AUTHOR'S NOTE: I HOPE YOU HAVE ENJOYED THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER AND THAT YOU WILL BE ENJOYING THIS OTHER ONE TOO. IT'S QUITE BITTER AS YOU WILL READ, IT WAS HEARTBREAKING FOR ME TO WRITE SOME OF THE SCENES BUT I GUESS IT WAS NECESSARY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT ON THE STORY. ENJOY YOUR READING!
BITTER REVENGE, chapter 4.
Blake came home as happy as he had ever been, his eyes were full of Julie's sight, his lips could still feel the softness and sweet savor of hers, and his shirt still had her perfume on it. He felt brave and calm and he was sure that Patricia would have understood him since he was almost 100% sure she was having an affair with another man as well ... and his insights were absolutely right. Actually, she was talking to him the minute he entered the house. She tried to rush and hang it down not to be discovered but he immediately stopped her.
- "It won't be necessary, my dear. I guess I did trust the wrong person again" he dropped the car keys inside his pocket
- "Me the wrong person, huh? Well, why don't you tell me about your new friend? You don't seem to have been honest with me either, have you?" she replied calmly, yet preferring not to raise her eyes from her glass of Brandy
- "Patricia, falling in love with a woman when your feelings are completely numb is one thing. Cheating on someone for more than five years and not saying anything is another. Listen, I am not going to make a big fuss about this. You don't love me and I don't love you and that's fine. And for as much as your actions hurt me, I yet want you to be happy. We are … over" he declared
Another sleepless night climbed in as those sincere words broke out into a loud fight. Patricia became furious at him and the more he remained calm, the more she yelled at him unspeakable words and threw on him all her rage. But suddenly, to Blake's surprise, everything stopped and Patricia calmed down. She simply said "Just wait and you will see ..."
Blake had no idea what she was talking about but despite that, he didn't let her utterance scare him the slightest bit, he would have protected Julie and his love for her by any mean.
The following morning Patricia, when heading out for work, left the house in silence with Blake quite surprised about it, she wasn't known for being quiet after a fight. As she left, the first thing Blake did was to phone Julie, he wanted to wish her a good morning and to invite her for breakfast to tell her the long-wanted news that he had finally left his ex-girlfriend. He was aware that she had been waiting for that call all night long and when she received it, she was so thrilled and happy to hear again the voice of her beloved Blake. They had a brief call since she had to get ready for their appointment so they just exchanged good morning wishes and decided where to meet each other. Julie got ready very quickly, she didn't care much about her appearance, she wanted to share with Blake every second they were given but just when she was about to leave, someone knocked the door. She thought it was Blake that had come to pick her up but it wasn't: as she opened the door there was no people around, only a letter on the floor.
Julie took it to read it and her heart broke all at once.
'Thank you for the letters, thank you for the company, thank you for everything. But now it's time to say goodbye, you have done enough to make my fame grow bigger, I really needed your help. And photographers took very good shots, our love seemed to be real to them. Blake'.
The letter said other few things but Julie didn't manage to read them, her eyes were so full of tears that she couldn't manage nor bear to read anything else, her heart ached at every word she had read. How could it be possible for Blake to do such a thing? Why did she deserved to be treated this way by him? And why had he asked to see her again if he had wrote that letter?
Julie felt miserable and collapsed on her knees, unable to stop the flow of tears. The letter, till in her hands, was more painful than a stab and she decided that burning it would have been the only way to be far from the danger itself. But right when she was about to burn the letter between the woods in the fireplace, her phone rang again. She answered sobbing but trying to hide her tears. It was a familiar voice, actually it was Blake asking for where she was and if she had had some problems and needed help.
He got no answer.
After a few minutes Blake called again, and again and again getting tremendously worried about his woman until she finally picked it up and said that she was coming to him, very cold in her answer.
Julie's heart was completely broken, but when she had calmed down and became a little more lucid to be able to read the letter again, she noticed something strange in it: it didn't look at all like Blake's calligraphy, she knew his and he had a completely different one. Also he would have never used those terrible, harsh words.
She came to realize that Blake could have never done something like that, especially to her but she couldn't be totally sure about it, maybe the letter had been written by one of his assistants and he would have changed his words. She had to be very careful to understand what had just happened and try not to jump to conclusions.
It was very late morning when the two met and Blake was extremely worried about her. His worry seemed true to her eyes, but what if he was just pretending? Julie began to behave somewhat differently with him, she wasn't passionate as the last time, she was cold and quite detached. This didn't help to relieve Blake's worries, and when he couldn't bear it anymore, he asked her if everything was alright. At his question, Julie didn't really know what to answer. On one hand she wanted to tell him the truth about that awful letter and her sadness about it, but on the other hand she didn't want Blake to know it; she wanted to discover the truth by herself, she was sure that Blake was not the one who had written the letter but she couldn't love him as she did before until she was a 100% sure of it. She kept silent, and seemed very confused. But after a while Blake took her hand and looked into her eyes, really concerned about her.
- "You're sure everything's alright?"
- "Yes it's just that … I am not myself today. I ... I'd like to go home"
- "Please Julie, tell me, what's going on? You ... you don't wish to see me again?"
- "I would just like to go home... bye Blake".
