Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW

Author's Notes: Thank you for all the reviews and feedback.

Chapter Three

For some strange reason Rhett had thought Mr. Powe would not have gotten the divorce papers ready so quickly. Rhett had thought it would be at least a month before Scarlett saw the papers. Maybe longer if she went to Tara after the funeral. Later Rhett would wonder why he had ever thought that. He used Mr. Powe because he was accurate and efficient.

Mr. Powe was indeed good at his job. Within the week Scarlett had been presented with the divorce petition. She had not been shocked that Rhett had filed for divorce. She had been a little surprised he had done it so quickly, though. She decided he was severing all ties to Atlanta. She briefly wondered if he had ended his relationship with Belle. She knew he hadn't. He had taken the coward's way out as usual. He just left town and left someone else to pick up the pieces. Scarlett also knew that being the first class jerk he was, he had not offered to sell Belle his part of the brothel. He had just put it on the market. Strangely Scarlett had found that she hoped the other woman had found out in time to buy it herself. She also hoped the older woman had enough money. She decided once she found out Rhett only thought of Belle as an illiterate whore all her anger and jealousy had disappeared. No, all her anger was reserved for that rat bastard Rhett Butler

When Scarlett thought about the divorce, she thought, 'One more lie in a lifetime of lies. So much for him returning to keep the gossip down. With any luck he will never return. Just keep his support checks coming.' She, of course, had turned him down immediately. She did not want to be a divorced woman.

In retrospect Rhett wondered why had he done that so quickly. He knew why. He had thought he would be rid of Scarlett. Little did he know he would never be free of Scarlett. It had been one more mistake in a life filled with mistakes.

When Rhett arrived at his mother's townhouse after Miss Melly's death, he was welcomed with what he thought were open arms. The conversation was pleasant. Everyone had studiously avoided mentioning either Bonnie or Scarlett. Nothing much changed in the next month.

Every night Rhett drank too much but he stayed home and just got drunk in his room. The next morning once his head wasn't hurting, he would go for a walk along the shore and down to the harbor. If he saw anyone from the old guard, he would tip his hat. They all ignored him. No, worse, they would cross the street to avoid him.

After a week, Rhett said to his mother, "Is there any way you can set-up a meeting between me and Robert?"

"Are you going to apologize?"

"No."

"Are you going to admit that you behaved badly in regard to Sarah Parker?"

"No."

"Then no. The only way I could get him to meet with you is if you promise to apologize."

"I want to make peace with my family."

"The only way to make peace with your brother and the rest of your family is admit that you were wrong. Anything less than that would be too little, too late."

"I will never do that. I didn't do anything wrong. I didn't compromise Sarah. It was just a broken buggy wheel."

"Then there will never be any peace between you and your brother, nor will there be any peace between you and the gentry of Charleston."

Rhett did not believe his mother. After all, he had gotten received in Atlanta after all the awful things he had said and done. Admittedly he had to do a lot of groveling in Atlanta, and he could do a lot of groveling in Charleston. To be received back in Charleston would make it worthwhile. All he wanted now was everything he had thrown away in his youth. Grace, charm, beauty, and most important respectability.

It hadn't taken a week for him to get the response from Mr. Powe. Henry had told the attorney that Mrs. Butler would never give Mr. Butler a divorce. Furthermore, he could not divorce her without her permission, he had no grounds. As Rhett looked at the telegram, he admitted that she was right. Loving another man while being married to someone else might not be the most moral thing to do but it wasn't grounds for divorce. He might have been able to attack her on her alcohol consumption, but he didn't want to open that can of worms. She wasn't a good mother, but she wasn't a bad enough mother that the court would grant him a divorce especially considering he had caused his daughter's death.

In the middle of October, Rhett received a package. It was actually the return of a package. He had sent Ella a birthday present and she had returned it. It had surprised Rhett that the little girl had returned it. What child didn't enjoy receiving presents. Rhett decided that Scarlett had made Ella return the present.

The truth was that Scarlett didn't even know Rhett had sent the present. It had been in the foyer where all their mail was left when the children had gotten home from school. The children had looked at the package. The family rarely received packages so, of course, the children's interest was piqued. When Ella saw the return address, she said to Wade, "I don't want a present from Uncle Rhett."

"Mr. Butler."

"Right. From Mr. Butler. What can I do?"

"Send it back. Just write on there – Return to Sender."

Ella pulled a pencil out of her school bag and said, "Help me spell the words correctly."

Wade knew Ella was a good speller, but he also knew why she had asked for his help. Neither one wanted to show a chink in their armor. They were their mother's children after all.

It was in that moment that Ella, although just about to turn seven, lost a lot of her childish ways. Because of the hard knocks of the world, she was more adult than child. Just like her brother was.

