she had never been his own. There was but one antidote for this poison. He would cut himself free of her web and never again step foot in Georgia.
He closed his eyes and heard his daughter's voice.
"What's your heartfelt wish, Daddy?"
"I wish I had never fallen in love with Scarlett O'Hara.
"Granted. Goodbye, Daddy."
