Chapter 5 Chapter 5 Alexandra Farrard

Cinderella Farei didn't forget Rosemary Barton. She was thinking of her now—of the night when she had slumped down on the table in the dining room. She remembers gasping for breath herself, then looking up to find Stephen staring at her... Did he see the truth in her eyes?Did he see the complex emotions of hatred, terror and triumph mixed in her eyes? Nearly a year ago--and it was as vivid in her mind now as it was yesterday!Rosemary, the name means memory.That's a horrifying truth.It's never okay for a dead person to still be alive in your head, and that's the case with Rosemary.In Shantila's mind—and in Stephen's mind, too?She didn't know, but she thought it might be possible.

Luxembourg Restaurant - that hateful place with luxurious decor, good service, and good food.A place that is impossible to avoid, where people always invite you to go. She would like to forget everything - but everything reminds her.Even "Safe Haven" was not immune, since George Patton came to live in the "Little Court" next door. It's kind of weird that he did that.George Barton was a total eccentric and not at all her favorite neighbor.His appearance in the "little official's mansion" destroyed the calm and charming atmosphere of her "safe haven".Until this summer, Haven had been a place where she and Steven had recuperated, a place where they were happy together—that is, if they were always happy together.Are they happy together?

Her lips were pressed together.Yes, a thousand yeses, they were happy together, if it weren't for Rosemary.Rosemary shattered the trust and caring that had begun to develop between her and Stephen.Something, some intuition, made her suspect that Stephen was hiding his feelings—devotion and devotion.She knew that he was in love with her since the day he chatted with her pretending to be shy and pretending not to know who she was. In fact he already knew who she was by then.She could not say when she learned of this fact.It was not long after their marriage, when he was detailing an artful politically manipulative essay to her one day.

After she listened to his explanation, a thought flashed in her mind: "This reminds me of one thing, what is it?" Later she knew that the technique used in that article was basically the same as that of him in that time. The same as used at banquets.She was not at all surprised by this knowledge, as if it was something she had known for a long time and was only now surfacing on the surface of her mind. From the day they were married, she had learned that he didn't love her as much as she loved him.However, she thought it might be that he really didn't have the same love as her.Her power of love was an unhappy legacy of her own.She knew that a love as strong as hers was unusual.She was even willing to die for him; she was willing to lie for him, cheat for him, suffer for him!Instead of being offended when she discovered his trick, she accepted the fact with pride and offered to do whatever he needed.He needed her, not her heart, but her head, with all the advantages she had been born with.

The one thing she would never do was to show him a love he could not reciprocate, which would embarrass him.She believes he likes her and is happy to have her as a partner.She envisioned a future in which her burdens would be greatly lightened—a future of care and friendship. She thought he loved her the way he did. Then Rosemary broke into their lives. Sometimes she couldn't help wondering how he could think she didn't know about them.She'd known it from the start--at St. Moritz--when she'd seen him staring at the woman. She knew that woman had become his lover in one day.

She knew the perfume the woman wore... She could see in Stephen's face what he was thinking of--the woman--the woman he had just left! She thought calmly that the pain she had been through was incalculable.Enduring torture day after day, with nothing to back her up but courage - her natural ego.She doesn't let her feelings show, she won't let them show.She lost weight, became thin and pale, with bones protruding from all over her body, surrounded by only a thin layer of skin.She forced herself to eat, but she couldn't force herself to sleep.Every night, I stay alone in the empty boudoir, with dry eyes, looking at the night, and sit withered until dawn.She refused to take sleeping pills, thinking that was the behavior of the weak.She has to hold on.Begging, protesting, or looking deeply hurt...all of these were actions she hated and she would never do.

Her only consolation was that Stephen was not willing to leave her.True, it was his career, not his liking for her, but the fact that he didn't want to leave her was still there.He doesn't want to leave her. Maybe, one day, mad love will pass... What did he see in that woman?Yes, she was beautiful and charming - but so were the other women.What was it about Rosemary that fascinated him so much? She's no brains—stupid—and no—she catches that particularly—not even very funny.If only she had wit, temperament, and temper—those are the things that attract a man.Sandra was convinced it would pass—Steven would get tired of it.

She believed that his chief interest in life was his career.He was after great things, and he knew it.He has a good orator's mind and enjoys using it.This is the established career of his life.Once the infatuation wears off, of course he'll understand that fact, right? Sandra never considered leaving.The thought never crossed her mind.She was his, body and soul, whether he wanted it or not.He is her life, her everything.A fire of medieval love burned in her heart. For a while, hope burned in her heart.They went to the "safe haven" together.Stephen seemed a little more normal.She suddenly felt that the affection between them in the past had returned.Hope rose in her heart.He still wanted her, was with her heartily and happily, and listened to her judgment.At that time, he escaped from that woman's clutches.

He looked happier, more like his old self. Nothing is irreparable.He is gradually recovering, if he can make up his mind to cut off contact with her... They return to London, however, and Stephen relapses.He looked haggard, disturbed, and sickly.He can no longer concentrate on work. She wondered why.Rosemary wanted him to elope with her... He was making up his mind to do something--to break all ties.Fool!madman!He's the kind of guy who always comes first - a typical British guy.He must have known it himself, deep down - yes, but Rosemary was beautiful - and stupid.Steven was not a man who left his career for a woman and regretted it afterwards.

Cinderella overheard a sentence - a sentence at a cocktail party one day. "...tell George—we have to make up our minds." Not long afterward, Rosemary caught the flu. There was a glimmer of hope in Shantila's heart.If she had pneumonia—someone got pneumonia after the flu—she had a young friend who died of it just last year.If Rosemary dies— She didn't want to repress the thought—she wasn't afraid of it.She is a medieval woman, so she hates what she hates without scruples or guilt. She hated Rosemary Button.If thought could kill, she would have killed her long ago.

Thoughts don't kill... That night in the dressing room of the Luxembourg restaurant, Rosemary looked so beautiful with a white fox fur coat slung across her shoulders.After she got sick, she became thinner and paler—a kind of frailty, which made her beauty look lighter. She stood in front of the mirror to touch up her makeup... Sandra stood behind her, watching their overlapping faces in the town.Her own face was carved, cold and lifeless.Ruthless, you must say - a hard woman. Then Rosemary said, "Oh, Chantilly, did I take up the whole mirror? I'm fine now. I've been much weaker from that terrible flu. I look glaring. I Still has frequent headaches and is quite weak." Cinderella asked in a very polite manner: "Do you still have a headache tonight?" "A little bit. Did you take an aspirin?" "I have a capsule." She opened her purse and took out the capsules.Rosemary took it. "I keep it in my purse just in case I need it." The capable brunette - Patton's secretary - noticed the little deal.When it was her turn to use the mirror, she just dusted her lids with a little powder.A good-looking girl can almost be described as having a beautiful figure and a dignified manner.Cinderella could see that she didn't like Rosemary either. They came out of the dressing room, Cinderella first, then Rosemary, then Miss Lessing—oh, yes, and of course that girl called Iris, Rosemary's sister, she was there too, see Excited, with big gray eyes, dressed in student-style white. They went out to join the gentlemen waiting in the hall. Then the head waiter came hastily and ushered them to their seats.They walked through a great circular arch, and nothing, nothing at all warned any of them that Rosemary would never walk out of that arch alive again...