ONLY HALF THE MAN I USED TO BE
Chapter Seven
Rose went to get a drink the next
day while Fabri and Jack were talking, and she was met by a steel cold voice,
one that she recognized all too well.
"Hello, Rose."
"Go away, Cal," she
said. She didn’t need to turn around to know who it was. "I have already
said I don’t want to see you."
"And I have already told you
that you are my fiancée and you shall do as I say," he warned.
"No, I won’t, and I’m
not," she said defiantly.
"I’ve been watching you and
that gutter rat, Rose," he said. "He can’t use his arm now. Am I
correct?" he asked her. "He’s no good to you now, Rose. He’s only
half of what I am. You should be with me, a full, fit man, not a disabled
gutter rat!" he spat cruelly.
"First, Jack is not a gutter
rat," Rose said, venom rising bitterly in her voice. "And
second," she continued. The anger she felt made her almost spit as she
said the words. "Jack might be disabled now, but he’s more of a man than
you could ever be."
Rose turned her back on the scum
that was Caledon Hockley. He stamped in rage behind her.
"You’ll be sorry!" he
shouted at her back. "I always win, Rose! Caledon Hockley always
wins!"
Well, he’ll never win me, Rose thought to herself. With or without
Jack, she had never liked him. Jack coming along had just been the thing to
shock her from the terrible life that she had faced, and she was glad. She
loved Jack so much.
"Hey, Rose," Jack said
as she sat beside him. Fabrizio was still there, and he waved in greeting.
"Hello," she replied,
smoothing out the skirt of the dress she had been loaned.
"Thought you went to get
water?" he asked her.
"I got…distracted," she
said nervously. She didn’t want to tell him about what Cal had said to her. She
didn’t want to upset him.
"How come?" he asked,
not to be nosy, but out of concern for her feelings.
"I saw Cal again," she
said. She couldn’t lie to him, but she didn’t have to tell him everything.
"He wanted me to go back up with him. Don’t worry. I told him where to
go." She smiled at Jack, who smiled warmly back.
"That ass needs to leave you
alone," Jack said. "One day, I swear to God…Rose, if he ever hurts
you…" He trailed off in anger.
Rose was touched by his
protectiveness of her, and hugged him tightly.
"He can’t take me away from
you now," she whispered in his ear. "I want to marry you. Only
you."
"Hello?" Fabrizio
asked, bursting into the moment--not to be rude, just to be funny. "I
still here!"
"Sorry, Fabri." Jack
chuckled.
"So, what have you been
talking about while I was gone?" Rose asked, eager to change the subject.
"Fabri was just saying that
you can check the survivor list to see if…you know…" Jack said. "…if
people made it, so he was going to look to see if Helga is on it."
"I think that’s a great
idea, Fabri," she replied.
"Yes, but if she not on the
list, it will make me sad," he said.
"It will, Fabri," Jack
said, patting his friend on the arm "But not knowing is even worse. Go
on," he said softly.
"You are right, Jack,"
he said, getting up to leave.
"Good luck," Jack said.
"Yes, good luck," Rose
said warmly.
"I hope I have good luck,
too," Fabrizio said, heading off.
"I really hope she’s on the
list," Jack said. "Even if nothing becomes of them, if he feels even
the smallest bit as much for her as I do for you, then he will be
devastated."
"I know what you mean,"
Rose said, and she did. She felt exactly the same. She couldn’t live without
Jack. He was everything she needed, just as she was everything he needed.