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Chapter Fourteen

Part II Rhett's New Life

That night Rhett had drunken more than his customary two drinks. In fact, he had sat in his room and drunk at least six to seven drinks. He finally got undressed and got into his bed. He was soon asleep. Passed out may have been more accurate. He had a horrific nightmare. He dreamed he was dead. He dreamed that Wade and Scarlett were visiting his grave. Wade was a young man and Scarlett was at least ten years older. She even had some gray in her hair.

In his dream, Wade said, "You are better off without him."

Scarlett had replied, "I know but…."

"Why did you ever marry him? For his money?"

"Yes and no. I married him because he had been my best friend for a number of years. I thought he saw me as I really was but liked me anyway. I haven't always been the nicest or most ethical person. But probably the main reason was because I thought he would keep me safe."

"He sure didn't do that."

"In fact, he did the opposite."

"I know you haven't always been the most honorable person, Mama, but we all survived because of your actions. As an adult I know that now."

"I still feel guilty about behaving so unladylike."

"You just did what you had to do. Why do you continue to visit him? He isn't even your husband. You were divorced."

"I visit him because of the good years we had together. I visit him because he was Bonnie's father."

"I am glad you divorced him. He turned into a really mean cruel, hurtful man.

"Yes, he did. Come along we have to meet Beau and Ella at the restaurant."

"Does it bother you that Ella won't visit Uncle Rhett's grave?"

"No, like you said he was a cruel and hurtful man. Probably more hurtful towards Ella because she is so sensitive. While he was lavishing all of that love, attention, and praise over Bonnie, Ella had to sit there and listen to it all."

"After Bonnie was born, to Uncle Rhett Ella was nothing more than his daughter's playmate."

"Sad but true."

"Let's go. I'm hungry."

The dream morphed into his mother's townhouse. His sister and brother were sitting in the parlor. Rosemary said, "I am surprised Mother lived as long as she did."

"Once Rhett was dead, her life got better. He was no longer shaming her every time she turned around."

"That was awful. Every time we heard about something else, he had done during the war she would shrink a little more."

"Yet she continued to hold her head up high and walk around Charleston like the great lady she was."

"I got strength from her."

"I did too."

"At least, now she will never be shamed by Rhett again."

Rhett woke up crying. Crying for everything he had thrown away. Not just Scarlett, Bonnie, and the baby but his station in life. If Scarlett couldn't stop him from doing whatever stupid asinine thing that got into his head, that silly twit wouldn't have been able to either.

Rhett cried for a long time. He didn't go back to sleep. No, he just sat in the bed staring out the window. He couldn't see anything because it was so dark, but it wouldn't have mattered if it had been noon, he was lost in his thoughts of the past.

Rhett was sick with despair. The court case was over. The evidence had been presented. Mr. Darrow had told Rhett, "With Mrs. Watling testifying that you had relations with her during your marriage, the judge is going to grant Mrs. Butler's petition. You better hope that he decides to just give her the amount of money she asked for and not punish you by adding even more to the amount you are going to have to pay out."

"Could you bribe him to not grant Scarlett her petition?"

It spoke to Clarence's questionable morals when he did not get offended by Rhett's suggestion of him bribing a judge. Instead, he simply said, "No, not Judge Mitchell. Of all the judges there are in Atlanta he is the one most likely to favor the wife."

"How did he get assigned to the case?"

"He asked for it."

"Is that how it is normally done?"

"It is not abnormal. Your wife must have made a real impression on the man when she gave her testimony to him about you being a wife beater."

"I am not a wife beater."

Clarence went on like Rhett hadn't even spoken. He said, "When he got the court to assign the case to him, he said, 'The court needs to be sure that everything is done correctly. If we send her back to him, I want to be sure the court did everything they could to protect her. I don't want it on my conscience if he ends up killing her.'

"Can't we fight it on the grounds the judge was biased?"

"No, Judge Mitchell has quite the reputation for being the fairest judge on the bench even considering he is known to favor the wife."

"Then I have lost. I am going to lose her."

"What do you care? It sounds like you have been throwing her away for years. You have certainly not valued her these last months since your daughter's death."

In a moment of true honesty to himself, he said to his lawyer, "No, I have not valued her from the first day I married her. No, I have not valued her from the first day I met her."

"You will have learned from this marriage and not make the same mistake again with your second wife."

"I will never marry anyone but Scarlett. We just have to think of a way for me to stay in her life until I can win her heart back. Like I did when I loaned her the money for the sawmills."

Clarence didn't know what his client meant about the money for the sawmills, but he was amazed that Mr. Butler thought he had a snowball's chance in hell of ever winning Mrs. Butler's heart again.

Yet Clarence was a top-notch attorney. He said, "I have an idea."

Clarence was first and foremost a ruthless attorney. He would do whatever he had to do to win for his client. He looked at Rhett and said, "There might be a way. We will ask for visitation rights for your stepchildren."

