Choking On Sapphires

87 It's too late to turn back now

Alfie was met with cold indifference that he knew was justified, no matter what his intentions were in his harsh words to Genevieve. He'd let the stress get to him and he's forgotten to be delicate. She truly had come so far, but her defeat that he warned her of had pushed him too far and he found himself falling into the easy habit of giving his cold hard opinion in retaliation to someone going against what he said to do. He's forgotten to treat the one soft thing in his life with just that when she needed it the most. And now she was gone.

There was no weakness behind her eyes that next morning. No hurt or shame to be found as he studied her from the opposite side of her dining room table. The great expanse between them more than suited for how distant they felt to each other now. They eat in silence, and she pays him no mind. He knows it's warranted. As he had been helping her back to their room before he readied himself for work he calls out as she stands from her seat.

"Do you need me to-"

"No." She states plainly with black eyes meeting his from across the room. "I won't be requiring your help any further." She states with cold biting tounge that he hasn't heard since before the accident, and never directed at him.

"'Course." He says with a bow of his head as he sees Claire approaching her with a stack of paperwork, handing Gen her glasses as he saw she already had her plans for the day.

Their mornings continued in the same pattern. He ate as if he were invisible, and Gen came out fully dressed and talking shop over her meal with Claire about business. As much as it did hurt in its own way to be ignored, to see the result he had wanted all along forming in front of him as a result of his actions was still satisfying. The businessman in him was pleased, but the lover in him was not.

Genevieve felt a new. She felt self assured in a way she hadn't even before the abuse. She knew now the cold and careless ways of the world
Outside. She was no longer approaching her work or life with a touch of whimsy, but the same harsh judgement it had given her. She got better faster, taking Alfies words in mind and not pushing but working forward at a steady pace. She stayed home but found her routine again, the maths and the reading and writing of her work. She walked the gardens, greenhouses and aviary and became one with her land and product again. She was slowly becoming what she felt she should have already, a confident but realistic woman who would no longer try to rule with love. She would rule now with respect, and if she found it Necessary, fear.

Claire was out conducting what would be the last of the solo collections for the rent of Genevieve's properties. Seeing the state of her land without her constant oversight led the staff to have more than enough to keep busy to get things back to her standards, not a Normal one.

Gen's feeling quiet and reserved this afternoon, a leisurely stroll around her estate to brainstorm and reflect. She found the click of her heels on the marble floors to be soothing as the architecture and decoration kept her eyes busy. She was planning for her future, wondering how to dispel the nasty rumors that had been going around about her, as she's demanded Claire tell her them all. And she had. And now Gen was out to make everyone eat their words.

As she takes this thoughtful stroll she hears a female voice from the phone room. With narrowed eyes she approaches, knowing she'd told the girls no calls unless emergencies during work hours. And nothing had been approved by her so she prepares to scold an absent minded young girl. But the voice is not young and the words she hears stops her in her tracks and a new much stronger emotion creeps in.

"It's been a bloody mad house let me tell you." The women's voice says and Gens hairs stand up on the back of her neck. "She's a mess. Falling apart at the seams, she is. Her and Solomons don't even speak anymore!" The delight she hears in the rumors being fueled by one of her own makes her eyes dilate and go black. Her shoulders relax and she spine stiffens, and she shifts into a mood that was far more intense than what she had felt before. "Who even knows! Wandering about naked in the garden! It's shameful! Like some bloody pagan!" The woman laughs. "She talks to people who aren't there you know? Almost sad." She continues and Gen presses her back against the wall. Feeling the cool stone under her palms as she takes deep and slow breaths. No matter what the next words were there would be no saving this woman now. "They fight constantly! Shouting and hitting like children! He's bound to leave her anytime now!" She exclaims as if she were proud as the red haze in Gennys eyes grew thicker, pulse pounding in her temple as she hears the nonsense spewed out into the Londoners ears that she was now having to help reign in. All this trouble from this woman. All this work because this cow couldn't help herself. If this maid couldn't help but talk, then Gen couldn't help what she was going to do to her. "Once he finds out she's pregnant with Horne's child then he'll be gone. She's not bled still! How they are living in denial this deeply is BEYOND me!" She laments and Gen loses the last bit of reserve she had. Her brain makes the connection. This had happened before. This was Dorothy, the same woman who kept on with her passive aggressive compliments and mentioning things that triggered her. She was what made Gen lose control before, and she was about to cause it again.