When Ella was finished, Wade took the package to Pork and asked him to take it to the post office.

Pork had only a rudimentary knowledge of how to read but he didn't need to read to know what was going on. He told Wade, "I will take it down there right now."

"Thank you. I don't want Mother to see it."

"Of course not, Master Wade."

That afternoon when Scarlett came home from being at the store all the evidence was gone.

In December, Rhett had upped his offer for divorce. He didn't even consider how cruel he was being by reoffering Scarlett a divorce right before the first Christmas she was going to spend without Bonnie, Miss Melly, and him. He had offered her everything he had previously offered her plus a hundred thousand dollars. A week later he got the expected response – no.

Despite the fact that Rhett had just offered Wade and Ella's mother more money in order to obtain a divorce and despite the fact that Ella had sent his first gift back, he sent his stepchildren Christmas presents. He had received the package back on December eighteenth which meant the package had been returned the very same day they had gotten it. The only difference between this time and the last time was Wade's handwriting on the package instead of Ella's. Once again, Scarlett's children and her loyal staff had made sure she knew nothing about the gifts.

In January Rhett had sent a present for Wade's birthday. It was a telescope something Rhett knew the boy had wanted for a long time. When he got the package back, he finally accepted his stepchildren wanted nothing to do with him.

Wade returning the telescope had been no hardship for him. His mother had gotten him one for Christmas. She had taken Ella with her to shop for Wade's presents and Wade to shop for Ella's. The children were not hurt by her actions. In fact, they were touched that she had gone to so much trouble to be sure she got her children presents they wanted. It was the first time she had ever put forth so much effort on their accounts.

By the time Rhett had received Wade's present back, he realized that he was not going to be received back into society in Charleston. The matrons were no more forgiving than his stepchildren. He had finally noticed how embarrassed his mother and sister were with him staying in their townhouse. Sadly, they couldn't ask him to leave because he owned the townhouse and was paying all the expenses. At least, that is what Rhett thought.

Rhett's time in Charleston had been therapeutic. Nobody bothered him. Nobody asked anything of him. Nobody wanted to have a conversation with him. Nobody's face reflected his own pain. He knew that it was the way of life. He was healing from the pain of Bonnie's death. It was to be expected. Nobody could continue to function with the extreme pain he had suffered the first three months after Bonnie's death. He guessed he would go on living. He would create another life for himself. A post-Bonnie life. A post-Scarlett life.

Rhett had tried to find love again but none of the good women of Charleston wanted to have anything to do with him. As much as he tried to charm his way into the matrons' good graces they weren't as easy as the matrons of Atlanta. In a rare moment of honesty, he wondered if the reason the matrons of Atlanta had welcomed him into their embrace was to be able to pointedly shun Scarlett. Yes, probably. He would never understand why women hated Scarlett so much. He knew that Scarlett didn't do anything to win any friends but most women's hatred of her was palpable. Rhett knew that they had never accepted him back into their good graces but instead had been waiting for the perfect moment to reject him and his daughter. No, not his daughter but Scarlett's daughter. Probably when Bonnie turned fourteen. After thirteen years of his groveling, they were going to pull the rug out from under him in the last moment. Bonnie would not have gotten the covenant invitation to the debutant ball. They both would have been left standing on the outside.

Rhett could not shame his mother further by being seen in public with a bad girl. He shied away from how many times he had deliberately shamed Scarlett.

It was nice to have been able to spend Christmas with his mother and sister even if they had left him to go have dinner with Robert. Although it wouldn't have mattered if they had stayed home. He had spent most of the day in his room drinking trying to forget this was his first Christmas without Bonnie. He had wondered if Scarlett was hurting as badly as he was. Probably not. She had never loved her daughter.

After six months of living in Charleston, Rhett knew that no matter what he did he was a source of shame for his mother, his sister, his brother, and all his extended family. One night Elizabeth told him over the supper table, "If you are going to continue living in Charleston, you will have to find another place to live. You can't live here."

"I pay all the bills."

"That is true and if you pull your financial support, it will be tough but we will somehow manage."

"How?"

"Maybe Eulalie will let Rosemary and me move in with them or at the very least give me some money."

"That is the same thing. They get their money from Scarlett, and she gets her money from me."

"Eulalie said that Scarlett told her that she supported them with profits from the store. Her money."

"Yes, yes. She does."

"I will leave in the morning."

"Thank you."

"Don't you want to know where I am going?"

"Are you going to make up with your estranged wife? The one that threw away what was left of her reputation by marrying you."

Elizabeth's comment had shamed Rhett, but he didn't let it show. His mother was one of the few people who could make him feel shame, not that fact of him feeling shame made any difference to his actions. Nobody was going to tell him what to do. Instead, he simply said, "I will never go back to Scarlett."

"Very well. No, I don't care where you are going."