Thanks so much for the reviews, darlings! I'm so glad you have been enjoying this story (for the most part)... I know it's sad but what makes a happy ending so great is when you think you won't be getting one :) I am with all of you and can't wait for Cruella's episode! Thanks for reading!
Time and winter storms weathered a distinct amount of character into the outside walls of the abandon warehouse on the docks. The once fresh cut pinewood looked dingy and the knotholes were as visible at night as they were in daylight. Not that Cruella visited it much at night.
She slammed the car door and hoisted her fur up on her shoulders. She thought twice before she touched the rusted door handle with her red gloves. She used only two fingers to swing the door open. The creak of the old hinges thwarted her attempt at a clandestine entry.
Her heels clicked across the cracked concrete. In the center of the empty room stood a single table and two chairs. A surly looking man in a black trench coat leaned against the table. He looked up and inclined his chin when he saw her. She said nothing until she reached the other side of the table.
"Well, darling?"
He gestured toward the chair.
"It's sit down bad?" She plunked into the chair. "Oh dear."
The man sat across from her. He pulled out a square shaped manila envelope. Cruella waited while he pulled papers from the folder and slid them across the table. She leaned over and examined the credit card bills. Cruella frowned. She had given August his own spending account and knew he had been using it. Until now, she did not know where the money had gone.
"He flies to Portland several times a week. He even has a small apartment up there."
Cruella picked up a bill for a relatively inexpensive motorcycle. Her breath grew shallow with the shock that her husband had been leading a double life. How could she have been so stupid?
"Sometimes, he meets up with a blond that drives a yellow bug."
Her contact removed photos from the envelope and pushed them toward her. Cruella saw long distance shots of a woman with long straight hair. She wore glasses. She was pretty. In several of the pictures she was with a scrappy looking man.
"Where is August in these?" Cruella asked. She needed to focus on something other than the splinters jabbing at her heart.
"That's the thing, boss. I never have actually caught them together."
Cruella dropped the photo and looked up with a lifted eyebrow.
"But they are having an affair?"
The man leaned back in the chair. He folded his arms and a smug smirk appeared on his face.
"He's your husband, boss. You'd know better than me."
She glared at him then dropped her eyes back to the photo of the blond. There was something familiar about her. Something familiar but not in a normal way. Cruella felt a surge of magic in the photograph under her fingertips.
"You want me to keep following him and see if I can snap a compromising shot?"
Cruella reached into her purse and pulled out a stack of wrapped bills.
"No." She tossed the money onto the table. Her red gloved finger rested on her chin. "No, I think it's time I take matters into my own hands."
The man picked up the wad of cash and tucked it into his inside pocket. He hesitated, then leaned back in the chair again.
"It won't cost you extra, boss, but my opinion is your man is still in love with you."
Cruella nearly bit his head off for butting into things that were none of his business, but curiosity got the better of her.
"Why say that, darling?"
He took out another set of photos. They showed August performing various activities. Washing her car, picking up her dry cleaning, buying expensive perfume which she had seen on the credit card bill. The most touching photo showed August looking longingly into a window that had a rack of toddler clothes on the other side.
"Because the only compromising position I've caught him in has been with you."
Cruella stiffened. The hired help wisely retreated before Cruella could ask him exactly what he meant. She hired him to spy on her husband but not to spy on her!
Cruella stewed over the photos, bills and double life of her husband for two days before she acted. She woke early on the third day but only pretended to leave for work. She pulled her car around a hedge just down the street and waited until she saw August leave. She followed his motorcycle at a distance until he pulled into the airport parking lot.
Cruella put on her sunglasses and climbed out of the car. August entered the building and Cruella waited until she was sure he wouldn't spot her. Blending in and being subtle was the opposite of Cruella De Vil and she knew it.
From the nook just outside of the ladies bathroom Cruella watched August as he used cash to buy a plane ticket. Thanks to her hired spy she knew he was going to Portland. She took the next flight out, so catching up with him when she arrived in the city proved to be tricky. She rented a car and sorely missed her own.
Playing the spy game, however, was much easier without the recognizable classic ride. She pulled out one of the bills and examined the address of August's apartment in the city. She waited on the corner near the apartment complex until she saw him exit the building. The sun set and Cruella was half asleep by the time he appeared. August climbed onto the shabby motorcycle. Cruella started the engine.
She followed him around the winding streets at a safe distance. She watched him park near a rundown house. In order to avoid being seen she pulled around the corner and parked. She got out of the car and walked across the back alley until she reached the corner of the house where August had parked his motorcycle.
There was a strange looking box strapped above the rear wheel. She moved out of the shadows toward the mysterious box but the sound of footsteps stopped her. She retreated back around the corner in time to see a man run by the motorcycle. He dashed down the alley and out of Cruella's view. She saw August chase him. There were sounds of some scuffling and then voices.
"You got the wrong guy, officer! I wasn't even jaywalking!"
Cruella gripped the side of the house and peered around the wall until she saw the face of the other man. The scrappy one from the picture. August let go of him.
"It's not like that. You want to protect Emma? Come with me."
Cruella put the pieces together and decided that the blond must be Emma.
August led the other man toward the motorcycle and Cruella dipped back behind the corner.
