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Mary cringed.
“Looking at her, it was like seeing history about to repeat itself. Older man, younger girl, another scandal about Wellesley men becoming pedophiles.” His lips twisted. “I’m sure all of you know the story.”
Coming to his feet, he said, “But then I got to know her, got to saw how much she loved my son and how much she had willingly chosen to bear because she loved my son...”
He ran a hand over his face. “This is going to sound incredibly funny, but...that eighteen-year-old made me realize how little I know about love, even at my age.”
Cut.
And then it was Rathe again.
He was standing in their bedroom’s balcony, a blanket of stars and evening skies behind him. He was dressed in a turtleneck sweater and pants, and looked so heartbreakingly gorgeous she wanted to turn the TV off. If she stared at him any longer, she could end up crying the entire day.
As the camera zoomed in, Rathe murmured, “The first episode’s about to end and I’d like to thank everyone who’s watched. I’m not actually sure what would and wouldn’t end up being shown – one of the deals the network made me agree to was that I have no say about the editing or what gets shown. Everything about my life from here on is an open book. And that’s fine with me.”
A pause.
“This show is all about me laying it out in the open. Because...once, there was a girl who loved me, so much that she agreed to be my mistress even though I told her she was the also the one girl I couldn’t allow myself to love. There was a time when I kept her like a shameful secret because I didn’t want the world to think we were like my parents...I didn’t want to be called a pedophile.”
Her heart squeezed at the last words, Mary knowing just how much those words cost to someone as proud as Rathe.
“I was stupid then. But not now.”
Rathe lifted his head.
“Once, that girl asked me if I believed a day would come that I’d fall for her. I told her yes, but it was a lie.” Rathe sucked a breath after his admission. “I’m sorry for lying, Mary,” he rasped out. “I’m so bloody sorry. But this time, if you asked me the same question again, I’d say the truth.”
Straightening off the balcony’s rail, he dug his hands deep in his pockets. “This time, there’d be no more lies. All of this – it’s to show you that there won’t ever be lies between us.”
Another painful, audible breath that seemed to drag the oxygen from the deepest part of his body.
“If you ask me again if I believe you can make me love you...” He choked off. “I’d say yes. And it’s happened. Because I love you.” He pulled one hand out, and when Mary saw the ring he was holding, she switched the TV off, unable to let herself hear the rest of what he had to say.
****
Mary’s strugglenotto watch the rest ended a week later. She used to fall asleep quite easily but ever since she had learned of Rathe’s show, sleep had become elusive.
Eventually, she found herself going back to the living room in the middle of the night.
Her hands shook as she reached for the remote control.
She pressedPlay,and it was like falling back in the rabbit’s hole.
The second episode had Rathe leaving his London office and about to step into his limousine. “I’m heading right now to the courts. I’d like to watch the proceedings, make sure that my suit against the Daughtrys is going smoothly.”
Mary gasped.
“There’s been much speculation about Camilla Daughtry and I especially since we had an engagement that lasted for approximately three hours, ending when her arrest papers were served.”
What followed was a sequence of events, clips taken from different dates of court proceedings.
There was Mrs. Emerson on the witness stand, claiming that she had been hired by Camilla Daughtry to spy at Rathe in his household. Similar testimonies followed from a long list of individuals, all of them employed in establishments either owned or frequented by any of the Wellesley family.
The last was of Camilla on the witness stand, leaving her own father to hang as she put all the blame on him. “He was the mastermind behind everything...even going as far as breaking client confidentiality to tell Rathe about his parents’ pre-nuptial contract...”
From the background, there was the sound of shuffling noise, and then a man that distinctly sounded like Wilson Daughtry shouting, “You ungrateful bitch!”
The camera switched back to the present, revealing Rathe inside his limousine.