"Yes! Do it. I will give you an extra hundred dollars if you accomplish getting me visitation rights."

Clarence was a greedy man, so he was bound and determined to accomplish the mission. He said, "I will try to reduce the settlement amount also."

"No, I want Scarlett to be well taken care of for the rest of her life. I never want her to have to marry a man for his money again."

As Rhett left the courthouse, he was a miserable man. He was at the lowest he had ever been. He had lost Scarlett. He had lost the court case. Scarlett was free of him. The judge had not awarded her any more than what she had asked for. Half a million dollars was all Judge Mitchell had awarded her. Rhett also got to make that in four equal payments three months apart so as to not wreck his investments and his fortune. The only plus was that he had been awarded visitation rights with Wade and Ella.

Based on the furious discussion between Scarlett and her attorney after Mr. Darrow had said he was a good father. He knew Scarlett wanted her attorney to point out that Rhett's actions were responsible for their daughter dying. The attorney kept shaking his head so Rhett decided that the attorney was afraid such an outburst would sway the judge's opinion of her and lessen her case. So far, every day in court she had appeared to be the perfect Southern lady. She had appeared fragile and almost helpless. It had been grating to watch the judge give Scarlett what could only be called loving smiles. Like he was assuring her that he would take care of her. Just like every man had always done except him. The man that was supposed to take care of her.

What had convinced Scarlett to let it go was when Steven said, "He would have to be in Atlanta to get to visit with them."

"Alright. Once a week and all visits are supervised by me."

Rhett had gotten two supervised visits a week plus being invited to Christmas dinner, supper on their birthdays, and supper on his birthday. Scarlett agreed to that, but he had to provide the meal for his birthday. Ironically, Clarence had just asked for twice a week visits in order to get the birthdays and Christmas.

Rhett would not be pleased to know that Judge Mitchell had looked at Rhett and seen a pitiful man. It was clear to anyone who looked at Rhett that he was a broken man. A man who had lost everything based on his own actions. Judge Mitchell had granted everything Rhett had asked for because he just couldn't take everything away from the man who had once been so proud and so arrogant. Judge Mitchell had known he was being a fool but he just couldn't be responsible for taking away Rhett's last shred of happiness.

Rhett was happy with the supervised visits that meant Scarlett would have to talk to him. He was also happy he would get to see and interact with Ella and Wade. He had missed them. He did love them just not as much as he had loved Bonnie. Maybe that was a good thing. After all, it had been his over-the-top love for Bonnie that had cost her life.

The next day, Rhett walked to the park. It wasn't the same park he had taken Bonnie, Ella, and Wade to play at, but it was still peaceful there. He saw Mrs. Merriwether. When she saw him, she turned and left the park. Rhett sighed. Another boulder in his path. Scarlett would never throw away her reputation to marry him. With a sad thought, he added, 'Like she did last time which I never appreciated.'

Rhett went through their marriage. His behavior in New Orleans when he called her all those names and ran away. Had he honestly expected her to forget about Wilkes in two weeks after carrying a torch for him for eight years? Had he honestly expected his money and his sexual skills to win her love? He wasn't even bringing all his sexual skills. He had been just going through the motions because he was so afraid, she would realize he loved her. The most obtuse woman on the planet would realize from his actions that he loved her. On that point Belle had been right. If Scarlett had been having a good time, she would not have asked him to leave her bed. After all, she was selfish, self-centered, and egotistical. How many times had he said, 'I could put up a sign with ten feet tall letters and you wouldn't see what was in front of you?'

Rhett had to start being completely honest with himself if he was ever going to get out of this very deep hole. A hole that he dug for himself. Admittedly Scarlett had probably wanted separate bedrooms but what she said was, 'I don't want any more children.' Instead of becoming extremely angry and making a lot of hateful comments he should have said, 'Then we won't have any more children. We also won't have separate bedrooms.' Admittedly he had not known how to prevent making a baby, but he had heard things, so he knew there were ways. He should have found out what those ways were before they had even gotten married but being the selfish bastard that he was he couldn't be inconvenienced to find out that information. Of course, he had not wanted his pleasure lessened in any way.

Instead, he voluntarily left the master bedroom thus giving her everything she wanted without any negotiation on her part. Rhett smiled to himself. What did he do about it? Go out and fuck a whore. Then let the world know about it. She might have been able to forgive him for being unfaithful to her, but she would never forgive him for making sure the entire town knew he had been unfaithful to her. Sure, she had suffered some shame, but it hadn't been her actions that were shameful but his. Of course, the 'piece de resistance' for her was that she still had access to his checkbook, and she didn't have to 'suffer his foolishness.'

In that moment Rhett realized the true foolishness of his actions. He refused to help Scarlett with her quest to not get with child again because he didn't want to wear a condom. The feelings were not as intense. In his selfish mode, it was all about his pleasure. The ironic part was that he always wore a condom with Belle or any other whore he used. His pleasure would have been the same but at least he would have been sleeping with his wife.