"How do you know Emma?" The other man asked.
Cruella tilted her head to the side so her ear could better hear the answer. The stranger had no idea how much she had invested in the simple question.
"Name's August. And it's a long story, but, trust me, you want to hear it."
Cruella made a fist. August was willing to tell a complete stranger what was really going on but not his own wife? She nearly stepped from the shadows to confront him.
"Alright, August. If you're not a cop, who are you? You got two minutes."
"Think of me as Emma's guardian angel."
"Guardian angel? I'd say you've been doing a pretty crap job."
"I've been looking for her for the past two years. Now I finally find her, and she's robbing convenience stores with some deadbeat. Tell me again who's doing the crap job."
Cruella frowned. Two years? More questions filled her mind. Was Emma some former lover of his who had run away with another man? She turned and gripped the side of the house with her fingers. She moved so just one eye could see around the building.
"Let me tell you something. I'm the best thing that's ever happened to her. Two years? Where were you the rest of her life?"
August did not back away from the man. Cruella had never seen him so determined.
"I'm not perfect. This world? Full of temptations."
Cruella swallowed. Temptations. He meant her. In the end she was nothing but a distraction from the path he wanted to be on. She suspected it all along but to hear it confirmed was like salt in a fresh wound.
"Turns out I'm not that great at saying no. I'm not built that way."
Cruella blinked back the emotions that threatened. He was built, it seemed, to tell her lies. So many lies.
"But, I'm here now."
Yes, Cruella thought bitterly, here now for the fashion mishap called Emma.
"So who are you?" The scrappy man asked.
"We were in the same home as kids, and I thought she'd be safe inside the system. But now that she's out? Back then, I promised I would take care of her."
Cruella swallowed back her disappointment. The girl was a childhood sweetheart of her husband's. One it seemed he wanted back. She held her breath unaware of the tear that found a path down her cheek.
"Well, we promised to take care of each other," Scrappy replied.
"You love her. Good. That means you have to do right by her." August seemed pleased that the other man loved this Emma. His reaction brought Cruella out of her depression for a moment. She leaned forward as she realized the situation was more complicated than a case of a simple affair.
"That's all I'm trying to do."
"Then leave her," August replied.
Cruella's hope for her own future crumbled once again.
"Never."
Cruella narrowed her eyes as she studied the other man. She liked him. She wondered if it would come to physical punches between the two of them.
"She has a destiny. And you? This life? You're going to keep her from it. Okay? You believe in magic?"
For a moment Cruella's world came to a halt. Magic? The way August said it brought Cruella's heart to her throat. He knew magic. Really knew it. The thought frightened her more than the idea he loved someone else.
"I take it you do." The other man had a hint of skepticism in his tone.
"So will you. Trust me. I'm going to show you something… Something that's going to make you look at everything differently. And, when you see what I have in here, you're going to listen. You're going to believe every word I say."
August took a few steps toward the motorcycle. Cruella knew she should back into the shadows but curiosity held her captive. August reached for the box.
"Yeah, right." The other man smirked and then peered down into the box. Cruella watched the look on his face completely change. The scrappy man looked back up at August.
"Okay, I'm listening."
Cruella held her breath.
"There's a curse… And it needs to be broken. Emma, is the key. I was tasked with keeping her on track and you, my friend, just got caught in the crossfire. Now, I'm going to tell you a story. And, at the end of it, you're going to have to make a decision. Will you do the right thing, or not? So… Are you ready?"
Cruella tore her gaze from the two of them and landed flat against the wall of the house. Her heart pounded. She put her hands on her chest like a mummy in a coffin. She felt dead, as if her life had been suddenly ripped away. She listened to August's story.
Prince Charming and Snow White. The Evil Queen. Red Riding Hood. The Blue Fairy. Geppetto. Cruella had not heard those names uttered in years.
One thought overcame all the rest. August, son of Geppetto, the boy they called Pinocchio… hero. Cruella De Vil, vampire bat, inhuman beast… villain.
The words repeated in her mind as she blindly stumbled through the alley. Hero. Villain. Villain. Hero.
By the time she made it back to the car she felt tears on her cheeks. She brushed them away with her red gloves. She looked at herself in the rear view mirror.
"Oh, no, darling. Cruella De Vil does not cry." She tore her eyes from the sight of her ruined makeup. "Nor does she fall in love with heroes." She gripped the steering wheel.
"Cruella De Vil gets even."
Cruella knew exactly what she had to do.
In the same warehouse, the same man in the trench coat looked down at the paper Cruella De Vil handed to him. His eyes came back up to hers with disbelief behind them.
"You can't be serious."
"I am serious, darling!" She hissed through clenched teeth. The time for games and silly little marriages and thoughts of children had passed.
"Let's say for a minute that there is such a thing and that I can find it on the black market. It's gonna cost you."
Cruella stroked her fur coat.
"I don't care if it costs me everything."
The man looked at her from head to toe like she was insane.
"I know it exists. Find it!" She turned on her heel and took a few steps.
"You know," his voice caused her to stop and turn. He shook his head. "They said you were a witch, but I didn't think they meant it literally."
Cruella lifted her chin, grinned and walked away.