Chapter 4: Broken Hearts
"Hey, Annie," Eddie Brock greeted his wife as she opened the door of her apartment. "I brought you some flowers." He held out the bouquet of red roses in front of her, as he stretched an anxious smile across his face. Anne Weying did not seem much happy to see him. Eddie Brock, too, lost his smile and removed the flowers from her sight. "May I at least come in?" he asked, letting out a sigh that seemed to convey that he was tired of her usual behavior towards him. Anne without saying retreated back into her apartment, leaving the door opened. Eddie Brock followed her in and the closed the door behind him. All of the lights of her small, worn out apartment were off except for that of the kitchen and another coming from her muted tv. Laying down the flowers on dinner table, he approached her in the kitchen.
"Look Annie, I'm sorry for all that has happened in the past few months," he said to her, she still remained silent, not facing him. "I promise you, everything will be okay." His desperate attempt to get her to speak didn't seem to have worked, she stood still with her arms crossed. Eddie walked about the kitchen, but not trying to go in her sight. "Annie, please, say something," Eddie couldn't stand her silence and whispered under his breath, Damn. "What?" she finally said firmly and then turned around to face him. "Say what?" There were tears in her eyes. "Annie, please, you know that I love you and..." Anne intervened quickly as Eddie Brock said those words. "No! You never loved me, Eddie" she shouted. "All you ever cared about was your job and yourself." Eddie Brock narrowing his eyebrows and trying to his best not to shout in disagreement, said in soft tone, "Where would you get an idea like that? I have always loved you and I still do and forever will."
"Eddie, please, don't make it even more hard than it already is, on me and you," Anne said, tears trickling down her eyes. "You had your chance, and like always, you made the wrong choice." Eddie in his heart knew that what she had said is true, he had been selfish in the past. "You're right, but please listen, all that I did was for you," Eddie said with desperation in his voice. "How could I have been a provider if I had no job?" Anne glared at him angrily. "Eddie, if you ever respected me enough, you know that my job could have helped us through until you found another job," she said, her eyes bloodshot. "Except, all you would do is lock yourself up in your room and whine about how Spider-Man made you lose your job. You can't blame someone else for what happened to you." Eddie Brock flared at the name of Spider-Man but was able to keep his cool. "Look, I got another job at the Bugle and now I can..." Eddie quickly knew that wasn't the right thing to say but before he could say anything else, he is harshly interrupted by Anne, "You still don't get it do you? It's not about the damn job or anything else, it's about you and me." Eddie kept silent, not making eye contact with her. After a moment of no response from Eddie, she ranted at him, "Just go!"
Eddie bit his own lips, suppressing his anger towards his own bad luck and walked to the door to leave. He opened the door and just before he left, he faced Anne and softly said, "I will always love you and I promise I'll make it up to you." He shut the door behind him and rubbed his face with his right hand before he made his way to the staircase. Anne Weying sat down on her sofa, still sobbing.
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Peter walked into an empty, narrow and darkened alley just outside his apartment building. He spotted a garbage bin and threw his black suit in it, more like hurled it with rage. After that he emptied the bottle of gasoline, which he carried in his left hand, into the garbage can. Lighting a match, he watched as the black suit get engulfed in flames. The black smoke rising into the night air. After making sure that the suit was completed toasted, he turned his back onto the burning bin and left towards his apartment.
