Disclaimer: I own nothing in regard to GWTW

Author's Notes: This is 'Final Revelation' rewritten. My muse decided that I was going to take out all references to ghost, returning in time, or Melanie's journals and give it another ending. I have re-edited this story, but the first five chapters are basically the same story up to when Scarlett goes back in time.

Spoiler Alert: Rhett and Scarlett don't end up together.

Chapter One

This was the worst night of her life, and she had some bad nights. Melanie was dead, her love for Ashley had been nothing but a false emotion and Rhett was leaving her after having loved her for twelve years. How can his love have worn out? What had he said when she had asked that? 'Your love for Ashley ran out.' She pondered that.

He didn't know it, but he had revealed a great truth to her. His love for her had been as false as her love for Ashley. He had only wanted her because he was going to be the man that brought Scarlett O'Hara to her knees. She smiled when she thought, 'He was the one who would have used my love like a whip against me.'

He had not loved her. He had wanted her just like she had wanted Ashley. He had been obsessed with her just like she had been obsessed with Ashley. He had wanted her because he couldn't have her just like she had wanted Ashley because she couldn't have him. He had thought he could buy her love just as she had thought she could buy Ashley's love. He had given her things while she had provided for Ashley. He had thought that him bringing her sexual pleasure and buying her things would make her love him. That was why he was so mad in New Orleans when he thought she was thinking about Ashley. Rhett had thought he was on the verge of victory only to find out that her love could not be bought. Sexual pleasure and pretty clothes did not win her heart.

He had not loved her he had desired her so greatly that he had given up what he valued most. His freedom. She had made him do that because she had made it the criteria for having access to her body. That had made him resent her and hate her. He had been obsessed with having her body and that had made him hate her. He hated her for how he felt about her. He had always been in control of the relationship up until then just as she had always been in control of the relationship until Ashley. She smiled and thought, 'If he ever thought himself as helpless regarding me as Charles Hamilton or any of the other fools that hung around me, he would have been angry at himself then he would have turned that anger on me.' That is the only thing that explains why he was so ugly to me after we got married. He was punishing me not for loving Ashley but because of what I made him feel and do. If I had ever told him, I loved him he would have won and then he would have been done with me. Then the hate and torture would have been even worse because it had cost him the thing he valued most, his freedom.

His resentment of her was great. He was the magnificent, rich, well-educated, sophisticated, handsome Rhett Butler and she was an uneducated, naïve, stupid, vain, country bumpkin who not only did not love him but really wasn't interested in him except as a friend or worse as a source of money. She remembered what he had said to her when they were dancing at the bazaar. He wanted her to tell him she loved him. That had only been the second time they had met yet Rhett had already expected her to someday declare her love for him.

She became his challenge. Rhett Butler could not accept that he couldn't have any woman he wanted. He couldn't accept that she was going to get the better of him in his quest. Just as she could not accept that she couldn't get any man she wanted.

Neither one of us knew how to love. She smiled. She could manipulate any man except Ashley. He could manipulate any woman he wanted except her. She only wanted Ashley because he didn't want her. He only wanted me because I didn't want him. That whip was only in his mind because I was making him do things to win my heart that he didn't want to do. Things he had sworn never to do, like get married.

With insight that had been missing most of her life Scarlett knew she could never win Rhett back any more than Ashley could win her back. If Rhett had loved her, he no longer loved her. She knew that even if he came back, he would never be the man he was even a year ago. He really was broken. At this point it didn't matter if he had loved her or not. He would never love her in the future. The greatest kindness she could do for him was to let him go. That was Melly's last instructions – 'Be kind to Captain Butler.' She would let him find whatever peace there was left for him to find. She would give him his divorce and put him out of his misery. All she and Atlanta would ever represent would be pain and failure. She hoped he found beauty and grace or whatever he needed to find. She cared enough about him to let him go.

She was so very tired. She couldn't fight anymore. She would go home to Tara. All she wanted now was to live at Tara for the rest of her life. She was so tired of struggling. She had been struggling for so long. She couldn't take any more pain and she couldn't deal with anyone else's pain least of all Rhett's.

Scarlett walked up the stairs and she went to Rhett's room. She knocked on Rhett's door. She heard, "Scarlett, I'm done with talking to you."

She opened the door and stuck her head in and said, "Good because I have something to say to you. I accept your offer for a divorce. I want my children, the store, my property, this house, my personal possessions and one hundred thousand dollars. Have your attorney draw up the papers and I will sign them."

"I guess you have changed your mind about marrying the little gentleman."

"The funeral will probably be in two days. Do you think we can get the papers ready by then?"

"Why are you in such a hurry? The little gentleman will still be there in a month."

"You are the one who said our marriage was over the day Bonnie died. Why prolong our agony? Good night." And she closed the door.

