ONLY HALF THE MAN I USED TO BE
Chapter Thirteen
"Oh, Rose!" Cal said as
she stormed towards him. "How is your mother?"
"You!" she shouted. He
was still managing to lie now, even with the look that must be plastered on her
face. "Are the lowest, sleaziest, most unimaginable bastard I have ever
met!"
"What’s happening here,
Rose?" he asked her, still trying to lie smoothly.
"You told me that my
mother--my mother, Cal--was dying!" she seethed.
"Rose, Sweetpea, why would I
lie to you?" he asked.
"Sweetpea?" she spat.
She had always hated that name. "You lied to me, Cal, because you cannot
stand the fact that a man has taken my heart, a man who is so much poorer than
you, a man who can’t offer me all these fancy dresses, jewelry, and clothes,
but you know what, Cal? I don’t care!"
"Speaking of jewelry,"
Cal said, sensing finally that he had lost Rose, but he wasn’t going to give up
on that rock he had given her. "I believe you have something dear to me,
dearer than you could ever be."
"Here," she said,
pulling the enormous Heart of the Ocean necklace out of her pocket. She had
discovered it in her pocket the day Jack had been released from the hospital.
Cal's words spun in her mind. "I believe you have something dear to me,
dearer than you could ever be." Was that meant to upset her? She never
wanted to be dear to a bastard like that again. "Have it!" she said,
throwing it harshly at him. "Because for one thing, I don’t need it, and
for the second, every time I look at, it makes me think of you, and you know
how thinking of you makes me feel? It makes me feel sick!" she said,
turning and running back to Jack, and she would never return again.
*****
"Rose!" Jack shouted at
her as she ran towards him and flung herself into his arms. "Are you
okay?"
"Jack!" she choked
softly.
"Is your mother okay? What
happened?" he asked worriedly, not worried for her mother--he couldn’t
stand her--but worried for Rose.
"My mother is fine,"
Rose said. "Cal however, is sick in the head. He lied. He told me my
mother was dying just to try to get me back!"
Jack couldn’t speak. How low, how
deceitful was that? He felt a sick rumble in his stomach as he thought of how
Rose must have felt.
"I don’t know why he’s doing
this," Rose said. "I love you, Jack. Only you."
"I love you, too, Rose,"
he said, hugging her back with the arm that could. "We’ll get through
this," he said, pulling away and looking deep into her eyes. "All of
this," he said, gesturing around. "Together. We’ll get through it
together."
"I know, Jack." Rose
smiled. "Because I can get through anything with you."
Their bodies merged together as
the rain beat down on them. They kissed passionately as the ship sailed past
the Statue of Liberty. The passengers on the ship leaned over the bow and
stared in awe at the giant statue, but Jack and Rose didn’t care. They were so
tangled in their loving kiss that no wonder in the world could have torn them
apart.