Love Has Many Guises - Continued
The preceding part of this chapter
To be content with what we at the present know, is for the most part, to shut our ears against conviction; since; from the very gradual character of our education, we much continually forget and emancipate ourselves from, knowledge previously acquires; we must set aside old notions and embrace fresh ones; as we learn, we must be daily unlearning something which it has cost us no small labor and anxiety to acquire. The Odyssey by Homer.
Following her year in Switzerland, Blair returns to Paris and throws herself into Waldorf Designs while simultaneously finishing her degree at Columbia via distance learning. She graduates cum laude and hangs her certificate in her office proudly. The gold picture frames sparkles every time it is hit by sunlight streaming through the curtains.
A year after graduating from Columbia she enrolls on a graduate programme at Sorbonne where she meets Jean-Victor Meyers. Together they are the toast of Paris, thanks to their family's combined fortunes, his L'Oreal, hers Waldorf Design.
After graduating from Sorbonne, she and Jean-Victor tie the knot; Blair is twenty seven years old. They decide that Paris would be their main base and make their home in Auteuil-Neuilly-Passy in the 16th arrondissement.
Their marriage is more of a media success than it is a happy one. Things begin to crumble when Olivier is three years old. It has been happening gradually over the years but, now they have reached a point of no return. They are practically strangers and are rarely in the same place at the same time. In the early days of their marriage they could easily patch things up as they had more time for each other, but as he became busier with his various charities and traveling the world in aid of them they rarely saw each other.
It doesn't help that she also became exceptionally busy with Waldorf Designs. Under her stewardship Waldorf Designs is expanding, they have taken London, Paris, Milan and Moscow by storm and are now one of the mains attraction during the fashion week in those cities. Opening and managing new stores in Paris, London, Moscow and Milan in addition to her daily duties of overseeing Waldorf Design kept her very occupied. There is also that little part of her that compares him to the one that got away.
They amicably dissolve their marriage and she gets custody of their five year old son.
After Jean-Victor, she falls for a fellow expatriate Steve Collins (who is a shipping magnate) within a space of a few months following her divorce. Sadness at her failure in a second marriage, loneliness and a lot of vodka martinis had a hand in her decision. She becomes pregnant within a short span into their relationship and they decide to get married. Arabella Nicole Eleanor Dorota Collins (affectionately referred to as Belle by Olivier who couldn't pronounce Arabella) was born nine months later.
This marriage doesn't last either, they called it quits when Arabella is three years old and Olivier is nine.
After the crumble of her third marriage, Blair decides to move to New York. This is partly due to the fact that French tabloids have not been kind to her. Having three failed marriages with two famous French nationals and a Monaco Prince makes her an easy target. A few of them label her Madame Poison.
More importantly, she wants to give Oliver and Belle an American education, she's missed New York so much.
As she and parents were now permanently based in Paris there was no point keeping the penthouse, they sold the penthouse (with her permission) after her marriage to Jean-Victor. Plus Jean-Victor's family home in Park Avenue had been very suitable for their needs that they hadn't needed a second house.
With the penthouse sold years ago, Blair begins to look into Manhattan's real estate. With the help of a realtor Cyrus put her in contact with, Blair scores for a new accommodation, this means frequent trips to New York. On a few occasions she brings the kids with her and together they settle on a nine bedroom town house on Park Avenue. The kids love the spiral staircase, the many rooms and the little garden. Blair likes the fact that the hallway reminds her of her childhood home, the house was built in 1903, has a Louis XV drawing room, a Georgian library and eighteen century fireplace mantels, which would make excellent dinner conversations as she ingrains herself back into the New York social scene.
The move to America in the months that followed was smooth and they settle into their new home nicely within a year following her divorce.
Olivier is enrolled Saint Judes and will start in the fall, thanks for a sizable donation. Belle will be attending a kindergarten not too far to Saint Judes; it simplified their nanny's logistics.
It is nice having Dorota back. A lot of pleading and guilt tripping was involved in enticing Dorota from her previous employer. The sizable bribe sent to Dorota's employer may have also help speed things up a bit.
One good thing about being back in New York is being able to catch up with Nate who is now a congressman in Connecticut's fourth district. They promise to do lunch whenever they are both free or when next he is in the city. During their chat she asks after Dan and Serena, Nate has not heard from either of them since college.
Apparently Nate and Chuck still see each other from time to time whenever Chuck is in the states. Chuck is on his third marriage to a twenty year old by the name of Wendy Lee.
Being married and running a business has made it difficult for her to pursue other things like finding Serena.
Curiosity gets the best of her and she finds herself hiring a PI. Serena is now a sought after photographer-cum-creative director in Hollywood. Blair would have pegged Serena to be in front of the camera not behind it.
Dan resides in England. He is a lecturer at Bath University and is married to Emily; they have been married for 10 years and had a son. Reading this information causes her heart to ache inexplicably, she didn't realize she was still harboring feelings. Refusing to open the envelope containing the pictures, she asks her secretary to shred them and the documents (about Dan and Serena) that accompanied them.
If Serena wanted her to know her whereabouts, she would have tried to get in touch with Blair, it isn't as if she didn't know where Blair was.
Blair decides from that point onwards that there was no point looking back, after all No Regrets is her mantra, moving forward her watchword.
The End
Alternate Ending?