Dear Readers, Hello!

Let this be a short preface, as it's late at night and I'm really looking forward to posting the update for you!

Sorry for the long delay, and real life makes its own adjustments, and just... I'll be honest, I have so many words in me, but they're so hard to write at the moment. But I'm not stopping, I believe in our heroes and we're moving forward with them.

I have replied to everyone who has written to me and @linoraline, I has also written to you and I want to say here - thank you for your kind words which have warmed my heart!

Well, the new chapter is here.

Enjoy reading! :)

P.S. I'll check for mistakes in the morning :)

https/polinka22malinka/777680952678891520/my-inspiration-for-the-chapter-25-of-the-story?source=share

Chapter 25

Her eyes burned with green fire and looked at him with defiance and anger, like in one of his bad dreams.

Rhett brought his hand to his cheek, feeling his skin burn from her slap, but not yet believing that what he had feared had happened, he reached out to her and said in a serious and hoarse voice, "What's the matter, Scarlett? What...?"

She took a step back, afraid of his touch, and quickly interrupted him, exclaiming, "Shut up, you rascal! Shut up, Rhett Butler! You! You! You knew all along! You've been deceiving me all along! You! It was you! It was you! You tormented me! You bastard! Bastard!!!"

Scarlett shouted the words louder and louder, not caring if anyone heard her. She didn't notice how pale her husband had become, how Ross looked at her with fear and pity, and how Rosemary clasped her hands together in despair.

"Scarlett, I..." he tried to say, but she cut him off sharply, "No! I don't want to hear a word from you! I don't believe you anyway, you rascal! Never! I let you deceive me and hurt me, but now you'll see who's really hurting who! I hate you!!!"

She spat the last words into his face and, unable to look at him without remembering everything, quickly turned away and walked towards the stairs.

Without looking back, she hurried escape his eyes in her bedroom, afraid to cry in front of him and show her weakness.

Rhett watched her run up the stairs, not daring to follow her, just saying hoarsely, "Ross... Go... Go after her..."

Ross nodded briefly and hurried after Scarlett, who had already disappeared down the upper hallway.

Her breathing was a little ragged from the rapid ascent, the tightly laced corset and her nervous thoughts. When she reached the second floor, she turned and walked a little slower down the hallway, realizing that she was dizzy.

Fearing she might faint, she thought, "Not now..." took a few steps towards the wall and reached out to lean against it when she felt strong male hands on her shoulders and Ross's soft, worried voice, "Scarlett, aren't you feeling well, Darling?"

Scarlett realized that she should not show her physical weakness to avoid different questions, so she took a deep breath (as far as her corset would allow) and just said, "I'm fine. It's the corset..."

Ross nodded, but without letting go of her shoulders, he walked beside her towards the bedroom, hoping to calm her down and resolve this awful situation.

In a few minutes Scarlett paced from corner to corner of their bedroom, trying to understand, trying to make sense of it, the memories came flooding back, but she tried to push them away, not to think. Just for a moment...

Pressing her hands to her head, to her temples, as if she were suffering from a headache, she repeated, "God, he knew... He knew everything... He knew everything..."

"Scarlett, you need to calm down," she heard Ross's quiet and worried voice trying to pull her towards a chair, "Sit down, please..."

She obeyed and then the wave of memories washed over her again and she covered her face with her palms.

Ross stood beside her, not knowing what to do to help her and his brother, who was definitely going crazy down there in the living room. He was so pale and Ross'd never seen him so confused. "At least he's got Rosemary with him," he thought and spoke up, touching Scarlett's shoulder.

"Scarlett, you need to calm down... You need to calm down and talk to Rhett. I'm sure he'll explain, there's an explanation for everything..."

"Damn him," she said angrily, pulling her hands away from her face, "Ross, what explanation, because he knew! He knew everything from the start! About me! Who I was... Why would he do this to me?" she added more quietly, lifting her head up to him.

"Scarlett, he loves you very much. The children. I mean, he'd been looking for you for over a year..."

