5. Alone

I hurt many people and I ended up alone

When Annie stormed out of the office, I ran after her. She told me that she had no intention of speaking with me. I went back and told Leonie that she was fired. Then I hired Cade to replace her.

I did not go home. I went to the gentleman's club and got very drunk. I slept with several prostitutes that night. I do not remember much except that I lost a lot of money when I gambled and I remember telling the prostitutes not to get pregnant.

The next few days were a nightmare. First, there was an interview with Lila on how it is like being my daughter. Lila told the journalist that she did not consider me as her dad. I was just a man that visited her once in a while when she was a small girl. She told the newspaper that I was too busy to be a father as I was more interested in having an affair with Annie. This interview hurt a lot as I knew I was at Sandalwood Manor a lot and did play with my children. I thought this was revenge on Lila's part and never considered how hurt she must be.

The press did not stop there. Leonie (the woman that replaced Annie at the shop) was in the newspapers saying that I sexually harassed her at work. I would call her names such as sexy and fox. I would touch her bum or her breasts. I would hug her and try to kiss. I would constantly ask her to bed. I could not deny all this. At the time I just considered it good fun and did not consider it as harassment. I was in fact mad at first, as I thought this was just revenge for firing her.

Annie had enough. She met Heidi and Cade and would be reminded about my victims every time she saw Cade at work. Then she read about what Lila said and thought of how absent I was to Svenja. She considered Leonie the latest victim. What was worse was that Sarah sent Annie all the letters I wrote. Annie was convinced that I was still in love with Sarah.

So it finally happened when one day I came home and found that Annie and Svenja left. Annie wrote that at last she is having the courage and was not blind to recognize what type of man I was. She wrote that she was no longer in love and she hoped that at one day she could forgive me. This was one thing she doubted she could do.

So I was alone. Supremity was surviving but not making any money. I had very little in my bank account. The problem was that I still drank and I gambled a lot.

I also started dating Heidi. She was an interesting woman and always unpredictable. In a way, she was a bit crazy as she loved having fun. She did not mind that I was drunk or that I gambled. She could drink as much as I could. I thought that there was love between us and that I finally found true love. The thing is that Heidi made me feel young again and wanted again. She did not make me feel like I was always hurting someone.

I must admit that Heidi was expensive. After Annie left me, I sold the townhouse and lived in a one-room apartment. The money I got from the sale of the house soon disappeared as Heidi always loved gifts. These were not cheap gifts. They were gifts such as jewelry and furs. Still, I really thought that I found my true love.

I heard that Annie and Svenja moved in with Sarah. It amazed me how much Sarah helped Annie. After all, Annie was the woman who agreed to have an affair. Sarah forgave Annie long ago and thought it was all my fault. She thought that I manipulated and controlled Annie. Now Sarah would give a home to her best friend and they can hate me together. Annie quickly filed for a divorce and she refused to speak with me after she left me.

I now concentrated on my relationship with Heidi. Heidi told me that she wanted to do a play about a woman that worked as a clown in the circus. I thought the play sounded like a boring idea, but Heidi was sure it would bring her to greater fame. The problem was that she could not find anyone to invest in the theater play. I was persuaded that this play would be good for Supremity. I liked it when Heidi was happy, even though this usually cost me a lot of money.

So I loaned the money from the bank and used Supremity as collateral. Heidi was in a great mood that the play would be done.

I knew nothing about theater. There were so many script rewrites and so many delays. Heidi told me that this was normal. The play was what I call art. It was one of those plays that had a strange storyline, that you ask yourself all the time what is it about and what was happening?

It was just not me that did not understand the play. The play got negative reviews and was a total flop. Heidi did not mind. She told me we could try and another theater play.

The problem was that I had no money to pay back the loan. I was basically bankrupt. I sat in my office thinking of ways to pay back the huge loan. The bank informed me that Supremity now had new owners as I could not pay back the loan. I would be allowed to work at the shop, but it was no longer my shop anymore.

When Heidi heard that I lost the shop, she stopped seeing me. She never did love me. She was using me and in some ways getting her revenge on how I treated her. I was now the victim.

My downfall was not complete. Sarah and Annie came to the shop one day and told me that I was being fired. It was them that bought the shop and they would let Lila and Cade run the shop. I was in shock. They wanted revenge! They wanted to hurt me! I tried to use my charm to beg them to let me stay on. Supremity was something I built up. Annie told the guards to escort me out of the shop.

A year later:

I get a pension from Supremity but it is not that much. I spent all day taking a bus to town and sitting on a bench where I could see the shop. It was booming once again and a great success.

At night I would eat soup at the pub and then walk to my simple room, which had a bed and table. I would spend most of the time coughing which was serious, as the doctor told me that I did not have that long left.

I would lay on my bed and look at the pictures on my table. One was a picture of Sarah and one was a picture of Annie. The other pictures were of my children.

I was alone.

The end