Betrayal with Me (Spin-off)

[17]: Secrets

[Scott's POV]

        I stood there watching Elise as she left. The tendrils of loose blonde hair that had escaped from the messy bun she wore atop her head, swaying back and forth from the slight wind.  Her movements ridged and jerky as I watched her carefully cross the street to the pharmacy, until she disappeared inside.  Her face had contorted into a mask when I had asked her what she had wanted to be when she grew up as a child.  I had been shocked by her answer, and maybe she had been shocked I even asked.  We had discussed having children, and we had both wanted them.  There were nights we had laid awake after making love, and talked about it.  But it had never crossed my mind on how much those imaginary children had meant to her.

        At the same time, I should have recognized that need in her.  She was so loving and caring to the children of my pack members.  Always immediate to volunteer to look after a child if the parents needed a sitter.  Her whole aurora would light up around children.  Why was it now, that I had lost her, that I now noticed those little things?  God, it feels so cliche, but you really have no idea what you lose until it is gone. 

What else had I overlooked about Elise?
What else had I never learned?
What else would I never know?

        I couldn't help but to think to myself  that there was so much I had been missing out on when it came to her. It was just another item on my list to admonish myself with. So many things I had taken for granted about her, and her persons.  How could I ever say I truly, and unconditionally loved her if I hadn't even learned the basics about my errant wife?  How could I call myself a husband and partner to someone as precious as she was, when all I had been was self righteous?  Had I actually taken the time and gotten to know the ins and outs of her mind, I would have seen she was incapable of cheating on me willingly.  Instead, I sat there and condemned her to a life of misery.  When as her husband, I should have been looking for the answers and helping her find out what really happened that night.

        Thinking of that night enraged me to no ends.  I knew that a lot of my self loathing had been misdirected to it, but I found my mind comforted by it.  In my grief over Elise leaving, I had let my promise to find retribution slip through my fingers.  Like a thief in the night, Giselle had stolen away from town.  So had Drew, but I had found Giselle more culpable in what happened.  Thus making all my inherit rage, directed towards her.  My revenge knew now bounds, and there wasn't a place on this Earth she could hide from me.  I had spent roughly the last six and a half out of seven months Elise had left, meticulously searching for Giselle.  I wanted to bring her to heel, and let my vengeance be assuaged.  Finally after so much time, I was so close to her. 

        The private investigative firm I had hired days after Elise left, had been systematic in their attempts to find her.  At first her trail had been cold, almost as if she had simply disappeared off the face of the Earth.  But as time passed, her ego had gotten the best of her.  That was Giselle's problem, and her downfall.  She had always believed herself smarter than everyone else.  She demanded and manipulated to get what she wanted, and thought no one would ever catch her.  And to my benefit, she still believed that of herself now.  She had become sloppy and began leaving a trail in her wake as she traversed east across America.  She had been intelligent enough to never stay in one spot for long durations of time. 

        However, her movements had changed recently.  At one point, my investigator had been only a few days behind her.  He had notified me a few months prior that Giselle was on the move again, only I was shocked to learn where.  Her direction had changed in the blink of an eye, and she was now migrating back to the West coast. I had hoped she would some how appear in Goldendale, but there was no indications she had found her way back. Her trail had stopped cold in Mammoth Lake, California and now my investigator was trying to find her again.   It had angered me that I was so close to finding what I wanted, but again it slipped through my fingers.  As so many things I wanted in my life had.