Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW
Author's Notes: Thank you for all the reviews and feedback.
When I wrote Aladdin's Lamp there was a scene where Scarlett thought 'Furthermore, Rhett would have thought it was Ashley's child. He probably would have taken Bonnie and left me for good. Rhett would never have divorced me, though. Not because he loved me but so I could never marry Ashley Wilkes.'
This story arose from that line.
Chapter One
Scarlett Butler stood in the rain at her Aunt Pauline's funeral. She was sharing a big umbrella with Careen, so they weren't getting wet from the rain. Scarlett was glad for the rain. It had reduced the humidity that was always present when one lived next to the sea. The humidity had been hard for her and the children to get used to for they had lived all their lives in the interior of Georgia. She and the children had adapted. She and the children had always adapted. At times she thought that was their greatest strength their resilience. No matter what life threw at them they kept on persevering. Scarlett knew that both Wade and Ella had inherited that trait from her, and she was proud. She was so immensely proud of her eldest two children. For too many years they had just been another mouth to feed. Now they were her reason for living.
Her mother-in-law, Elizabeth Butler, was standing on her other side. Her mother-in-law had been her saving grace when she had move to Charleston three years ago in April of seventy-two. She had not been planning on staying in Charleston. It had just been a stop on her way to her next destination. At the time she had not decided where she was going to move to, but she knew she couldn't live in Atlanta nor at Tara.
Scarlett was pleased by the huge turnout. She knew everyone was as shocked as she was by her aunt's death. One day she had been fine then the next day she was dead. The doctor said, "I believe that Mrs. Bobbins had an apoplexy."
Scarlett had stupidly said, "She was fine yesterday."
"She probably had what is called high blood pressure. There are no symptoms."
"Alright. Thank you."
Scarlett had sent a note to Elizabeth and Careen. Elizabeth had come over and help Scarlett arrange the funeral. Scarlett, Elizabeth, Rosemary, and Careen had prepared the house for mourning. Careen had spent the night.
Scarlett looked at the crowd of people and she thought, 'Every person in Charleston must be here.' Her aunts had been well-respected in the city which was probably one of the reasons she had been received in Charleston. That and everyone knowing that Rhett had abandoned her. Her final stroke of luck was Elizabeth and Rosemary receiving her into their home.
Scarlett smiled. While she was a persona non grata in Atlanta and Rhett had been accepted, she was accepted in Charleston as long as she distanced herself from her husband which wasn't hard to do since her husband was distancing himself from her. Rhett was definitely not received, and he never would be. That thought made Scarlett smile. The matrons of Charleston were not nearly as gullible as the matrons of Atlanta. It did her heart good.
It had always galled Scarlett that the matrons had fallen for Rhett's act and had casted her down even further. The same matrons that had lectured her on how awful Rhett Butler was and how she shouldn't marry him.
As the minister droned on and on, Scarlett let her thoughts wander. She thought about Bonnie and Rhett's return and how happy she had been to see them. She had rushed down the stairs and hugged Bonnie so tightly the child had squealed. Before she knew it Mammy had led her precious daughter away. Rhett had made a comment about her being pale. When she told him she was with child, she had thought he would be happy, but he had not been happy.
Rhett had said, "So, the incident at the sawmills wasn't as innocent as you claimed it was. You finally got Mr. Wilkes to forsake his wedding vows. You, God damn slut. Now I have the grounds to divorce you."
Scarlett had been so stunned and aghast at his assumption and his statement that she could not speak.
Rhett had stormed up the stairs and had come down with Bonnie on his hip. As he walked by her, he said, "Tell your mother goodbye. You will never see her again."
"Rhett, I've never been unfaithful to you."
"Bitch, you have been unfaithful to me since the day we married."
"Rhett, please listen to me. The baby is yours."
"Do yourself a favor and go see Mamie and get rid of the bastard."
"Please let me kiss and hug Bonnie goodbye."
"Why? You don't give a damn about her."
Tears filled Scarlett's eyes and she didn't care if Rhett saw them. She had tried to tell him again that the baby was his. She had reached for Bonnie, but Rhett had moved the child to the other side of his body even though Bonnie had been reaching for her mother.
Scarlett had tried until Rhett was out the door. She kept saying over and over again, "I love you, Precious" and reaching for her daughter.
Rhett had not listened, and he had not stopped walking out of the mansion despite the fact that Bonnie was crying out 'Mama.'
Sadly, it had been true. She had never seen her daughter again. She guessed Bonnie was buried some place in Paris. She would have liked Bonnie to be buried at Tara but that was another wish that would never come true.
