Objects of Desire Read Online Free PDF

marriage. I did it for my unborn children.’
    ‘You loved me!’
    ‘Yes, for being the mother of my sons, and stayed with you because we had become a family.’
    ‘We had a good marriage, Robert. You can’t deny that.’
    ‘A very good marriage, but it’s over.’
    ‘Over?’ she repeated, and once having said it understood for the first time that Robert did mean to leave her.
    ‘I made the best of a situation. For years, Anoushka, for so many years. Now I want more than just making the best of a situation.’
    ‘You’ve been planning this for a long time. Is that why you insisted the boys go away to school? You were setting me up to throw me out.’
    ‘No. I hadn’t planned this at all.’
    ‘You can’t just toss us away.’
    ‘I am not tossing my boys away. We’ll work out an amicable settlement.’
    ‘I want you, Robert. And my life as it is.’
    ‘Well, I don’t. And that’s final.’
    They remained silent for several minutes. He poured them more vodka. After some time, Anoushka asked, ‘You mean this, don’t you?’
    ‘Yes, I do.’
    ‘You’re angry with me?’ she asked, more out of puzzlement than anything else. How unfair Robert was being. What had he to be angry about?
    ‘I’m angry with both of us. Me for being so weak and not having done this long ago. And you for always closing your eyes to the reality of my unhappiness.’
    ‘Oh, so now this is all my fault?’
    ‘Yes. Actually, I believe it is.’
    ‘This is why we’re not at the country club tonight. It wasn’t love or sexual passion that made you change our plans. Although one would hardly have guessed that by the performance you put on upstairs in the bedroom. Fuck me and leave me! How despicable. Not worthy of you, Robert, to end it with one last fuck.’
    ‘Do you expect me to defend myself? If you do you will be sorely disappointed. Or would you prefer me to be crude and hurtful and tell you that this evening, like most of the sex during our married life, was predominantly your hunger, your lust? It turned me on, you were too good a fuck to resist, and why not? Sex made you happy, made us both happy. Maybe I even did it as much out of a sense of guilt because I never loved you, so I fucked you well, gave you as much pleasure as I could because I couldn’t really giveyou what you wanted. Me and love. Because I was giving that elsewhere.’
    ‘I can’t bear it. All these years you’ve been playing a role in some cheap melodrama.’
    ‘A role you cast me in. There’s no point to this conversation. I have done everything for the boys. I always will. I hope you feel the same.’
    ‘What exactly do you mean by that?’
    ‘The boys are old enough to understand that we want to go our separate ways.’
    ‘
You
want to go your separate way. Let’s just get that straight.’
    ‘All right, I want to go my separate way. I can sell this place and give you half of the proceeds. It will buy you a small place in a less affluent neighbourhood here in Lakeside. You can take what you want from the house.’
    ‘Bust up our home?’ It seemed unthinkable to Anoushka.
    ‘I’d rather not do that. There are alternatives. I would like to keep the house intact for me and the boys. They love Chimneys. This is their home.’
    ‘The home you’re breaking up.’
    Robert chose to ignore her remark and continued, ‘Their home has always been a stable environment for them. I know we would both like to keep that for them.’
    ‘But without me?’
    ‘Yes, without you.’
    ‘God, you’re a bastard.’
    ‘I will, of course, settle some money on you. Half of what I have. But we live so high, there isn’t much to divide. I’ll give you a portion of my income, keep you until you can find a new life for yourself.’
    ‘And how do you suggest I do that?’
    ‘Go look for it. Get out into the world and find out who you are and what you can do for yourself. You can’t do it here, not in Lakeside.’
    ‘Are you running me out of town now?