"And hadn't found..." she finished the sentence quietly.

"He had! He told me the first time he saw you and your husband was at the station. Scarlett, he corresponded with him for a year and then came to your town. And then he kept coming back to see you. You just have to talk. I told him a long time ago to tell you everything," Ross finished, frowning.

"Why didn't you tell me everything, Ross? Or Rosemary? I mean, you both knew, didn't you?" she asked, looking him in the eyes with resentment.

Ross knelt down in front of her and replied quietly, "Scarlett, Darling, we couldn't... I mean, it's not like we didn't know about you and Rhett in the past, about you... But we kept telling him that the memory could come back to you at any moment and things would get bad. But he kept putting it off. Scarlett, he's putting it off for his own reasons. But he loves you very much. You know he does. You just have to..."

"I don't want to see him," she said clearly, interrupting his speech, "please go downstairs and ask him to leave. I can't see him now, talk to him. No."

"But he's your husband, Scarlett. And the children? And..."

"Or I'll leave with the children. Right now. Go, Ross," she said, her green eyes flashing. Her eyes were wet, but she wasn't crying anymore.

Ross stood up in silence, not daring to disobey, and walked quickly to the door, feeling her gaze on his back.

A moment later, in the living room, he felt another gaze on his face. The restless, desperate gaze of his older brother's black eyes.

"How is she?" he heard him ask briefly, catching the questioning look from Rosemary who was sitting next to him on the couch.

Ross swallowed, gathered his strength to answer and heard his brother's impatient exclamation, "Don't be quiet, Ross! Can I talk to her?!"

"No. Rhett, I'm sorry, but no... She said she didn't want to see you."

Rhett quickly got up from the couch and walked over to his brother, "What does that mean, Ross?"

"You'd better go now, Rhett... She asked..."

"That's nonsense..." he started, but Ross cut him off, "No, Rhett. She threatened to leave with the children... Let's go to the mother or..."

"Let's leave our mother out of this, Ross!" exclaimed Rhett sternly, and Rosemary got up from the couch and nodded.

"Mum will be worried, Ross. Rhett's right," she said quietly, adjusting the short sleeves of her soft pink dress.

"Then go to the estate, Rhett," Ross said, not knowing what else to say to his brother.

"This is a nightmare," Rhett repeated to himself, running a hand through his hair and moving to the window.

Rosemary and Ross looked at each other, both unsure of what to say, when Rhett turned to them and said desperately, "I just want to talk to her! To my wife! I'll explain everything! Ross, is it so hard for her to listen to me?"

Ross adjusted lapels of his white linen jacket and said sadly, "You can't force her, Rhett. Give her time, at least until tomorrow... You'll come to her tomorrow after breakfast and explain everything. At least you'll try to do it... Come on, Rhett," Ross urged him.

Rhett's brain seemed to be frantically thinking of something, working out a plan of action in his head, so he nodded briefly and said, "Okay, but somebody stay with her now, please... She's remembered everything, God... Maybe her parents or house..."

Ross and Rosemary looked at each other again and nodded as they heard Mary's polite voice behind them, "Excuse me Mr Ross..."

All three turned back to her and she continued, "Mrs Butler asked me to tell you that she is not feeling well and won't be seeing anyone at the moment..."

Ross turned to his brother, who frowned and nodded briefly, then asked, "Mary, how are Wade and Ella?"

The maid smiled politely and replied, "Miss Ella fell asleep after the walk and Mr Wade is painting in his room..."

Rhett nodded again and looked at his brother and sister.

"We have to go Rhett, I'll take you to the estate..." said Ross and all three were out of the house in a minute.

Scarlett watched them, hiding behind the curtain in her bedroom window. She saw the man she called her "husband" walk away, glancing back at the house from time to time.

Her hands were trembling, trembling with emotion, fear, resentment and most of all with the memories that never left her for a moment.

Her home had been destroyed. Her Tara... It was as hard to breathe as it had been seeing the ruins that day, but she tried to take short breaths.

