Chapter 16
"Heard your fella's got a rather healthy bank balance. Never could resist the money, could you? So I was just a blip in your quest to find a rich man to look after you, eh? Normal service is resumed." She shouldn't care really. And she tries to convince herself that she doesn't. But clearly she wasn't rich and exciting enough for Charity. This was what she'd always go back to. What made her happy.
The words sting. But she can't blame Vanessa for her less than positive view of her choices in life. Doesn't mean she's right though. "No, Ness. You were it. You were everything. But it's just....easier to go back to this than to give my heart to someone properly, like I did with you, because losing you nearly killed me. I would choose you though, if I had that option. No matter how much money they had or what they offered me. I would always choose you." She didn't mean to lay her cards on the table quite so openly but she hates that Vanessa thinks that this, and not the Charity that loved her unreservedly, was the real her.
Vanessa scoffs. "Yeah, right. So....what, we just fall back in love and live happily ever after, yeah?!"
"You might.." Charity mutters, although not quietly enough it would seem
Vanessa looks outraged. "What's that supposed to mean?! You're so irresistible that I'll fall in love with you but big bad Charity will be immune to it?!"
There she goes: thinking the worst again. "No Vanessa!" She shouts, before taking a deep, steadying breath, conflicted as to whether to say what she knows is true. But hey, she never was one for holding back. In for a penny, in for a pound or whatever. "It means....you can't fall back in love with someone you never fell out of love with in the first place!"
Vanessa looks taken aback, like she can't decide whether to believe her or not and stutters out her response. "Yeah, well. It's not gonna happen is it? Not after what you did to me." Regaining her composure
"No. No, course not." Any glimmer of hope she might have had fading and her shoulders dropping in defeat. "So, I'll go back to doing what I do best, yeah? And you can go and find someone that deserves you. Everybody's happy."
Apart from having an aching in her heart that no amount of money will ever be able to fix..