"My dear Scarlett, how lovely to see you."
"I wasn't aware I was dear to anyone, Captain Butler."
His smile strained at her cold tone, but he kept his eyes blank.
"Indeed, you were never good at deciphering who truly loved you."
"No, but I think I've got it figured out now. Well, it's quite easy when the list shrinks to none."
She laughed darkly at herself. Oh, what a pleasant conversation.
Why did she have to run into Rhett of all people? Well, she supposed it was just like Life to try and break her yet again.
"Did you have something you needed to say, Captain Butler, I do need to get on my way."
"Is that so? Where are you headed?"
He was mocking her, she knew it. He must have been watching her stand indecisively. Well, she'd show him. Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.
"I don't think that's any of your business, Captain Butler."
She could see him grow tired of their game. His smile fell and he scowled openly at her.
"No more of this Captain Butler nonsense. And I suppose it's not my business anymore, though it is certainly Wade and Ella's."
Scarlett's sickeningly sweet smile faltered as well. She had missed her children dreadfully, but she knew better than to deceive herself. Rhett would always come first in their hearts. Why, they were probably flourishing without her.
He expression slipped into one of cold disdain as she took in the man before her. He looked the same as when he'd left her: the picture of a happy and healthy man.
Although, who wouldn't have done well without her? According to him, she had been draining him of his very life force. And the children had been repressed and held back with her around.
Scarlett was always greatly conflicted with herself.
The way she saw it, she was always the one at fault. It was all her damned fault that their lives had fallen apart. She had been a terrible mother, an awful wife, and a nightmare of a friend. If only she had been better, tried harder, they could have been happy.
And yet, a part of her sizzled with resentment for Rhett.
Because it wasn't all her fault.
He had delighted in punishing her for her feelings at every turn. She couldn't control any of them and it was not like he had tried to help her move past them. Far from it.
He had wanted her to fall out of love with Ashley and in love with him in an instant. When it didn't happen, he turned cruel and biting. He wanted her to abandon all feelings of insecurity and instability from the war the instant he arrived, stating that he could keep her safe. When she couldn't, he stung her.
The man that had best known her still had only scratched the surface in his understanding. He had never understood what she felt or what she needed to move past it.
Instead, he had mocked and baited her. He brought out her temper and then belittled her for it.
He had never understood what Ashley had stood for in her mind, nor the real trauma inflicted by the war.
It wasn't a bad dream that could be wiped away with a few kind words. It had scarred her, tearing so deeply into her psyche that she had to change her entire way of thinking just to survive. The war haunted her each day, drove her to extremes, and yet he couldn't see it as anything more serious than a scraped knee.
She didn't need a band-aid, she needed help overcoming the pain. He hadn't understood that, so he had left her to bleed and blamed her for it.
He cleared his throat.
It was enough to startle Scarlett back into the present.
Her plight so recently remembered, it was difficult to look at him without digging her nails into his overconfident face.
He was talking though, and she didn't know about what.
Scarlett tried to listen over the crowd and the blood pounding in her ears.
"... They'd like to see you."
"Who'd like to see me?"
At one time in her life, she would have pretended to know whom he spoke of. She wouldn't have wanted to expose her weakness. As it was, she didn't care to try anymore. He'd always find a fault with her, it wasn't worth trying to please a man who didn't love her.
"Your children. Have you managed to forget about their existence in the past year and a half? I know you've certainly acted the part."
"Of course not. They tore their way out of my body, how could I ever forget?"
Time in Texas and Europe had clearly influenced her language. She was much less mindful of what was considered proper in this part of the world.
Rhett's face showed his surprise and his displeasure in equal amounts.
"I see distance hasn't made your heart any fonder."
"Don't be ridiculous, I've always cared for them."
"You've missed them, then? That's odd, they never received any of your letters or gifts. But perhaps they've just been lost in the mail these past months."
She shot him a glare. "Not nice, is it? Being stuck with several children and not having any idea where their other parent has gone? Having your supposed partner in raising them abandon you all on a whim without a hint as to where they are going and not bothering to make any effort with the children while they are away? I'm afraid I could go on with the subject for hours, but I'm tiring as it is. Excuse me, I've got a train to catch."
Despite his best efforts, Rhett felt tendrils if guilt crawl up his spine. He had never realized how awfully he had treated Scarlett throughout their marriage, particularly in how he had abandoned her several times. He had always counted on her to be there, ready to take care of the children. It had never occurred to him that there would come a day when she wasn't their, making all of the plans around his abrupt departures.
It wasn't until she had done that very thing to him that he realized how unfair it was.
"Wait, Scarlett."
It was a monumental task for him to overcome his pride. Hubris was his undoing, after all. He had never been good at putting it aside, not even for her.
He wanted to ask her to stay, if only for a moment. He couldn't stand to let her slip away for another undefined amount of time, it might just kill him.
And, despite how unfair it was, the children ached for her presence. He had been asked daily about their beloved mother for a month. At last, Wade had begun to see through his flimsy excuses. Ella was still ignorant, saying her mother was still on an extended business trip.
What Rhett didn't know was that Ella knew her mother wasn't likely to come back. The only thing the little girl could find to explain it was that her mother had died, and that was a fate too horrible to face. She tried to convince herself that Mother would come back, but the feeling of loss would not stop tearing at her heart.
Wade had become embittered over time. The boy was entering adolescence and he couldn't control the hatred that oozed from him despite his gentle nature.
It wasn't clear exactly who he blamed, though. Some days he still spoke of Scarlett with reverence, recounting the tiniest things that he had noticed and treasured. Other days he couldn't stand to hear her name. The pain, anger, and sorrow becoming too much for him to handle.
His relationship with Rhett was just as conflicted. Wade could treat him like his own father, which he was in several ways. He would look to his stepfather for the guidance he needed and could be openly affectionate. But sometimes, Wade clearly despised the man. Rhett had been the one to break his unbreakable mother. He had bullied and shoved her until she had fallen to her knees and fled. Until she had left them all behind. Rhett couldn't blame the boy.
Wade needed to see her. As did Ella. But how could he ask without challenging her and admitting his weakness? He couldn't really, something would have to give. And he so despised showing any form of vulnerability.
"What?" Her exasperation was clear and only made him more hesitant to ask.
He knew, however, that he had to do it. "Can you stay for a couple of days? The children and I are staying here for a week and I know they'd love to see you again."
"I…" She paused before letting out a sigh and dropping her shoulders.
How could she not go see them? They might hate her, but she needed to see that they were doing alright. She needed proof that this was the best thing that she had done for them, even if it would hurt her deeply to see how little she mattered to them.
"Alright."
Rhett gave her a comforting smile. "We're staying at the hotel near your grandfather's house. Will you join us there?"
She shook her head. I'll find my own hotel, thank you, but I'll visit them. When are they free?"
"Whenever you are. Can you make it tomorrow afternoon?"
She gave him a curt nod and gathered her belongings.
He watched her hurry off without a goodbye and couldn't help but wonder what sort of disaster their encounter might turn out to be.