Scarlett got to her room and got out her bottle of brandy. She set it on her vanity table. She got her glass and poured herself a large drink. She said to the room, "I don't know if Rhett loved me or not. I find it hard to believe that Rhett loved me all this time. I can't allow myself to believe that Rhett has loved me for twelve years. If I accept that as a truth, it will break me. For now, I must believe I was just a challenge to him that got out of hand. If I think about it anymore, I will go crazy. I will think about it tomorrow." She swallowed the drink down in one gulp. She laid on her bed and went to sleep.

Three Days Later

Rhett's attorney got the papers drawn up in three days. The day after the funeral they signed the papers after Uncle Henry had looked them over. It took a while to convince Uncle Henry that this was what she wanted. After they were signed Rhett's attorney said he would file them that day. If there were no unseen hiccups, they would be divorced in three months.

Scarlett stood up and left the office without a backward glance at Rhett. He stayed sitting where he was. As they were walking out, she heard him say, "Sell all my holdings in Atlanta."

Scarlett smiled sadly as she walked towards Uncle Henry's buggy. She guessed she would never see him again.

As Henry drove Scarlett back to her mansion, she asked him to look for a buyer for the mansion. It would take a while to sell.

Henry said, "Yes it will but if you sell it at below market value then you will probably sell it faster. Do you want to sell the store?"

"Yes, to Ashley. Let's get Ashley to sell the mills then after my divorce is final, I will sell him the store. Mr. Elsing can run the store until Ashley gets back on his feet. I know someone who wants to buy the mills."

"Good idea."

"I need you to set-up a trust for my aunts and send them the check every month. I don't want to have any contact with them from now on. I don't want to listen to them complain anymore. I definitely don't want to hear about how I shamed the family with my divorce."

"I will take care of it, and you can sign the papers when you come back from Tara."

"Thanks Uncle Henry."

"I'm so …."

"No, I can't bear to hear any more expressions of sympathy for any reason." Scarlett leaned forward and kissed Uncle Henry on the cheek. Scarlett had not been able to look at Henry. She would have seen her sorrow reflected on his face. She just couldn't bear it. She got out of the buggy and walked into her new life.

That afternoon she went to the little house on Ivy Street. She teared up when she looked at it, but she squared her shoulders and walked up the walk. She knocked but there was no answer. She walked right in. She found Beau playing in the parlor. The child looked so sad and forlorn that her heart broke again. She asked him, "Where is your father?"

"In his room."

Scarlett knocked on the door to Ashley's room and when there was no answer, she opened the door. The smell of alcohol knocked her over it was so strong. She saw that Ashley was passed out on his bed. She shut the door. Scarlett went back to the parlor and told Beau, "You are going to come spend some days with me and the children. Let's pack you up some clothes."

Beau had gotten up and they had gone to his room to pack up his clothes. Scarlett asked, "Do you know where there is a carpetbag?"

"In Mama's room."

Scarlett went into Melly's room, and the pain almost brought her to her knees, but she soldiered on. She went to the closet and found the bag. She returned to Beau's room. He had all his clothes laid out on the bed. Scarlett gave a sad smile. There were pitiable so few pieces of clothing. She would buy him a lot more but that was for later. She packed the suitcase and left with Beau.

Scarlett and Beau stopped at Aunt PittyPat's. She said to India, "Ashley is sick and lying on his bed. He needs someone to go sit with him," Fortunately India had understood what Scarlett was talking about. It was sad to Scarlett because it meant Ashley had probably been drunk since Melanie's death. He probably blamed himself for her death. Just like Rhett blamed himself for Bonnie's death. "You need to go sit with him until I get back. I am going to take Beau to my house. He can play with Wade and Ella. I will be back to help you get Ashley over here so you can take care of him."

Ashley didn't need to be alone. Maybe India and Aunt PittyPat could get him to stop drinking. They surely didn't want Beau seeing his father in that condition. When Scarlett got back, India and she would get Ashley over to the Hamilton House. They would bring all his clothes. She would make Ashley sell the little house on Ivy Street. Ashley could never live there again.

When Scarlett got back, they did manage to get Ashley alert enough so he could walk with their assistance. It was not easy getting Ashley to the Hamilton House through the hedges, but Scarlett and India did it. It was even harder getting him up the stairs. As Scarlett walked down the stairs, she saw the library and the parlor. They both reminded her of one of her husbands. They weren't good memories. To distract herself from those memories, Scarlett said to India, "We will need to clean out the house." India agreed to help which Scarlett appreciated.

The next week the ladies cleaned out the little house. India took all of Melanie's clothing to the Baptist church. Scarlett had moved Melanie's personal items to the Hamilton House. She put them in the spare bedroom. It was the room that had been hers when she lived at Hamilton House.

Scarlett felt such peace when she entered the room. She had been so optimistic when she had lived in this room. No confident was a better word. Confident that the world would do what she wanted just because it was what she had wanted. What an arrogant woman she had been. She looked around the room and smiled when she thought, 'Nothing in this room reminds me of Frank.' That pleased her. She didn't want to think about any of her husbands right now.