After Rhett had stormed out of the mansion, she had sat on the stairs for a long time. Not for the first time she had wondered how she had gotten herself in this situation. She had sat there and wondered once again, how had her marriage fallen apart. No matter how many times before she had rehashed her marriage, she still didn't know what had gone so terribly wrong. What had he meant by his comment about her being unfaithful to him since the day they married? They had never promised to love one another. He certainly hadn't been faithful to her. How two-faced can one man be? There were a couple of times she knew she had made a mistake, like telling Rhett she didn't want to have any more children after just getting back from the mills or even bringing Ashley up in that conversation or always throwing Ashley up to him as so much better than him. Yet at the time she hadn't understood why he had been so angry all the time. At the time she hadn't had a clue what had changed Rhett from her best friend to her worst enemy?
Three days later when Uncle Henry came to see her with the divorce papers, she had not even looked at them. She had said, "I will never grant him a divorce. He has no grounds."
"He says you denied him his marital rights."
"No, he chose to move himself out of the master bedroom and resume using whores."
"He says you have been unfaithful."
"No, he is the one that has been unfaithful to me. He has made no secret of his use of whores."
"So, you want to fight it."
"With the last breath in my body."
"Alright. I will tell his lawyer you refuse to sign."
"Thank you. Sell the sawmills, the store, and the mansion. I'm moving to Tara."
Henry had left shortly thereafter. Scarlett was not fighting the divorce because she wanted to stay married but because her baby would bear the Butler name despite its father having dragged the name through the mud. After everything was said and done, her baby would get its rightful inheritance.
The pain she felt that Rhett had gone straight to his lawyer's office from the mansion was worse than the pain of him having left her bed to go to Belle's bed. She also knew that if he was willing to divorce her, he genuinely believed she had been physically unfaithful to him. With the knowledge he was never coming back to Atlanta, she had to leave before she started to show. Nobody, absolutely nobody could ever know about her baby.
She now knew that what he meant about her being unfaithful to him since their wedding day. Rhett had been talking about her loving another man while being married to him. To this day that still puzzled her. Rhett knew that she believed herself in love with Ashley when he married her. No! Since the first day they had met. Yet, for some reason after they said I do she was supposed to suddenly no longer love Ashley and she was supposed to start loving him.
Soon the minister had stopped talking. Almost everyone came over to tell the sisters one more time of their sorrow over the death of their aunt. Elizabeth and Rosemary stood beside the sisters the entire time. At last, the ladies walked to their coaches.
When they got to them Scarlett had kissed Careen's cheek and Careen headed to the cab waiting for her. The cab that Scarlett had paid for. She had not minded. It was easier than having to take Careen to the convent.
After Careen had departed, Elizabeth said, "I will expect you at six for supper. We need to talk about your future and what is best for you and your children."
Scarlett had smiled. Elizabeth had used her mother voice. The voice that Scarlett knew meant she better obey or there would be hell to pay. She said, "Yes ma'am. Now that both my aunts are dead, I will have to make plans for my future."
"Dear, you know we want you to stay."
"Of course, if I do stay you and Rosemary would be one of the main reasons. If I stay, I will have to buy my own house."
"No, Dear, you could live with Rosemary and me."
"You know I cannot take the chance of living with you. If he just decided to show up, I would have no place to hide."
"If he did, you could hide at Robert's."
"No, if I decide to stay in Charleston, I will buy my own home. I can't wait to move out of my aunt's house. I don't know how I have managed to live in that house for the last three years."
"It is pretty ugly."
"Let me go. The girls will start to worry about me if I don't return soon."
On the way back to her aunt's home, Scarlett reflected on her time after she had sold everything in Atlanta and had moved to Tara.
With Rhett actually filing for divorce she knew this time he had left her for good. She didn't have a single true friend in the entire world. She had wondered if she ever had. She had decided that she hadn't. Rhett hadn't even been her friend and she had thought that he saw her as she really was and had liked her anyway. She guessed not. She guessed all he had ever wanted was her body. She at the time had thought, 'I guess he was dissatisfied with my body. Probably because I wouldn't do the things whores are willing to do for their customers. He certainly left me quick enough both times.'
What about Melanie? Was Melly her friend? Scarlett decided that like her Melly was loyal to her family and Scarlett was family. Melly was loyal to her because of some misguided connection Scarlett had to Charles Hamilton. Scarlett smiled. She was grateful to Melly. She had single-handedly kept her received in Atlanta and thus in the South. Scarlett decided she was tired of living in Atlanta and trying to please people she would never please no matter what she did. She had to distance herself from Ashley for from now on there would always be speculation. She just hoped her baby looked like Rhett.
Scarlett had decided that she wanted to live the rest of her life at Tara. After all she had sold her soul to retain the property. She might as well enjoy that fact. She had sold everything and cashed it in for gold and gems. She had gone to see Mr. Powe. She said, "May I have Rhett's address? I need to inform him of some matters."
"Mr. Butler does not wish to be in contact with you."
That had hurt. Scarlett had decided in that moment that if he didn't want to hear from her then she would not share anything she was doing with him or his attorney. She had stood up and had quickly left the lawyer's office before she started to cry. She hoped she wasn't becoming a cry baby. She wouldn't like that. It must be because she was with child.