Her mother. Ellen. The woman she'd idolised... The one she'd wanted to be like and whose scent filled her heart and soul with peace. She was gone. Scarlett's stomach clenched at the thought and eventually she moved away from the window, sat down on the bed and pressed her palm to her belly.

"I need to calm down... I need to calm down," she repeated to herself, remembering that she was carrying her biggest secret under her heart.

If there was a thought in her mind that having the baby now was such a bad time, she quickly pushed it aside in fear. No! She loved and wanted this baby, no matter how angry she was and how much she hated its father.

She also remembered once John had come home from work looking pale and asked her to pour him whiskey for the first time.

Sitting in his arms in the living room that day, she listened as he quietly told her a story about a patient who had tried to get rid of a baby by drinking some herbal infusion. She couldn't be saved and Scarlett could still remember John repeating as he held her, "It's terrible, Scarlett... Darling... So terrible... I felt helpless..."

Even now, remembering those words, she only pressed her hand more gently to her belly and repeated to herself, "It's going to be okay... With you... With us..."

The first night was terrible for both of them.

Rhett paced his study at the estate like a ghost and couldn't sleep. He drank whiskey, smoked, thought, drank again, and occasionally looked at the papers on his desk that Ross had taken from the study of his mother's house before he left. Rhett hoped for those papers and clung to them like a drowning man clutching at straws.

"I'll explain everything to her, I'll explain everything to her," he tried to assure himself, but his fevered brain kept returning to her phrase, "I hate you, Rhett Butler," and the feeling of despair came over and over him again.

He didn't fall asleep until the morning, on the leather couch in the study, dreaming of cuddling with her, trying to catch the scent of her skin and hair that wasn't there with him.

Scarlett spent the whole night half asleep, alone in their big bed. She was afraid to fall asleep, afraid of vivid dreams of the past, afraid of nightmares. She was so unaccustomed to sleeping alone, not feeling his strong arms around her waist, his warm breath and gentle whisper. Even more desperate was the fact that he had lied to her, that he had made a game of their lives, that she didn't know what to believe and what not to believe, because it was Rhett! Rhett Butler, the scoundrel who had loved to laugh at her, who had wanted her as his mistress, and now she was his wife...

She closed her eyes even tighter, not realizing how it had happened, how she could love this man and how her heart ached at the thought. For a moment she thought of her friends, her family, Ashley and Melanie, but Scarlett dismissed them through her slumber. "I need to recover and then I'll find out all about them... Who's alive and who's not... After all, no one's been looking for me," she thought, feeling a bitter tear of resentment and fear on her cheek.

She was also very afraid to think about her father... Something told her that her beloved Pa would have found her long ago, if only...

At breakfast that morning, a pale Scarlett in her pale-green housedress, sat trying to eat some food and answer Wade's questions about his "favourite Uncle Rhett", while Ella was repeating the word "Daddy" and looking questioningly at the door, at her mother and at Mary, who was patiently trying to feed her porridge.

"Mummy, where is Uncle Rhett? He always eats breakfast with us," Wade asked again, smearing porridge on his plate.

Scarlett looked sternly at the plate, at her son, and replied, "Captain Butler is away on business, Wade. And don't ask any more questions, this is between adults."

Wade looked resentfully at his mother, pursed his lips a little, and then a warlike glow came into his eyes and he opened his mouth to protest, but the door to the dining room opened quietly and a moment later the boy exclaimed enthusiastically, "Uncle Rhett, you're here!"

Rhett had entered the room quietly in his beige suit, holding his hat in one hand and papers in the other. He noticed that, as she sat with her back to him and the door, her shoulders had flinched, but she didn't turn around.

"What's he doing here?" an angry thought flashed through her mind, but she quickly stood up, threw her napkin on the table and turned to Mary without looking back, "Mary, take the children, their breakfast..."

"I'm not finished yet, Mummy," she heard the hurt voice of Wade, who didn't dare jump up from his seat at the table.

"Scarlett, I..." she heard his serious voice behind her and clenched her fists in anger.