She quickly kissed him on his cheek and left him alone, without having given him any clear answer. She most definitely didn't want to tell him that she didn't want to see him anymore, but on the other hand she didn't feel like meeting him again either, it would have been difficult to love each other if she had to think about that letter and pretend not to know about it.
Blake came home alone, wondering on why she had behaved like that, did he had done something wrong? He tried to think back to whatever could have been misunderstood as an error but he couldn't find anything. He then decided to write her a letter, asking for forgiveness whatever the reason was. He opened the third drawer of his bedside table looking for his letter paper, but neither the paper nor the envelope he bought were there.
He connected the events and everything became clear: Patricia was the one who had caused those problems! She was suspicious about his letters and understood that they were from another woman, not from Hogarth; the engagement ring that she saw in Blake's bed table wasn't received by her but was given to Julie. So she decided to ruin forever the relationship between she and Blake and did so by sending her a letter, pretending to be Blake and saying that he had only used her. When Blake realized it, he couldn't believe it. He had to do something to save his relationship with Julie, he couldn't give it up for anything in the world. When Patricia came home he was furious at her: he had so much rage against her for having ruined his beautiful love story and he didn't feel guilty to say it in front of her, he knew that she had just been with her lover as well and he had done nothing to hurt or hinder them. Another night fight started between the two and Patricia went to sleep in an hotel to avoid every contact with him.
That night Blake wrote to Julie to tell her all the truth. It was a very, very long letter and Blake's words were dictated by his heart, broken for that situation, he was tearful while writing and his hands were shaking as leaves at the thought of Julie suffering for him.
The next morning Blake had an appointment for the project he was planning with Hogarth and to his surprise a car came to bring him to Hogarth's office. Blake was very disappointed, he only wished to go to Julie and give her his letter, but this wasn't possible anymore. The only thing that came to his mind was to call a flower shop to make them deliver her an enormous bunch of roses along with his letter.
Unfortunately things didn't went as he had hoped: Julie saw the flower man arriving from her bedroom's window but didn't let him deliver anything, she needed clarity and any kind of gift from him would have flattered her and cloud her mind. What she didn't know was that if she had read that letter, their relationship would probably have been already saved but she didn't allow anyone to enter her house and refused every contact with the outside.
She felt as she needed time to focus on what her real feelings were, if she had to keep pretending to be angry or if she could just let it all go. As a matter of fact she remained in for several weeks during which Blake kept sending her flowers and that same letter daily but after a couple of weeks of vain attempts in reaching her, he realized that he had to face the reality that maybe Julie didn't want him anymore, that this time it had been too much for her to bear. In addition he had to start shooting for his new film and wasn't supposed to be losing time on something apparently vain.
Despite his spontaneous attempts he was prevented to think about her in his working days and he had to stop sending her flowers. But he kept the letter always in his pocket so that if he would have had a chance to meet her, he would have done what he was trying to do from their last encounter.
It was being a bad, depressing time for both: even if Julie didn't take his gifts, she was still convinced that he hadn't wrote the letter by himself, that there was something hidden beneath and this made her suffer tremendously, day after day, night after night. Blake was no difference: he was completely absent from his work because his mind could only think about Julie and a way to get in touch with her. He had to tell her the truth and the thought that she was suffering just as much made him feel terribly guilty and sorry about her. All it took was a false letter to ruin their lives so quickly.
That week "The Tamarind Seed" was released. Hogarth had invited Blake at the premiere of the movie and he had accepted immediately, hoping to finally have a chance to meet Julie again.
For the occasion he wore his best suit and thought it seemed to be the perfect night to meet again under a clear sky and a full moon; he even planned to bring her on the hill they had been weeks ago if she ever showed up. But to his chagrin she didn't. Hogarth forgot to mention him that she had refused to go there because she was sick, she reasoned she had a very high fever and it wasn't good for her to be at the premiere. Blake knew that she was lying, it was just an excuse because she knew that Hogarth would have invited him as well and it would have been impossible for them not to meet. He had been holding all his hope to that evening but the predictable news had made him very sad, once again. He understood her reasons because she didn't know the truth but how could he let her know if she kept him at arm's distance?
At that point of the evening, it was time to finally show the movie, Blake would have rather gone home but Hogarth forced him to stay, being very proud of his new picture. As soon as Julie appeared on screen, he couldn't hold back the tears: after endless weeks he was finally hearing her angelical voice again, he was watching with his own eyes everything she had told him about when they exchanged letters.
But the worst was yet to come.
There was a scene where Julie kissed her leading man and just a second of it was enough to remind him of the time spent together, kissing and cuddling in the most tender way.
His mind was filled with memories of her and the thought that he had probably lost her forever was being too painful so he got up in an outburst of anger and left, he couldn't handle all that pain, especially in public. And for Julie was just the same: she was at home knowing that her Blake was there and was probably suffering at her absence. She couldn't stop crying even for a little while.
Being so sure he hadn't been the responsible behind the letter, she knew her was suffering just as she was. Then why they kept suffering apart, in each other loneliness? she often found herself thinking in the silence of her house. But she just couldn't go on, there were times it seemed hardly possible.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION, I'D BE GLAD TO READ YOUR REVIEWS IF YOU FEEL LIKE LEAVING ONE. THANK YOU IN ANTICIPATION AND STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER! SE YOU ALL SOON!