The Brooch

Forgive Me...

As if things couldn't get any worse, Maple couldn't believe her ears! In one fell swoop, Andrew had dismantled Maple's world, with his confession.

How much more could she take?

"How kin you profess to know bout love, after whut you have done to me? To Josephine? She is my best friend! And the woman who gave her heart to you and loved you unconditionally! You destroyed our world, Andrew!" Maple irritably vocalized.

"I know there is nothin I can say or do right now to make this any less of a torturous nightmare. I never meant to hurt you."

"Ha!"

"And Lawd forgive me, I never meant to hurt her!"

"Right." Maple groaned.

"I know you can't comprehend all of this right now. But it's true. And like Mrs. Crowder, I am desperately tryin to make amends."

"You have a dang funnay way of doin it!" Maple scowled.

"I knew I had to come here tonight and confess everythang! And it wasn't cause Mrs. Crowder had threatened me. Fact is I was gone do it long before."

"Dig deeper... as you continue to lie..." Maple insinuated!

"No!" Andrew abruptly exclaimed! "I sent that letter. Do you remember it?"

"How could I forget it Andrew..." Maple frowned.

"Then you know, my sincerity of my atonement, started from there. I sent it, knowin that if I told you thangs were perfect, and as it should be, I knew it was the onlay way I could get you to ever come back."

"So as I said... you lied!"

"It worked didn't it?" Andrew confessed! "I knew without sayin that, you would have stayed in Aurelia. Perhaps forever. And both of us would have been miserable. And if I went up there, on my own, you would have never had seen me."

"You got that right!" Maple hissed! "So why did you do it? Why did you write the letter if it wasn't true? Do not add upon yo lies jest to say to get me to come back, jest to destroy three lives."

"No." Andrew sullenly replied. "There was some truth in it. Perhaps not the part bout the kiss. I wasn't sorry for kissin you at the weddin, I will never apologize for that." He candidly divulged." Because deny it all you like, but it was whut we both wanted and desperately desired at the time in that very moment of seein each other. But I was sorry for hurtin you in the way that I went about it. I know it was not morally right. I can't turn back time and take it back. But again, despise me even more, I honestly confess, I wouldn't, if I could. That is beyond the point. I sent that letter in the form that I did, cause I needed you to know the truth. I needed Josephine to know as well... All of it. Startin from the brooch, to my undeniable love for you."

"But why?" Maple said with an unwavering stare.

"It was the onlay way." Andrew confessed! "I wronged you. I have for so many years! And I could not go another day livin with this incessant guilt! And contrary to all of my confessions... I wonted my wife. I still love her, Maple!" He cried. "I know right now it doesn't seem like it and it's anything but... As I said it is beyond complicated. But I still want her in my life. I do! And the onlay way, I could get our marriage to have any inkling of functionin as it should, I had to lay all my cards on the table. Includin and especially my insatiable love for you."

"You cannot have it both ways Andrew! You cannot profess to an unquenchable love for me, and have her! It does not work that way!" Maple fussed!

"You don't think I know that?" Andrew exclaimed!