She knew it was wrong to make a scene in front of Mary and the children, but everything inside her burned with resentment and fury.

She turned to him quickly and, without trying to meet his gaze, asked briefly, "What do you want?"

"We need to talk, it's important," was his serious reply and Scarlett, without letting him continue, quickly interrupted him, "To the study. Let's go to the study, Captain Butler," and without waiting for an answer she walked past him.

Rhett was taken aback by the way she called him and her cold tone, but smiling affectionately at Ella and nodding slightly to a surprised Wade, he quickly followed her.

As soon as Rhett followed her into the study, she walked quickly to the window, away from him, and asked with anger in her voice, "What are you doing here?"

"Actually, this is my home too, Darling," he began, trying to make a joke, but seeing the serious glint in her eyes, he added sternly, "I've come to explain, Scarlett."

"Explain what, Rhett Butler?! How you tricked me into marrying you?"

He turned dark and said, "I thought you married me because you loved me."

She just looked at him angrily and replied, "I have no intention of discussing that now!"

"That's not why I came here, Scarlett," Rhett said more gently and took a step in her direction, holding out the papers and saying, "Here... This is yours... It'll explain everything..."

She looked at his hand in disbelief, then quickly grabbed the papers and turned to the window, beginning to read... "The deed to the property... A plot of land... Number of acres... "

"What... What is this?" she asked, not taking her eyes off the papers.

"They are the deeds to a piece of land where... " he swallowed and went on, "where your parents' house was, where they're buried... This is your land, Scarlett. And I bought it a long time ago, almost right after the war ended, when I began looking for you..."

Scarlett heard the word "buried" and her heart sank... She felt tears coming to her eyes, tried to sigh, and asked more seriously, looking up at him for the first time, "Why are you giving me these papers now?"

"Because it's your land..."

"Why didn't you take me there before?"

"Scarlett," he took a step towards her, but she raised her hand as if to stop him, putting a barrier between them. Rhett stopped and continued, "How could I take you there right away? You would have been hurt..."

"And now I'm not hurt?" she exclaimed and he continued, trying to remain calm, "You weren't ready for this!"

Scarlett took a deep breath and Rhett said, clenching his hands slightly, "There have been a lot of things, Scarlett. Our sudden meeting, your pregnancy with Ella, then the loss of John. I wanted to be closer to you, to be near you... I..."

"You lied to John! You lied to me! You didn't tell me everything right away in Saratoga, you just pretended to be a friend by my side..."

"I wasn't pretending!"

"You made me believe you were the only one for me and the children. You took away my past!" she exclaimed loudly, and Rhett suddenly said, "I let us build our present, damn it! You wouldn't have given us a chance, Scarlett! You're so cruel to those who love you!"

She stared at him, not understanding his words, not believing her ears.

"You wouldn't have let us build what we have now! You would have let go of my hand and then you would have remembered your Ashley Wilkes if I had taken you there!"

"I'm surprised I'm still in Charleston and not on a train to Atlanta!" she replied wryly, realizing he had said so many hurtful words and trying to hide her tears behind her rudeness.

Rhett stared at her in silence and she, trying to end the conversation, said, clutching the papers to her chest, "Tara is important to me... The land... The past, my parents. But I don't understand half of what you've just told me! How can one man decide for everyone and act like that, Rhett Butler?! How can you know in advance what is right and what is wrong?"

Rhett was silent and she continued, quickly wiping a treacherous tear from her cheek, "I don't understand how we can even talk, because maybe this is just another one of your games, a plan..."

"Damn it, Scarlett!"

"Stop it! I'm not talking to you or listening to you any more! Not now, not in a week! I don't know you, Rhett Butler, I don't understand you, but one thing I know for sure... I won't be able to smile around you anymore!"

At these words she looked into his grim face with resentment and anger, and without giving him a chance to answer, walked quickly round the desk and a moment later slipped out of the study, leaving behind her the faint scent of her perfume and the heavy feeling of resentment that had come between them.